basler zeitung, 06.08.05
Ausstellung im Berner Kunstmuseum sorgt für Wirbel

Bern. AP/baz. Die Ausstellung chinesischer Gegenwartskunst aus der Sammlung Sigg im Berner Kunstmuseum sorgt für Aufregung: Stein des Anstosses ist eine Vogelfigur mit menschenähnlichem Kopf. Am kommenden Montag soll eine Klage eingereicht werden, wie Adrien de Riedmatten, Betreiber der Internetseite BAF, am Samstag mitteilte.

Bei dem Werk des chinesischen Künstlers Xiao Yu handle es sich um den Körper einer enthaupteten Möwe, dem der Kopf eines Fötus, vermutlich chinesischen Ursprungs, aufgesetzt worden sei. Die Betrachtung der Figur stelle für mehrere Besucher, darunter auch eine Klasse von Kindern, ein traumatisches Erlebnis dar. Das Bureau audiovisuel francophone (BAF) habe sich nun entschieden, die Angelegenheit vor die Justiz zu bringen, sagte der 29-jährige Walliser. Am kommenden Montag soll eine Klage eingereicht werden. Ziel sei es, das Kind, dessen Kopf unter dem Vorwand der Kunst missbraucht worden sei, würdig beizusetzen.

«Niemand weiss, ob es sich wirklich um einen menschlichen Kopf handelt», sagte Bernhard Fibicher, der die Ausstellung gemeinsam mit dem chinesischen Künstler Ai Weiwei und dem Sammler Uli Sigg konzipiert hatte. Das Werk gehöre zu einer Serie, die mit den Grenzen zwischen Mensch und Tieren und den ethnischen Grenzen spiele. Es sei während der internationalen Kunstbiennale von Venedig im Jahr 1999 von Hunderttausenden Menschen betrachtet worden. Von Klagen habe er keine Kenntnisse.

Aus der 1.200 Werke von 180 Künstlern umfassenden Sammlung «Mahjong Chinesische Gegenwartskunst aus der Sammlung Sigg» ist eine repräsentative Auswahl im Kunstmuseum und in den Holcim-Hallen in Holderbank zu sehen. Sigg, Vizepräsident des Verwaltungsrats der Ringier-Gruppe, war von 1995 bis 1998 Schweizer Botschafter in Peking.

http://www.baz.ch/news/index.cfm?ObjectID=8CC0E39D-60CF-2062-F4990B74D4AD40FF

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The shock of the beautiful
(Filed: 06/08/2005)

A new exhibition suggests that skill and aestheticism are making a comeback among young artists. Serena Davies reports

In Paris at the moment is an art exhibition called J'en Rêve, which loosely translates as "What I'm Dreaming Of".

Iris Mantra
Exquisite: Iris Mantra by Taiwanese artist Charwei Tsai

Organised by the Fondation Cartier, it's an international group show of artists in their twenties who have been hand-picked by 36 leading names in the world of contemporary art, among them Japanese manga-style painter Takashi Murakami, US photographer Nan Goldin and French installationist Christian Boltanski. It is, if you like, the art future as nominated by the art present.

The fascinating thing is that the 58 artists in the show aren't producing the work you might expect. In contrast to, say, the Beck's Futures exhibition held recently at London's ICA, a show of older artists considered by some to be exemplary, the work is accessible, surprisingly conservative, and frequently beautiful.

This is not to say that it is backward-looking - the predominant medium is video - but it is at a far remove from the shock tactics that the Young British Artists once made so internationally popular.

It isn't particularly interested in politics, or sex, or even that favourite of the Chapman Brothers and Damien Hirst, death. It is primarily inward-looking, exploring the age-old archetype of the self, but also the very process of making art. And this process, according to the new generation, is something to be executed with exquisite skill.

Take Taiwanese artist Charwei Tsai, who paints tiny rows of calligraphy on to iris petals. Or Argentinian Flavia da Rin's digitally-modified self-portraits, so expertly manipulated it's hard to tell whether you're looking at a painting or a photograph.

Or American Anastasia Yümeko Hill's backwards-spooling video of her "unpainting" her own face. Striking, too, are Norwegian Jonas Bendiksen's photographs of the inhabitants of the tiny self-declared republics on the edges of the former Soviet Union. He has created hauntingly beautiful images from these desperate communities.

"These artists, and perhaps this can be said of the younger generation in general, don't feel they have to shock to convey a powerful message," says Hervé Chandès, the Fondation Cartier's director.

"They work in a skilled, crafted, perfectionist manner, with an artistic commitment that is more emotional than political. Their work is also totally devoid of irony."

Parallels may be drawn with a recent show in London. Bowieart is an undertaking sponsored by David Bowie - although the pop star employs independent curators - to give a platform to young artists.

Its first exhibition earlier this year was called Bloc and featured 16 emerging artists whose work, though funkier than the Paris selection, also showed a new leaning to what one critic described as the "visually intelligent".

Says Bowieart's director Beth Greenacre: "Although there is still a huge variety of work coming out of the art schools, I do think we've moved on from hard-nosed conceptualism. There's definitely a move towards the highly skilled and aesthetically challenging."

Bowieart has set up camp in County Hall, just metres away from the Saatchi Gallery. Charles Saatchi recently announced his own analysis of an art-world shift: the return of painting.

And although Saatchi's line generated controversy when it was first announced, painting's new-found favour was talked of as a given among the young artists of the Fondation Cartier show. Its vigour may be part of a renewed interest in more traditional skill sets. And even within the painting medium there's a tendency away from the shocking or confrontational.

Says art dealer Victoria Miro: "There seems to be a move towards reflection and introspection in painting, as opposed to the more aggressive tactics of earlier art - a kind of return to painting about painting." Miro recently added young South American painter Varda Caivano to her stable. Her first show has just run to considerable critical acclaim.

It's difficult to generalise about the art world. It is always going in multiple directions. But perhaps there is a shift in emphasis taking place. This year's Venice Biennale is being described as the most conservative in years.

And among its hits have been the mesmeric features of Tilda Swinton in Hussein Chalayan's video piece for the Turkish pavilion, and Olafur Eliasson's hymn to the colours of Mediterranean light, Your Black Horizon, both inspiring exercises in aestheticism.

The trick that Chalayan and Eliasson achieve, of course, is to remain resolutely modern even if their quests include such timeless archetypes as beauty. The younger generation may have yet to develop their sophisticated sensibilities, but, on the basis of J'en Rêve, it is safe to say that their dreams that way tend.

# 'J'en Rêve' is at the Fondation Cartier, 261 Boulevard Raspail, 75014 Paris (00 33 1 42 18 56 50) until Oct 9.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2005/08/06/bacartier06.xml

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Channel NewsAsia, 28 July 2005
Special art exhibition to mark Singapore's 40th birthday
By Julia Ng, Channel NewsAsia

SINGAPORE : The Singapore Art Museum has launched a new exhibition to mark Singapore's 40th year of independence.

Titled "A Heroic Decade: Singapore Art 1955 to 1965," it is a special showcase of works during a critical phase of Singapore's history.

The pre-independence decade was one of conflicting optimism and anxiety.

It was also an intense period of practice for some of Singapore's important artists, including Lim Cheng Hoe, Chua Mia Tee and Lim Yew Kuan.

And they responded to the changing social conditions, drawing from a diversity of cultures and experiences.

70 of their works, now on display, documented Singapore's artistic heritage and proclaimed the arrival of a new era.

The exhibition is presented in four parts and is now on at the Museum till September.
- CNA /ls

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/160392/1/.html

 

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