we make money not art

Links for 2012-02-01 [del.icio.us]

2012-02-02T00:00:00-08:00

Waltz and all: Far right has ball in Vienna
The Viennese ball might have escaped with UNESCO's rap on the knuckles, had it not been for an initially unreported anti-Semitic tirade delivered from Strache's ballroom box to some 3,000 of his right wing guests last Friday, describing Austria's far-right as the "New Jews".
Forbidden island: New York's forgotten leper colony
Just 350 yards from the Bronx in New York lies North Brother Island - a 13-acre forbidden zone that was used as a quarantine centre for contagious diseases from 1885. It was the home of New York's only official leper colony and the last resting place of the notorious "Typhoid Mary".

Links for 2012-01-31 [del.icio.us]

2012-02-01T00:00:00-08:00

Israeli soldiers drive tractor over worker’s legs to stop Palestinians from building a house on their (occupied) lands
Going Backwards: Self-Guided Bullets Unveiled
Sandia National Labs has announced today that their engineers have invented a dart-like, self-guided bullet for small-caliber, smooth-bore firearms that could hit laser-designated targets at distances of more than a mile.
Press Freedom Index 2011-2012 - Reporters Without Borders
Within the European Union, the index reflects a continuation of the very marked distinction between countries such as Finland and Netherlands that have always had a good evaluation and countries such as Bulgaria (80th), Greece (70th) and Italy (61st) that fail to address the issue of their media freedom violations, above all because of a lack of political will.

The Meat Licence Proposal, interview with John O'Shea

2012-01-31T10:14:50Z

"People who are comfortable with eating meat, should be equally comfortable with killing animals." Because he is interested in the ethics and dilemmas of eating meat, John O'Shea is looking into schemes to achieve a more compassionate meat consumption. Since 2008, the artist has been working on Meat Licence Proposal. Under this law proposal, citizens willing to buy or consume a certain type of meat would need to obtain a licence to do so first. The only way to acquire the licence is to slaughter the animal yourself continue

Don McCullin, about the London homeless

2012-01-30T08:11:09Z

A few months ago, I read there was an exhibition of photos by McCullin at Tate Britain. I thought "That one can wait, it's going to for ages and everybody knows the work of the award-winning war photographer anyway." That was very presumptuous of me. I finally went to see the show and it is now clear that i had underestimated the impact his images would have on me. Especially his portrayal of the homeless living around London from the late 1960s to the '80s continue

H.O.R.T.U.S. (Hydro Organism Responsive to Urban Stimuli)

2012-01-27T15:03:50Z

With HORTUS, the architects from ecoLogicStudio are inviting the public to become cyber-gardeners and "invent new protocols of urban biogardening." There's a bright green carpet on the floor and hundreds of intravenous-style bags are suspended above our heads. The bags are in fact photo-bioreactors and they form a 'greenhouse' that hosts nine different species of algae, from chlorella to algae found in London's canals. Visitors can blow into flexible plastic tubes, fostering the growth of the algae with their carbon dioxide and activating the oxygen production continue

Links for 2012-01-27 [del.icio.us]

2012-01-28T00:00:00-08:00

Settlers who went too far - even for Netanyahu
there is absolutely nothing legal about it. Forget about international law, which most democratic governments believe is violated by all Jewish settlement in occupied territory. Like another 100 such unauthorised outposts, which started to spring up in the 1990s to get round Israel's promise to build no new actual settlements, it has no basis in Israeli law. Moreover, government departments have regularly confirmed, and the Supreme Court accepted, that Migron was built on land privately owned by individual Palestinians and their families in the nearby villages of Burqa and Deir Dibwan, which makes it doubly illegal.
We are Nabi Saleh
This little village in the West Bank will never be the same when in 1977, forty Jewish families move into an abandoned British fortress, only a few miles from Nabi Saleh. With the coming of this colony (Halamish) begins the infamous scenario. A checkpoint is installed at the entrance of Nabih Saleh, olive trees are cut for security reasons and orders for the demolition of houses follow.  In 2009 the source of the village has been taken over by the colony. From that moment, every Friday the residents of Nabih Saleh organise a protest march towards the source. Every Friday the protest is beaten down with injuries and arrests as a result.

Interview with Jani Leinonen

2012-01-25T07:47:52Z

The Finnish artist is the only person i've heard about who was actually arrested for pretending to guillotine a cheap Ronald Mc Donald statue. With the help of a friend, i got in touch with Jani Leinonen and bombarded him with questions about the beggars signs he's been exhibiting at the Venice Biennale, his crazy sexed-up versions of cereal boxes for children, his successful attempts at selling contemporary art works by the bulk as if they were vegetables and of course i was curious about the aftermath of the Ronald affair continue

Links for 2012-01-26 [del.icio.us]

2012-01-27T00:00:00-08:00

Doll 'protesters' present small problem for Russian police | World news | The Guardian
Police in Siberian city ask prosecutors to investigate legality of protest involving display of toy figures holding miniature placards

Magazine review - MCD#65 The culture of green tech

2012-01-22T11:18:08Z

The culture of green tech is a timely publication. 2009 saw plethora of festivals, exhibitions and conferences dedicated to sustainability, 'greener planet' and ecology. I attended so many of them i ended up turning into a cynical eco-phobic. The following year, culture moved to other issues but the relevance of an artistic reflection on green tech is as high as ever. The magzine proposes an intelligent, critical view that goes beyond the monolithic 'green is beautiful' moto and looks into the dilemma and contradictions of green tech continue

Links for 2012-01-24 [del.icio.us]

2012-01-25T00:00:00-08:00

Firms squirm at shame of exposure over human rights and environmental contempt - Environment - The Independent
Some of the world's biggest companies are in the running for an award that none of them actually wants. This Friday, two will be singled out as the biggest offenders of the year for "contempt for the environment and human rights".

Links for 2012-01-23 [del.icio.us]

2012-01-24T00:00:00-08:00

Isi Metzstein obituary-- Innovative architect who designed some remarkable postwar British buildings
The Arab-Israeli Book Review: Common ground in contested territory
Samir's new project helps to redress the narrative imbalance, away from policy and nationhood, towards people. As such, it is political in the most comprehensive of senses. Established in collaboration with the Jewish author and academic Ariel Kahn, the magazine evolved out of the pair's much-admired Arab-Israeli Book Club, which was set up in north London in 2009. The club, which meets bi-monthly, pairs books by Arab and Israeli authors "to create an ongoing dialogue between different voices". The Review seeks to go further, including reviews, essays, fiction, poetry, podcasts and – yes – commentary, providing a forum for cultural exchange.

Samsung Art + Prize

2012-01-17T16:13:41Z

The press view for the Samsung Art+ Prize at BFI Southbank in London dragged me out of bed earlier than usual today. I don't know if the prize is the UK's first digital media art competition as it claims to be, but it is remarkably good. The selection of artworks at least. I'm far less enthusiastic about the way it is exhibited continue

Links for 2012-01-20 [del.icio.us]

2012-01-21T00:00:00-08:00

Greece's ancient sites to play starring role in recovery
Crisis-hit Athens has turned to the glory that was Greece to help its ruined economy. The debt-choked nation has taken the dramatic step of deciding to exploit some of its past majesty by utilising the Acropolis and other antiquities – cultural gems until now considered too sacred to besmirch with commerce. Under a scheme revealed this week, foreign film crews, advertising agencies and other commercial enterprises will be allowed to photograph 5th century BC Periclean masterpieces such as the Parthenon, in the hope that it will help boost the country's coffers and image abroad.

Health & Safety Violations - interview with Ben Woodeson

2012-01-15T16:24:33Z

A wire brush spins around randomly, threatening your open-toe sandals. A motion activated vacuum pump sucks out the air from a sealed gallery space: the longer the viewers remain inside, the less air for them to breathe. A cobble stone is rotating on a rope. The sole purpose of that kettle is to spread red acrylic paint on your shoes. An electric fence used to control livestock on farms criss-crosses the path that leads to an art gallery or the bar. Elsewhere a randomly activated tripwire awaits visitors... continue

Photography Calling!

2012-01-13T17:05:13Z

The work of 31 photographers are part of the show. You can never go wrong with the likes of Diane Arbus, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Lee Friedlander, Martin Parr, Thomas Struth Tobias Zielony, Thomas Demand, Andreas Gursky, Thomas Ruff, Wolfgang Tillmans and Jeff Wall. Most of the works exhibited are jaw-dropping. However, i now have the feeling that i have seen this kind of exhibition one time too many continue

How to Start a Revolution

2012-01-10T09:12:20Z

Yesterday evening i went to Foto8 in London again for the screening of How to Start a Revolution, a documentary tracing the global influence of Gene Sharp's work. Sharp believes that non-violent struggle has a greater chance of success than violent resistance, because violence is typically the most powerful weapon used tyrannical regimes and they will always have the upper hand. His booklet From Dictatorship to Democracy provide a list of 198 "non-violent weapons", including mock awards, alternative communication system, wearing of symbols, pray-in, boycott of elections, withdrawal of bank deposits, consumers' boycott, renouncing honours, etc. continue

Weaponized architecture

2012-01-04T14:24:16Z

Weaponized Architecture is an examination of the inherent instrumentalization of architecture as a political weapon; research informs the development of a project which, rather than defusing these characteristics, attempts to integrate them within the scene of a political struggle. The proposed project dramatizes, through its architecture, a Palestinian disobedience to the colonial legislation imposed on its legal territory continue

Anri Sala (winner of the Absolut Art Award)

2012-01-03T12:58:20Z

It took me longer than most to discover the work of Anri Sala but once i looked into it, i started seeing his work everywhere. A few months ago, i was invited to the Absolut Art Award in Stockholm to see some of his videos, attend a screening with popcorn of 1395 Days without Red and interview the artist. A few weeks after, Anri Sala had a solo show at the Serpentine Gallery in London. The show is now closed. I've waited far too long to write about Anri Sala's work continue

Gamerz report

2011-12-31T14:04:33Z

I like GAMERZ because it's eclectic, because it makes me discover plenty of artists i had never heard about before but also because it reminds me that festivals should be left more often in the hands of artists. They take risk, follow their whim, trust other artists barely out of the academy, and care little about sticking to genres and formulas continue

Book Review - Art & Activism in the Age of Globalization

2011-12-27T15:12:28Z

What roles can art and activism play in a post-Fordist society of the spectacle? Can activist art effect real change? Art & Activism in the Age of Globalization asks these and other pressing questions facing contemporary activist art, through case studies by established artists and filmmakers as well as emerging voices. It investigates issues of urban activism and the activism of anonymous networks, giving special consideration to the effects of the War on Terror upon the activist agenda continue

The Family

2011-12-24T10:48:08Z

The everyday lives of the British gangsters, pimps, prostitutes and players, as the world changes irrevocably around them continue

Review of the Frieze Art Fair

2011-12-19T16:46:39Z

As many of you probably know, i love contemporary art fairs. Yes, it's pure art porn and there's too much to see, most of which is quite frankly bad. But there are good surprises as well and i don't mind spending hours in front of painted horrors if at some point i stumble upon a piece that will move me. I'm that easy. Besides, art fairs expose me to works and artists i would otherwise never have looked at continue