Places to be
07 Mar - 11 Apr 2009
PLACES TO BE
New York - Shanghai - Tel Aviv - Texas - Zagreb
Annet Gelink Gallery proudly presents the group exhibition Places To Be. New York – Shanghai – Tel Aviv – Texas – Zagrebwith works of Yael Bartana, Alicia Framis, Carla Klein, David Maljkovic and Chemi Rosado Seijo.
Places To Be refers to the importance of the artist's place of residence for the artistic process. These places were not just asource of inspiration for the works in the exhibition, but were literally the subject. Every one of the artists is studying anddocumenting his everyday surroundings, each reflecting in his own way. Traveling is increasingly becoming an essentialelement of being an artist. Present-day art climate expects a successful artist to travel all over the world for exhibitions,residencies and fairs. Origin and roots, on the other hand, or perhaps because thereof, seem to play an increasingly largerrole in the process of creating. The artists tell their own story, sometimes in a direct way, sometimes only dropping a hinthere and there, but always present. Through their view on New York, Shanghai, Tel Aviv, Texas and Zagreb the artists givein Places To Be a view on their background.
Alicia Framis (1967) moved two years ago from her native town in Spain to Shanghai, with more than 17 millioninhabitants China’s largest city. In New Buildings for China, a series of works consisting of scale-models and 3D computerdrawings, Framis refers in a direct and penetrating way to social issues of contemporary China, such as the single-childpolicy, implemented by the Chinese government in 1979 in Brothers and Sisters, Shanghai, or growing alcoholism in urbanareas in cynical AA bar.
David Maljkovic (1973) on the other hand is concentrating on the past of his place of residence, Zagreb, and its inhabitants.In the installation From Lost Review he is referring to the Zagreb Fair, in the sixties and seventies the icon of economic andcultural bloom, the very picture of optimism. Maljkovic combines in his collages photos and text from brochures from thatprime, with images of the desolate fair site now. He creates herewith a picture of the collective loss of optimism, theemptiness of the pavilions as a symbol for a country’s failure. Simultaneously, David Maljkovic is looking for possibilities ofa new beginning for his own generation.
Also Yael Bartana (1970) is looking for new opportunities for the Israelis and Palestinians of her generation. In her newseries of photographs The Missing Negatives of the Sonnenfeld Collection she breathes new life into the collection ofphotographs of legendary Leni and Herbert Sonnenfeld. The Sonnenfeld photos, taken in Palestine in the thirties, have gonedown in the world as icons of the optimistic building of a new state. In that same communistic, propagandistic style YaelBartana portrays both Jews and Palestinians in a kibbutz in Tel Aviv, jointly building a utopist place without any war.
Contrary to David Maljkovic and Yael Bartana, the work of Carla Klein (1970) shows a desire for traveling, letting go of one'sroots. In an almost filmic series of paintings she paints her journey through the Texan landscape. Not, as often depicted, inthe drought of summer, but in a rainy, threatening winter. The emptiness of the landscape, the desolation of the highwaywith occasionally a traffic light or a car, is the subject of the series. At the same time Carla Klein paints the journey itself,the outlandish places surface as beacons in her oeuvre.
Chemi Rosado Seijo (1973) is playing with the characteristics of the big city. In To TT Pollock he portrays New York City in theform of tracks of skateboarding youngsters, referring in a playful way to Pollock’s ‘action painting’. Himself a ferventskateboarder, Chemi Rosado Seijo produced in New York the project History on Wheels, a series of photos of all squares,stairs and ramps that are perfect for skateboarding, with the objective to map the city from that point of view. At the sametime he created interaction with an entire subculture that normally keeps aloof from the elitist arts. His studio at Art inGeneral, where he had a residency, was transformed into a hang-out for skateboarders from all over the city. To TT Pollock isthe reproduction of this meeting point, and a tribute to the urban landscape.
The Bakery: Videothèque
The Bakery is showing a selection program of video works, in which the artist’s environment literally is the subject. One canchoose from a selection of videos of Armando Andrade Tudela, Yael Bartana, Ed van der Elsken, Ryan Gander David Maljkovicand Bradley Pitts.
New York - Shanghai - Tel Aviv - Texas - Zagreb
Annet Gelink Gallery proudly presents the group exhibition Places To Be. New York – Shanghai – Tel Aviv – Texas – Zagrebwith works of Yael Bartana, Alicia Framis, Carla Klein, David Maljkovic and Chemi Rosado Seijo.
Places To Be refers to the importance of the artist's place of residence for the artistic process. These places were not just asource of inspiration for the works in the exhibition, but were literally the subject. Every one of the artists is studying anddocumenting his everyday surroundings, each reflecting in his own way. Traveling is increasingly becoming an essentialelement of being an artist. Present-day art climate expects a successful artist to travel all over the world for exhibitions,residencies and fairs. Origin and roots, on the other hand, or perhaps because thereof, seem to play an increasingly largerrole in the process of creating. The artists tell their own story, sometimes in a direct way, sometimes only dropping a hinthere and there, but always present. Through their view on New York, Shanghai, Tel Aviv, Texas and Zagreb the artists givein Places To Be a view on their background.
Alicia Framis (1967) moved two years ago from her native town in Spain to Shanghai, with more than 17 millioninhabitants China’s largest city. In New Buildings for China, a series of works consisting of scale-models and 3D computerdrawings, Framis refers in a direct and penetrating way to social issues of contemporary China, such as the single-childpolicy, implemented by the Chinese government in 1979 in Brothers and Sisters, Shanghai, or growing alcoholism in urbanareas in cynical AA bar.
David Maljkovic (1973) on the other hand is concentrating on the past of his place of residence, Zagreb, and its inhabitants.In the installation From Lost Review he is referring to the Zagreb Fair, in the sixties and seventies the icon of economic andcultural bloom, the very picture of optimism. Maljkovic combines in his collages photos and text from brochures from thatprime, with images of the desolate fair site now. He creates herewith a picture of the collective loss of optimism, theemptiness of the pavilions as a symbol for a country’s failure. Simultaneously, David Maljkovic is looking for possibilities ofa new beginning for his own generation.
Also Yael Bartana (1970) is looking for new opportunities for the Israelis and Palestinians of her generation. In her newseries of photographs The Missing Negatives of the Sonnenfeld Collection she breathes new life into the collection ofphotographs of legendary Leni and Herbert Sonnenfeld. The Sonnenfeld photos, taken in Palestine in the thirties, have gonedown in the world as icons of the optimistic building of a new state. In that same communistic, propagandistic style YaelBartana portrays both Jews and Palestinians in a kibbutz in Tel Aviv, jointly building a utopist place without any war.
Contrary to David Maljkovic and Yael Bartana, the work of Carla Klein (1970) shows a desire for traveling, letting go of one'sroots. In an almost filmic series of paintings she paints her journey through the Texan landscape. Not, as often depicted, inthe drought of summer, but in a rainy, threatening winter. The emptiness of the landscape, the desolation of the highwaywith occasionally a traffic light or a car, is the subject of the series. At the same time Carla Klein paints the journey itself,the outlandish places surface as beacons in her oeuvre.
Chemi Rosado Seijo (1973) is playing with the characteristics of the big city. In To TT Pollock he portrays New York City in theform of tracks of skateboarding youngsters, referring in a playful way to Pollock’s ‘action painting’. Himself a ferventskateboarder, Chemi Rosado Seijo produced in New York the project History on Wheels, a series of photos of all squares,stairs and ramps that are perfect for skateboarding, with the objective to map the city from that point of view. At the sametime he created interaction with an entire subculture that normally keeps aloof from the elitist arts. His studio at Art inGeneral, where he had a residency, was transformed into a hang-out for skateboarders from all over the city. To TT Pollock isthe reproduction of this meeting point, and a tribute to the urban landscape.
The Bakery: Videothèque
The Bakery is showing a selection program of video works, in which the artist’s environment literally is the subject. One canchoose from a selection of videos of Armando Andrade Tudela, Yael Bartana, Ed van der Elsken, Ryan Gander David Maljkovicand Bradley Pitts.