Openings & Exhibitions: May 2016

4^th || Wednesday

Parasol Unit, Zorkshop: Uncertainty Principles, 6.30 – 8.30pm

In this workshop it will be possible to examine innovative poems, mixing analogue with digital, natural with synthetic, real with hyperreal. In a mutually supportive and interdisciplinary workshop, people will be encouraged to experiment with a sequence of inspiring poetry exercises. Examining to what extent the uncanny photography of David Claerbout, Elger Esser, Julie Monaco and Jörg Sasse can inform our own poetical practices, the aim is to make works that challenge notions of what’s real, normal, and permissible below the surface of a poem. Booking is required (£8/6).

Royal Academy of Arts, Olafur Eliasson in conversation with Tim Marlow, 6.30 – 7.30pm

Renowned Danish-Icelandic artist, Olafur Eliasson, is joined by the RA’s Artistic Director Tim Marlow to discuss his extraordinary architectural projects and works in public spaces over the past 20 years. Eliasson’s art is driven by his interests in perception, movement, embodied experience, and feelings of self, as well as his desire to make the concerns of art relevant to society at large.

This event coincides with the publication of Studio Olafur Eliasson: Unspoken Spaces, the first major book and monograph on his architectural projects and works in public spaces around the world.

5^th || Thursday

Window Space, It Is Probably Better To Start From Zero #2.2 Juan Crespo, PV 6.30 – 8.30

After marking its mid-point with #0.2 Workshop, IT IS PROBABLY BETTER TO START FROM ZERO presents a second intervention by each of the four artists exhibited previously, over the next four months. By coming back into the Window Space, the artists present the progress of their ongoing research and practice, taking into account the effects of their relation with the curators, the other artists and the space itself.

For this next instalment artist Juan Crespo focuses on architecture as a colonial tool to neutralise local imaginary in Africa. This presentation is concerned about how the historical fact is represented and transmitted, rather than the history in itself.

House of Vans, Substance Rift, PV 6pm

An exhibition that unearths the relationship between the virtual and the real, the processes of the hand made and the digital through the work of eight contemporary artists. It will investigate the rich territory between the tradition of painting and sculpture and the purpose of making in the digital era.

Including artworks by: Natalia Janula, Thomas Hamen, Mike J Scott, Giusy Pirotta, Zanny Mellor, Tom Hume, Tim Hill, Gala Bell.

12 Vyner Street, Convergence: Swim, Walk, Explore, PV 6pm

Flow, meander, trace, explore. These four principles drive artists Lucy Devenish and Luke M. Walker on their urban exploits following the lost rivers of London from their sources to the River Thames. Amidst a dissonant cacophony, the artists must rigorously edit down their findings, presenting only a selection of the most relevant material, in an effort to remain true to the path. The outcome of each walk and the subsequent work produced therefore remain unpredictable.

Through the undertaking of joint expeditions, they examine the plurality of a shared experience through a series of print works.

11^th || Wednesday

South London Gallery, Open-Talks: Laure Prouvost, 7pm

Open-talks is a series of talks conceived by the South London Gallery and Camberwell College of Arts. For this presentation artist Laure Prouvost revisits her film It, Heat, Hit (2010) and the resulting project 8 Responses. The talk is accompanied by a one-day presentation of the film and new work related to the project, and a commissioned silk handkerchief produced by Camberwell Press. Booking online (£ 3/5)

12^th || Thursday

The Bank Space Gallery, Preparing the Site, 6.30 – 8.45pm

The Bank Space Gallery presents Preparing the Site, a group exhibition exploring how material processes and methods of display are used to alter the physical and metaphorical function of a space or site.

The exhibition combines new and existing work, as well as site-specific pieces by seven UK-based artists; Anne Bean, Camilla Bliss, Jeannie Driver, Sarah Roberts, Janek Shaeffer and Jasper Weinstein Sheffield, along with an improvised sound performance by musicians and sound artists John Butcher and John Macedo, happening the 19th of May.

13^th || Friday

British Library, Punk 1976-78

An exhibition that celebrates the 40th anniversary of this unique and exciting musical phenomenon.

Starting with the impact of the Sex Pistols in 1976, the exhibition explores punk’s early days in the capital and reveals how it is remarkable influence spread across music, fashion, print and graphic styles nationwide. Showcasing a range of fanzines, flyers, recordings and record sleeves from the British Library’s collections alongside rare material from the archives held at Liverpool John Moores University, including items from England’s Dreaming: The Jon Savage Archive, it celebrates the enduring influence of punk as a radical musical, artistic and political movement.

17^th || Tuesday

XL Catlin Art Prize 2016, Londonewcastle Project Space

Celebrating its 10th year, this curated exhibition is now firmly established as an influential showcase for the most outstanding artists from UK art schools.

This year’s finalists are: Rory Biddulph (Slade School of Fine Art, MA Fine Art), Jude Crilly (Royal College of Art, MA Sculpture), Jamie Fitzpatrick, (Royal College of Art, MA Sculpture), Christopher Gray (Goldsmiths, BA Fine Art & History of Art), Jane Hayes Greenwood (City & Guilds of London Art School, MA Fine Art), Hamish Pearch (Camberwell College of Arts, BA Sculpture) and Neal Rock (Royal College of Art, PhD Painting by Practice).

Selected from the annual XL Catlin Art Guide for their potential to make an impact in the art world over the next decade and beyond, each finalist is commissioned to produce an ambitious new body of work. A panel of judges will select one artist to receive an award of £5,000.

20^th || Friday

ICA, 100 Years of Dada: Dada in dialogue with the present, 6.30pm

A short film programme curated by John Canciani and Aline Juchler (Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur). With newer works screening in response to the original Dada films, it will be asked whether contemporary filmmakers evoke the spirit of Dada. Following the selection, it will be a discussion about the dialogue between the original Dadaist films and their contemporary counterparts, as well as delving into the reasons why Dadaism was originally created, and why in today’s political climate, filmmakers, curators and audiences alike still see Dadaism as relevant. The panel includes Juri Steiner (Curator, dada 100, Zürich), Aline Juchler (Curator, Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur), John Canciani (Artistic Director Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur) and is chaired by Gareth Evans, (Journalist and Curator, Whitechapel Gallery).

25^th || Wednesday – 29^th || Sunday

ICA, Artist’s Film Biennal

A five-day celebration of artists’ film and moving image, the Biennial, now in its second edition, will offer audiences the opportunity to see some of the best new film and rarely seen works in one place and engage directly with artists, curators and industry practitioners from all over the world.

Themes of social and political identity permeate the content and subjects explored by the biennial participants. These themes underpin moving image’s relevance in 2016 and emphasise its role as a discursive tool, pushing discussions beyond the walls of the auditorium and into the everyday.

26^th || Thursday

Hauser & Wirth, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Curated by Julie Ault and Roni Horn, PV 6 – 8pm

A three-part exhibition of the work of Felix Gonzalez-Torres will open at Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York; Massimo De Carlo, Milan; and Hauser & Wirth, London in May 2016. Curated by artists Julie Ault and Roni Horn, each exhibition will focus on the dialogue between works within an essential form that Gonzalez-Torres created.

Silvia Meloni