Accident Book is an intervention in eight Accident and Emergency wards across London and Cambridge. The book tells the story of 33 accidents that befell the writer over a period of 42 years.
From June 2009 onwards, people waiting for treatment, prognoses or friends, began to discover books lying amongst the copies of old magazines in these Accident and Emergency wards. The 500 copies of Accident Book distributed through these eight hospitals are each individually numbered and the finders of these books are encouraged to take them home but also to register them here.
The school canteen of Cals College in the Dutch town of IJsselstein was connected live, at varying times each day, with the announcement headquarters of Amsterdam Airport, Schiphol. This audio art-work was provoked by the link between noise pollution around Schiphol airport and the Lopik broadcasting mast, which causes IJsselstein particular nuisance.
Macuga was commisioned to make new work by the Whitechapel Gallery in London, where Picasso’s ‘Guernica’ had once been exhibited. Inspired by this historic fact, Macuga made a replica of the Guernica tapestry that Nelson Rockefeller commisioned in 1955. Some thirty years later this was lent to the United Nations Headquarters in New York where it has hung ever since outside the Security Council. Offered as a deterrent to war, in 2003 the tapestry was covered by a blue curtain in front of which Colin Powell delivered his fateful speech on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
Macuga’s installation ‘The nature of the beast’ in the Whitechapel Gallery consisted of the Guernica’s replica, as well as a round meeting table (a symbol of democracy) in front of it. The room had been designed to accommodate meetings, discussions and debates around the central table, with Guernica once again as a backdrop. Groups were invited to organise these events free of charge during opening hours.
Tercerunquinto, ‘Escultura publica en la periferia urbana de Monterrey’ (2006)
Tercerunquinto (meaning in English something like ‘a third of a fifth’) is the collective project of Mexican artists Julio Castro Carreón, Gabriel Cázares Salas and Rolando Flores Tovar. Formed in 1996, the collective is responsible for dozens of actions designed, in their words, ‘to question the boundaries between private and public space, examining the organized frontiers around the constitution of such definitions’.
‘Escultura publica en la periferia urbana de Monterrey’ is a public sculpture on the periphery of the city of Monterrey. It consisted of a concrete foundation that was free to use by the people of Monterrey. Apart from being used as a platform for a political rally, it was transformed among others into a marketplace, a hangout, until eventually becoming claimed by a man who built his house on it. The house remains there to this day.
Last Friday @ Galerie Gallery was the opening of Willem Claassen’s show! Here are some very bad pictures of the evening, better pictures will follow on the website of Galerie Gallery!
Nomiya Restaurant is a temporary building situated on the roof of the Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France near the Eiffel Tower. It was designed and built with the artistic concept of taking in the stunning views of the city of Paris by Laurent Grasso with the collaboration of the architect Pascal Grasso. The structure is comprised of a glass “cabin” and perforated metal screening.
The Japanese (but New York resident) artist Momoyo Torimitsu built a robot that resembles a businessman. It can crawl the streets of whichever city he places it. Video:
Now, the Japanese have put quite some more time and effort into building weird animatronics/robotics. Click on Read More to see a few more examples.
The day of the opening coincided with the marathon of Bienne. Gianni Motti moved the finishing line, adding an extra three meters to the distance of the race.
Christoph Schlingensief
Christoph Schlingensief, ‘The last supper’
‘Little shrine’
The trailer of a documentary on Schlingensief’s action ‘Auslaender raus!’
Christoph Schlingensief died last Saturday, the 21st of August, at the age of 49.
Watch the documentary “Deutschland, deine Kuenstler: Christoph Schlingensief” below.
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