2008

Wishing you all a Happy 2008!

Our new website will soon be running!
www.number5.ch

See you there!

To you, our collaborators

"Mond" in process _
saline solution, hot plate, heat resistant tape, generous helping hands_
october 5, 2007_zürich

To you, our collaborators, friends and companions of many a path:
Thank you.
Thank you for your emails. It is heart warming to receive them!

I’m sorry this “change of path” for ArtSEEN journal came as a shock to some of you.
ArtSEEN journal, if you wish to see it this way, is but a name, given to a project: a project that is based on the creative process.
If the name disappears, the process does not!
And this is the most beautiful, most sublime aspect of the creative process!

I wish to present here a few phrases I wrote for the presentation of ArtSEEN journal, in 2005.

The phrase that talks about the space it was meant to be, and has therefore achieved (call us stubborn!): offered to artists, to the creative process.

The aim of ArtSEEN journal is to offer a space for communication, to promote art and artists who share the freedom of thought that the creative process promotes.

The paragraph that reflects on our inheritance, as artists. In choosing to be an artist, we have to reflect on this inheritance, the creative tradition, not only found in Florence, but that which every individual, town, city, thought, word, blade of grass - left to us. How do we continue working with it? Without abusing of it, and yet, contributing to it?

ArtSEEN journal is based in Florence, a city world known for it's contribution to Western art history. As the Renaissance shaped Florence 500 years ago, so have the numerous travellers, migrants, artists, creative minds and free thinkers who have been attracted to this city, and who have, because of it's history, shaped it's present, in all eras. Florence is the city where we chose to study and live and work, because of it’s potent creative energy, because of the legacy left to us by our artist forefathers and mothers.

And the paragraph that promises to look at our present – which we have more than achieved.

ArtSEEN journal aims not simply to echo the buzz of the streets of art world centres but as well create a space for artists, for our ideas, for our beliefs to be exposed/exhibited in. We wish and work towards making ArtSEEN a work of art in itself, as all of us working on it are artists. As artists, we have a freedom that allows us not to follow set structures: to question, to change, to enhance. We aim to treat ArtSEEN as we'd treat a canvas, a paper, a room. Let it be flexible like a drawing, a painting in execution, an installation in the making, a lump of clay in our hands. It is a challenge, it is a lot of work, yet this is what we believe in, and a labour of love.

These phrases have accompanied ArtSEEN journal through the two years. With all the grammatical errors, and all the sincere thoughts, they have been sent to the North, South, East and West, far and wide. And fulfilled. :)

What we have achieved together with ArtSEEN journal, is immense and intense. As long as this energy, this desire, and the right motivation are alive, (which they will always be, even when we die!) there can be no stopping. To be part of this process is both humbling and strengthening.


With ArtSEEN, the Editorial Team has proved that with little funds, but working together, we can make the most “impossible” venture a reality!

With ArtSEEN, together with you, we have proved that the “Art world” is a mere pedestal – yet still has sincere people working within it!
With ArtSEEN, we have shown the many facets of a diamond. We have written what we think, offered our views to both comprehension and criticism.
Creative people all over this globe: artists, scientists, curators, linguists, poets, have contributed, not only to ArtSEEN, but to a process, and I am sure, will continue contributing to this process.

ArtSEEN is and was just one platform for this process. Rest assured then, there are many more!

What ArtSEEN gave me, cannot disappear, and will continue growing.

Even though one platform stops existing, we’re celebrating, and we’re celebrating the continuation of the creative process!

Thank You! Here's to "omega alpha"!!! (email me if you want the full spiel behind this "subversion"!)

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxg

We're moving!

This team proves yet again that come hell or high water, we maintain our promise!

This is our last edition of ArtSEEN journal.
Precisely because it is our last SEEN, we felt it necessary to work even harder to bring it out to you, bearing with courage difficult moments and taking our time in order to make sure this last issue arrives complete!

As always a small surprise, all I anticipate is the format: 16 x 11 cm.

With thanks to Sandra Miranda and her work for the financial side of the publications, we are able to end ArtSEEN journal and ArtSEEN PLUS without any debts to our generous printer, Alessandro Reni of Art and Pixel.

Sandra Miranda, currently working for the Florence Biennial, will be curating publications for the Florence Biennial, as well as further curating exhibitions in Italy and abroad and pursuing her own art career.

Andrew J Smaldone, while teaching and exhibiting and living through parties (for in truth, he is a party boy!), is looking forward to have that extra minute in an hour for his beautiful paintings, and in addition, will be busy with a new art project next year.

After 14 years of living in Florence, I am moving to Zurich, Switzerland, where I will pursue the natural growth of ideas that has arisen through my work with ArtSEEN journal.
I am happy to say that I look forward to continue collaborating with the many wonderful people I have had the occasion to meet through ArtSEEN! And, yes, I will have the much desired time for my own art work too – which only living in Zurich seems to provide me (Florence is notorious for it’s parties!)

Thus we find that our collaboration as the Editorial Team needs end, to make necessary space for all the new ventures that have come to be thanks to our working together.

ArtSEEN journal will official come to a close on January 1, 2008, (say, round midnight! Worldwide), amongst joy and champagne toasts, for it has been a wonderful adventure, a learning experience, and has brought together many amazing people, their art, and their writing!

Thank you, to each individual, who has contributed to both the publications, for making this "art project in print" possible!

non/performance

Julian Schnabel and Lou Reed survive through a press conference (on the film "Berlin") in Spain this summer.
Willing or not, the duo made a fantastic performance!
See link below!
(the dialogues in English are fab- live translation! The Spanish are even better!)

http://sansebastian.mister-i.com/galerias2007/pelicula_in2.jsp?id=550201

Imagine Peace

We all shine on like the moon and the stars and the sun - John Lennon

The job of an artist is not to destroy but to change the value of things.
And by doing that, artists can change the world into a Utopia where there is
total freedom for everybody.
That can be achieved only when there is
total communication in the world.
Total communication equals peace.
That is our aim.
That is what artists can do for the world!

Yoko Ono
What is the Relationship Between the World and the Artist?, May 1971


Yoko Ono will be unveiling the Imagine Peace Tower, in memory of John Lennon, on October 9th 2007, on Videy Island, Reykjavik, Iceland.
The tower of light will beam up to the sky, carrying with it the message of peace that John Lennon and Yoko Ono have made their, continous, life work.

http://www.imaginepeace.com/

A beacon of light, right on the top of our globe, a stream of light, of hope. And perhaps also, a string for the planet to clutch on.
A moment to think about how many things are “hanging on a string”:
Our planet,
Our environment,
Our lives.

And to realise that with awareness, respect, and devotion, we can make a change. “The opposite of war is not peace, it's creation.”

How the quark got it's name

In 1963, when I assigned the name "quark" to the fundamental constituents of the nucleon, I had the sound first, without the spelling, which could have been "kwork." Then, in one of my occasional perusals of Finnegans Wake, by James Joyce, I came across the word "quark" in the phrase "Three quarks for Muster Mark." Since "quark" (meaning, for one thing, the cry of a gull) was clearly intended to rhyme with "Mark," as well as "bark" and other such words, I had to find an excuse to pronounce it as "kwork." But the book represents the dreams of a publican named Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker. Words in the text are typically drawn from several sources at once, like the "portmanteau words" in Through the Looking Glass. From time to time, phrases occur in the book that are partially determined by calls for drinks at the bar. I argued, therefore, that perhaps one of the multiple sources of the cry "Three quarks for Muster Mark" might be "Three quarts for Mister Mark," in which case the pronunciation "kwork" would not be totally unjustified. In any case, the number three fitted perfectly the way quarks occur in nature.
Murray Gell-Mann


Three quarks for Muster Mark!
Sure he hasn't got much of a bark
And sure any he has it's all beside the mark.
But O, Wreneagle Almighty, wouldn't un be a sky of a lark
To see that old buzzard whooping about for uns shirt in the dark
And he hunting round for uns speckled trousers around by Palmerstown Park?
Hohohoho, moulty Mark!
You're the rummest old rooster ever flopped out of a Noah's ark
And you think you're cock of the wark.
Fowls, up! Tristy's the spry young spark
That'll tread her and wed her and bed her and red her
Without ever winking the tail of a feather
And that's how that chap's going to make his money and mark!

James Joyce. Finnegan's Wake. Book 2, Episode 4, Page 383

Equinox

The Elephant's Child
by Rudyard Kipling

IN the High and Far-Off Times the Elephant, O Best Beloved, had no trunk. He had only a blackish, bulgy nose, as big as a boot, that he could wriggle about from side to side; but he couldn't pick up things with it. But there was one Elephant--a new Elephant--an Elephant's Child--who was full of 'satiable curtiosity, and that means he asked ever so many questions. And he lived in Africa, and he filled all Africa with his 'satiable curtiosities. He asked his tall aunt, the Ostrich, why her tail-feathers grew just so, and his tall aunt the Ostrich spanked him with her hard, hard claw. He asked his tall uncle, the Giraffe, what made his skin spotty, and his tall uncle, the Giraffe, spanked him with his hard, hard hoof. And still he was full of 'satiable curtiosity! He asked his broad aunt, the Hippopotamus, why her eyes were red, and his broad aunt, the Hippopotamus, spanked him with her broad, broad hoof; and he asked his hairy uncle, the Baboon, why melons tasted just so, and his hairy uncle, the Baboon, spanked him with his hairy, hairy paw. And still he was full of 'satiable curtiosity! He asked questions about everything that he saw, or heard, or felt, or smelt, or touched, and all his uncles and his aunts spanked him. And still he was full of 'satiable curtiosity!

One fine morning in the middle of the Precession of the Equinoxes this 'satiable Elephant's Child asked a new fine question that he had never asked before. He asked, 'What does the Crocodile have for dinner?' Then everybody said, 'Hush!' in a loud and dretful tone, and they spanked him immediately and directly, without stopping, for a long time.

By and by, when that was finished, he came upon Kolokolo Bird sitting in the middle of a wait-a-bit thorn-bush, and he said, 'My father has spanked me, and my mother has spanked me; all my aunts and uncles have spanked me for my 'satiable curtiosity; and still I want to know what the Crocodile has for dinner!'

Then Kolokolo Bird said, with a mournful cry, 'Go to the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees, and find out.'

That very next morning, when there was nothing left of the Equinoxes, because the Precession had preceded according to precedent, this 'satiable Elephant's Child took a hundred pounds of bananas (the little short red kind), and a hundred pounds of sugar-cane (the long purple kind), and seventeen melons (the greeny-crackly kind), and said to all his dear families, 'Goodbye. I am going to the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees, to find out what the Crocodile has for dinner.' And they all spanked him once more for luck, though he asked them most politely to stop.

Then he went away, a little warm, but not at all astonished, eating melons, and throwing the rind about, because he could not pick it up.

He went from Graham's Town to Kimberley, and from Kimberley to Khama's Country, and from Khama's Country he went east by north, eating melons all the time, till at last he came to the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees, precisely as Kolokolo Bird had said.

Now you must know and understand, O Best Beloved, that till that very week, and day, and hour, and minute, this 'satiable Elephant's Child had never seen a Crocodile, and did not know what one was like. It was all his 'satiable curtiosity.

The first thing that he found was a Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake curled round a rock.

''Scuse me,' said the Elephant's Child most politely, 'but have you seen such a thing as a Crocodile in these promiscuous parts?'

'Have I seen a Crocodile?' said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake, in a voice of dretful scorn. 'What will you ask me next?'

''Scuse me,' said the Elephant's Child, 'but could you kindly tell me what he has for dinner?'

Then the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake uncoiled himself very quickly from the rock, and spanked the Elephant's Child with his scalesome, flailsome tail.

'That is odd,' said the Elephant's Child, 'because my father and my mother, and my uncle and my aunt, not to mention my other aunt, the Hippopotamus, and my other uncle, the Baboon, have all spanked me for my 'satiable curtiosity--and I suppose this is the same thing.

So he said good-bye very politely to the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake, and helped to coil him up on the rock again, and went on, a little warm, but not at all astonished, eating melons, and throwing the rind about, because he could not pick it up, till he trod on what he thought was a log of wood at the very edge of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees.

But it was really the Crocodile, O Best Beloved, and the Crocodile winked one eye--like this!

''Scuse me,' said the Elephant's Child most politely, 'but do you happen to have seen a Crocodile in these promiscuous parts?'

Then the Crocodile winked the other eye, and lifted half his tail out of the mud; and the Elephant's Child stepped back most politely, because he did not wish to be spanked again.

'Come hither, Little One,' said the Crocodile. 'Why do you ask such things?'

''Scuse me,' said the Elephant's Child most politely, 'but my father has spanked me, my mother has spanked me, not to mention my tall aunt, the Ostrich, and my tall uncle, the Giraffe, who can kick ever so hard, as well as my broad aunt, the Hippopotamus, and my hairy uncle, the Baboon, and including the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake, with the scalesome, flailsome tail, just up the bank, who spanks harder than any of them; and so, if it's quite all the same to you, I don't want to be spanked any more.'

'Come hither, Little One,' said the Crocodile, 'for I am the Crocodile,' and he wept crocodile-tears to show it was quite true.

Then the Elephant's Child grew all breathless, and panted, and kneeled down on the bank and said, 'You are the very person I have been looking for all these long days. Will you please tell me what you have for dinner?'

'Come hither, Little One,' said the Crocodile, 'and I'll whisper.'

Then the Elephant's Child put his head down close to the Crocodile's musky, tusky mouth, and the Crocodile caught him by his little nose, which up to that very week, day, hour, and minute, had been no bigger than a boot, though much more useful.

'I think, said the Crocodile--and he said it between his teeth, like this--'I think to-day I will begin with Elephant's Child!'

At this, O Best Beloved, the Elephant's Child was much annoyed, and he said, speaking through his nose, like this, 'Led go! You are hurtig be!'

Then the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake scuffled down from the bank and said, 'My young friend, if you do not now, immediately and instantly, pull as hard as ever you can, it is my opinion that your acquaintance in the large-pattern leather ulster' (and by this he meant the Crocodile) 'will jerk you into yonder limpid stream before you can say Jack Robinson.'

This is the way Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snakes always talk.

Then the Elephant's Child sat back on his little haunches, and pulled, and pulled, and pulled, and his nose began to stretch. And the Crocodile floundered into the water, making it all creamy with great sweeps of his tail, and he pulled, and pulled, and pulled.

And the Elephant's Child's nose kept on stretching; and the Elephant's Child spread all his little four legs and pulled, and pulled, and pulled, and his nose kept on stretching; and the Crocodile threshed his tail like an oar, and he pulled, and pulled, and pulled, and at each pull the Elephant's Child's nose grew longer and longer--and it hurt him hijjus!

Then the Elephant's Child felt his legs slipping, and he said through his nose, which was now nearly five feet long, 'This is too butch for be!'

Then the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake came down from the bank, and knotted himself in a double-clove-hitch round the Elephant's Child's hind legs, and said, 'Rash and inexperienced traveller, we will now seriously devote ourselves to a little high tension, because if we do not, it is my impression that yonder self-propelling man-of-war with the armour-plated upper deck' (and by this, O Best Beloved, he meant the Crocodile), 'will permanently vitiate your future career.

That is the way all Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snakes always talk.

So he pulled, and the Elephant's Child pulled, and the Crocodile pulled; but the Elephant's Child and the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake pulled hardest; and at last the Crocodile let go of the Elephant's Child's nose with a plop that you could hear all up and down the Limpopo.

Then the Elephant's Child sat down most hard and sudden; but first he was careful to say 'Thank you' to the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake; and next he was kind to his poor pulled nose, and wrapped it all up in cool banana leaves, and hung it in the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo to cool.

'What are you doing that for?' said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake.

''Scuse me,' said the Elephant's Child, 'but my nose is badly out of shape, and I am waiting for it to shrink.

'Then you will have to wait a long time, said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake. 'Some people do not know what is good for them.'

The Elephant's Child sat there for three days waiting for his nose to shrink. But it never grew any shorter, and, besides, it made him squint. For, O Best Beloved, you will see and understand that the Crocodile had pulled it out into a really truly trunk same as all Elephants have to-day.

At the end of the third day a fly came and stung him on the shoulder, and before he knew what he was doing he lifted up his trunk and hit that fly dead with the end of it.

''Vantage number one!' said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake. 'You couldn't have done that with a mere-smear nose. Try and eat a little now.'

Before he thought what he was doing the Elephant's Child put out his trunk and plucked a large bundle of grass, dusted it clean against his fore-legs, and stuffed it into his own mouth.

'Vantage number two!' said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake. 'You couldn't have done that with a mear-smear nose. Don't you think the sun is very hot here?'

'It is,' said the Elephant's Child, and before he thought what he was doing he schlooped up a schloop of mud from the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo, and slapped it on his head, where it made a cool schloopy-sloshy mud-cap all trickly behind his ears.

'Vantage number three!' said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake. 'You couldn't have done that with a mere-smear nose. Now how do you feel about being spanked again?'

''Scuse me,' said the Elephant's Child, 'but I should not like it at all.'

'How would you like to spank somebody?' said the Bi- Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake.

'I should like it very much indeed,' said the Elephant's Child.

'Well,' said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake, 'you will find that new nose of yours very useful to spank people with.'

'Thank you,' said the Elephant's Child, 'I'll remember that; and now I think I'll go home to all my dear families and try.'

So the Elephant's Child went home across Africa frisking and whisking his trunk. When he wanted fruit to eat he pulled fruit down from a tree, instead of waiting for it to fall as he used to do. When he wanted grass he plucked grass up from the ground, instead of going on his knees as he used to do. When the flies bit him he broke off the branch of a tree and used it as fly-whisk; and he made himself a new, cool, slushy-squshy mud-cap whenever the sun was hot. When he felt lonely walking through Africa he sang to himself down his trunk, and the noise was louder than several brass bands.

He went especially out of his way to find a broad Hippopotamus (she was no relation of his), and he spanked her very hard, to make sure that the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake had spoken the truth about his new trunk. The rest of the time he picked up the melon rinds that he had dropped on his way to the Limpopo--for he was a Tidy Pachyderm.

One dark evening he came back to all his dear families, and he coiled up his trunk and said, 'How do you do?' They were very glad to see him, and immediately said, 'Come here and be spanked for your 'satiable curtiosity.'

'Pooh,' said the Elephant's Child. 'I don't think you peoples know anything about spanking; but I do, and I'll show you.' Then he uncurled his trunk and knocked two of his dear brothers head over heels.

'O Bananas!' said they, 'where did you learn that trick, and what have you done to your nose?'

'I got a new one from the Crocodile on the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River,' said the Elephant's Child. 'I asked him what he had for dinner, and he gave me this to keep.'

'It looks very ugly,' said his hairy uncle, the Baboon.

'It does,' said the Elephant's Child. 'But it's very useful,' and he picked up his hairy uncle, the Baboon, by one hairy leg, and hove him into a hornet's nest.

Then that bad Elephant's Child spanked all his dear families for a long time, till they were very warm and greatly astonished. He pulled out his tall Ostrich aunt's tail-feathers; and he caught his tall uncle, the Giraffe, by the hind-leg, and dragged him through a thorn-bush; and he shouted at his broad aunt, the Hippopotamus, and blew bubbles into her ear when she was sleeping in the water after meals; but he never let any one touch Kolokolo Bird.

At last things grew so exciting that his dear families went off one by one in a hurry to the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees, to borrow new noses from the Crocodile. When they came back nobody spanked anybody any more; and ever since that day, O Best Beloved, all the Elephants you will ever see, besides all those that you won't, have trunks precisely like the trunk of the 'satiable Elephant's Child.

I Keep six honest serving-men:
(They taught me all I knew)
Their names are What and Where and When
And How and Why and Who.
I send them over land and sea,
I send them east and west;
But after they have worked for me,
I give them all a rest.

I let them rest from nine till five.
For I am busy then,
As well as breakfast, lunch, and tea,
For they are hungry men:
But different folk have different views:
I know a person small--
She keeps ten million serving-men,
Who get no rest at all!
She sends 'em abroad on her own affairs,
From the second she opens her eyes--
One million Hows, two million Wheres,
And seven million Whys!

Sept. 2005 to Sept. 2007

working on ArtSEEN journal, issue 1, spring 06 - layout on the wall,
with proof prints of Martin Siegrist's intervention "No"

The summer ArtSEEN journal is flying: you can find it in various galleries, where it is reported it sits on the desk of the gallerist who shows it to all; the Chinese and Japanese love it; from Puert Rico there are possibilities of participation in various events; in Berlin it is being introduced to galleries and bookshops; from NY new voices wish to join in the project; from Florida it receives invites to be media-partner for events organized around Art Basel Miami; museums and curators from Colombia call for it to arrive into their hands....

Two years ago in September (was it the 9th?) the concept for ArtSEEN journal was born.
It is through the participation, work, time and dedication of many artists that the SEEN became a reality!
It is with a lot of joy that I can say: the ArtSEEN journal project is growing, with new collaboration form the people who meet the journal – and then decide to join the project!!!

Vittorio Corsini's intervention in ArtSEEN journal, issue 6, summer 07 "ma"

Some of the feedback we’ve received on the Summer issue:

The publication is stunning. Thankyou so much.
David Gothard

David Gothard is the former artistic director of Riverside Studios. As a director he works between the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, Derry, Northern Ireland and the Writers Workshop in the University of Iowa. In London he is a guest speaker at the Slade and he teaches at Chelsea College of Art and the National Film School.


At the moment, I'm working on a show in Frankfurt end of August (…), videos of course, but for (almost) the first time I've added a text I've just finished writing and sent off to be translated into German and printed to be given away as part of the show (I'll send you copies)...which I'm quite excite about because of the design/form; hope it works out. And if I hadn't have written for ArtSEEN I may not have got to this idea.
Anyway, thanks again, always a treat to hear from you...look forward to the next theme.

BTW, the copy of the last issue that I sent to Donald Smith sits in his office in his gallery and I've know he's been showing it to people as I'd heard some very positive comments about it. Well done.
Neil Stewart

Neil Stewart is an artist, and Programme Director, Global Art Practice at Chelsea College of Art & Design – The University of the Arts London. He collaborates with ArtSEEN journal on a regular basis.

I was sent and showed your journal by Elena Bajo - whom I am friends and colleagues with. (…)
I loved the image and would love to submit to a part of your whole macrocosm....globalization has created a visible macrocosm, before it was the world of mystery and mystics - now its the world of web cookies and links ...but congrats, its a gorgeous venture -!
Renee Vara

Renee Vara is, among other, private curator, founder of Vara Global Fine Arts, LLC

Today I received the box of ArtSEEN journals, summer issue. It is sooooo beautiful!!!! Congratulations on inventing a wonderful format for the journal! to find the text inserted on lined paper within the magazine is like finding a secret note someone hid inside a
book, a real journal, like a diary, of thoughts and sensibilities.
It is also just such a nice object to hold.

I wish I knew how to say FANTASTIC!!!! In Italian!
Sue Carlson

Sue Carlson in an artist, and ArtSEEN journal Representative in New York .

I wanted to tell you that I showed ArtSEEN to a few people I know and they loved it.
I think it's a beautiful project, you should stick to it till the end and enjoy every minute
of it. That is why I have considered your offer and I feel honored and overwhelmed that you have chosen me to intervene in your next issue. I would love to work with you and your friends.
Jason Mena

Jason Mena is an artist, living in Puerto Rico. We are also very pleased to announce that he is the “intervening artist” of ArtSEEN issue 7, autumn 07.

Italian Scene

April Woods, Christian Rainer

I had the chance to meet Christian Rainer in Trentino lately where I was invited to have a personal show. Christian had three pieces during the whole event that lasted for 3 days, among those Falena:
City lights were entirely turned off, while Christian played the piano inside the Church and you could hear his music going through all the darkness, like introducing people to something that is about to happen, like preparing them for silence, for an uncommon break in their lives; at the end of the music, lights were only turned on in the Palazzo DeMartin, people were now conscious of one of the most beautiful things they have, a Building from the 400 ‘s.
Christian said: There is already so much, why creating more….
He points out what is already there but we can’t see it anymore..

Christian Rainer has multiple origins and feels equally from each place, where he was born, where he was grown and where he lives now, Italy. He is a musician and a visual artist, a powerful creative mind.

Christian just had a couple of videos at Centro Pecci that I highly recommend to see. On this event called Videminuto other two young artists where exhibiting, Ericailcane and Marco Raparelli, these three artists strongly represent the various ways Italian contemporary scene is developing. Ericailcane with his almost disturbing creatures and Marco Raparelli with his amazing sense of humour.

My suggestion is to go and check these artists, they might be the future in the Italian scene
http://www.ericailcane.org/
http://www.christianrainer.com/

2000 lightyears from home

"wie seltsam glimmert durch die Gründe
ein morgenrötlich trüber Schein!
Und selbst bis in die tiefen Schlünde
des Abgrunds wittert er hinein"

(Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Faust I, Walpurgisnacht )




hi gordana,
today my proposal for the pool of the youngest looked like this.
i just wanted to design like nature 1000 meters below zero in the sea.
they thought, it was a joke. i found it quite funny, nevertheless
there is no sense of humour in the world of architecture.....

hope you are fine.

thomas

Published here with the kind permission of Thomas Wirsing, architect.

Thomas is currently working in Vienna, on a public swimming pools project. He is one of the most brilliant creative minds I know, and finding his comment ironically funny, and his design high minded and beautiful, I asked his permission to publish his recent email to me, with the “rejected” concept for a children’s swimming pool.
Thomas, together with Sabine Wolf, has published an article in ArtSEEN journal, issue 2, summer 06, which can be read on www.undo.net (Italian and English)

ArtSEEN Plus First Anniversary!!

One year ago we thought of starting a supplement to ArtSEEN Journal as a solution for our constant changes on format and the difficulty it created for us to be able to sell advertisement in different sizes everytime.

That is how ArtSEEN Plus was born!!! We thought of it as an Art Guide, as a "Printed show" where artists, galleries and even art students had the chance to promote their work for really competitive prices, from first issue it inmedaitely revealed an excellent platform for artists and our biggest satisfaction was to hear that artists got invitations to show after putting an Ad in the Plus. 50% of the artists that have published in ArtSEEN once has repeated the operation so many of them have been in more than one issue in only one year!!

We went from 1000 copies to 5000 copies already in the second issue, that are distributed in major galleries as Continua in San Gimignano, Pierogi 2000 in New York, Traghetto Gallery Rome, Primo Piano in Lecce among others as fixed distributors and other galleries and institutions that asked to be listed in our calendar so it travels all over and everytime to different places.

We are pleased to announce the first Anniversary of ArtSEEN Plus, a free supplement to ArtSEEN Journal that makes possible the best art promotion and the publication of both ArtSEEN Journal and ArtSEEN Plus.

Thanks to all of you!!!

If you want to have more information on it or book a page please contact us.

After the SEEN

In the weeks after the SEEN is printed, we usually have a bit more time to dedicate to other aspects of work and life, aspects that nevertheless are continuous... Here’s what the three of us are up to these days, a self interview!
Andrew J: AJ
Gordana: G
Sandra: S

What are you doing right now?

AJ: Teaching a class in 20th Century Italian Art History.
G: Sitting at the computer, glad of the ventilator fan...
S: Working and thinking I would like to be somewhere else...

What are you working on now?

AJ: Continuing series of "Untitled – Interiors" (ink drawings), and painting – a series of monochromatic, floral motif paintings based on the work of the Dutch artist Van Beyeren.
G: I’m mainly working on ignoring all the things I have to do, until the last minute: all to do with house maintenance bills, and coping with general life bureaucracy…
S: Layout of a catalogue, graphics of my artist's business card, cancelling with pleasure those things I've already done from my long promemoria.

Where will you be in 2 weeks time?

AJ: Nashville, Tennessee
G: In Zurich, Switzerland
S: In Cartagena, Colombia, probably in the terrace of my father's colonial house in the historical center, having a refago (colombian cocktail, consisting in beer and a soda only produced there) hopefully with a book and not the laptop!!!

What will you do there?

AJ: Relax, see friends, hang out with mom...
G: Whittling. I aim to whittle down a little ladder. Or anything else that is whittlable and takes my fancy.
S: I'll see some of my family, will visit friends and actually will work out some contacts both for the magazine and for my own artwork and hopefully the most wanted vacation time.


Own art projects on the go?

AJ: Finalist of Arte Laguna contest; preparing work for auction for AMRAF (charity) in Rome in Autumn.
G: Still trying to finish my drawing! Have started and continue a series of mini videos (30 seconds), a collection of “moments” – from travelling, to sitting at home – a ray of sun light on the curtain, a butterfly, a rain storm. And one of my favourites, a nun sweeping the garden at 1.30 a.m.!
S: Planning a performance in Calcata (near Rome), working on an installation about "erosion" for a show in September, extending a piece for a show in Brazil in November, always in the healing rituals theme!! (and a lot of other little things)

Books read/reading?

AJ: The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield
G: Just finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – after 9 years of following the adventure!
Also, Augusten Burroughs – Possible Side Effects.
Have practically re-read 100 books in the last two weeks since the Summer SEEN is finished!
S: Just finished all the catalogues from Venice Biennale, Dokumenta and Skuptur Project and just started the one AJ gave me for my birthday Under...

Other interesting observation?

AJ: It’s really hot! That’s key : July is too hot.
G: I never know how I am going to do all the things I have to do, until the very last minute!
S: Hmmm... yes.... it is a very creative moment for me, an explosion of illumination happening here, let's hope for it to be loooooooooooooooooooong____________________________

Quoted!

We've been quoted!
http://undo.net/Pressrelease/edit06/

In Italian only...

A view

Jason Mena, installation view

I liked this work so much, I had to steal it. I did ask permission before stealing it, and it was granted. So, here is the first legally stolen pic for blog!
xxxg

shhhh...fireworks!!!

As fireworks are sounding off in the distance, here is a preview of ArtSEEN 6!!!
The "proof print" - and...
I am very proud of all of us: Neil, Andrew, Elena, Marina, Martin, Sandra, Vittorio, Marco, Fede, Melissa, Ketty - me - for getting this issue together! Well done to us!!! Thank you all! Thank you to all the people behind the SEENs too: David, Gian, Silvia, Jason!
xxxxxxg

Slow but Steady

We are going to be out latter than we thought – the reason is we have, err, underestimated our communal capacity – we have some 70 pages of text, and some 100 pages of images!!! How did we do that kids? Well, it seems several of us just had to write more than 2000 words this time round.
We really don’t feel like cutting the images, and anyway, even if we tried to do 100 pages only, we’d have some 30 odd pages for the pics left… So, we are communicating with our fantastic printer, Alessandro, to find a solution …

Anyway, Martin is putting all your texts in Courier now, so you’re all being “courierd” – and from now on you are not allowed to use fancy texts for your original articles! Arial, 12 points, and no fancy build-up, like footnotes!
Melissa, Fede, and our new help, Ketty, have been working overtime to proof read all in time, including last minute time…
I guess at this point of our lives, if we print before the august holidays, we’ll be fortunate!!!

As Andrew J has the tendency to say: Hang on in there!

We’ll let you know when it's ready!

xg

Münster

If you can travel this summer, go to Münster. Go to Münster because you will see beautiful works there, installations in public space. Go to Münster because you will be really able to live the works that are there, the works from 1977, 1987, 1997, and 2007. You will walk through a town, and if you don’t have the little map with you which shows you which sculpture is where, you might just get confused and think that something is art – and doesn’t this border blurring between art and „art“ make everything more real? You can rent a bike and bike down to lake Aa, where you can meet the singing voice of Susan Philipzs under the bridge, where you can lie on the grass under the Antenna which Ilya Kabakov put up in 1997, and you can sit on the wood stairs of the Pier by Jorge Pardo (still 1997), staring at the water. You will see History of Art pass by, jumping from the past into the present, as Donald Judds sculpture, “untitled” (1977) coils itself on the grass, and where we suspect people will sit, and write their names (Hänsel loves Gretel… ) – traces of words and loves that may still be seen, scrubbed clean, but not invisible.

Under the Torminbrücke over the Lake Aa, listen to the sound installation by Susan Philipsz

Lie on the grass and read Ilya Kabakov's message against the sky

Donlad Judd's "untitled" from 1977 bears some traces of human cohabitation

If you buy one catalogue this year, buy the Sculpture Projects Münster catalogue. The only one in the collection (Venice Biennale, Documenta, and Sculpture Projects) that has artists writing about their work in it. The only one with an amazing glossary compiled by art historians, theorists and artists, defining, in a very different way, art terminology – a catalogue you will love to read.

From the Glossary (in brief):

Artworld - (…) On the one hand, Heidegger accords art the capacity to qualitatively inform an entire culture, while on the other making the art world responsible for why it cannot unfold this altering power and that works ultimately sink into the trivial, for in the art world they suffer “world-withdrawal and world-decay.” (…)
Wolfgang Ullrich – professor of art studies and media theory at the State Academy of Design in Karlsruhe
( Martin Heidegger, “Origin of the Work of Art”)

Collaboration – (…) The motivation behind today’s collaborations varies radically, almost in proportion to the number of different modes of working. A common explanation is the wish to practice generosity and sharing as an alternative to contemporary individualism and the traditional role of the romantic artist as a solitary genius. Self-determination in an ever more instrumentalized art world, both commercially and publicly, and a desire to be a more powerful force in society have also been mentioned as important motivations.(…)
Maria Lind – curator and critc

Desire – “Let yourself covet men’s culture, art, wisdom, honour,” postulated Friedrich Schleiermacher in 1798 as the tenth precept of his Idea for a Catechism of Reason for Noble Ladies. His enjoinment marks a manifold change of perspective on desire in the bourgeois era. (…)
Katharina Sykora – professor at the Braunschweig University of Art’s Institute of Art Studies

Migration – (…) Trans-border migration is not only constitutive for the nation and its borders; migration also creates new social spaces, relationships and family concepts, which normally are hardly ever noticed. Migration constantly contravenes national guidelines and border policies (…)
Marion von Osten – artist, author, and curator, professor at the Zürich School of Art and Design


If we say “do not judge the book by the cover” perhaps we can say “do not judge the exhibition by the catalogue” yet in this case, the amount of thought, care and knowledge that has been put into the Münster catalogue reflects the amount of thought, care, and knowledge put into the Sculpture Projects.

Wrong Art World!

I'm in the wrong art world!!! I'm in the art world where one still cleans ones own brushes, if one has the space to do ones own paintings in! I'm in the art world where one does ones own translations! I'm in the art world where parties involve some 15 people squashed in my little studio which is office to ArtSEEN and Büro Zürich in Florence, and where one has to negotiate the narrow floor space so as not to step on the drawing, but the parties are fun! Man, I am in the wrong art world!!!
It's a shocking realisation.... High heels are IN the RIGHT art world!
Plese copy, paste and read the article in link below - the work I missed in Venice, I have to go back to see it!
I'll wear my high heels, how's that!?
Seriously, the work is sublime... it's the Kosuth installation... with nice photos!!!

http://men.style.com/gq/blogs/styleguy/2007/06/def_in_venice.html

I'd like to dedicate this blog entry to my friend, Jason Mena, because I haven't had time to e-mail you --- get the heels out! ;)

xxxg

Another short break...

In Medias Res

The narrative for this e-mail will inevitably begin in the middle of things or 'in mezzo delle cose' because that is exactly where we are at. Of course there is always a beginning as well. We started our travels a few weeks ago in Venice and then ended up in Muenster via Kassel. There was so much to see and in some of the other blogs you can catch a glimpse of what we will be discussing in the upcoming summer edition of ArtSEEN Journal. But in any case the process continues, articles are written, art is SEEN, conversations occur, and time continues.

June has, thus, been a period of intense happenings and reflections. For me I suppose the artist life is bound to be somewhere in the middle. Today I was reading a text piece by Piero Manzoni. In it you can see the influence Lucio Fontana had on his early work, and I suppose I was slightly taken aback by Manzoni's vehemence but then again in the end he went on to describe just being. So there was passion and calm and just letting things go all in the same essay.

I prefer artists' words above all others

The artist gives us true insight into the way we perceive the world. Sometimes I like to mix and match my readings... As in I'll read artists' writings from different historic periods. Most discuss space and time and if they are not it is because during that period such themes were not at the forefront of the artistic debate and this was usually because ideas became too fixed and inflexible.