Briefing
Skulptur Projekte Münster artist list announced; Andrea Rosen to close her New York gallery; increasing numbers call for the closure of LD50
Skulptur Projekte Münster artist list announced; Andrea Rosen to close her New York gallery; increasing numbers call for the closure of LD50
- The full artist list has been released for the fifth edition of Skulptur Projekte Münster, which this year will be curated by Kasper König – in collaboration with Britta Peters and Marianne Wagner – and will take place between 10 June and 1 October. Amongst those included on the 35-strong list are Nairy Baghramian, Michael Dean, Pierre Huyghe, Emeka Ogboh, Mika Rottenberg, Thomas Schütte, Hito Steyerl, and Oscar Tuazon. In a statement, Skulptur Projekte Münster said: ‘We are as convinced as ever that art in the urban realm is capable of activating historical, architectural, social, political, and aesthetic contexts. We see its great potential not in the occupation, but rather in the creation, of spaces.’ For the full list, click here.
- In a lengthy and unexpected email, Andrea Rosen has announced that she will be closing her New York gallery space and sharing the duties of representing the estate of Felix Gonzalez-Torres with David Zwirner. The email read: ‘I have come to realize that in order for me to be fearlessly open and responsive to our times and the future, requires mobility, flexibility and the willingness to change, and consequently, I have decided to shift my life, and the focus of the gallery, in a significant way. While the gallery will continue to exist, with selective activities, like the representation of Felix Gonzalez-Torres, I will no longer have a typical permanent public space and therefore no longer represent living artists.’ On this last point, Rosen added: ‘Of course anyone who knows me will know that this shift could not be an easy decision as the representation of living artists has been my consuming focus and life-blood for the last 27 years.’
- An increasing number of artists, writers and campaigners are calling for the closure of LD50 in Dalston, East London, following accusations that the gallery has been providing a platform for alt-right figures promoting ‘hate speech not free speech’. Guests at LD50’s ‘Neoreaction’ conference last year included Peter Brimelow, Iben Thranholm, and Brett Stevens, a white supremacist whose writing was an inspiration for Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik, who in 2011 murdered 77 people around the city of Oslo. As Anny Shaw reports for The Art Newspaper, the website ‘Shut Down LD50 Gallery’ states that the gallery is ‘using the cover of the contemporary art scene and academia to legitimise the spread of materials [that have drawn on fascist traditions] and the establishment of a culture of hatred’. The gallery, which is run by Lucia Diego, recently published a response to the criticism of both Neoreaction and its wider programme, stating: ‘We feel that the exceptionally aggressive, militant and hyperbolic reaction this has provoked vindicates our suspicion that at some point, as a society, we have drifted into a cultural echo chamber. A position on the left has become the only permissible orientation for cultural practitioners and apparently any who dare eschew this constraint are now publicly vilified, delegitimated [sic] and intimidated with menaces.’
- After over three decades, the publishers of contemporary art magazine Parkett have announced that the next issue of the publication will be the last, citing ‘the radical change in reading behaviour brought about by our digital age.’ In an open letter, the Parkett co-founders and publishers – Jacqueline Burkhardt, Bice Curiger and Dieter von Graffenreid – thanked their readers for 33 years-worth of dedication, confirmed that all 99 volumes of the magazine are currently being digitized and will become accessible online very soon, and suggested that ‘expanded Parkett exhibitions in various museums will further explore the publication’s singular approach as a time capsule of the art of the last three decades.’
- Protestors marched on New York’s Museum of Modern Art last week, occupying the lobby and demanding that the institution remove Larry Fink from its board. Fink, CEO of Blackrock, a global investment management corporation, is also an advisor to President Donald Trump. In an interview with Steven Nelson at the 2017 College Art Association Conference on 17 February, artist Coco Fusco called for people to act, adding: ‘to advise this regime is to normalize White Supremacy.’ As Hrag Vartanian reports for HyperAllergic, Fusco also read a statement from Occupy Museums, which closes with the call: ‘Larry Fink of Blackrock Inc! MoMA, time to Dump Trump! Fink off the Board!’
- Glasgow-based artist Sarah Forrest has won the 2017 Margaret Tait Award. Forrest was selected from a shortlist that also included Jamie Crewe, Margaret Salmon and Kimberley O’Neill, and will receive a GBP$10,000 commission to create a new piece of work, and the opportunity to present the work at next year’s Glasgow Film Festival. In a statement on her victory, Forrest said: ‘I’m delighted to receive the Margaret Tait Award. Her work and approach as a filmmaker and writer has been influential for me, so to receive an award that celebrates her legacy is a humbling experience.’
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