Pietrusko, with Stewart Smith and Bernd Lintermann, created “trans_actions The Accelerated Art World 1989–2011,”
Pietrusko, with Stewart Smith and Bernd Lintermann, created “trans_actions The Accelerated Art World 1989–2011,”
Chinese artists Miao Xiaochun and Zhou Tiehai have been involved in a group exhibition entitled "Nothing to declare? – World maps of art since 89" at the Akademie Der Kunste in Berlin, Feb. 1 through March 24. The show documents the new era of global art biennales which has challenged the centrality of Western art and the established concepts of artistic practice and aesthetic positions.
The heart of this exhibition is a panorama room as a media installation, which illustrates the passage of time and the geographical expansion of the global practice of art using a wide range of data. In so doing, a development becomes recognizable, which is no longer to be interpreted only as pure art history, but rather requiring multiple forms of re-narration – geopolitical, social, economic and cultural. The creation of a new critical practice in the arts also corresponds to these structural changes. Western Modernism’s universal claim to validity has become untenable. This is illustrated in an exemplary manner by the contributions of contemporary art selected.
The research project Global Art and the Museum (GAM) at the ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie (Centre for Art and Media) in Karlsruhe has dedicated itself to this theme since 2006. An initial interim review was presented in the exhibition The Global Contemporary at the ZKM. This project is now continued in cooperation with the Academy. It places Berlin, in particular, as an art centre within the context of a development that begins in 1989.
The Last Judgment in Cyberspace – Where Will I Go, 2006, 3-D computer animation, 7:15 min.
Miao Xiaochun
*1964 in Wuxi, Jiangsu (China), lives and works in Beijing (China)
The Last Judgment in Cyberspace – Where Will I Go?, 2006, 3-D computer animation, 7:15 min.The video work of Miao Xiaochun followed his first three-dimensionally constructed work, The Last Judgment in Cyberspace (2006), a virtual reconstruction of Michelangelo’s High Renaissance fresco The Last Judgment (1533–1541). Miao created a new version by transposing the scenic elements of the original painting into cyberspace and substituting the four hundred male and female figures with a virtual clone depicting himself.
Will/We Must, 1996, 35-mm film, transferred to DVD, BW, silent, 9:17 min.
Zhou Tiehai
*1966 in Shanghai (China), lives and works in Shanghai
Will/We Must, 1996, 35-mm film, transferred to DVD, B/W, silent, 9:17 min.In Zhou Tiehai’s video Will/We Must, the episodes act like narratives from a bygone era, which we now look back on with ironic detachment or nostalgia. The scenes themselves, however, are precise observations of the contemporary art system: when Zhou Tiehai stages the art scene as a military crisis or puts it into a melodramatic one-liner, he finds pertinent allegories for art and life between strategy and daily routine.
About the exhibition
Nothing to declare? World maps of art since 89A project developed by ZKM | Karlsruhe and the Akademie der Künste, Berlin.
Exhibition curators: Andrea Buddensieg, Peter Weibel, Johannes Odenthal and Hans Belting (advisor)
Duration: 1st February - 24th March 2013, Tuesdays to Sundays 11 am - 7 pm
Entrance: €6/4, up to 18 years of age and on the 1st Sunday of the month entrance free of charge
Address: Akademie der Künste, Pariser Platz 4, 10117 Berlin
S-Bahn: Brandenburger Tor, Bus TXL ticket@adk.de 030 200 57-1000
The exhibition "Nothing to declare?" is supported by the Hauptstadtkulturfonds (HKF) Berlin (Capital City Culture Fund Berlin).
The Akademie der Künste is supported by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.
Courtesy of the artists and The Akademie der Künste, for further information please visit www.adk.de.
