9/10/2006
The Three cities
, London
Borrowing its title from a series of novels by Emile Zola, the performance art and exhibition project explores the specific social, cultural, functional, spatial and material contexts and relations that distinguish the various venues in which it is being staged. With: Sue Tompkins, Pablo Bronstein, Ulla Von Brandenburg, Christoph Schlingensief in a is an ongoing international performance art and exhibition project curated by Gyonata Bonvicini, Anna-Catharina Gebbers and Paolo Zani.
a Performance Art and Video Art evening in public space
18.30 : SUE TOMPKINS (performance)
19.00 : PABLO BRONSTEIN (performance)
19.30 : ULLA VON BRANDENBURG (performance)
20.00 : CHRISTOPH SCHLINGENSIEF (lecture)
18.00 - 21.00 : GUY BEN-NER (video), FARID RAHIMI (video)
invited by Gyonata Bonvicini, Anna-Catharina Gebbers and Paolo Zani
Tuesday, 10 October 2006, 18:00 - 21:00
3 Durham Yard, Teesdale Street/Old Bethnal Green Road, London E2 6QF
THE THREE CITIES: BERLIN, MILAN, LONDON is an ongoing international performance art and exhibition project curated by Gyonata Bonvicini, Anna-Catharina Gebbers and Paolo Zani.
THE THREE CITIES: BERLIN, MILAN, LONDON
Borrowing its title from a series of novels by Emile Zola, the performance art and exhibition project THE THREE CITIES explores the specific social, cultural, functional, spatial and material contexts and relations that distinguish the various venues in which it is being staged. The exhibitions are held during temporary art events that attract visitors from all over the world, and can thus also be read as a metaphor for the hype currently surrounding the art world. The fact that each of the three curators is based in one of the three cities (GYONATA BONVICINI in London, ANNA-CATHARINA GEBBERS in Berlin and PAOLO ZANI in Milan) creates a fluid balance between a deeper knowledge of the local territory and an openness to different realities, such as those brought by the two curators respectively ‘foreign’ to each venue.
LONDON: THE WAREHOUSE
The London project places emphasis on performance art and action art as two of the currently most important formal discourses in contemporary art.
The artists participating in this project represent a range of different approaches to performance art. The performances and films by performance artists shown here seek to illustrate the variety within this genre. The performances by Ulla von Brandenburg, Pablo Bronstein and Sue Tompkins will be produced and presented for the first time at THE THREE CITIES - LONDON: THE WAREHOUSE. All three are among the most important emerging young artists today. On the occasion of THE THREE CITIES - LONDON: THE WAREHOUSE Christoph Schlingensief presents a new installation and introduces a new project. The films shown by Guy Ben-Ner and Farid Rahimi have never been presented before in England. Both artists are also known for their performance work.
Performance’s ephemeral character sets it in stark contrast to those forms of art, in which objects constitute the work. This is art that cannot be bought, sold or traded as a commodity. Similar to the performance art of the 1970s, the curators and artists involved in this project see it as a means of taking it directly into a public forum, thereby obviating the need for galleries, brokers or institutions. Thus performance art stands per se as a commentary on the purity of art. Completing the spectrum, there will also be films on view made by the performance artists - indeed, all the performing artists on show here additionally work with film.
As in Emile Zola’s eponymous trilogy of novels “The Three Cities", the curatorial concept comments and reproduces the pace, theatricality, vanity and volatility of the current art world. The choice of a former warehouse as the venue for this non-profit, non-sales event, and a location in Bethnal Green as the new “old" centre of the City of London with its lively, cutting-edge art scene can indeed be taken both as a comment upon and approbation of a highly privileged vantage point for observing art in London.
THE THREE CITIES - LONDON: THE WAREHOUSE will be held on the eve of the professional preview of the Frieze Art Fair, in conjunction with a collective opening involving some of the most interesting East End galleries and artists’ spaces such as Hotel, Maureen Paley, Herald Street, Wolfgang Tillmans’ studio and others.
LONDON: THE ARTISTS
GUY BEN-NER
*1969, Ramat Gan/Israel, lives and works in New York and Berlin
Guy Ben-Ner represented Israel at the 51st Venice Biennial. He studied fine art at the Hamidrasha, B.E.D. Art School in Israel and at Columbia University in New York. Since 1996 Guy Ben-Ner’s video works have centred on his own performative presence and his relationship with his family. Exploring different kinds of familial settings and circumstances on his own private territory - both emotional and physical - he brings his audience to reflect upon universal values and behavioural responses produced by the interaction between our social environment and the human being’s innate modes of behaviour.
Guy Ben-Ner will be presenting one of his most recent films.
ULLA VON BRANDENBURG
*1974, Karlsruhe/Germany, lives and works in Hamburg/Germany and Paris/France
Ulla von Brandenburg studied scenography, media art, and fine art at the Academy of Fine Arts in both Karlsruhe and Hamburg, Germany. She works in different media such as drawing, artist journal, video, film, walldrawing and performance. Motifs of different historic origins are combined with modern-day iconography. Ulla von Brandenburg is one of the most promising young artists to have recently emerged in Germany.
Ulla von Brandenburg has written a new song and developed a new performance for THE THREE CITIES - LONDON: THE WAREHOUSE.
PABLO BRONSTEIN
*1977, Buenos Aires/Argentina, lives and works in London/UK
Pablo Bronstein graduated at Slade School, UCL, London, and received his MA at Goldsmith College, London. Bronstein works across a range of media including film, installation, performance and drawing, all of which reveal his interest in architectural linguistics - from drawing fantasy architectural plans to constructing physical structures in galleries and public spaces. The artist quotes, references, redraws, reconstructs and reconfigures works so as to evolve his own visual and linguistic codes and articulate his particular view of the world.
Pablo Bronstein‘s performance for THE THREE CITIES - LONDON: THE WAREHOUSE will refer to the specific site where the show is being held.
FARID RAHIMI
*1974 in Lausanne/Switzerland, lives and works in Milan/Italy
Farid Rahimi’s work focuses on the concept of “image":The image as ideas and sensual perception; the image in its own logical composition; the image as a creative process; the image, finally, as aesthetic place. For instance, one of his recent videos was a 3D reconstruction of Mount Fuji, with the volcano rotating on itself; it is also part of an animation series, in which an invented landscape becomes the occasion to investigate new forms of representation.
Farid Rahimi will be presenting a new video animation at THE THREE CITIES - LONDON: THE WAREHOUSE.
CHRISTOPH SCHLINGENSIEF
*1960, Oberhausen/Germany, lives and works in Berlin/Germany
Christoph Schlingensief works in performance art, action art, installation art and film. His installations show places of dependence and helplessness, sites of vanished or unachieved autonomy. Whenever Schlingensief stages the hell that is stagnation in one of his invented realms, a profound sense of fallibility rises up through all the cacophony of his productions - whether performances, films or stage plays. He is widely known in Germany, particularly since directing “Parsifal" at the Wagner Festival in Bayreuth 2004, one of Germany’s most renowned opera festivals.
On the occasion of THE THREE CITIES - LONDON: THE WAREHOUSE Christoph Schlingensief presents the “Transportable Altar" and introduces his new project DIANA II. WHAT HAPPENED TO ALLAN KAPROW?
SUE TOMPKINS
*1971, Leighton Buzzard/UK, lives and works in Glasgow/UK
Sue Tompkins studied painting at the Glasgow School of Art. Since 1997 she has worked in collaboration with Elizabeth Go (Victoria Morton, Sarah Tripp, Hayley Tompkins and Cathy Wilkes). Sue Tompkins’s practice focuses on wall installations consisting of typewritten text on newsprint sheets arranged in diptychs, triptychs and various other combinations and arrangements. These works represent the starting point of a live performance of her text pieces. This combination and subsequent layering of text, collage, painting and live performance is fundamental to her work.
Sue Tompkins will be enacting a new text piece for THE THREE CITIES - LONDON: THE WAREHOUSE.
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Recent projects:
THE THREE CITIES - BERLIN: THE APARTMENT
23 - 26 March 2006 (Opening of the 4th Berlin Biennial)
Anna-Catharina Gebbers | Bibliothekswohnung, Ziegelstrasse 2, 10117 Berlin
With: Alex Cecchetti (*1976, Italy), Lucile Desamory (*1977, Belgium), Paul Kos (*1942, USA), Gedi Sibony (*1973, USA), Andreas Slominski (*1959, Germany), Tony Swain (*1967, UK)
THE THREE CITIES - MILAN: THE FACTORY
22 - 24 September 2006 (“STARTmilano"-weekend)
Former Fabbrica Presbitero, Via Farini 57, Milan
With: Steven Claydon (*1969, UK), Claire Fontaine (France/UK), Ruth May (*1974, Germany), Gian Domenico Sozzi (*1960, Italy), Josh Smith (*1976, USA), Dirk Stewen (*1972, Germany)
Upcoming projects:
THE THREE CITIES - EXHIBITION IN PRINT: LIEBLING
Liebling Zeitung (Berlin), issue Autumn/Winter 2006-07
With: Ulla von Brandenburg (*1974, Germany), Steven Claydon (*1969, UK), Claire Fontaine (France/UK), Ruth May (*1974, Germany), Gedi Sibony (*1973, USA), Dirk Stewen (*1972, Germany), Tony Swain (*1967, UK)
THE THREE CITIES - EXHIBITION IN PRINT: TANK
Tank magazine (London), issue December 2006 - February 2007
With: Alex Cecchetti (*1976, Italy), Steven Claydon (*1969, UK), Claire Fontaine (France/UK), Ruth May (*1974, Germany), Dirk Stewen (*1972, Germany), Sue Tompkins (*1971, UK)
Under the patronage of Goethe-Institut Milan / Con il patrocinio del Goethe-Institut Mailand.
Supported by Valeria Napoleone, Grainger Trust plc, abitart s.r.l., Mariano Pichler, David Gryn/Artprojx, Goethe-Institut London, Deutsches Generalkonsulat Mailand.
The curators would like to thank the participating artists, the project supporters, Art:Concept, Zum Goldenen Hirschen, Daniela Haitzler, Bernd Heusinger, Kerstin Stakemeier and Jacqueline Todd.
Opening: 10 October 2006
3 Durham Yard, Teesdale St/Old Bethnal Green Rd - London (Bethnal Green)