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Paolo Chiasera, The Trilogy Untitled, 2006, Lambda print, 125 x 163 cm. |
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Paolo Chiasera, Spazierstock from Condensed Heidegger's Hut, 2009, sawdust, glue, spray color, 3,7 x 93 x 18,5 cm. |
Paolo Chiasera, Heidegger’s walk 1, 2009, ink and crayon on paper, 60 x 80 cm.
Paolo Chiasera, still from The Trilogy Vincent, DVD, PAL 16/9, color, sound, 00: 15: 26.
Paolo Chiasera, still from The Trilogy Pieter, 2006, DVD, PAL, color, sound, 00: 08: 48. |
S.M.A.K. The young Italian artist Paolo Chiasera (1978, Bologna, Italy) is fascinated by historical icons, myths and cultural symbols. He reflects on the various layers of meaning that lie concealed in our contemporary culture. From cinema, literature, philosophy and music to art history and politics. The artist isolates extracts from all these and uses them as pawns in a new narrative that is founded on the "collective memory," like bricks on the ruins of forgotten thoughts. In concrete terms, Chiasera’s work is not limited to one particular medium. Painting and drawing, videos, installation, sculpture and performance, they are all available for use in a narrative tangle that is presented to the viewer bit by bit as an ongoing process. In the exhibition Ain’t No Grave Gonna Hold My Body Down, the S.M.A.K. is focusing on a number of artistic processes that have developed in Paolo Chiasera’s oeuvre in the last few years. In The Trilogy (2006-10), Chiasera enters into dialogue with three well-known artists from the Low Countries: Cornelius Escher (1898-1972), Vincent Van Gogh (1853-90) and Peter Brueghel the Elder (1520-69). The Trilogy is a cluster of works — sculptures, videos and gouache drawings — that he has been working on systematically since 2006. In this complex project, Chiasera focuses primarily on a study of himself as an artist. He undermines the myth of the artist as ubiquitous and supreme by using great masters from art history as pawns in a new game. He calls them by their first names and moves them to a contemporary context. Using rubber masks, Chiasera gets under the skin of these three great masters so as to be able to manipulate and reformulate their stories. He creates his own versions of the existing myths centred on Vincent, Peter and Cornelius, concentrating on their artistic “weaknesses”, their “failures” and their “obsessions”. Vincent’s life, for example, is rewritten and several iconic elements — the Yellow House in Arles, the ear he cut off, and the black crow — are given a new meaning. The Van Gogh that Chiasera creates is no longer convinced that madness is the basis of the true artistic identity. The S.M.A.K. is bringing this trilogy to an end with a video —The Trilogy Archive— in which the whole project is made “clearly” accessible. In this exhibition, a narrow tunnel construction is installed in three connected rooms and at the end is a monitor showing the video document. The walls of the tunnel are stretched with cloth like a painter’s canvas and painted with black monochrome oil paint. The fresh and generously applied paint has an obtrusive smell. The last subjects Van Gogh captured on canvas before his death, and this one whistles Mozart’s •Requiem• (also his final artistic work), which gives the whole thing a theatrical and funereal atmosphere. Halfway through the exhibition period the tunnel will be dismantled and the material – including the documentary – will be put in a heap and wrapped in the black-painted canvas. This package will be left behind in the exhibition as a “mental” remnant of The Trilogy project. In another work, Chiasera examines the theories of the German philosopher Martin Heidegger regarding “time” and “being”, and this resulted in, among other things, the video Condensed Heidegger’s Hut (2009). Using wood and cardboard, he reconstructed the hut that provided the peace in which the philosopher could write some of his major works. The video is like a tribute to the great man, until the moment when der Hütte goes up in flames (or so it is suggested) and the ash that remains is used to create a monochrome painting and a walking stick. Each derivative object generates new, supplementary meanings so that Heidegger’s story is contextualised much more broadly and is reinterpreted by Chiasera in a highly individual way. The exhibition at the S.M.A.K. is entitled Ain’t No Grave Gonna Hold My Body Down, a line from a gospel song. Chiasera’s intention with this clear reference to Christ’s resurrection is in the first place to underline a number of recurring elements in his oeuvre. Construction and destruction, the importance of the myth, the hero, but above all the creation of physical remains of meanings imagined lost.
Paolo Chiasera, still from The Trilogy, 2006, DVD, PAL, color, sound. |
Paolo Chiasera, The Trilogy Vincent, Cornelius, Pieter, 2006, Vincent : wood latex, oil, hair, bricks, paint, 120 x 45 x 45 cm, Cornelius : wood, latex, oil, hair, 120 x 45 x 45 cm, Pieter : wood, laterx, hair, canvas, oil, 120 x 45 x 45 cm. |
Dennis Oppenheim, Battered Tears, 1994, |
Mark Manders, Momentenmachine (Fragment uit Zelfportrat al gebouw), 1991.
Honoré d'O, Draaiboek voor de Schatbewaarder, 1996.
Mariusz Kruk, zonder titel, Collectie S.M.A.K. |
S.M.A.K. S.M.A.K.’s collection contains more than 1800 works and covers a wide range of developments in international art history from 1945 to the present day. "Inside Installations" brings 10 installations from the collection face to face with one another and with the space in which they are located. The exhibition immerses you in the multifaceted world of installation art and at the same time explains the questions and difficulties involved in archiving these sometimes quite complex artworks and making them accessible. A look behind the scenes Documentation room Installation art? A European research project With work by, among others: Leo Copers, Honoré d’O, Noritoshi Hirakawa, Mariusz Kruk, Mark Manders, Dennis Oppenheim, Jason Rhoades, ManfreDu Schu, Andreas Slominski, Paul Thek, Joëlle Tuerlinckx, and Wolf Vostell. |
Jason Rhoades, PIG (Piece in Ghent), Fragment, 1994. |
Julius von Bismarck, fulgurator. |
Pierre-Laurent Cassiere, Schizo.
Pierre-Laurent Cassiere, Schizo.
Roberta Gigante
Roberta Gigante
Christophe Bruno, hb2 © Manon Kahle. |
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SMAK The S.M.A.K. (Museum of Contemporary Art) and the Vooruit Arts Centre are joining forces to overrun Ghent. •Electrified 02 – Hacking Public Space• focuses on artists whose field of action is the public space. Unbounded and virtually unregulated, they hack into the town with unannounced interventions. Traces of this seep into the museum, where new and existing works are brought face to face with flashbacks from the 1970s and 1990s. Electrified is the name under which the S.M.A.K. and the Vooruit mount this biennial project1. This second edition is taking up a decisive position on the crossroads of several directions in the visual arts. At the same time it will expose the friction between the areas where the two institutions operate: the S.M.A.K. in contemporary art and the Vooruit in media art, sound and performance art. In the quest for a shared ‘mentality’ in these different dynamics, the public space is taken as a common thread. In this case, the term ‘public space’ is all-embracing, without losing sight of the actual distinction between real and virtual public space. In addition to probing the boundaries between the different fields of art and the way artists currently enter the public space, Electrified 02 is also a study of changing trends that have kept the notion of public space in vogue for the last 30 years. In this sense, the project presents itself as a complementary triptych: sixteen artists, who operate internationally, with extremely varied backgrounds, will be showing new and existing work in the museum. More than half of them will also be undertaking actions in the town. These actions will be documented and gradually inserted into the exhibition. There is a supplementary Flashback section in which a framework for the project is provided by significant points in the quite recent history of ‘hacking public space’. This will involve the digital display of the work of about thirty artists who can count pioneering actions in the public space among their achievements. From the point of view of the plastic arts, a number of interventions from the 1970s and 1990s will be selected. They are closely related to, and are the predecessors of, later ephemeral public actions which were also recorded in non-artistic sectors (perhaps there more than elsewhere) as Flashmob actions. The so-called Flashmob activist entered the public space (usually unannounced) and hacked into it with temporary, interactive artistic actions. The intention was in the first place to arouse an alienating effect in the spectator in the hope this would prompt him to engage in socially-critical reflection. This sort of rite-like development was also of some importance in media art. We can cite a number of striking actions from the mid-1990s that illustrate the virtual shift in and broadening of the notion of public space. In recent decades this public domain has expanded infinitely with the rise and accessibility of the internet. In this sense, the term hacking refers to the guerrilla-like nature of some actions on the internet and at the same time to the traditional, though equally clandestine squatting in the real public space. The furniture-maker, lock specialist and artist Lucas Murgida probes the boundaries between public and private space. In concrete terms, he examines the way we rigidly mark off our private territory and the key role that … keys play in this. Using his self-designed Image Fulgurator. Julius von Bismarck smuggles symbols into other people’s snapshots — visual material which we are usually certain is unique, private and self-determined. Christophe Bruno is fascinated by the changing role of language on the internet. At the opening of Electrified 02 he presents Human Browser, a human being embodies the World Wide Web. An actor wearing headphones will simultaneously recite randomly selected Google information. Miet Warlop is making a new episode in the Play the Life series, where Ghent is the setting for a playful action to spice up the daily routine. Last summer, the sound artist Pierre-Laurent Cassière was a guest at Summercamp Electrified, and at Electrified 02 he will be introducing a new creation: the Trans-Sphere, an instrument for urban soundscape bending. In performances in public space, the sculptor Carlos Rodriguez-Méndez uses his own body as a sketch for the creation of static museum sculptures. The video artist Javier Núñez Gasco hacks unnoticed into such sensation-loving commercialised media as television. Amilcar Packer sees art as dry and conceptual, but uses it to break into the public space with surprising aggression. Ivan MoudovIvan sells an ordinary conjuring trick to passers-by for extortionate sums in the hope of introducing a parallel black economy into the urban fabric. Both the Flashback section and the urban interventions are presented in visual form in the S.M.A.K. and the Vooruit. The exhibition itself is in the museum. A Salon evening is also planned in the Vooruit, with talks by Alessandro Ludovico and others. He is the publisher of Neural, magazine for hacktivism and also guest curator of the historical section. |
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Pierre-Laurent Cassiere, schizo2 (self-portrait). |
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Ed Templeton, Kids Kiss, Encinitas California, 1996, from Teen Kissers. |
Ed Templeton, Portrait of Mike Mills, 2008, Acrylic on Panel.
Ed Templeton, Cemetery Of Reason, 2008, Acrylic on Wood.
Ed Templeton, Portrait of Deanna (Books) 2008, Acrylic on canvas, 4x4'.
Deanna, London, Gelatin Silver Print with artwork, Gelatin Silver Print with painting. |
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SMAK The American painter, drawing artist and photographer Ed Templeton (°1972) tells the story of his life, a story that also makes comments on the society in which he lives. Templeton presents his images free from hierarchy, focusing on the world of punk and skateboarding, friends, family, himself and his wife… From intimately to far outside, he effortlessly couples autobiographical fragments with a universal imagery. The result is an exhibition which presents itself as ‘a story’, fed and corroborated by photographs, paintings and sketches that roam through the spaces, free from hierarchy. Templeton (born July 28, 1972 in Orange County, California) is a professional skateboarder who lives in Huntington Beach, California. Ed started skateboarding in 1985 in his hometown of Huntington Beach, California, with his friend Jason Lee. He turned pro for New Deal Skateboards in 1990. He left New Deal in 1992 to start the short-lived company "TV" with Mike Vallely. In 1993, Ed founded Toy Machine skateboards. Outside of skateboarding, Ed is an artist and photographer. He began by painting the graphics for his skateboard company, TV and later for Toy Machine. In 2000, Ed's book of photography Teenage Smokers placed first in the Search For Art competition in Italy, winning $50,000. In the fall of 2001, Ed's artwork was featured in Juxtapoz magazine and in 2002 he produced an art exhibition, The Essentiel Disturbance, in Palais de Tokyo (Paris) with the catalogue, The Golden Age of Neglect, published by Drago. Ed Templeton is a featured artist of Beautiful Losers, a touring art exhibit, collected art book and feature documentary film, which includes the work of various contemporary artists. Much of the art in Beautiful Losers is about skateboarding and other urban themes. Templeton and some members of the Toy Machine team skated on ramps (and even a car) setup at the base of the Cincinnati Contemporary Art Center in the summer of 2003 for the temporary showcase of Beautiful Losers. Ed Templeton is often interviewed about his work and career and is one of the subjects of the Beautiful Losers film. In 2008, after 11 years of selection and research, Ed Templeton published Deformer (also the title of a 1996 documentary film about Templeton directed by Mike Mills, the summary of his personality as an artist in which he speaks of his human and aesthetic growth in the "incubator of suburban outskirts" Orange County, California. He is also a co-editor of the arts magazine, ANP Quarterly, started in 2005.
Ed Templeton, The duality of femininity, 2009, Acrylic on MDF, 205 x 40 x 89cm.
Ed Templeton, Josh has a run-in with the police, St. Petersburg (Russia), 2007, gelatin silver print with text, 60 x 45cm.
Ed Templeton, Grant, Huntington Beach, 2009. |
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Ed Templeton, Brian, Dortmund, 1999, C-print. |
