1.
MoMA’s time travel
Since the Museum of Modern Art started its collection in 1929, thousands of worthwhile projects have made their way through its doors. Now, over 3500 of those exhibitions from its past and present can be enjoyed thanks to the new free online archive, starting from the first in 1929 (a showcase of post-impressionist artworks). In addition to the new digital exhibition archive, MoMA already has almost 70.000 pieces of art available to view online for free.
2.
The end of an era for Tate
After 28 years, Nicholas Serota will step down as director of the Tate in 2017 and will join the Arts Council as chairman in February. The process of finding a new director will begin immediately and is being guided by a specially appointed committee of trustees and external advisers including senior artists. It was his vision that led to the creation of Tate Modern and the redefinition of the original gallery at Millbank as Tate Britain. He led the creation of Tate St Ives and has also sought to strengthen the role of Tate as a national institution through the further development of Tate Liverpool.
3.
Ai Weiwei’s first time in Italy
The Chinese artist is the first artist to exhibit across the entirety of Palazzo Strozzi in Florence. Starting from the façade of the building, he presents a series of new and major works in “Libero”. Mirroring the artist’s relationship between tradition and modernity, key works will be hung in response to the architecture of the Palazzo Strozzi, a 15th-century palace built as a political statement considered today to embody the history of Florence.
4.
Ulay vs Abramović
Despite a seemingly peaceful encounter during The Artist is Present in 2015 at MoMA, Ulay brought his ex Marina Abramović to court in the same year, claiming that she violated a contract signed in 1999 regarding works they had created together. Defending his rights as a joint author, he alleged that Abramović failed to provide him with accurate statements of sales, and had paid him only four times in the course of 16 years. The Amsterdam court thus found Ulay entitled to royalties of 20 percent net on sales of their works, thereby requiring Abramović to fork over more than €250.000.
5.
Gallery for untrained artists
A new Gallery of Everything, the UK’s first commercial space dedicated to the work of self-taught artists opened in London with an exhibition co-curated by former Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker and James Brett, who founded, in 2009, the itinerant Museum of Everything for self-taught art. The gallery’s first exhibition, “Journeys Into the Outside,” takes its title from a 1998 BBC documentary about untrained artists, hosted by Cocker. Monies raised by sales at the gallery will go directly towards helping the museum.
6.
Conceptual Art Emirati pioneer passed away
Hassan Sharif, the celebrated Emirati artist known as the grandfather of contemporary art in the UAE, died at 65 years old. He began his artistic career in 1973, drawing caricature cartoons for local newspapers. He earned his degree in fine art and design from the Byam Shaw School of Art in London, then he returned to the UAE with the goal of cultivating an audience for contemporary art in the gulf region. He founded the Emirates Fine Art Society in 1980, and in 1984 he established Al Marijah Art Atelier in Sharjah, a space for emerging artists where Sharif acted as an informal teacher and mentor. In 2005, he co-founded the Flying House in Dubai, an arts space that promoted contemporary Emirati artists.
7.
Futuristic exhibition space in HK
In the West Kowloon Cultural District, one of the largest cultural projects in the world, located on Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour, the first permanent venue for exhibitions and events has opened with a show by Tsang Kin-Wah. M+ Pavilion, a mirror-clad pavilion that cantilevers out of a hillside, has been designed by the collaborative team of VPANG architects, Tynnon Chow from JET architecture, and Lisa Cheung. It will be run by M+, the major new Museum of Visual Culture designed by Herzog & de Meuron, which is currently under construction nearby.
8.
Inventor of the synthesizer died at 79
Don Buchla, a pioneer of elecronic music, passed away in his home in California. Buchla was an experimental musician and composer who built his own instruments in order to create new sounds. Studying music and astronomy, he earned his degree in physics in 1959. He conceived of the voltage-controlled modular synthesizer in 1963 at the same time as Robert Moog, who came out with his own device in 1964.
9.
V&A director against Brexit Vote
Martin Roth decided to step down from his position as a direct result of the Brexit vote and will return to his native Germany. Roth was appointed in 2011 as the first foreign director of the V&A since it was founded in 1852. He declared that the UK dropping out of Europe means for him creating cultural barriers. Under his leadership the V&A won the UK’s largest arts prize this summer, when it was named the 2016 Museum of the Year.
10.
Another Pompidou in Brussels
The Centre Pompidou announced that it is going to open a new modern and contemporary museum in the Belgian capital by 2020. The Centre Pompidou has agreed to loan artworks from its 120,000-work collection, advise the new institution on acquisitions strategies, and collaborate on programming. The first exhibition will be presented in 2018. An architectural design competition will be launched by the end of the year to renovate the hosting the Art Deco garage of Citroën.
Silvia Meloni
Featured image: AAA-AAA (performance RTB, Liege) (1977), Marina Abramovic & Ulay
CuratingtheContemporary (CtC) 