Sept. 1, 2023
Every month, Berlin Art Link shines a spotlight on international exhibitions and events with our Worldwide Hit List. We want to highlight artists, galleries, museums and new projects touching on a variety of topics, employing multiple media and featuring diverse subjects. Below are some of the stand-outs that we’ve selected for the month of September.
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
Pussy Riot: ‘Velvet Terrorism – Pussy Riot’s Russia’
Exhibition: Sept. 13, 2023–Jan. 14, 2024
louisiana.dk
Gl Strandvej 13, 3050 Humlebæk, Denmark, click here for map
Documenting their decade-long story, this show at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark is Pussy Riot’s first ever museum exhibition. The feminist-activist art collective formed in Moscow 2011 and are famous for their spontaneous actions challenging the Russian regime. Through hundreds of photos and video recordings, the exhibition will showcase a collection of these actions, which have been called some of “the most powerful political art of the 21st century.” Among these is Pussy Riot’s iconic ‘Punk Prayer,’ which took place in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in 2012. In addition, the show presents a large range of lesser-known actions as well as the escape from Russia of some of the members in 2022.
Pussy Riot, from the action ‘Putin Peed His Pants,’ Red Square, Moscow, 2012 // Photo by Denis Sinyakov
12th Seoul Mediacity Biennale
‘This Too, Is A Map’
Exhibition: Sept. 23–Nov. 19, 2023
mediacityseoul.kr
61 Deoksugung-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea, click here for map
‘This Too, Is A Map’ marks the 12th Seoul Mediacity Biennale, taking place at Seoul Museum of Art and various other locations across the city. Running from September 21st to November 19th, 2023, the biennale consists of works, projects and programmes by artists across the world, including many commissions and first-time presentations in Seoul. Non-territorial thinking and concepts are explored in the context of “displacement, diaspora, and multisituated alliances, exploring how individual localities contain their own divergent and mutating histories, while seeking to parse meanings of place and connecting communication strategies in Seoul and beyond.” In the run-up to the biennale on September 5th, two new sculptures—’Earth Monument’ by ikkibawiKrrr and ‘I Belong to the Distance 3, (Force Multiplier)’ (2023) by Torkwase Dyson—will open to the public, before the official biennale starts. The opening weekend events include artist roundtable discussions by participating artists, DJ performances and the premier of ‘Arizona Cowboy,’ a choir performance by Jaye Rhee.
Jaye Rhee: ‘Arizona Cowboy’ (as part of ‘Far West, So Close’), 2023 // Courtesy of the artist
Gropius Bau
General Idea
Sept. 22, 2023–Jan. 14, 2024
gropiusbau.de
Niederkirchnerstraße 7, 10963 Berlin, Germany, click here for map
In collaboration with the National Gallery of Canada, Gropius Bau presents the most comprehensive retrospective of Toronto-founded artist group, General Idea, in Germany to date. The exhibition traces over 50 years of General Idea’s practice, from their 1969 formation in Toronto to their 1994 dissolution following the death of members Felix Partz and Jorge Zontal of AIDS. Surviving, Berlin-based member AA Bronson worked closely with the curators to develop this show, which will present more than 200 works of sculpture, painting, videos, publications and archival material. Over the course of their work, the group tackled topics like gender, sexuality, mass media, social inequality, protest, consumer culture, art world economies and the public sphere.
General Idea: ‘P is for Poodle,’ 1983/89 // © Royal Bank of Canada Art Collection
Tate Britain
Sarah Lucas: ‘Happy Gas’
Sept. 28, 2023–Jan. 14, 2024
tate.org.uk
Millbank, London SW1P 4RG, United Kingdom, click here for map
Sarah Lucas has earned renown for her audacity and wit, through which she transforms everyday objects into thought-provoking art pieces that challenge outdated notions of sex, gender and class. Internationally celebrated over the past four decades for breaking boundaries in and outside of her practice, this contemporary art icon hardly needs further introduction. Under the title ‘Happy Gas,’ Tate’s upcoming major survey of the seminal British artist’s work is said to be a brash and tender exploration of what makes us human. Bringing together more than 75 of Lucas’ sculptures, installations and photographs, all presented in her distinct voice, it will showcase her diverse oeuvre from early breakthrough pieces to the most recent sculptures being displayed for the very first time.
Sarah Lucas: ‘Sandwich,’ 2004–2020 // Courtesy the artist and Sadie Coles HQ, London
Haus der Kunst
WangShui: ‘Window of Tolerance’
Exhibition: Sept. 8, 2023–Mar. 10, 2024
hausderkunst.de
Prinzregentenstraße 1, 80538 Munich, Germany, click here for map
WangShui’s first institutional solo exhibition in Europe takes place at Haus der Kunst in Munich and presents a live experiment in co-creation between humans and AI. In keeping with WangShui’s interest in melding the virtual and corporeal, the exhibition features paintings generated using a creative process described by the artist as “sensory integration,” whereby a visual language is developed together with AI via repeated learning loops as the artist paints. Video simulations are fuelled by programmed neural networks, while multiple LED screens depict a fictional narrative that draws on a dataset of movements and sounds produced by WangShui and collaborators. As an artist, WangShui frequently engages with the intimacies and complexities of human-machine entanglement, and this offering at HdK delves deep into the transformative impact of technology on human consciousness.
WangShui: ‘Certainty of the Flesh’, 2023 // Courtesy of the artist and kurimanzutto
HEK
Group show: ‘Exploring the Decentralised Web: Art on the Blockchain’
Exhibition: Sept. 2–Nov. 12, 2023
hek.ch
Freilager-Platz 9, CH-4142, Münchenstein, Basel, Switzerland, click here for map
Blockchain and web3 are both topics at the forefront of discourse around digital culture. As these technologies increasingly shape our online interactions and impact economies, artists have been finding ways to creatively engage with blockchain or ingeniously exploit its possibilities. This group exhibition at HEK (House of Electronic Arts) in Basel speaks to an audience curious about these developments and follows HEK’s recent show ‘Collective Worldbuilding – Art in the Metaverse,’ which explored the topic of new online worlds. Featured artists include Simon Denny, Guile Twardowski and Cosmographia, who use “the sacred powers of AI and web 3.0” to collectively resurrect companies that fell victim to the millennium dotcom crash. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue of critical and accessible essays that analyse Web3, blockchains, DAOs and the metaverse.
Simon Denny & Guile Twardowski: ‘Dotcom Seance,’ 2022 // Courtesy of the artist
Guggenheim
Group show: ‘Only the Young: Experimental Art in Korea, 1960s–1970s’
Exhibition: Sept. 1, 2023–Jan. 7, 2024
guggenheim.org
1071 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10128, USA, click here for map
The Guggenheim presents the first North American museum exhibition dedicated to Korean Experimental Art (silheom misul) and its artists. This generation of Korean artists, who came of age in the decades following the Korean War, worked with a radical approach to materials and process that broke with their predecessors and provoked the norms of their increasingly authoritarian state. For these artists, the 1960s-70s was an era defined by a volatile political landscape at home and a rapidly globalising world beyond. The artworks gathered here respond to the changing socioeconomic and material conditions of the time and redefined the boundaries of traditional painting and sculpture. Spanning across three galleries and around 80 works that include performance, installation, photography and video, the exhibition invites the audience to experience the innovation of a generation of Korean artists who developed some of the most significant avant-garde practices of the 20th century.
Jung Kangja: ‘Kiss Me,’ 1967-2001 // Copyright and courtesy of the Jung Kangja Estate and ARARIO Gallery, Photo by Jang Junho (Image Zoom)
Fondation Pernod Ricard
24th Fondation Pernod Ricard Prize: ‘Do You Believe in Ghosts?’
Exhibition: Sept. 12–Oct. 28, 2023
fondation-pernod-ricard.com
1 Cr Paul Ricard, 75008 Paris, France, click here for map
‘Do You Believe in Ghosts?’—the titular question of the 24th Fondation Pernod Ricard Prize—refers to ‘Ghost Dance’ (1983), a film by Ken McMullen in which Jacques Derrida makes an appearance playing himself. Guided by Derrida’s ideas of hauntology, this exhibition of prize nominees’ works evokes ghosts as a conceptual metaphor to acknowledge the non-western perspective on spectrality as the enduring presence of the abusive power systems from the past that are only seemingly resolved. The works of the six artists invited by Fernanda Brenner—Ethan Assouline, Sophie Bonnet-Pourpet, Anne Bourse, Pol Taburet, Eden Tinto Collins and Ana Vaz—point towards what is formally absent yet somehow states its presence. The exhibition aims to expose hidden histories and understand the ghosts of the past in order to (re)imagine the present and future.
Ana Vaz: ‘é noite na américa [It Is Night In America],’ 2022, video still, 16mm transferred to HD,couleurs, 45 min / 66 min // Courtesy of the artist and Fondation Pernod Ricard
Pace Gallery Seoul
Yoshitomo Nara: ‘Ceramic Works’
Exhibition: Sept. 5–Oct. 21, 2023
pacegallery.com
267 Itaewon-ro, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, South Korea, click here for map
Yoshitomo Nara rose to prominence in the late 1990s with his paintings and drawings of child-like characters inspired by politics, music, counterculture and his own early memories and experiences. Coinciding with Frieze Seoul, his upcoming presentation at Pace Gallery’s art complex in Seoul will spotlight primarily the expressionistic and material qualities of his ceramics. Featuring mostly works that Nara produced in the past three years during an ongoing residency in Shigaraki in Japan, along with objects from his personal collection, the show will be installed within cabinets and atop custom wooden tables and shelves owned by the artist. This unique installation of about 140 of Nara’s ceramics and 30 drawings on paper and cardboard will reflect his interdisciplinary approach to art making, shed light on his artistic process and offer visitors a window into his private world.
Yoshitomo Nara: ‘Studio view in Shigaraki,’ 2023 // © Yoshitomo Nara, courtesy of Pace Gallery
Brutus
Group show: ‘Petromelancholia’
Exhibition: Sept. 1–Nov. 19, 2023
brutus.nl
Keileweg 10-18, 3029 BS Rotterdam, Netherlands, click here for map
The group show ‘Petromelancholia,’ curated by Alexander Klose (of the research group Beauty of Oil), takes place at BRUTUS—a multidisciplinary art space situated in Rotterdam’s harbour, where the impact of energy transition is highly visible. The location makes for a poignant site for this exhibition’s critical self-reflection on what a future without oil might look like, and its unknown consequences. Bringing together 32 artists of varying backgrounds and generations, ‘Petromelancholia’ takes a more nostalgic and melancholic approach than many other exhibitions that engage with our age of climate crises from an impending-doomsday perspective. Instead, the works collected here, by artists including Alessandro Balteo-Yazbeck and Imani Jacqueline Brown, ponder what oil has brought us materially and culturally, and what changes its disappearance will bring.
Yuri-Ancarani: ‘The-Challenge,’ 2016, video still // Courtesy of the artist
