Briefing

The Kassel leg of documenta 14 opened to the press and professionals this week, and it opens to the public on Saturday. The show, held every five years, began in Athens in April this year, with the second chapter in Kassel running until 17 September 2017. For an overview of the Kassel programme, read our guide over here, and our editors’ initial impressions. Meanwhile in issue 188 of frieze, out now, Susanne von Falkenhausen asks: if art sees itself as facing a crisis of legitimation, can this account for claims to ‘authenticity’ being made in shows such as documenta 14?

The fifth edition of Skulptur Projekte Münster also opens this weekend, with site-specific works installed across its namesake German city. Artists for this year’s edition include Ei Arakawa, Jeremy Deller, Mika Rottenberg, and Nairy Baghramian. The show runs until 1 October 2017. In the latest frieze video, we report from the once-a-decade exhibition, which began in 1977. Our guide is artistic director Kasper König, who explores the changing meaning of sculpture in public space today.

The fifth edition of the Jerwood/FVU Awards has announced its winners: Maeve Brennan and Imran Perretta. The artists will both receive £20,000 to develop new moving-image works, to be screened in 2018 at Jerwood Space, London, under the curatorial theme of ‘Unintended Consequences’. London and Beirut-based Maeve Brennan’s proposal explores the role of wind turbines within the broader environment, while London-based Imran Perretta considers migration in an age of political crises, and the dehumanisation of refugees. The selection panel included artist Noor Afshan Mirza and curator George Vasey. Previous recipients have included Ed Atkins, Lawrence Lek and Marianna Simnett. ‘Maeve Brennan and Imran Perretta’s proposals felt rigorous, considered and prescient’, Vasey commented in a press statement. ‘Both these artists make serious art for serious times.’ You can read our assistant editor Harry Thorne’s take on Brennan’s film The Drift, reflecting on lives caught up in the conflict in Lebanon,over here.

Creative Time executive director Katie Hollander is stepping down. Hollander resigned after only 18 months in the top role – although she has spent 10 years altogether at the New York public art non-profit. During her time, Hollander has helped organize major public art projects including Kara Walker’s 'A Subtlety' at Brooklyn’s Domino Sugar Refinery, as well as the publishing partnership Creative Time Reports, which closed in March. The New York Times has the story. 

The directors of Ghost Ship arts space in Oakland, California, have been arrested and charged with 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter. The illegally converted warehouse was caught in a fatal fire last December, killing 36 people. Derick Almena and Max Harris were the subjects of a six month-long investigation – they ‘knowingly created a fire trap, with inadequate means of escape,’ district attorney Nancy O’Malley told the Los Angeles Times. If convicted, they face up to 39 years in prison.

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation has named Karole Vail as the new director of The Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, as well as director of the foundation for Italy. Vail, who begins this month, was previously a curator at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and organized last year’s ‘Moholy-Nagy: Future Present’ retrospective. Vail has been a member of the Guggenheim’s curatorial team since 1997, and is also the granddaughter of Peggy Guggenheim, from the collector’s first marriage.

Astha Butail has been announced as the next BMW Art Journey winner for her project 'In the Absence of Writing', which explores oral traditions. Butail will now travel to the UK, Iran, Israel and India for research. Butail was selected by an international jury that included Asia Art Archive co-founder Claire Hsu and M+ visual art curator Pauline J. Yao. The other shortlisted artists were Julian Charrière and Lin Ke. ‘In a digital age, when knowledge is fragmented, meaning is evanescent, and face-to-face contacts are fleeting, this project reconnects us to a slower world, where ideas were shared through deep and sustained personal interactions,’ the jury said in a joint statement.