25/07/2014

This year’s Les Rencontres d’Arles 2014 edition is held under the subtitle of Parade – and it should have been the victory parade of the exiting director, the French curator François Hébel who headed ‘The Encounters of Arles’ for the last 15 years. As of next year, the office will be taken over by Sam Stourdzé hitherto successfully holding the post of the director of Musée de l'Élysée in Lausanne. What the parade has amounted to, however, is more like a somewhat off-key swan song. Instead of an edition that would stay in our memory for years and years to come, this year’s offering seems quite uneven as far as quality of the shows is concerned. Instead of forming a celebratory procession where they would be supporting each other, the exhibitions have transformed into isolated little islands. Read more...

23/07/2014

It is difficult to say if Udo Kittelmann uses the word "absolutely" quite so often when he speaks in German. But during our interview in one of the – rooms of Berlin Contemporary Art Museum Hamburger Bahnhof, where his office is located, he used it more than once. This  gray-haired self-confident man who went out for a cigarette after our conversation, knows much about how and what we see. Udo Kittelmann is the director of Nationalgalerie, which includes several museums, hosting art from 19thand 20thcentury as also contemporary art. Read more...

21/07/2014

For one week, this is the 5th biggest city in Denmark and the most densely populated place in the whole world. It's also the most intoxicated place in the world. Here, it's okay to walk through the crowd naked or dressed like a raccoon. It's okay to close your eyes and spin around for half an hour in the middle of the crowd during a show. It's okay to stagger to the bushes to throw up and then come back and continue the conversation. But what about art? For many years, art has been living like a pauper at the great music festivals. This has all changed now. Read more...

An Interview with Estonian Artist Merike Estna

14/07/2014

From June 27th until November 2nd, the Kumu Gallery of Contemporary Art will be presenting “Merike Estna and I’m a Painting”, which consists of two closely connected exhibitions. As a painter and as a curator, Merike Estna has been on a quest to deconstruct the common beliefs about painting and to cross all conservative borders to see what is left in the end – to see what a painting really is. Her provocative and playful works challenge the viewer’s perception of a painting and provide an alluring visual and spatial experience. Read more...