...and all this time is so far away...

Okay. This is not an easy moment. All this attention is getting me nervous, and I feel like everything I write is being observed... After all, this has all along been about a private journey into the realm of some contemporary art.
So, just to make sure it is still a blog, let me tell you a story.
Once upon a time, I was an addict of skiing. I trained and I raced (without too much of a success) and I even got to spend some time with the Polish Ski Team. My first encounter with them was in a hotel in the French village of Les Deux Alpes. I entered the hotel room, and there they were, Poland's finest skiers. Most of them were concentrated on a Playstation game of Formula 1, with its volume set to maximum level. The rest of the young sportsmen were watching TV - it was a formula 1 race, and its noise was competing with the game. Everyone was completely mesmerized by the two screens. It took me at least a minute to realize there was someone else in the room, though. It was Andrzej Bachleda, by far Poland's best skier, who has lived most of his life in France, and whom I considered a strange guy - not very talkative, some sort of an odd case... In the midst of the overwhelming noise, the man was sitting on the bed, tucked into a corner, and reading Hemingway.
Well, this man has also come a long way since that moment. He has recently put out another album. Here is one song. (Besides the charming music, do appreciate the Polish mountains in the background).

Of Delicate Pride - Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada

The Wooster Collective published an interview with Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada. The answers to the following three questions are a brilliant introduction to his work. (My favorite, of course, is the third answer.)

Wooster: What other artists do you most admire?

I admire artists from different periods because of how they have impacted me at different times in my life. Leonardo da Vinci, Jean Giraud, Marcel Duchamp, John Heartfield, Ana Mendieta, Chris Burden, Barbara Kruger, Mark Pauline, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Joseph Beuys and Anselm Kiefer are each a little part of me as an artist. With my contemporaries I would have to say that Swoon, Blu, and Marc Jenkins have impressed me not only with what they say with what they create, but also because of who they are as people.

Wooster: How would you describe your art to someone who could not see it?

My art is usually found within the urban landscape. City textures are my favorite background for my work. I like to work with ephemeral materials. One of my directions is to create large charcoal portraits of anonymous people on inner city walls that fade away with the wind and rain.

Wooster: What other talent would most like to have?

If I had another lifetime to devote to something else I would probably be an archeologist.

There is one thing about these portraits from the Identity Series I find awe-inspiring. They are modest. They bring forward the anonymous faces in a way that inspires both empathy and awe. They put them forward, fighting the war with commercial works as well as any. And yet, they are not shining at us with attractive colors. Their truthfulness is more than honest. It is humble. And yet - proud. And one more crucial thing: these faces, they fade away with time. This rare combination of grandiosity and modesty is something truly impressive.

Which brings us to Rodriguez-Gerada's latest project, the one most of us came to know him for.
He is the author of a huge portrait of Barack Obama (although actually the work is still not finished). But I think this has received enough publicity already. Appropriately enough, the work will be called Expectations, and is yesterday's news even before it inaugurated. Which tells us as much about the reception of directly political art as about the work itself. (On the other hand, this expectation is also about preparing the desinchantment, isn't it?)

Two documentaries about Rodriguez-Gerada's work in Spain:

Getting Ready

Part of an installation by Urs Fischer.

(Slowly and gently coming back...)

Celebration

I am proud to inform you that this site has been named one of the Top 8 Art Blogs of 2008 by the great Murmurart! It has also been listed as one of 100 Blogs That Will Make You Smarter at Online Universities.com!
This demands celebration...
After the hangover, expect new posts.
Also a selection of the posts will hopefuly soon be featured at the website of the classy Art World Magazine.

Where is MySpace? Filippo Minelli's "Contraddictions"

Filippo Minelli, Contraddictions series (ongoing)
The ones I really like are the ones playing with the double meaning: DOUBLE LIFE, MYSPACE. But if they were left by themselves, I supposed I would have found them annoying. Too simple, too propagandesque.
Here, however, the artist creates a context, creating a whole network of worlds we know very well - from somewhere else.
And among those, the ones I really appreciate are the virtual worlds. YouTube written on an old wall in Phnom-Penh is great, because one of the things it says is: this is not virtual. This is here, it is a real place... And of course, as it is doing it, the contrast appears.
I only wish there were less photos, less brands. Otherwise, the entire set might seem a bit too vast, fleeing into the vagueness of the global companies.


(via)

Finishing off the Flesh Series

Found at Rebel:art among other (excellent) participants of the International Sticker Awards (to be announced on October 3) is this wonderful example of product sabotage, by Thomas Judisch. The sticker simply says "free sample". You can agree with the ideaology or not, but you have to admit it's ingenious to say the least.
This can also be a vengeance of the vegetarians after all the flesh-fuss that has been appearing on New Art.

Body of Flesh: Pinar Yolacan's portraits

Age is violence. It is violence as in: power, and it is violence as the inevitable overpowering.
The women on the pictures from the Perishables series (2004) by Pinar Yolacan wear this age in a way that brings about strong feelings. Disgust? Humiliation? But why? Why is wearing meat so shocking? We do get it - the meat is just a continuation of what we are, it is as sacred or as profane as we wish to see it. So why does it seem so intensly profane? Why is it revolting?
The women on the pictures don't seem embarrassed. To the contrary - they know who they are. And they know how deep is skin-deep. And possibly because of their incredibly stoic stance, we reach another point - of acceptance, of peace.

There is a wisdom in these wrinkles that seems unbearably right. And beyond the purity of light, may I add - there is also pain.

The exceptional thing is - this pain is distinguished. And if you think it's because the subjects were WASPs, see Pinar Yolacan's the Maria series (2007).


Here are women from the Bahia region in Brasil, which was colonized by the Portuguese. And here, the flesh changes its value: it is not about age any more, but rather, about distinction and pride, but also submission and humiliation, about the color of skin and the heaviness of the-object-that-thinks. Maria is the most common Portuguese name - and in Brasil nearly every woman has Maria as one of her names. It is also a reference to the Virgin Mary, a reference that here challenges our thinking about holiness. Look at this raw, dark flesh, and see the purity.

It seems to me Yolacan does not really have a statement that guides her work (interview with the artist here). Vanitas. Possibly. But I'd rather see her as a researcher - she investigates what the matter - the flesh - can tell her, where it can lead her. And this very intuitive, "non-rational" way of working is something I cherish. Because if you listen carefuly, your own sensitivity will embrace the matter in such a way that, once it is done, the work might speak the thousand words you never knew you had.