Do not miss the opportunity to hear the curators of Magasin 3 in conversation with a number of the participating artists in this fall’s great exhibition To be continued…

Moderator is Daniel Birnbaum, head of the Städelschule Academy of Art in Frankfurt and associate curator at Magasin 3.

Participants: Katarina Grosse, Fabrice Gygi, Matti Kallioinen, Matts Leiderstam, Ernesto Neto, Lars Nilsson, Nahum Tevet, Amy Baker Sandback, Sarit Shapira, samt David Neuman, Richard Julin och Tessa Praun.

Topics: reflections on processes, productions, collecting, etc.

In conjunction with the opening of Pipilotti Rist’s exhibition Gravity, be my friend a public conversation was held between the artist and the exhibition’s curator Richard Julin. During the talk Pipilotti Rist showed numerous images giving hands-on information and new insights into her artistic oeuvre. Reflections and comments from various production processes and art projects were also shared.

In the café the guests were served a bowl of green olives as a part of the art work Café de l’Olivier by the artist Jean-Luc Vilmouth. The work was installed in the café in conjunction with the exhibition Fleeing away from what bothers you most – a group exhibition with artists working in the Middle Eastern context.

In the course of the evening two films were presented in relation to the exhibition. The first was the documentary The Inner Tour, 2001 by Ra’anan Alexandrowicz. The film follows a group of Palestinians in a chartered bus during a three-day tour across Israel. This is their only chance to visit sites where their families once lived. The second film Knowledge is the Beginning, 2006 by Paul Smaczny, is a film about the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra initiated by the conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim together with the late academic Edward Said. The young musicians who play in the orchestra are from the Middle Eastern region, the aim is to promote understanding, patience and the curiosity to listen to the narrative of the other.

Dialogue with image traditions. John Currin – Jake & Dinos Chapman

Lecture by Karin Sidén, Ph. D., curator Nationalmuseum, Stockholm.The lecture used as a starting point the etchings from the series Disasters of War by the Chapman brothers which were on view together with works by John Currin at Magasin 3. Jake & Dinos Chapman refer to Goya’s work with the same title Los Desastres de la Guerra by adding to the original’s subject matter as well as mixing images of watchtowers, barbed wire and chimneys with elements of childish humour. As a curator at Nationalmuseum Karin Sidén is interested in combining classic and contemporary art and some of her previous exhibitions at Nationalmuseum include From El Greco to Dalì. Dialogue with Spanish painting (2003) and The Body. Art and Science (2005).

In collaboration with Iaspis a seminar was arranged on the topic of collections: In many public art institutions traditional core activities have been disregarded for some time. This even applies to collections, which in many cases have landed in the shadow of temporary exhibitions. Some of the questions posed were: What is the function of collections in present-day museums? Can they attract the public, in which case how? Have private collections now taken over some of the classic role of museums elsewhere in Europe as well? How does this affect how collections are assembled?

Participants: Charles Esche, Director Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; David Neuman, Director Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall. Moderator Maria Lind, Director Iaspis

Paul Chan talks to curator Daniel Birnbaum about the exhibition at Magasin 3, the upcoming presentation at Portikus and other future projects. The talk was held in conjunction with the opening of the exhibition.

 

For Kimsooja’s exhibition Dr. Uta Lauer, professor of East Asian Art History at the Stockholm University, held a lecture with the title Hidden Meaning – Symbolism in Traditional Korean Culture.

A film about Henry Darger by Jessica Yu: In the Realms of the Unreal, 2004 (83 min). The film was introduced in relation to Paul Chan’s work Happiness (Finally) After 35,000 Years of Civilization (After Henry Darger and Charles Fourier), 2000-2003, included in the exhibition at Magasin 3.

Paul Chan’s video portrait (17 mins) of Lynne Stewart, the American civil rights attorney.

Kimsooja’s most recent site-specific projects To Breathe – A Mirror Woman at Palacio de Cristal in Madrid (April – July 2006) and To Breathe/Respirare at Teatro La Fenice in Venice (January 2006).