The Kumasi Curio Kiosk Project

The Kumasi Curio Kiosk Project
Tapping Local Resources For Sustainable Education Through Art
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST)/AfriCOAE
Department of General Art Studies, College of Arts and Social Sciences,
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana
Phone: Nana Afia Opoku-Asare-KNUST: 233 (0)20 8
Contact: Barthosa Nkurumeh
africoae@gmail.com
www.afropoets.tripod.com/eta,

July 31-August 14, 2009
All submissions will be reviewed until available space is filled.
CALL FOR ARTS PRACTITIONERS - The Kumasi Curio Kiosk Project

One means of Tapping Local Resources for Sustainable Education through Art is by bringing together specialists form diverse parts of the world in a trans-national platform for inter-trading of cultural and knowledge capital in evidence-based society. In the Kumasi Curio Kiosks Project, the trade of intellectual capital from the specialist to the generalist requires both the sharing of existing and onward replication of the modules of knowledge that may accrue. Interestingly, the specialist participant will create a Curio Kiosk of 6 x 6ft for a temporary exhibition/stock of works by the specialist, and relevant other national cultural/intellectual capital for trading with the locals. The 6 x 6ft kiosk can be conceived as a mental space or a constructed physical space with any material, constructed on site or pre-fabricated, and as an individual enterprise or a collaborative one.

In the Kumasi case, we refer to the cluster of curio kiosks as a Trade Commune; a historical allusion be made subtly but we use the term 'curio kiosks' in anticipation that the outward design will invoke curiosity or content will bear special attraction to the locals. The setting for a Trade Commune may be a Kumasi city street, university campus, or a village within the Kumasi metro, as appropriate to the design of the arts participant. The mode of exchange is open in manners of traditional lectures, demonstrations, workshops, dialogical methods, and direct exchanges of material culture; or the post-modernist modalities in the way of performances, slide/new media/film screenings, and a hundred others. A trade may be by barter, cash, gift to the local or what ever is simpler and mutual. The trade is not just an inventory of arts data, cross-cultural process of negotiation and sharing of evidence creation; it is an engagement in a particular kind of commercial enterprise through use of the arts. Relying on collaboration, and free exercise of the arts, we therefore seek to stimulate for intellectual freedom and renewed vision of the arts as economic-cultural capital in the city. Because the process and structure encourages integration/assertion of the participant's institutional knowledge and national cultural capital, the supposition is that the individual or group would attract sponsorship for own costs from home institution or country.

The Kumasi Curio Kiosks Project is a project session of 'The Kumasi Symposium: Tapping Local Resources for Sustainable Education through Art'. The arts-based social experiment is designed to provide a context that will stimulate the artist, scholar and activist participants to place themselves and their practice into question and possibly resolutions through collaboration and cultural/artistic interchange. The pre-symposium session will run from July 31-August 8 2009 and the symposium from July 11-14 2009. About 30 local artists will be selected to work alongside some invited international colleagues.

If interested in participating in the project, send an introductory material on you, and a statement of interest with sketches/description of your proposed 6 x 6 ft Curio Kiosk that should be set up at Kumasi between July 31-August 7 2009 to africoae@gmail.com, -indicate if any local needs will be required (max. one page). Space is limited; all submissions will be reviewed until space is filled. We are also accepting nominations for the Project Co-Curator, Convener, Provocateur and Roundtable Discussants.

CALL FOR PLENARY SESSIONS, DEMONSTRATIONS/WORKSHOPS, EXHIBITIONS/INTERVENTIONS, AND CONTEXT-SPECIFIC PERFORMANCES - Tapping Local Resources For Sustainable Education Through Art

A call is made for contributions addressing one or more of the symposium strands and topics: Art Education Practice, Studio Practice, Curatorial/Museum/Community Arts Practice, Art History/Criticism, Arts Administration/Management/Marketing Practice, and Open Session. The aim of this symposium will be to map a multiplicity of perspectives and initiate conversations which seek to help us navigate and understand our position as individuals and communities in dealing with the issue of sustainability in the 21st century to enable fresh vistas to visual arts education developments in Ghana and perhaps similar settings. Submissions are, therefore, invited from people who would like to present in the symposium plenary sessions or support activities such as demonstrations/workshops, exhibitions/interventions, and site-specific tours of local national resources. Expression of interest and proposals for panels and Exhibitions/Practical Workshops will be reviews until January 17, 2009. We expect about 200 participants from around the world. The working language of the conference will be English. Applications for individual paper presentation and participation will be reviewed until the space is filled. All abstracts and brief biographies should be submitted to africoae@gmail.com. More at http://afropoets.tripod.com/eta

CONTACT PERSONS:
(1) Barthosa Nkurumeh, AfriCOAE General Secretary, Instructional Leadership & Academic Curriculum Dept, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73070, USA. E-mail: nkurumeh@ou.edu

(2) Nana Afia Opoku-Asare, Head of Department, Department of General Art Studies, College of Arts and Social Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology-KNUST, Kumasi, Ghana. E-mail: naopoku-asare.art@knust.edu.gh, afia_asare@yahoo.co.uk Tel: 233 (0)20 816-8598/233 (0)51 634 83.

fake or feint

Scenario 1: Claude Cahun, Eran Schaerf
fake or feint
im Berlin Carré
Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 13
10178 Berlin
Phone: +49 171 74 84 366
Contact: Joerg Franzbecker
office@fakeorfeint.org
www.fakeorfeint.org

Opening on January the 10th from 7 to 9 p.m.

Opening hours:
Thursday + Friday 4 to 7 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on appointment
The first scenario of the exhibition series fake or feint, from January 10th to February 7th 2009, shows photographic self-portraits by Claude Cahun and an installation by Eran Schaerf. The opening is on January 10th from 7 to 9 p.m.

Claude Cahun's (1894-1954) photographic work was widely overlooked by art history until its rediscovery in the 1980s, when, against the background of feminist debates, it gained unexpected relevance. Influenced by contemporary currents of symbolism and surrealism, her self-portraits display a unique perspective on the body, staged as a projection screen for social norms and personal and external desires. A play with disguise and gender masquerade inquires the relation of gaze and being seen, and the way this becomes effective in the visual setup of the portrait. Her work thereby refers to cultural stereotypes of her time, which are decoded and subverted, confronting them with a subtle and unpredictable expressivity. Shown are three photographic works from the 1920s.

Eran Schaerf sets up a combined re-enactment of prior works.

The installation Voile lances the room with a cloth panel, its course following the basic architectonic structures. In a gesture of reduplication a second, semi-transparent room is created. The attention is directed to the way how architecture opens the room as a stage for views and movements, thus enabling and structuring social interaction. This diaphanous barrier, resembling a curtain or a veil, is a marking that unfolds a play of visibility that crosses the coding of the public and the intimate.

The situation established by Voile is continued by a narration of the Sapeurs, drawing on clothing as a practice with manifold cultural, gender-related and functional codifications. La Sape (short for: La Société des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Élégantes) is a movement originating from Kongo. Its mostly male protagonists use western designer brands for distinctive self-representation. Eran Schaerf frames the intricate trails of global exchange and the contradictions arising from acts of appropriation and translation into a narrative setting: A shirt by Paul Smith becomes a momentum of crisis in the life of a Sapeur. In Paris, the Sapeur comes across a shirt, which has its own history of migration. It is tailored from a Kanga, a rectangular piece of cloth, which in Africa serves in different functions as a garment.

fake or feint is a seven-month exhibition project taking place at Berlin Carré at Alexanderplatz, Berlin. Five consecutive exhibition scenarios and a film scenario at Kino Arsenal at Potsdamer Platz deal with the politics of the surface and acts of marking as an intervention. Internationally renowned artists show works ranging from photography, video- and space installation to site-specific intervention. A ‚second section' designed by artist Katrin Mayer hosts a process-related archive with selected material. A series of events accompanies the exhibitions with seminars, lectures, performances and artist talks. fake or feint is funded by Hauptstadtkulturfonds.

Upcoming scenarios:

Scenario 2 (February 21st to March 21st, 2009)
Kaucyila Brooke, Sofie Thorsen / Katharina Lampert

Scenario 3 (March 9th, 16th and 23rd, 2009)
A film program curated by Elena Zanichelli and Joerg Franzbecker, taking place at Kino Arsenal at Potsdamer Platz.

Scenario 4 (April 4th to May 2nd, 2009)
Amy Granat, Annja Krautgasser, Katrin Mayer

Scenario 5 (May 16th to June 13th, 2009)
Daniela Comani, Keren Cytter, Heiko Karn

Scenario 6 (June 27th to July 25th, 2009)
e-Xplo, Daniel Knorr, Eske Schlüters / Axel Gaertner

Series of lectures and performances with contributions by:

Martin Beck / Johannes Schülein, Elena Esposito, Tom Holert, Jan Kedves, Hanne Loreck, Annette Maechtel, Performerstammtisch, Markus Rautzenberg, Tim Stüttgen and Michael Zinganel.

Team:

Joerg Franzbecker with Martin Beck (curators), Adrian Bremenkamp (catalogue and archive), Bärbel Hartje (consultant), Katrin Mayer (exhibition design), Flo Gaertner (graphic design), Elena Zanichelli (film program).

Exhibition venues:

Berlin Carré shopping mall at Alexanderplatz, Karl-Liebknecht-Strasse 13, Berlin
Film program: Kino Arsenal at Potsdamer Platz (March 9th, 16th and 23rd, 2009)

Opening hours:
Thursday + Friday 4 to 7 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on appointment.
For further information concerning events and the upcoming scenarios please see: http://www.fakeorfeint.org

'Dogs on Rocks - in the Woods - at the Seaside'

'Dogs on Rocks - in the Woods - at the Seaside'
Galerie Bugdahn und Kaimer
Mutter-Ey-Strasse 5
D- 40213 Duesseldorf, Germany
Phone: +49 - (0)211- 329140
Fax: +49- (0)211- 329147
Contact: Udo Bugdahn
bugdahn.kaimer@t-online.de
www.bugdahnundkaimer.com

Gallery hours: Tu-Fr 12 noon - 6 pm, Sa 12 noon - 4 pm
WILLIAM WEGMAN 'DOGS ON ROCKS – IN THE WOODS – AT THE SEASIDE'

Following our exhibitions of photo pieces and Polaroids by William Wegman (*1943) in the years 1995, 1997 and 2004, and of drawings in 2007, Galerie Bugdahn und Kaimer now presents a series of new coloured photographic works by this American, New York-based conceptual artist who is equally at home in the media of painting, drawing, video, film and photography.

The photographs shown in the exhibition 'Dogs on Rocks – in the Woods – at the Seaside' are Chromogenic prints, 14 x 11 inches / 35.5 x 28 cm, made in an edition of twelve. Most were taken on Baker's Island, on Wellington Dock in Southwest Harbor, and in a few other places nearby on the Maine coast during late July and August. They span a period of ten years and include six dogs from four generations: Chundo, Batty, Chip, Bobbin, Candy and Penny.

A hardbound Artist's Book, William Wegman: Dogs On Rocks, is just out, with 136 pages and 86 colour plates, and is available at the exhibition.

Wegman's name is linked inseparably with his photographs of Weimaraner dogs. He first became known for cryptically ironic photographic and video works (with and without dogs); but in the 1970s he attained world renown when he discovered the talents of his first Weimaraner dog, Man Ray, as a gifted model and an ideal interpreter of human idiosyncrasies. As Wegman recalls, some dogs dislike being stared at; but Man Ray insisted on it.

In 1979, the Polaroid Corporation invited the artist to work with a newly developed camera, the now legendary Polaroid 24 x 20 Inches (60 x 50 cm). Sceptical at first, Wegman familiarised himself with the enormous instrument that looked like a cross between a refrigerator and a cello, as he put it, and soon found himself enthusing over the unusual picture scale. The outcome was a remarkable oeuvre of singularly sharp, large-scale photographs, each a unique piece, as only this Polaroid camera – one of only three in existence worldwide – can produce.

In 1981, Man Ray died. Only in 1986 was he succeeded by Fay Ray, a born dog diva with no less flair. Fay opened the door to altogether new motifs. She could move gracefully, assume different positions and poses, arch her neck, turn her head round, cross her legs. She liked to impress him, Wegman says. Meanwhile the fifth generation of her offspring pose in front of the camera.

William Wegman is a master in his handling of the photographic medium, versed in generating from the interplay with his dogs one new, startling pictorial idea after the other, sublime in quality and originality. Many of his photographs have the air of paintings and recall subtle still life compositions and film sequences. Apart from which his Weimaraners remain unsurpassed in beauty, expressive power and elegance.

Photographs by Wegman can be seen in exhibitions in museums and international galleries the world over and have entered all the larger collections. Numerous retrospectives have been devoted to his work, touring the U.S. to stop at many venues including the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and beyond, in Japan, Korea and Europe.

Besides film segments regularly featured since 1989 in Sesame Street, Wegman has also made films and videos for such programmes as Saturday Night Live and Nickelodeon. His film, The Hardly Boys in Hardly Gold, was shown to great acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival.

Today William Wegman and his Weimaraners are amongst the most popular figures on the international art and media scene.

The Private View is on Saturday, January 10, from 1 – 5 pm. Exhibition to February 21, 2009.
Gallery open Tuesday - Friday 12 noon – 6 pm, Saturday 12 noon – 4 pm; and by appointment.

In-between worlds: The Art Of Nick Ervinck

Kunstverein Ahlen
Kőnigstrasse 7
59207 Ahlen
Phone: + 49.2382.3511
Fax: +49.2382. 60863
Contact: Angelika Kossmann
kossmann@fd-ahlen.de
www.kunstvereinahlen.de

18 January 2009 - 22 February 2009
Opening: Sunday 11 January 2009
Opening hours:
Thursday-Saturday 15-18 PM
and Sunday 11 AM - 17 PM
In-between worlds: Reality and virtuality in the art of Nick Ervinck

by Anneke Bokern

A large yellow ball lies in the middle of a facetted brick column structure, which is lit up from the inside. The object is intricately detailled, stands on a heptagonal base, light shining through some ornamental slits. At first, the viewer is irritated. Not that the sculpture doesn't evoke associations: the images that layer themselves in front of the inner eye range from Renaissance baptisteries to archaic temples and the well in the fairy tale about the frog prince. There are rather too many than too few references, and none of them is unambiguous. The fact that the sculpture with the title CORECHNOTS is only knee-high, but that a very similar object appears as an approximately thirty meter high building in a landscape on a digital print (which enriches the multitude of references with allusions to utopian architecture, such as El Lissitzky's 'cloud-irons'), obviously makes it a model. Or is the opposite the case, does the print show a larger-than-life-sized digital model of the sculpture? Does the sculpture belong to the virtual world and has entered our reality? Or is it a design for a different reality?

Nick Ervinck's works play with the viewer's image of reality. They trigger a dialogue between print and sculpture, between virtual and real world, and it is in this in-between space that the young Belgian artist's works live. Mostly, they exist in several media simultaneously, without being subject to a linear system of interdependence. 'My virtual images constantly infect the real world and the other way around', Ervinck explains. Accordingly, questions about a chronological order or a hierarchy of media are futile. Study is final work, computer rendering is sculpture, image is object.

Complexity as an answer to a complex world

Ervinck's works form a parallel universe, which obeys exclusively to its own laws and is inhabited mainly by architectural objects, by blobs, boxes and archetypes. In his film installations, these become unexpectedly dynamic – morphing, growing, shrinking and bubbling to the heart's content. The short film sequences are in fact visual poems, which one can keep watching for hours without getting bored, even though they don't have a narrative structure. The sculptures become snap shots that have been transported into the tangible world, meaning that they can be read as materialized film stills. This absurd thought barely formulated, however, one already has to ask oneself again whether the opposite might not rather be the case, and the films illustrate the different developmental stadia of the sculptures.

It doesn't make things easier that the different media are increasingly converging in Ervinck's oeuvre. By definition, computer animation is a fast, modern medium and sculpture is a slow, traditional medium. Ervinck, however, is working on perfecting both in order to let them become as 'realistic' as possible, as paradoxical as that might sound in the context of his art. Considering the increasing refinement of computer technology and the skill that Ervinck is acquiring at making his sculptures, this should eventually lead to optical congruence. Will Ervinck's universe have become reality then? That's probably not even his aim. As he once said, he isn't interested in the real world. That might be true, as in fact Ervinck creates art about the creation of art and about creative processes, a kind of meta-art, which can appear nearly autistic in its obsessiveness, perfectionism and surrealism. On the other hand, Ervinck does create his art in response to reality. 'The world is complex', says the artist. 'As a reaction to this, I have decided to create an even more complex world, which helps me to understand the real world.' He has been working on his alternative world for years, even though it can only be realized partly or in models.

Art and perfection

And yet, makeability plays an important role in Ervinck's art. As counterpart to the graphical evolution of the computer images, he researches the possibilities and limitations of materials in his sculptural work. For SIUTOBS, he produced thousands of tiny bricks, measuring 5 x 9 millimetres, just big enough to still lay them. Here, his predilection for manic puzzlework meets his perfectionism and his fascination for the limits of makeability. 'I'm looking for the extreme in miniature. How small can something be if it's still supposed to be perfect?'

Therefore it comes as no surprise that Ervinck wanted to become an accountant when he was a teenager. His penchant for systemizing, tabulating and planning the world – albeit according to an utterly idiosyncratic system – has resulted in a personal image archive, which counts nearly 18,000 images, organized in alphabetical order. As anagrams, constructed from several words, the cryptic titles of Ervinck's works also relate to the system of this archive. He is the librarian of his own universe. Besides his own works, the archive originally also included photos found on Google, but by now the computer animations have gained the upper hand. Or as Ervinck puts it: 'The virtual world is increasingly sucking up reality'. It only adds to the intricacy of this artistic hall of mirrors, that the images of reality were taken from the virtual space of the internet.

As surreal as Ervinck's universe may seem, though, it does incorporate references to reality. With the exception of the abstract blobs and boxes, many of his creations are figurative. They're archetypal building-, boat-, and sometimes even animal-shapes. He once saw a coral in a shop in Venice, was immediately fascinated by its structure, bought it and took it to his studio in Belgium. Since then, he has been making as accurate ceramic replicas as possible of the coral, in order to find out how far art and nature can converge, searching for a perfection that transcends human shortcomings.

Deus Artifex

In fact, Ervinck deals with age-old, basic artistic topics. The question whether the artist is capable of transcending nature and producing a world of his own goes back to Aristotle and Plato and has been running through the entire history of art theory. In the end, it's the question about the idea and whether it develops a posteriori from the contemplation of nature or a priori from the artist's brain. If one follows the first definition, the artist is limited to imitating the visible world; if one follows the second, he is an image of God and can create his own worlds from nothing.

Ervinck fuses both concepts in his art. He strives to perfectly imitate elements of the natural world and at the same time to perfectly create an artificial world. As deus artifex, he builds a universe that follows his own rules and which he controlls. While the sculptures are subject to the fallibility of craft and material, these imponderabilities are practically ruled out in the computer animations. They're subject only to the limits of technology and its handling. 'The straightness and controllability of the virtual world appeal to me', he says. It's no wonder that he avidly played with Lego-stones as a child and later became addicted to computer games, mainly to the so-called 'god games' like SimCity – games in which the player creates and controls a virtual microcosm. As an artist, he continues this fascination and is constantly busy constructing and deconstructing his own cosmos. His quest for controll doesn't only concern his works, but also their surroundings, and the different manifestations of his works always react to or even influence the exhibition space. Placing his works as pre-fabricated solitaires in a White Cube isn't his kind of thing.

Mutual fertilization

Maybe the reason for this is Ervinck's explicit interest in architecture. 'I see more energy and innovation in architecture than in sculpture', he asserts. In his works, he plays with architectural stereotypes just as much as with the ideological and aesthetic antagonism of blob and box. By turning the laws of architecture upside down, he creates impossible architectural images, which are perfectly normal in his world. Sometimes the combinations seem abstruse, like the huge yellow egg inside a brick building which is folded open, its facades turned outside in (SIUTOBS). One can think of the most famous and mysterious egg in art history, the one in Pero della Francesca's Pala Montefeltro (1472), or one can read it as a symbol of fertility. After all, the artist often talks about a 'mutual fertilization of the real and the virtual world'. Ervinck himself, however, simply explains the egg as 'the ultimate blob-shape'. He understands SIUTOBS as 'an ode to architecture, in which the walls, liberated of all function, become pure sculpture.'

According to him, corals are also a kind of blobs, because they can grow endlessly in all directions (which, by the way, is something they have in common with his image archive) and because their complex shapes can only be imitated perfectly with the help of digital technology. However, their relation to the scale of architecture is even more concrete. A few years ago, Ervinck realized during a stay in Berlin that the city is permeated by conduit pipes, which form a huge, invisible coral structure. That gave him the idea of building his coral sculptures out of standardized PVC pipe segments from the DIY shop – not as final works, but as nearly life-sized models (YAROTUBS). The aim is to eventually make them from metal. If there is anything that can stop Ervinck's creative and perfectionist urge at the moment, it's financial limitations. 'In fact, all my works are studies', he says and leaves open whether that is a conscious decision or not.

Another computer animation shows a coral sculpture made of brick, its branches ending in chimneys (GNI_D_GH_177_SEP2006). As with this work, it's often easy to place Ervinck's visual language in the tradition of Belgian surrealism. Accordingly, hardly any discussion of his works lacks a mention of Magritte. The artist himself mainly feels related to the free thinking of the surrealists. His aim is to not fulfill the viewer's expectations of logic or realism. In this way, he confronts the viewers with these expectations and at the same time grants them entrance to his own universe, where librarian's mentality and limitless creativity, controll and anarchy, microcosm and macrocosm come together.

From the catalogue Nick Ervinck GNI-RI jan 2009 published by Kunstverein Ahlen
www.nickervinck.com

Off the Kerb & Whitelion present ‘if...’

Off the Kerb
Gallery & Studios
66B Johnston Street
Collingwood 3066
p (03) 9077 0174
m 0400 530 464
e info@offthekerb.com.au
w www.offthekerb.com.au

Off the Kerb & Whitelion present ‘if...’

Opening Night: Friday 16th January 2009, 6pm – 9pm
Exhibition Dates: January 16th – January 30th 2009

Photographs by Chloe Robson, Wendy Megne & Greta Garbage

Whitelion is a not-for-profit organisation that supports young people to build better lives for themselves and helps make our community a safer place. Each year thousands of young people are disconnected from our community due to abuse and neglect, drug addiction and poverty. These young people have often had horrific life experiences with few positive role models and are caught in a 'cycle of discouragement' that is very hard to break. Many of these young people end up in Out-of-Home Care and in some cases in the Youth Justice System.

Chloe Robson, Wendy Megne and Greta Garbage are three young artists aged 16 - 21 years old, who have dedicated themselves passionately to producing this exhibition. Their photographs are unique, spellbinding and moving.

‘if...’ is the culmination of a 10 week program of workshops run by Whitelion and supported by City of Yarra Youth Services and ‘Off the Kerb’ Gallery. Using the unique and sometimes unpredictable Holga ‘plastic’ cameras these young artists creatively explored themes close to them. With images suggesting haunted corners, magical lands and social comment these young women present their unique and captivating view of the world.

Bridge Art Fair New York 2009

Bridge Art Fair New York 2009
The Waterfront
222 12th Avenue
Phone: +1-312-421-2227
Contact: Michael Workman/Chris Hudgens
info@bridgeartfair.com
www.bridgeartfair.com/newyorkindex.html
March 5 - March 8, 2009
Deadline to Apply :
January 17, 2009

DEADLINE TO APPLY FOR BRIDGE NEW YORK JANUARY 17; EXPANDED PRICING OPTIONS ANNOUNCED
Deadline for all applications TO Bridge Art Fair New York 09: January 17, 2009

In response to prevailing market concerns, Bridge has modified its floorplan to provide more affordable options for galleries seeking participation in the New York art fair market during Armory Show week, March 5-8, 2009.

'We are always happy to provide more ways for great art to find its market,' says Founder and Director, Michael Workman. 'Art fairs have become too expensive and in the current climate, it's important that we try harder to help galleries go further on less.' The final application deadline is January 17.

New plans includes the addition of a 100 sq. ft. 'Verge' section booth that, at $5,000, represents the most affordable rate of any art fair in New York. The 200 sq. ft. standard booth is now available for $10,000, and a premium booth size of 300 sq. ft., the most spacious booth ever offered by the fair, is now available at $14,000.

These new Bridge rates and booth sizes provide a way for exhibitors to access an audience in 2008 well in excess of 12,000 attendees, for the price of a single page ad in Artforum. Unlike magazine advertising, however, participation in Bridge ensures direct face-to-face encounters with some of the top collectors in America and around the world, as well as museum, private collection and corporate curators, and large numbers of the national and international art press.

Galleries are encouraged to apply using a newly modified application now available for download at http://www.bridgeartfair.com/newyorkapplication.html.

Bridge New York '08 will present more than 60 international exhibitors from such diverse locales as Austria, Canada, China, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Korea, the Philippines, Spain, Switzerland, the UK, and the United States.

DOWNLOAD APPLICATION

http://www.bridgeartfair.com/newyorkapplication.html

For additional information, please write to us at: info@bridgeartfair.com.

Verge booth: 100 sq ft, $5,000
Standard booth: 200 sq ft, $10,000
Premium booth: 300 sq ft, $13,000

ABOUT BRIDGE ART FAIR

Bridge Art Fair, the Independent International Exposition of Art and Visual Culture, is a transnational art fair organization currently staging events in Berlin, Miami, New York, London and Basel, Switzerland.

Bridge Art Fair currently presents a combined total of nearly 300 galleries and over 2,000 artists at four expositions throughout the year. Visitors will discover a truly global selection of contemporary work from every imaginable medium, including but not limited to painting, prints, photography, sculpture, installation, drawing, film, video, new media, and conceptual art. In the short time since the premier of Bridge Miami Beach in 2006, total sales of nearly $30 million and more than 100,000 visitors have confirmed Bridge as a leading voice in the global art market.

MEDIA CONTACT

For more information, interviews or to register for press credentials, contact our marketing department at (312) 421-2227 or email at marketing@bridgeartfair.com.

PRESS HIGHLIGHTS from Bridge NY08:

Artinfo.com:
http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/27236/relaxing-at-pool-bustling-at-bridge/
(from Artinfo.com)
Relaxing at the Pool, Bustling at Bridge
'…gallerists said Thursday's preview and opening night reception were packed, and they had the red dots to prove it.'

Armory Week in Review: A Scorecard
'It was a pleasure to welcome this Miami native to New York City, and to find it in an excellent venue…this was a solid first appearance, and I believe we can now regard Bridge as a regular on the New York fair roster.'

Artfacts.net: Interview with Michael Workman
http://www.artfacts.net/index.php/pageType/newsInfo/newsID/4049

Bloomberg Press:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=aPzuJybiA7JA&refer=muse

Artinfo.com:
http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/27193/armory-satellites-plus-three-minus-one/

BREAD-MEN WALKING IN HONG KONG CITY

Tatsumi Orimoto
Bread-Men + Finger Dolls
Para/Site Art Space
G/F, 4 Po Yan Street,
Sheung Wan,
Hong Kong
Phone: +852 2517 4620
Fax: +852 2517 6850
Contact: Dominique Chiu
dominique@para-site.org.hk
www.para-site.org.hk

Event: PERFORMANCE: BREAD-MEN WALKING IN HONG KONG CITY
Date: 16 January, 2009
Time: 5pm
Venue: From Para/Site Art Space to area around Graham Street Market, Sheung Wan
Event: LECTURE and SMALL PERFORMANCE: FINGER DOLLS
Date: 17 January, 2009
Time: 3pm
Venue: Para/Site Art Space, G/F, 4 Po Yan Street, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong
Curator: Alvaro Rodriguez Fominaya


Japanese Artist Tatsumi Orimoto Brings His Bread-Man Performance to Hong Kong

Para/Site Art Space is honored to present two new performances by Tatsumi Orimoto. The Japanese artist will perform his Bread-Man series in the area around Graham Street Market on the 16th of January. On the following day, he will perform his Finger Dolls series at Para/Site Art Space.

This is the first time he performs in China, and for the occasion he will recreate Bread-Man, which is a historic street action that he started in 1991. This time a large group of unique Bread-Men will walk through the streets of Hong Kong.

Tatsumi Orimoto (1946, Kawasaki, Japan) is one of the most renowned Japanese photographers and art performers. He moved to California where he studied at California Institute of the Arts, relocating later to New York where he was an assistant to Fluxus artist Nam Jun Paik. He participated in the Fluxus exhibition in New York, and later developed a collaborative work with Viennese Actionist Herman Nitsch. Ever since he went back to Japan in 1977, he has been devoting himself to his art works and the care of his elderly mother. This resulted in the project Art Mama, which has played a central role in the development of his later work as he started documenting the aging process of his Alzheimer's mother.

His performances are connected to the everyday experience of life. Through Bread-Man, he has created an alter ego that represents modern life and how we relate to the Other in contemporary society. Setting out from Para/Site Art Space at 5pm, Orimoto will take his fellow Bread-Men down Hollywood Road and go straight into Graham Street Market, a famous wet market in Hong Kong, where the consort of Bread-Men will communicate with the public.

Finger Dolls, the other event that is taking place in Hong Kong, relates to his latest project in which a sculptural component is brought into life, as the finger dolls used in this performance are crafted by the artist. Orimoto uses a common child toy and updates it into adult life. The performance will begin at 3pm at Para/Site Art Space, followed by a lecture by the artist himself.

Tatsumi Orimoto has exhibited in the Venice Biennial 2001, Yokohama Triennial 2001, Sharjah Biennial 2002, Busan Biennial 2002, Sao Paolo Biennial 2002 and B. Open at BALTIC Centre of Contemporary Art, among others. He lives and works with his mother in Kawasaki, Japan.

For more information, please contact Dominique Chiu at (+852) 2517-4620 or Dominique@para-site.org.hk.