May 1, 2024
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 May.
MoMA
LaToya Ruby Frazier: ‘Monuments of Solidarity’
Exhibition: May 12–Sept. 7, 2024
moma.org
11 W 53rd St, New York, NY 10019, USA, click here for map
‘Monuments of Solidarity’ is the first museum survey dedicated to the artist-activist LaToya Ruby Frazier, on view at MoMA from May 12th through September 7th, 2024. For more than two decades, Frazier has used photography, text, moving images and performance to revive and preserve forgotten narratives of labor, gender and race in the postindustrial era. Born in 1982 in the steel town of Braddock, Pennsylvania, Frazier has cultivated a practice that critically builds on the legacy of the social documentary tradition of the 1930s, the photo-conceptual forays of the 1960s and 1970s, and the work of socially conscious writers like Upton Sinclair, James Baldwin, and bell hooks. For the MoMA exhibition, Frazier has reimagined several of her diverse bodies of work as a sequence of original installations that she calls “monuments for workers’ thoughts.” The exhibition brings together work from 2001 to 2024, highlighting the full range of Frazier’s practice to date and includes several rarely- and never-before-seen works.
LaToya Ruby Frazier: ‘Grandma Ruby and Me’ from ‘The Notion of Family,’ 2005 // © 2024 LaToya Ruby Frazier, courtesy of the artist and Gladstone gallery
Fundació Joan Miró
Tuan Andrew Nguyen: ‘Our Ghosts Live in the Future’
Exhibition: May 10–Sept. 24, 2024
fmirobcn.org
Parc de Montjuïc, s/n, Sants-Montjuïc, 08038 Barcelona, Spain, click here for map
Winner of the 8th edition of the Joan Miró prize, Tuan Andrew Nguyen will present his inaugural solo exhibition in Barcelona at the Fundació Joan Miró. The acclaimed Vietnamese artist will exhibit powerful video installations and sculptures created from discarded bombs and artillery shells leftover from the Vietnam War. Born in Ho Chi Minh City amidst the tumultuous “boat people” migration, Nguyen’s journey of migration to the US and then return back to Vietnam, informs his profound exploration of material consequences upon human existence. Beyond confronting the legacies of conflict, the exhibition fosters a dialogue between Western art icons Alexander Calder and Joan Miró, blending their visions with Nguyen’s narratives. Through his films and installations, characters and artworks evoke poignant reflections on memory, identity and cultural connection.
Tuan Andrew Nguyen: ‘The Unburied Sounds of a Troubled Horizon,’ 2022, Installation view // Courtesy of the artist and James Cohan Gallery, New York
Galerie im Turm
Group Show: ‘Wor(l)ding Dreamers’
Exhibition: May 8–Jul. 21, 2024
galerie-im-turm.net
Frankfurter Tor 1, 10243 Berlin, click here for map
Opening on May 8th, as part of the Dreamers Poetry Festival, ‘Wor(l)ding Dreamers’ is an exhibition, performance and education project that explores the transformative potential of dreams, interlacing poetry, music and architecture. Curated by hn. Iyonga and Johanna Janßen and rooted in Black revolutionary thought, the project emphasizes rest and dreaming as signifcant pathways to self-discovery, collective liberation and reshaping of societal norms. The exhibition presents speculative works by 19, mostly Berlin-based, poets intertwined with architectural creations by Young Thinkers from the neighborhood. The opening nights will feature nine readings with musical elements, amplifying various linguistic realities. ‘Wor(l)ding Dreamers’ is the fourth part of the exhibition series ‘Schwindel – Conceptions of (Extra)terrestrial Worlds between Reality and Fiction,’ which deals with historical, present and future worlds in the cosmos and the ocean. Thematically, it reacts to the looming climate catastrophe and refers to the danger of reproducing social and ecological grievances on Earth in the development of (extra)terrestrial worlds.
Philipp Czampiel: ‘Lyonga for “Living in plain sight and other exploits”,’ 2022, Berlin, Germany // © Philipp Czampiel
EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art
Tschabalala Self: ‘Around the Way’
Exhibition: May 8, 2024–May 4, 2025
emmamuseum.fi
Ahertajantie 5, 02070 Espoo, Finland, click here for map
The EMMA (Espoo Museum of Modern Art) in Finland will be featuring artist Tschabalala Self in an exhibition titled ‘Around the Way’ from May 8th 2024 to May 4th 2025. The exhibition houses several multi-material paintings and sculptures. The American artist raises discourse on the intersection of race and gender, drawing from her experiences as an Black American woman. Self, while primarily working with paint, also incorporates collages or assemblages within her pieces; with pigments, textiles and thread, she often details her paintings with a sewing machine. ‘Around the Way’ is part of the InCollection series, a collective effort by EMMA and the Saastamoinen Foundation. They commission a new site-specific piece annually by an up-and-coming contemporary artist to be part of the museum’s permanent collection. An exhibition is then curated around the commissioned piece to interact with the museum’s architecture.
Tschabalala Self: ‘Dreamers,’ 2021 // Courtesy the artist, Pilar Corrias, London and Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich / Vienna, photo © Pierre Le Hors
Casino Luxembourg
Group Show: ‘My Last Will’
Exhibition: May 25–Sept. 8, 2024
casino-luxembourg.lu
41 Rue Notre Dame, 2240 Ville-Haute Luxembourg, click here for map
The Casino Luxembourg will be holding a group show titled ‘My Last Will,’ which will include 32 contemporary artists and artist groups, including five commissioned pieces produced for the show. These pieces will raise a contemporary response to the question, “What remains?” Through this line of inquiry, the artists question their presumed significance for a future they will no longer experience and whose measures of value are still completely unknown to them. The question is especially topical with the recent pandemic and war in Europe and its effects on individual values and perspectives. With this in mind, artists focus on their individual exploration, each of them looks into their own legacy and attempts, in their own unique way, to distill the essence of their interests and aspirations into a primary thesis or seminal piece of art. This exploration—meant to be designed as a free, open-ended experiment—is further developed in the artist book ‘My Last Will,’ which compiles the artists’ contributions of uniquely created text, collage and images.
Keren Cytter: ‘Psycho the Rapist,’ 2023, film still // Courtesy of the artist
S.M.A.K.
Group Show: ‘Together – Collaborative Art Practices’
Exhibition: May 25–Sept. 8, 2024
smak.be
Jan Hoetplein 1, 9000 Gent, Belgium, click here for map
S.M.A.K presents ‘From the Collection: Together – Collaborative Art Practices,’ a group exhibition in Ghent running from May 25th to September 8th, 2024. Departing from the prevailing narrative of the solitary artist, this exhibition celebrates the richness of collaborative art practices throughout history and challenges the notion of individual genius. Showcasing influential artist collectives like Guerrilla Girls and Forensic Architecture, the exhibition will display works from the S.M.A.K. collection produced between 1959 and 2021. From artist duos to work made in conversation with other art, these pieces explore the interplay of collective creativity and its profound impact on artistic production. Through diverse mediums and perspectives, the exhibition invites viewers to reconsider the traditional notion of solitary artistry and embraces the power of collaboration. Featuring works by renowned pairs and collectives such as Marina Abràmovic & Jan Hoet, Allora & Calzadilla and Gilbert & George, ‘From the Collection: Together – Collaborative Art Practices’ offers a compelling take on the collaborative spirit that fuels much of artistic innovation and community involvement.
Gilbert & George: ‘Door,’ 2007, photomontage, 226.5 cm x 381 cm // Private collection, Belgium
Deichtorhallen
Group Show: ‘Survival in the 21st Century’
Exhibition: May 18–Nov. 5, 2024
deichtorhallen.de
Deichtorstraße 1-2, 20095 Hamburg, click here for map
The foundations of living in the era of polycrisis are examined in the exhibition project ‘Survival in the 21st Century’ at Deichtorhallen in Hamburg. The show, created by Georg Diez and Nicolaus Schafhausen in close collaboration with Deichtorhallen, addresses fundamental issues related to technology, spirituality and ecology. The “School of Survival” transforms the exhibition area into a future learning environment while expanding the about 40 worldwide artistic positions. The exhibition examines the fundamental issues surrounding human existence and the dramatic upheavals we are currently experiencing, such as the rise in national and international injustice, climate change, the crisis of democracy, etc. The intricate display, which features many multimedia works and exhibition architecture by Bundschuh Architekten, illustrates how new cultural practices are necessary for cultural survival. In such a complex environment, fundamental concerns are posed again and again, such as how to manage, build and live differently, coordinate human and non-human coexistence differently and use technology differently. What can non-Western societies teach us? The exhibition seeks to open up social concerns accessible beyond the realm of art practice.
Andrea Bowers: ‘Deep Green’ // Photo by Kunning Huang, courtesy of the artist and Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York, © the artist
The Broad
Mickalene Thomas: ‘All About Love’
Exhibition: May 25–Sept. 29, 2024
thebroad.org
221 S Grand Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90012, USA, click here for map
The Broad announces ‘All About Love’ from American artist Mickalene Thomas: a touring exhibition from May 25th to September 29th, premiering in LA. Co-organized by the Hayward Gallery, London, and The Broad, Los Angeles, in collaboration with the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, this exhibition marks the first major international tour of the artist’s work. Featuring over 80 works from over two decades, ‘All About Love’ showcases Thomas’s mastery across multiple mediums, from collage and mixed-media paintings to photography and installation. Inspired by the influential work of feminist author bell hooks, the exhibition explores love as an active agent of healing and liberation, focusing on Black female representation and challenging historical patterns of exclusion in art. Through her vibrant portraits and reimagined scenes from art history, Thomas empowers her subjects while dismantling oppressive narratives, inviting viewers to become “practitioners of love.”
Mickalene Thomas: ‘Resist #11: A Price to Pay,’ 2023 // Mugrabi Collection, © Mickalene Thomas
Selebe Yoon
Younes Baba-Ali, Mbaye Diop, Hamedine Kane: ‘Export-Import’
Exhibition: May 15–July 27, 2024
selebe-yoon.com
Crossroad Rue Salva & Rue Parchappe, Dakar, Senegal, click here for map
The group exhibition ‘Export-Import’ points to a transcontinental transactional relationship that is often asymmetrical and unbalanced, revealing predation, economic speculation and rivalry over certain territories and their natural resources. It considers the occurrence of international trade from the colonial era to the present, as well as the ongoing perception of exporting goods, and oneself, as a necessity to survive in the global arena. By observing certain sports, leisure activities or economic sectors, Younes Baba-Ali, Mbaye Diop and Hamedine Kane reveal unexpected networks and invisible trajectories that conceal mechanisms of subordination. In between poignant testimonials and humor, recreational space and position-taking, the three artists reveal the political complexity, economic burden and social weight that exist in activities such as pigeon racing, wrestling, fishing and tennis. Their works also offer a reminder of the incorruptible and active forces of poetic possibility that can emerge in the face of seemingly impenetrable systems of power.
Younes Baba-Ali: ‘LOFT DKR #1,’ 2024 // © Younes Baba-Ali, Courtesy Selebe Yoon, Dakar
