Warming Up For Contemporary Art Summer 2012
The exciting summer season of art opened its doors on the 2nd June, with Manifesta 9: the only traveling European biennale dedicated to contemporary art that – after Rotterdam, Luxembourg, Ljubljana, Frankfurt, Donostia-San Sebastián, Trentino-Alto Adige and the Region of Murcia – chose this year to takes place in the restored Waterschei Mine complex, located in the industry-leading city of Genk, Belgium.
Curated by the Mexican art critic, curator and historian Cuauthémoc Medina with associate curators Katerina Gregos and Dawn Ades, the concept of the 9th edition of Manifesta is based on the dialogue between art, history, geographical and social issues, focusing on the rise and the decline of industrial capitalism during the modern age. A former coal-mining site, which lies deep in the green fields, becomes the charming venue of a critical reflection that analyses and retraces the role of memory and cultural heritage in modern and post-modern societies.
Through the interpretations and critiques made by numerous past and contemporary artists around the object/metaphor ‘Coal’ – from the genius of Marcel Duchamp to Marcel Broodhaers’ ironic approach, from Bernd and Hilla Becher’s photographic testimony to the ‘energetic’ neon sculpture by Claire Fontaine and the video installation by the young Italian artist Rossella Biscotti – Manifesta 9 plumbs the depths of the modernity both by recording and transforming the outlook of social development between new and historical, local and global.
Manifesta 9, which will run until the 30th September, is just the first event on an art lover’s calendar. Our tour goes from Belgium to Germany, more precise: to Kassel, where another world’s leading art show will open next week. From the 9th June until the 16th September, it’s the turn of dOCUMENTA 13 – this year under the direction of the global citizen and art connoisseur Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev – that traditionally comes back every five years to last for exactly 100 days. The event, which usually attracts thousands of people (in 2007 visitors were 750.000) in spite of the small size and the isolated location of the host city, will present a survey of new artistic trends. Thanks to the works by more than 150 artists, and to a variety of collateral events spread around the city, dOCUMENTA affirms itself as one the hottest destinations of the international contemporary art summer.
The countdown has started even for the icing on the cake of this season: Art Basel, the kermesse where the top representatives of art and design gather together from all over the world to show off their masterpieces in Switzerland. Art Basel hosts over 300 leading galleries and more than 2500 artists – from old masters to emerging talents. It will open on the 14th June and it will run until the 17th, being a byword for art excellence accompanied, as each year, by smaller fairs (among which Volta, Liste and Scope and great shows.
2012 holds the turn of Jeff Koons at Fondation Bayeler, Gerrit Rietveld at Vitra Design Museum, Tatlin at Tinguely and the artist nominated for Turner prize 2011 Hilary Lloyd at Kunstmuseum (just to mention a few).
Enjoy the art season!
