December 2013–January 2014
INTERVIEW
We The People: Danh Vo interviewed by Jennifer Thatcher
Vietnam-born Danish artist Danh Vo is known for translating found or manufactured objects into new critical contexts, from an entire Vietnamese church installed at the 55th Venice Biennale to the scattered sections of his life-size replica of the Statue of Liberty. Here, he discusses how to challenge museums, reclaim cultural heritage and why stupid reactions can be productive.
FEATURE
All Clear: Paul O’Kane sees through the rhetoric of transparency
Recent claims that transparency—particularly the kind heralded by online technologies—is a panacea for democracy veil the fact that, in terms of power relations, these technologies often function more like the one-way mirrors of interrogation rooms. Perhaps artists ought to look back to the radical repurposing of mainstream culture in the tumultuous 1970s for inspiration as to how to reveal the unseen.
FEATURE
Scream and Scream Again: Francis Frascina on MoMA’s recent reappraisal of Munch’s famous painting
The venerable museum’s canonical story of Modernism was tweaked in 2012 when a version of Edvard Munch’s The Scream was triumphantly acquired by one of MoMA’s trustees and installed at the opening of its modernist galleries. But a careful reading of this curatorial strongarming suggests less a reappraisal of Munch than an appropriation of victimhood in the service of power.
EDITORIAL
The Ratings Game
When Arts Council England responded to accusations of a London bias, it was instructive to see the funding body, steered by its new chair former TV producer and Big Brother advocate Peter Bazalgette, attempting to shift the discussion away from population-based funding and towards attendance. Is this indicative of a new version of the old bums-on-seats approach at ACE for measuring success?
ARTNOTES
London hoovers up an astonishingly disproportionate amount of national arts funding, it is claimed—but the figures are not entirely representative; the Southbank Centre is challenged over its sponsorship from Shell; artists are happy, a study proves; Adrian Piper pulls her work from a show of African-American artists; the latest news on galleries, events, appointments, prizes and more.
OBITUARIES
Anthony Caro 1924–2013
Ian White 1971–2013
EXHIBITIONS
Salon of Fear Kunsthalle Wein, Vienna – Saim Demircan
Lyon Biennale: Meanwhile … Suddenly and Then various venues, Lyon – Laura McLean-Ferris
artSOUTH: Collaborations various venues, Hampshire, Dorset, Isle of Wight – Paul Carey-Kent
Asco: No Movies • Geoffrey Farmer: Let’s Make the Water Turn Black Nottingham Contemporary – Martin Holman
Kara Walker Camden Arts Centre, London – Morgan Quaintance
Victor Burgin: A Sense of Place Ambika P3, London • Victor Burgin: On Paper Richard Saltoun, London – Maria Walsh
London Round-up Sadie Coles HQ • Skarstedt • The Drawing Room • Arcade • Hauser & Wirth • Herald St – Mark Prince
Ireland Round-up The Model • IMMA • Void • City Factory Gallery – Joanne Laws
Amsterdam Round-up Stedelijk Museum • Rijksmuseum • Huis Marseille – Chris Clarke
Bloomberg New Contemporaries Spike Island, Bristol – David Trigg
ARTISTS’ BOOKS
Ruth Ewan: How to Make Archway Tower Disappear
Stephen Hodge: The Master Plan
Jennifer Thatcher on site-specific artists’ books.
The Nabokov Paper
David Briers sits a fictional exam.
BOOKS
Round-up: Flat is a Feminist Issue
David Barrett gathers some winter reading.
ART AND ECOLOGY
Alternative Globalisation
Maja and Reuben Fowkes on global eco activism.
CONFERENCE / PERFORMANCE
Living World – Animism in the 21st Century
Giulia Smith gets a little unalienated.
LETTER FROM JAPAN
Aftermath
Cherry Smyth on the Aichi Triennale.
EVENTS
London Art Calendar
Art Monthly’s London event calendar can also be viewed online.
EXHIBITION
Exhibition listings
Art Monthly’s exhibition listings can also be viewed online.
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