One of the most interesting documentaries I have ever seen about Gabriel Orozco (Season 2) - and which was a total revelation into his work - is the Mexican production directed by Juan Carlos Martin in 2002. Excellent soundtrack and music too, by Manuel Rocha Iturbide and the trance band Tosca Tango. I first saw it at INPUT’s - International Public TV - 2003 edition in Aarhus, Denmark, when it was screened in a special session entitled “Artsy Fartsy?” dedicated to art documentaries. The documentary follows Orozco around the world while working on different projects and art pieces and allows for a tremendously personal insight into the artist’s thoughts, creative process, personality, and day-to-day life. We meet his friends, we see him having a beer and taking a nap in a hammock by a Mexican beach, we mingle in openings with him and see how he picks up trash from New York streets for his readymade installations. Orozco talks to us (to the camera) and we wonder to what point his artistic vision influenced the filmmaker in his way of shaping the 82′ piece that keeps us stuck to the screen all along. It was specially interesting to discuss with the filmmaker the larger role of audiovisual production when tackling the theme of art or specific artist’s biographies. Fascinating questions about captivating audiences through sometimes intellectually challenging art arose in discussions with J. C. Martin and the other film directors during the session, as well as the format and shape art documentaries end up taking depending on the creative impulses and dictates of the artists themselves. Definitely worth looking into…
From April 19 through June 22, to mark the release of Codex Spero: Nancy Spero Selected Writings and Interviews 1950-2008 compiled by curator Roel Arkesteijn, de Appel in Amsterdam is hosting a solo exhibition by the Season 4 artist.
At once an ‘artistic testament’ and ‘radical manifest,’ the monograph contains a selection of artist’s texts, personal statements, notes and interviews. The exhibition component, Spero Speaks, includes exemplary works from different phases of Nancy Spero’s distinguished career as artist, activist, feminist and mentor.
Codex Spero: Nancy Spero Selected Writings and Interviews 1950-2008 is published by de Appel in collaboration with Roma Publications. Since 1975, de Appel has functioned as a site for the research and presentation of contemporary visual art through exhibitions, publications and discursive events. De Appel also functions as a platform for performances by visual artists, choreographers and theatre makers.
Last week, the Wiels Centre for Contemporary Art opened the first retrospective exhibition in Belgium of works by Art21 artist Mike Kelley (Season 1). On view through July 27, 2008, Mike Kelley: Educational Complex Onwards, 1995-2008, is conceived as a history in which every work forms a chapter in the artist’s career. According to Nicolas Trembley, writing for artforum.com, the exhibition “borrows its title from one of Kelley’s more famous works: a large-scale model, first shown at Metro Pictures in 1995, that represents the various schools the artist has attended.”
The Wiels Centre, which opened to the public in May 2007, is positioned as “neither a museum, nor a Kunsthalle or a centre for the fine arts, but an institution which articulates a set of complementary functions (exhibition, production and education).” Mike Kelley fills three floors of Wiels–a former brewey and an architectural landmark in the Brussels landscape. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue that includes texts by Diedrich Diederichsen, Anthony Vidler, Howard Singerman, Mike Kelley, and Wiels curator Anne Pontégnie. On April 30, Pontégnie will give a guided tour of the exhibition. Other public programs include I Love Mike, a series of creative workshops for children ages 6-12 years old that will explore themes and materials in Kelley’s work.