Marina Abramovic, Cutting the Star, 1976 / 1997, video installation, color, loop, courtesy: Studio Stefania Miscetti, Rome

Life, life itself… is the absolute art!
When Yves Klein pronounced this words for the first time they were highly provocative. Not only they undermined conventional notions of art, they also anticipated all those artistic strategies which, on the turn of ‘60s to ‘70s, expanded to the highest extent boundaries of art, seeking to merge it with all other expressive languages.

Theatre of Life: One and Many Actions is exhibitive project dedicated to this artistic practices which looked for confluence between art, experimental music, new dance and theatre. It aim to highlight those practices that, not only blew boundaries between mentioned disciplines, but most of all challenged social conventions in search for alternative models of art and life, announcing and propelling liberating energies that shook the world in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s.

Fluxus, performance, body art and all those tendencies that put the focus on the action and on the body (of the artist) as the subject and the object of an artwork should be a point of departure for the exhibition which aims to explore ways in which younger generations are addressing the same topics. Anarchic, freeing and even heroic gestures of the art of ‘60s and ‘70s, their’s theatricality and subversiveness still echo in the practices of the younger generations, even though the emphasis today seems to be more on repetition than on uniqueness, as well as on the re-enactment as the strategy for expressing the new.

Why redo? Why re-perform? What are the motivations that drives artists, especially those of the younger generations, to re-visit works/actions done decades ago?
This would be the one, but not the only focal point of the exhibition. Another would explore dichotomies action/inactivity; motion/stillness, presence/absence.

Silence, slowness, minimal gestures are common features recognisable in the works of younger performers, and this show would like to investigate how reduced expressive language is capable of producing intense and involving artistic statements.
Departing from some of the topical works by Yoko Ono, VALIE EXPORT, Marina Abramovic or Natalia LL, this show should be like a voyage through the multiplicity of “bodyscapes”, which might be static or in motion, live or on film.

“Theatre of Life” will be also journey through challenging and provocative statements through which contemporary artists (Cattelan, Beecroft, Vezzoli, Kozyra, Montini, Haring) addressed conventions of patriarchal society, political or religious authorities, sexual freedoms as well as art-taboos. The show will be enriched by monumental work from Unicredit art collection, Partrick Tuttofuoco’s “Chinese Theatre”: an auditorium in which will be screened selection of interconnected works by John Baldessari, Joao Onofre, Jonathan Monk and Pierre Bismuth, which will function as exhibition within an exhibition.

Artists: John Cage, Yoko Ono, Marina Abramovic´, VALIE EXPORT, Natalia LL, John Baldessari, Nes?a Paripovic´, Ulay, Marek Sobczyk, Katarzyna Kozyra, Maurizio Cattelan, David Michalek, Pierre Bismuth, Jonathan Monk, Vanessa Beecroft, Joa~o Onofre, Francesco Vezzoli, Gil Kuno, Partick Tuttofuoco, Nezaket Ekici, Pilvi Takala, Marlene Haring, Ana Prvac?ki, Mihoko Ogaki, Malin Sta°hl, Branko Miliskovic´, Francesco Fonassi, Nicola Ruben Montini, Lerato Shadi, Maks Cies´lak

Curated by: Dobrila Denegri

For the evening of opening, on 18th of May, and for the whole next day, Saturday, 19th of May, exhibitive spaces of CoCA will be animated by numerous live performances which will turn the museum and exhibition in a “total performative event” which will include artists as well as the public.

Theatre of Life is a second in a series of exhibitions started in 2011 with Spaceship Earth and it will be accompanied by a catalogue with essays by the curator Dobrila Denegri, historian of art and philosophy Thomas McEvilley, art-historians and curators Cristiana Perrella and Piotr Lisowski.

Exhibition will be accompanied by series of lectures and presentations by younger artists who are taking part in the show: Gil Kuno, Nezaket Ekici, Marlene Haring, Malin Sta°hl, Branko Miliskovic´, Francesco Fonassi, Nicola Ruben Montini and on 19th of May at 6.30 pm, as a special event open to the large public, will be the lecture by one of the most famous Italian art critics, father of Transavanguardia, Achille Bonito Oliva.

Exhibition opening: Friday, 18th May 2012 at 7 pm
Saturday 19th of May from 12 am to 12 pm for European Night of Museums, free entrance for intense program of performances, lectures and screenings 19th of May at 6.30 pm: lecture “Art Tribes” by Achille Bonito Oliva 18.05.2012 – 16.09.2012

Centre of Contemporary Art Znaki Czasu in Torun
87-100 Torun
Waly gen. Sikorskiego 13
Poland

Cristina’s Frozen Dreams, Jaume Plensa, 2010, Edition of 8, PHOTO CREDIT: Francesco Ferruzzi, Courtesy of Berengo Private Collection, Venice; Galerie Lelong, Paris

The cutting-edge exhibition series Glasstress, organized by glass impresario Adriano Berengo for the past two Venice Biennales—each time making waves in the lagoon city—debuted at the Museum of Arts and Design in February 2012.

Berengo calls the series “a new visionary manifesto for glass and art.” His commissioning of leading contemporary artists and designers to create works despite a lack of knowledge about the medium or its history has proved a game changer in the field. Lacking preconceptions, these creators working with artisans on Murano have produced pieces that are as exciting as they are fresh. The Museum of Arts and Design presents a selection of some 20 pieces culled from the exhibition’s two editions, most from the 2011 edition.

“Next year, 2012, is the 50th anniversary of the Studio Glass Movement,” says Holly Hotchner, MAD’s Nanette L. Laitman Director. “This institution has been a champion of directional art glass since that movement’s beginnings, so what better way for us to celebrate than by introducing to American audiences the latest creative innovations in this marvelous fluid medium?”

E. Coli, Luke Jerram, 2010, PHOTO CREDIT: Luke Jerram, Courtesy of De Nul Collection, Belgium

Discussing the curation of the exhibition, David McFadden, MAD’s William and Mildred Lasdon Chief Curator, notes: “The wide-ranging vision and diversity of approaches galvanized us to bring this important project to the U.S. MAD’s exhibition will include Jan Fabre’s witty installation of amethyst-hued, blown-glass pigeons along with their glass droppings; acid-washed, black glass eggs by Kiki Smith; and Javier Perez’s ornate, scarlet-colored, Murano glass chandelier, which after it was completed, he smashed—the ruin replete with is shards becoming the extraordinary artwork.”“Having this exhibition come to New York, has long been my dream,” says Berengo. “I am excited for Americans to see the enormous artistic potential of this medium, which while ancient has never seemed more contemporary. ”

through June 10, 2012
Hours: Tuesday to Sunday from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm
Thursday and Friday from 11:00 am to 9:00 pm
closed Mondays and major holidays
Museum of Arts and Design
2 Columbus Circle
New York, NY 10019

"From Within," Annie Cattrell, silvered bronze cast, 2006

Wellcome Collection’s major new exhibition looks at one of the most complex entities in the universe. Brains: The Mind as Matter, explores what humans have done to brains in the name of medical intervention, scientific enquiry, cultural meaning and technological change. Featuring more than 150 objects including real brains, artworks, manuscripts, artefacts, videos and photography, Brains follows the long quest to manipulate and decipher the most unique and mysterious of human organs, whose secrets continue to confound and inspire.

Brains asks not what brains do for us, but what we have done to brains. Famous and infamous brain specimens – including those of Albert Einstein, Charles Babbage and William Burke – are on display, and the exhibition is filled with thoughts on brains from the brains of famous thinkers, together with donors, surgeons, patients and collectors. Works by contemporary artists including Helen Pynor, Andrew Carnie, Annie Cattrell, Susan Aldworth, Jonathon Keats and Katharine Dowson offer personal responses to the form and physical matter of the organ, while the cultural significance of the rituals, rhetoric and reality of handling brains is explored across centuries.

The exhibition has four sections. The first, Measuring/Classifying, introduces efforts to define the relationship between the brain’s function and form. If microscopic cellular staining techniques developed in the late 19th century enabled a new understanding of localised neural processes, the rise of phrenology and anthropometry demonstrates the ease with which societal prejudice fed into analysis of outward brain shape and size. From Bernard Hollander’s cranial measuring system to the tools and models of phrenology, used to circumscribe comparative types of humanity, the skewed morality of these pseudo-sciences illustrates the measuring of brains as a measure of culture.

Mapping/Modelling follows the attempts to represent the anatomy of the brain. From early visualisations by Reisch, Vesalius and Descartes in the 16th and 17th centuries, through beautiful 19th century paintings by Charles Bell, to the latest kaleidoscopic Brainbow images of nerve cells created by Jeff Lichtman and his team, the artistic drive to apprehend the complexities of the brain follow the increasing philosophical and medical understanding of its centrality to our being. Wax models, used since antiquity, gain extraordinary intricacy in renderings of the brain, and exquisite, groundbreaking drawings of brain cells by Santiago Ramón y Cajal, considered by many as the father of modern neuroscience, are also on display.

Cutting/Treating explores the history of surgical intervention on a form of human tissue that is uniquely swift to decay and difficult to dissect. A 5000 year-old skull with holes drilled (or trephined) into it illustrates how long humans have been intervening directly in the matter of the brain, and the exhibition takes a long view of tools and methods, from crude trephination kits to bullet locators and complex Setred 3D imaging systems, and looks at the human stories behind the anatomy (the separation of parts by cutting) of brains. Arresting portraits of patients under the care of Dr Harvey Cushing and his pioneering surgical techniques at the turn of the last century sit beside the work of artist Corrine Day, which records her as she prepares to undergo brain surgery in 1996, while engravings of earlier patients undergoing treatment offer a grim reminder of the realities of a pre-anaesthetic age.Since the 18th century, preservation techniques have enabled the collection of specimens – including the brains of famous or notorious individuals, which have been intricately studied in the search for the material basis of genius, depravity and human variation. Giving/Taking traces the stories of brain harvesting and the variety of its purpose, from the horrors of Nazi mass murder and experimentation to the hope offered by research into neurodegenerative disorders by today’s brain banks. Newly commissioned photography and film of key brain archives and the process of dissection (together with wet samples, artefacts and moving portraits of brain donors by Ania Dabrowska), offer a behind-the-scenes view of the brain’s life after death.

The brain contains 100 billion nerve cells and some 100 trillion synapses or neural connections; it cannot be transplanted. Brains takes a journey around the spectacular form, structure and condensed volume of our most revered organ, and examines the ambiguous emotions and ethical difficulties associated with the manipulation and dissection of the delicate substance of consciousness.

Marius Kwint, Guest Curator, says: “Brains shows how a single, fragile organ has become the object of modern society’s most profound hopes, fears and beliefs, and some of its most extreme practices and advanced technologies. The different ways in which we have treated and represented real, physical brains open up a lot of questions about our collective minds.”

Ken Arnold, Head of Public Programmes at Wellcome Collection, says: “We all recognise its outline and know that it is the most important part of us, but for many, the brain remains as mysterious as it is beguiling. This exhibition presents brains of extraordinary people among other intriguing specimens and showcases remarkable tales from more than 500 years of scientific investigation into the physical matter of the mind.”

to 17 June 2012
Wellcome Collection
183 Euston Road, NW1 2BE, UK.

In undertaking this project the curators have tapped into a surging interest in the interface of art and technology. The exhibition builds on such precedents as Make Magazine, Maker Fairs, Burning Man and scores of lesser, but equally sophisticated festivals, and the work of many cutting edge individual artists, designers and engineers. As a recent ad in a mainstream magazine said, “Join the Aduino Revolution!”

Work by the following artists is featured: Suzi Ballenger, China Blue, Jenine Bressner, Laurie Carlson, Mark Esper, Beth Galston, John Kotula, Ben Knox Miller, Luke Randall, James Rutter,  Cheryl Sleboda, and Shawn Wallace.

Curators include: John Kotula who is an artist member of Hera Gallery and an active member of Hera’s Board of Directors. In addition to making his own artwork, John is an arts educator and arts promoter. He has curated many shows at Hera Gallery, including, most recently, Ekphraises: Art into Poetry = Poetry into Art.

Suzi Ballenger is a weaver who works with a wide variety of non-traditional, repurposed and recycled materials. She is owner operator of Real Fibers Handwoven. She teaches weaving and her work is widely exhibited.

China Blue is an international artist who uses technology as one of the driving forces of her work.  A recent body of work she created called the Firefly Projects was awarded a solo exhibition at The Newport Art Museum, honored with a 2012 RISCA Fellowship in New Genres, and nominated for the Best Monographic Museum Show Nationally by the International Association of Art Critics. China Blue is the founder of The Engine Institute, Inc.

James Rutter is an engineer who directs the AS220Labs. The motto of the labs is “Where Art Meets Technology.” The Labs make available to the community the knowledge and equipment to produce art in a manner that would have seemed like science fiction even ten years ago: laser cutters, computer controlled routers, 3-D printers, micro computer programming, etc.

TechnoCraft was originally planned for Hera Gallery’s Main Street location in Wakefield. However, when that location closed due to development of the property for other purposes, The Jamestown Art’s Center stepped in and made their large gallery available. The two organizations and The Engine Institute, Inc., have become active partners in presenting this exhibition.

TechnoCraft is supported by a grant from The Rhode Island State Council on the Arts .

Natalie Tyler, Coccoons

Light reveals what is hidden, allowing us to see color, form, and movement. It illuminates our visual world making the hidden become truth to our eyes. 

Funded in part by the Cornell Council of the Arts, Lux is a unique exhibition encompassing both art and science. A combined effort by the Department of Art and the Department of Physics, this exhibition will bring to Cornell “light artists” drawn from all over the world. These are individuals recognized for giving new meaning to ideas that range from mapping the universe to drawing with light. The blending of visual arts, science, and nature is revealed in these installations. These works are inspirational not only to artists, but to scientists, engineers, and architects. An interesting thing happens when you combine art and science. The two worlds can inspire innovation in each other, strengthening the investigations in both worlds. Physicists, chemists, biologists from Cornell will hold seminars on light and its countless manifestations in nature. 

Hosted by Cornell’s departments of art and physics and funded in part by the Cornell Council of the Arts and the Cornell Student Union Board, the exhibition is curated by Cornell Artist in Residence Natalie Tyler and Cornell Physics lecturer Robert Lieberman.

 Participating artists and scientists include:

• Beatrice Pediconi – Photographer who creates imagery that resemble the cosmos
• Oisin Byrne – Collaborated with an Astrophysicist to create the Universe in a Cube
• Sharyn O’Mara – Creates atmospheric installations with fiber optics
• Natalie Tyler-Interactive Cocoons Installation, that brighten an dim, in response to viewers
• Roald Hoffmann, Nobel Prize winning chemist and Cornell professor Emeritus – will discuss light-generating chemical reactions and how light serves as a critical catalyst.
• Michal Lipson, MacArthur Genius and Cornell professor of electric and computer engineering – will speak about her work with micron-sized photonic structures for light manipulation.
• Philip Krasicky, Cornell physics lecturer – will provide interactive demonstrations of light moving from photo voltaic cells to lasers
• Cole Gilbert, Entomology- will discuss bioluminescence
• James G. Morin-will present his National Geographic video on luminescent animals
• Moti Fridman, Cornell physics research- will discuss time cloaking, redirecting light.

through May 11, 2012
Milstein Gallery, Willard Straight Hall Gallery and Garden Room
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY

Yang Jiechang, Tale of the 11th Day - Golden Day, 2011, ink and mineral colors, silk on canvas 8 panels, 255 x 148 cm-Detail

This year I decided to go to the New York Armory Show, one of the most important Modern and Contemporary art fairs of the year. In 2012, the Armory Show was housed in Piers 92 and 94, with Pier 92 dedicated to primarily the Modern Masters and Pier 94 to the Contemporary art.

This is a useful way to segregate these works, but if you just want to experience all the art, navigating the space even in one pier it is a serious amount of turf to cover. I was fortunate because I am interested in contemporary art and was specifically interested in artists that are working at the nexus of technology and/or science.  This focus made the process of looking at work a little bit simpler. As I found my way around the booths, I was pleasantly surprised to find a number of artists that were working with the topics of biology, nature and a small number on technology. 

Nathaniel Rackowe, "SP14," 2012, Scaffolding poles, scaffolding clamps, fluorescent lights, 71 x 28 x 20 in.

The first booth I visited was hosted by was Bischoff/Weiss (UK) and showed one of Nathaniel Rackowe’s fluorescent tube sculptures. It is hard to look at one of these sculptures without thinking of Dan Flavin’s minimalist work that explored color, light and sculptural space.  He began this work in 1961 and sustained it to his death in 1996. Many of Flavin’s works can be seen in major museums around the world. The Rackowe work that was shown at the armory incorporates scaffolding, poles and clamps in addition to the fluorescent tubes to shape a freestanding minimalist rectangle’s edge. The scaffolding poles and clamps bring a heavy steel architectural element to support the elegant candle-like white tubes.  This work nods to the master of fluorescent, work yet provides a new way of looking at it through its relationship to architecture structure: scaffolding.

LEANDRO ERLICH, "La Vitrina Cloud Collection," 2011, wood, glass, acrylic and solid surface, 67 x 50 x 14 inches (170 x 127 x 36 cm), © Leandro Erlich, Copyright: Sean Kelly Gallery, New York

At Sean Kelly’s booth, Leandro Erlich’s “La Vitrina Cloud Collection” was extraordinary, capturing successfully the ephemerality of the subject matter. The work is a vitrine of 9 paintings of clouds. These are not traditional painting on canvas, but acrylic paint on multiple pieces of glass stacked one in front of the other to result in the most successful paintings of the delicacy and intangibility of clouds I have ever seen. Presented in a quasi-Victorian cabinet of curiosity, provided the appearance of a natural history museum display of captured clouds in their natural form.  And as in an antique natural history context, their presentation implies the intent of understanding them, yet in their delicacy and dimension, they evade scientific quantification and leave the human sense of wonder.

Biological topics in art seem to be increasingly popular and range from the bizarre to the unexpectedly charming. “Stranger than Paradise-The Origine,” is a group of 140 ceramic sculptures and traditional paintings (picture at the beginning of the article) by Yang Jiechang at Tang Contemporary Art (China).  From a distance these works look very traditional; small clay sculptures of animals and rich Chinese scroll paintings.  Yet, when one looks closely at the details, what is seen are bizarre scenarios. Throughout the whole room are depictions of pairs of different species copulating, even humans with animals.

E.V. Day, "Pollinator," 2011, Polished nickel plated copper and resin core, 28 x 20 x 11 inches

At Hales Gallery’s (UK) booth was displayed Jane Wilbraham’s beautiful and highly detailed watercolors.  These are particularly interesting because they do not engage in the topic of art. Her interest is to capture the world with the same intent as scientists and natural historians of Darwin’s era, by observing the world and painting the object observed. The first work that caught my eye was “Crushed” a watercolor of crushed oyster shells. In this work she shapes a horizon by organizing the shells to create the horizon line, but paints the shapes all below the line forming an implied geological strata. “Hoverflies” is another casual, yet charming observation of nature in action. The watercolor shows a naturalistic view of these usually ignored insects.

Uram Choe, "Arbo Deus Pennatus," 2011, Metalllic material, machinery, electronic devices (CPU board motor), 112(w) x 46(d) x 79(h) cm

What captured my eye at Carolina Nitsche’s booth is E.V. Day’s work of brilliant large and colorful Rorschach photographs made based on flowers found at Monet’s Giverney garden. What I found most captivating though was the sculpture “Pollinator” which shifts away from the color rich historical topic and depicts a bright shiny Rorschach of a flower’s pistil and stamen in polished nickel plated copper.

Finally U-Ram Choe’s “Arbo Deus Pennatus,” at Gallery Hyundai was the hit of the Pier 94. This biomorphic form with exposed mechanically rich interior was fabricated of etched stainless steel, gears and robotics. This work cyclically breathes with flight inspired movement. Seeing this work poses the question: why aren’t there more technologically based works in the Armory Show? With the advent of cheap microprocessor boards and 3D printers, blogs, forums, websites and competitions have established passionate communities of artists & makers working on the cutting edge of technology. It will be interesting to see how these new developments impact art creation and inclusion of technically-based art by major galleries.

There are now more MP3s in circulation than all other forms of recorded audio combined. Through a series of episodes, Jonathan Sterne offers a history of the MP3 format, and uses it to point to a longer, general history of compression in the 20th century. Our most basic ideas of what it means to hear and listen, as well as our ideas of information, are tied to the problems and progress of 20th century media. In its everyday combination of sound, information, and infrastructure, the history of the MP3 offers a radically different story about the meaning of hearing and the origins of digital media.

Talk
Wed. 03/07, 6 PM, FREE
Observer Effects lecture series
EMPAC-Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center
Troy, NY

David Marron, Muse (detail), mixed media, 2012

GV Art’s latest exhibition brings together ‘polymath’ works that create synergies and connect disparate ideas and different schools of thoughts. From David Marron’s Nervous Tissue installation, to Susan Aldworth’s Reassembling the Self lithographs, to Rachel Gadsden, whose Unlimited Global Alchemy will be presented as part of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad. Reassembling the Self , a new suite of 14 lithographs by Susan Aldworth made at the Curwen Studio under the

guidance of the legendary master printer Stanley Jones, is the culmination of her artist residency at the Institute of Neuroscience at Newcastle University, working on a collaborative project with patients and scientists to piece together some of the narratives that inform the diagnosis and experiences of schizophrenia. Aldworth will show two of these new works for the first time at Polymath.

As co-curator Dr Jonathan Hutt observes, ‘A polymath doesn’t look at what is there but uses existing knowledge to create something new and dynamic’. ‘The polymath is almost a discipline in itself’, explains David Marron. ‘It aids a sensibility in attaining a reasoned level of thought.’ The most famous polymath is, of course, Leonardo da Vinci, who personified the concept of ‘Renaissance Humanism’ — which held that, to realise their full potential, a human had to acquire the widest spectrum of knowledge — and was the ultimate ‘Renaissance Man’. But other polymaths have shaped the evolution of the world throughout history, including Aristotle (384-322BC), Galileo Galilei (1564-1624) and Steve Jobs (1955-2011).

The Notes panel from David Marron’s Nervous Tissue featured in Polymath and works by Andrew Carnie, Annie Cattrell, Susan Aldworth, Katharine Dowson, Nina Sellars and Helen Pynor are featured in Brains: The mind as matter at Wellcome Collection, 29 March-17 June 2012.

Artist Talk: Susan Aldworth will discuss her recent and future projects at 7pm on Thursday 22 March at GV Art. Places are free but RSVP essential via info@gvart.co.uk

Artists: Susan Aldworth, Andrew Carnie, Annie Cattrell, Katharine Dowson, Rachel Gadsden, David Marron, Dan Peyton, Helen Pynor and Nina Sellars.

GV Art is a contemporary art gallery which aims to explore and acknowledge the inter-relationship between art and science, and how the areas cross over and inform one another. The gallery produces exhibitions and events that create a dialogue focused on how modern man interprets and understands the advances in both areas and how an overlap in the technological and the creative, the medical and the historical are paving the way for new aesthetic sensibilities to develop.

“GV Art is fast becoming a central venue for the meeting of art and science.” Philip Ball, Chemistry

Through April 14, 2012
GV Art Gallery
49 Chiltern Street, Marylebone, London W1U 6LY

Spencer Finch, Installation view of Painting Air, 2012

Painting Air: Spencer Finch is a major exhibition by Brooklyn-based artist Spencer Finch. In this two-part show, the museum debuts a large-scale installation by Finch, shown with more than 60 pieces—from ancient objects to late-20th-century art— selected by the artist from the Museum’s collection.

The work of Impressionist painter Claude Monet (French, 1840-1926) serves as the aesthetic touchstone for both parts of the exhibition, and even informed its title. Painting Air comes from a statement Monet made in 1895: “I want to paint the air… and that is nothing short of impossible.” Finch’s new installation, Painting Air (2012), created for the exhibition, seeks to capture the movement and reflection the artist observed in a recent visit to Monet’s water garden in Giverny. For both Finch (RISD MFA ’89) and Monet, the pond at Giverny served as a laboratory in which they merge the experience of nature with the art-making process. Finch evokes his experience by suspending 100 transparent and highly reflective glass panels in the middle of an expansive, 150-linear-foot mural comprised of 35 colors. Light and color shift across the surfaces of the gently swaying panels, reflecting the painting and the movements of visitors, and transforming viewers’ perspectives from one moment to the next.

“As abstract and ephemeral as some of Finch’s projects appear to be, they are based in fact and scientific phenomena. He acutely observes natural occurrences, which he then filters through memory as well as literary, artistic, and scientific accounts. The results are often poetic, as he tries to make visible what cannot easily be seen,” says Judith Tannenbaum, Richard Brown Baker Curator of Contemporary Art.

Through July 29, 2012
THE MUSEUM OF ART RHODE ISLAND SCHOOL OF DESIGN
Providence, RI

Iwasaki, Hideo “Cyanobacterial Bonsai Project” 2008 artificially grown cyanobacterial species

This project considers the idea of the 4th state of water as a shift in perspective and a new way of thinking with this molecule being the ultimate reflection of our emerging global consciousness. This project is developed around the theme of water, understood not only through the multiplicity of its symbolical and metaphorical meanings but also as one of the life and energy sources which today demands a serious political and social discussion.

Artists & scientists: Karla Brunet (Brazil), Richard Clar & Dinis Afonso Ribeiro (USA / Portugal), Suzon Fuks (Australia), Shiho Fukuhara & Georg Tremmel (Japan / Austria), Dew Harrison (GB), Tomoko Hayashi (Japan), Takashi Ikegami (Japan), Hideo Iwasaki (Japan), Hu Jie Ming (China), Gil Kuno (Japan/USA), Linda Lai (China), Nobuho Nagasawa (Japan/USA), Mizuko Oka & Yasuhiro Hashimoto (Japan), João Vasco Paiva (Portugal/China), Ellen Pau (China), Silvia Rigon (Italy/USA), Mana Salehi (Iran/Spain), Claudia Schmacke (Germany), Alicia Vela (Spain), Pinar Yoldas (Turkey/USA), Jiang Zhi (China)

This exhibition is curated by Victoria Vesna. Ms. Vesna is known as a cutting-edge media artist, committed to experimental and innovative practices which seek for the enlargement of the boundaries of art through the dialogue with science and advanced technologies. She actively collaborates with nanoscience pioneer James Gimzewski, with whom she also established Art & Science Centre within UCLA campus in LA.

In the occasion of the exhibition a web platform will be launched with contributions by Linda Weintraub (USA), Esther Moñivas (Spain), Ryszard W. Kluszczynski (Poland), Karla Brunet (Brazil), Phillip Ball (GB) as well as artists and activists working around the theme of water in the multitude of its potential meanings and applications. An extensive meta-interface Water Bodies website is designed by Claudia Jacques.

A symposium will be held on 22nd of March – World Water Day – at the California NanoSystems Institute, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA

The exhibition runs: March 2 – April 29, 2012
Opening: 2nd of March 2012 at 7 PM
Centre of Contemporary Art
Torun, Poland