30/07/2014

The so-called “biomechanics” that interlace Hans Rudolf Giger's, the Swiss artist and fantasist, works come from a surreal world – a community of non-existent flora and fauna in which living creatures are melded together with industrial forms into one single organism. The hybrids born into this synthesis are naked and cold, but at the same time, strangely captivating. A horde of grotesque body parts, smooth and slimy-looking flesh and metallic mechanics pull the viewer into the depths of these paintings. Giger's sensitive imagination – which often overstepped the boundaries of sodomy and cultism – broke the generally accepted norms of aesthetics. Read more...

29/07/2014

The Pärnu Fringe Festival consists of more than two weeks of events – each taking place separately, but all supporting one another. They bring together artists and performers from different fields, creating shared experiences for audiences and those involved. As Barbara Lehtna, Developing Director of the Pärnu Fringe Festival, explains, the intrinsic identity of the Pärnu Fringe Festival is a mixture of arts, emotions and synergy that emerges when you pour a lot of different arts into one pot.  Read more...

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...