170 en

ARCHITECTURE, A MORE SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
FOR 2015
Top stories
page 7
Interview
Michael Hansmeyer
page 9
Museums
page 12
Report
Global Chinese Art
Auction Market
page 15
Galleries
page 18
Interview
Assemble Architects
page 22
Artists
page 25
Interview
Gaspar Libedinsky
page 26
Data
Luc Tuymans
page 33
Auctions
page 38
Fairs & festivals
page 40
Report
Unseen Photo Fair 2014
page 42
Interview
Margaux Fritz
page 44
Interior design for Mexico City airport
image : Foster + Partners
From Frank Gehry's mesmerising Fondation Louis Vuitton in the Bois de
Boulogne to the checkered wood of Aspen Art Museum, 2014's architec-
tural highlights have been both numerous and artistically compelling.
AMA's article of the week looks at the future of sustainable architec-
ture, movements that support the process, and innovators for 2015.
Cultural openings around the globe
This year has seen a slew of big industry players Renzo Piano, Jean
Nouvel, Zaha Hadid and frms Diller Scofdio + Renfro, OMA Of-
fce for Metropolitan Architecture, BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) domi-
nating the scene. Festivals, fairs and biennales are thriving in number,
attendance and duration; this year's edition of the Venice Biennale
of Architecture, curated by Rem Koolhaas, takes place over four mon-
ths and sees 65 countries taking part. With festival participation at
this size, it goes without saying that architectural projects are still
infuenced by the course of cultural events. Rio de Janiero was the
global destination of 2014 with the FIFA World Cup and will be
again in 2016 for the Summer Olympics, for which a plethora of cultural
landmarks have been designed. For instance, Diller Scofdio + Renfro's
Museum of Image and Design, nestled into the hillside above Coco-
pabana Beach, marks the way in which architects are having to utilise
space to their advantage. Amongst the frm's other ongoing projects are
The Broad Museum in Los Angeles; the expansion of MoMA in New York;
and the Culture Shed, a six-story development which will sit adjacent to
the High Line and host a wide range of cultural activities.
Across the pond, British design frm Assemble was chosen to design
the new Goldsmiths art gallery in London; Rem Koolhaas' OMA is cur-
rently creating Fondation Galeries Lafayette in Paris; and Renzo Pia-
no's armadillo-shelled structure, for Fondation Jrme Seydoux-Pa-
th, has just been unveiled in Paris' 13th arrondissement. Another big
coup was David Chipperfeld Architects beating two Swedish archi-
tects in a competition to design Stockholm's new Nobel Prize Centre.
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AMA NEWSLETTER
170
18 September 2014
FOR 2015
In the Middle East, Abu Dhabi continues to be the seat of cultural and touristic prosperity with the
development of Saadiyat Island. The Louvre's outpost is set completion next year and the Guggenheim
designed by Frank Gehry to open at the later date of 2017. Further across the globe, in China,
the Shanghai Tower currently the world's second tallest building, at 632 metres is expected to be
open to the public in 2015.
With this unrelenting architectural progress, especially when there is often only space to go upwards,
concerns on the impact of over-developed cities and the amount of materials being used for these pro-
jects are putting pressure on architects to ofer long-lasting, environmentally considerate alternatives,
while incorporating the same level of industrial prowess.
Sustainable Solutions
In order to promote awareness around sustainable forms of architecture, the presence of conferences,
fairs and competitions is augmenting around the world as a constant reminder that we have a global
responsibility to create buildings which are environmentally sustainable.
Rio+20 to 2015: a New Architecture for a Sustainable New World hosted in 2013, in collaboration
with National Defence Resources Council (NRDC) and Yale University is part of the Rio+20 plan to
encourage a discussion of mobility in this genre. Quoted from amongst their visions, the Conference
aimed to further the development of a new architecture that can stimulate the transformative changes
we need to realize a sustainable future. While the development of cities was once considered the cen-
tral obstacle in the fght against pollution, now, as the urban population shows no signs of decreasing
(by 2050, 7 out of 10 people will be living in cities), strategies are now taking shape to make these me-
tropolis' part of the solution. At the forefront of this plan is Communitas Coalition in partnership with
the UN Development Agenda , an organisation which seeks to advance sustainable urbanization; to
adapt cities to include sustainable development goals (SGDs). Their seven-step trajectory includes tar-
gets to improve the living and working conditions of both rural and urban dwellers by promoting the
social, environmental and economic synergies between urban and rural areas and aims to reduce the
environmental impacts of cities and improve urban environmental conditions. Evidently, these types
of organisations are ofering an international strategy to change urbanisation for the better.
Aerial view of Mexico City airport
Image : Foster + Partners
AMA NEWSLETTER 170 2 18 SEPTEMBER 2014
FOR 2015
Fairs of the Future
Fairs promoting sustainable architecture are now as plentiful and thriving as traditional biennials. Eco-
build the world's largest sustainability trade fair hosts an annual event dedicated to every part
of green building, where architects and surveyors gather to see what's new in the industry. Next year's
edition from 3 to 5 March 2015 looks set to draw in double the amount of attendees than it did
in 2014, as relayed by Ecobuild's Group Director of Sustainability & Construction, Alison Jackson, who
commented: Over the past ten years Ecobuild has cemented its position as the sustainable design and
construction marketplace for new build, refurb, commercial and domestic buildings.
Next year also brings the World's Fair: Expo Milan 2015; to be held from 1 May to 31 October 2015.
The theme, Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life, has seen some of the specially-designed pavilions
for the event incorporate this energy-efcient ethos. A prime example is Italy's pavilion, designed by
Studio Nemesi & Partners Srl, which features a lattice skin built from i.active BIODYNAMIC, capable of
capturing pollutants and turning them into salts. Likewise is the winning model for the Austrian pavi-
lion, which promotes a healthier bond between the urban and natural environment. Entitled breathe,
the enclosed space will be planted with an abundance of native Austrian vegetation and will produce,
hourly, enough oxygen to sustain 18,000 people.
By incorporating ecological messages into technologically-advanced design, these projects seen by mil-
lions on a global level go a long way to encouraging a conversation about sustainable architecture, far
beyond the industrial sphere.
Museum of Image and Sound
Rio de Janeiro
Image : Diller Scofidio + Renfro
Putting objectives into practice
By taking this research into the practical feld, many architectural frms are showcasing increasingly sustai-
nable plans to further their global enterprise. On 3 September 2014 it was announced that Foster + Partners
in collaboration with FR-EE (Fernando Romero Enterprise) and NACO (Netherlands Airport Consultants)
, had won the bid to design Mexico City's new international airport. At 470,000 m
2
, this project aims to
be the world's largest and most sustainable airport. Instead of the typical multi-building structure, the
design is comprised of one lightweight gridshell thereby expending less materials and energy; while
also harnessing the power of the sun and collecting rainwater. In addition, the LEED Platinum design har-
monises with the natural surroundings to create a self-regulating temperature for a large proportion of the
year. Speaking in a press release, Lord Norman Foster said of the project: Stansted Airports reinvention of
the conventional terminal in the 1990s was emulated worldwide this breaks with that model for the frst
time. It pioneers a new concept for a large-span, single airport enclosure, which will achieve new levels of
efciency and fexibility and it will be beautiful. The experience for passengers will be unique. Its design
provides the most fexible enclosure possible to accommodate internal change and an increase in capacity.
Mexico has really seized the initiative in investing in its national airport, understanding its social and eco-
nomic importance and planning for the future. There will be nothing else like it in the world.
However, far from just a passing trend, sustainability has been practiced and commended for many
years. The American Institute of Architects' Top Ten Green Projects scheme, now in its 17
th
year, bes-
tows the title on buildings with an exceptional use of sustainable architecture. Amongst this year's
chosen ten is the Sustainability Treehouse an interactive and educational facility designed by Seatt-
le-based frm Mithun. Commissioned by Boy Scouts of America, the building sits in the forest of Summit
Bechtel Reserve, in West Virginia, America, and harmonises environmental education with fantastical
adventure. With an 85% reduction on the National Median Energy Use Intensity (EUI) the structure
uses photovoltaic panels, wind turbines, a large cistern and water cleansing systems, the canopy's
natural light permeating the Treehouse on all levels.
Ones to Watch
Who are the next pioneers of sustainable architecture? Frank Murk, Associate Dean of the New York
Institute of Technology, in conversation with AMA, suggests his key innovators for 2015.
An alumnus of Rem Koolhaas and founder of his own frm, FR-EE, Fernando Romero is a Mexican archi-
tect, internationally acclaimed for his work on the Soumaya Museum. A towering 46-metres-high and
covered with 16,000 hexagonal aluminum squares, the amorphorous design dramatically challenged
the a-typical museum space. This year sees him collaborate on the aforementioned sustainable airport
in Mexico City with Foster + Partners. FR-EE has also implemented various initiatives to promote Mexi-
can architecture, including a scholarship award - FR-EE Time. Dedicated to emerging Mexican architects
under 35, the programme gives them the opportunity to travel and research an in-depth topic.
FOR 2015
Museum of Image and Sound
Rio de Janeiro
Image : Diller Scofidio + Renfro
Mithun Sustainability
Treehouse Exhibit
Image: Joe Fletcher
FOR 2015
Another is Brooks + Scarpa; well-regarded as trailblazers in the sustainable design feld, their Colorado Court
project in Santa Monica was the frst Multifamily project in America to be LEED certifed. The Solar Umbrella
House in California, a now iconic design for the couple's family residence was a contemporary reinvention
of the solar canopy, which used photovoltaic panels to provide 100% of the homes energy. The comprehen-
sive design and careful environmental consideration behind the project, earned them their second AIA Top
Green Project award in 2006; just one of the design's many accreditations. This year they were awarded the
Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum Award, and continue their eforts towards sustainability
with The SIX an afordable housing scheme for veterans in Los Angeles' MacArthur Park. Aiming to be 50%
more energy efcient than the conventionally designed structure, The SIX is projected to be fnished next year.
Michael Loverich is a UCLA Masters graduate, who co-founded an experimental design farm, Bittertang,
with fellow architect Antonio Torres. Seeking to bring a sense of humour into the urban environment, their
work explores biological matter, animal posturing, and babies all unifed together. Their inventive and
thought-provoking projects include a Captive Bird's Microcosm a cage built from two interlocking U
shapes whose interior provides the habitat for the captive bird and exterior attracts wild birds ; Bucky Puf
an adaptable infatable structure ; and a house of wax for a designer's pop-up shop in New York. Before
setting up Bittertang, Loverich worked for frms Reiser + Umemoto and Snohetta.
Demonstrated by just these few, the industry is vibrating with dynamic and modern architects, ready to lead
the way in the sustainable revolution. With the rise in commissions, and the rapidity with which projects can
now be completed, thanks to hefty cash infuxes and advanced technology; the global demand for architec-
ture be it for cultural, residential or industrial purposes shows no sign of slowing. To this end, factoring
in the strain on resources and limitations of space, it is crucial that architects continue to use lasting forms
of sustainable architecture, but implement them throughout the industry as demonstrated by some of
the examples here. Thankfully, at an impressive rate, the sustainable movement looks to be becoming less
of an alternative, and more of an expectation.
Top stories
NOMINATION
Tibor Navracsics named European cultural commissioner
Ex-Hungarian fnance minister Tibor Navracsics has been appointed the Euro-
pean Commissions head of education, culture, youth and citizenship.
His political background has meant that his appointment has come as somewhat
of a surprise to many who expected Navracsics to take on a fnance-based role in
Jean-Claude Junckers cabinet. As culture commissioner, he will be responsible
for the EU's policies on culture. Further scepticism as to Navracsics' appointment
arises from decisions made by the right-wing Hungarian party Fidesz, of which
he was a member, which were viewed as limiting media and artistic freedoms.
OBITUARY
Art dealer Roy Davis passes away
The New York Times has confrmed the passing of art dealer Roy Davis,
aged 92. Born in 1922, Davis was a prominent member of the Art Dealers
Association of America and also founded the eponymous Davis Galleries
in 1952, as part of the Davis & Langdale Company.
Situated in New York, the gallery specialises in 19
th
and 20
th
century Ameri-
can Art, British Art from the 18
th
, 19
th
and 20
th
centuries notably the work
of Bloomsbury artists , and vintage photography. Additionally, it focuses
on artists including Gwen John, Maurice Prendergast, Charles Prendergast,
Wilson Bentley, Albert York and Charles Jones.
DISCOVERY
Monet landscape found in suitcase
A landscape painting by Claude Monet has been found in a suitcase be-
longing to controversial late art collector Cornelius Gurlitt.
German authorities were investigating Gurlitt's collection due to the du-
bious nature of the provenance of the 19
th
and 20
th
century works, some
of which were lacking documentation. The work discovered in the suit-
case is not the frst surprise discovery in Gurlitt's collection: in February
60 new works were uncovered and further works were found in July inclu-
ding sculptures by Degas and Rodin. The Monet landscape is thought to
have been completed around 1864 and bears similarities to the Impres-
sionist Master's Garden at Sainte-Adresse, painted in 1867. It was disco-
vered in the suitcase that Gurlitt took to hospital with him, shortly before
he died in May earlier this year.
ARTICLE OF THE WEEK
Three centuries of art price records
A recent paper entitled The Economics of
Aesthetics and Three Centuries of Art Price
Records, by William Goetzmann one
of the original art price scholars Ele-
na Mamonova and Christophe Spaen-
jers, has been recently published, ana-
lysing the variation of art market prices
between 1701 and 2014.
The report analyses the sale of 35 artworks
from this period, concluding that a review
of these works reveals an interesting para-
dox: an extraordinary price does not neces-
sarily equate to a unique or extraordinary
artwork. Moreover, the timing of record
transactions does not always coincide with
general periods of price increases.
The paper continues to defne four key ele-
ments that contribute to price records. First-
ly: the efect of extreme supply constraints
for example, the high value of Old Master
paintings, citing the record price paid for a
Raphael study in black chalk in 1984, which
is undoubtedly due to the evermore reduced
amount of high-quality Raphael works on
the market. Secondly: the presence of New
wealth and the establishment of social re-
cognition or what The Economist describes
as the presence of two very rich people
[at auction] absolutely determined to get
their own way that drives prices to ex-
traordinary heights. The report also de-
fnes this element as an explanation for
clustering of records as people compete
for similar works whilst they are in style.
Thirdly: Resolution of uncertainty about
the resale value meaning that for works
with a well established level of general
approval for example a piece from a
series of which other works exist in natio-
nal museums ensure a maintained high
price. Finally, the paper takes into account
idiosyncratic shifts in record prices.
The chart produced by The Economist repre-
senting this data shows the shift between
the total UK and European dominance until
the 1900s concerning the purchase of re-
cord breaking works, to American buyers,
to the Japanese in the 1980s and back to
Americans again in recent years.
The data collected however, does not ac-
count for infation and as The Economist
points out If you do adjust for infation, Van
Gogh's Portrait of Dr Gachet becomes the
most expensive painting ever sold at auc-
tion, having fetched the equivalent of 97m
in 2013 prices when it was sold in 1990.
Portrait of Dr. Gachet (1890)
Vincent van Gogh
SCHOOL
Art campus opens in Basel
On 12 September 2014, the Kunst Basel campus
in Basel, Switzerland, will open its doors. Also
known as Hochschule fr Gestaltug und Kunst,
the campus is to host concerts, performances and
will be entirely dedicated to art. Basel is home
to one of the oldest universities in Switzerland
which teaches law, medicine, psychology, econo-
mics, natural and human sciences, life sciences,
and theology. Basel is widely known for its invol-
vement in culture and has many signifcant insti-
tutions, including: the Kunstmuseum, the Museum
of Contemporary Art, the Kunsthalle and the Swiss
Architecture Musuem. The ofcial inauguration of
the campus will take place on 23 October 2014.
The ofcial inauguration of the campus will take
place on 23 October 2014.
STREET ART
Djerbahood, an open air museum
Mehdi Ben Cheikh has launched the Djer-
bahood project in Erriadh village on Djerba
Island in Tunisia.
This new project, following on from Tour Pa-
ris 13, is described as an ideal open air mu-
seum. At the end of June 2014, hundreds of
artists from across the globe came to Djerba,
staying until the beginning of September.
The result is a collective exhibition, which,
in the same way as Tour Paris 13, presents a
range of work across the village: At Tour 13,
each artist had a room and had to take into
account the space in order to bring us into
their world. Here, there is a real constraint:
the consciousness of the place in which it
operates, explains the gallerist.
In 2004, Mehdi Ben Cheikh opened the Iti-
nerrance gallery, a space dedicated to ur-
ban art in the 13
th
arrondissement of Paris.
His project, la Tour Paris 13, was the biggest
collective exhibition of street art ever, taking
place in a building across 36 apartments. At
the time of the project the gallerist declared
that when artists work in the street, they do it
at their own cost without asking anything. As
an urban art gallery owner I also have to have
a non-commercial practice. The Tour project
ofered a support that really promoted the
work without distorting our philosophy.
POLITICAL
Scotland could lose Old Masters if country becomes independent
A potential consequence of Scotland voting yes to independence on 18 Sep-
tember could be the loss of some of its most important Old Master paintings.
Several works in the Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh, are on long-term loan
and could move south of the border if the country chooses to leave the United
Kingdom. Currently, Scotland benefts from UK inheritance laws which gives tax
exemption if artworks are considered important to the nation, are accessible
to the public and remain in the UK. However, should Scotland become inde-
pendent, decisions on the tax system and all specifc taxes [] will be made
by the parliament and government of an independent Scotland, according to
plans laid out by Scotland's frst minister Alex Salmond. Scotland is also part of
a scheme in which HM Revenue & Customs accepts works of art in the place of
taxes; on average, Scotland gains ten works a year from the programme.
Among the works on loan are Raphaels The Virgin and Child (The Bridgewater
Madonna), The Madonna of the Yarnwinde by da Vinci and works by Titian, Pous-
sin and Rembrandt.
THEFT
71 paintings stolen from villa in Austria
Seventy-one works valued at a total of over 2 million have been stolen from a villa in
Vienna. The owner of the villa returned from holiday to fnd that her entire art collec-
tion which includes works by artists such as Oskar Kokoschka, Emil Beischlger and
Alfons Walde had been taken. Ofcials suspect that the robbery was the work of
experienced art thieves who targeted the property, turning of alarms and transporting
the pictures in the back of a truck to avoid detection. So far there have been no leads
as to the perpetrators of the crime, but police have circulated images of the stolen
paintings online and have managed to collect some DNA evidence, which is currently
being investigated. They were professionals. They knew how and what they stole,
police spokesperson Thomas Keiblinger told The Local.
Interview
ALGORITHMS OF THE UNIMAGINED:
AN INTERVIEW WITH MICHAEL HANSMEYER
Tell us a little about your method..
I would start by saying that my work is primarily a quest for form rather than a quest for functiona-
lity. The method consists of using today's available resources such as digital technologies com-
puters, algorithms, and processes that can produce new geometries and new forms that we have
not seen before and that are difcult to imagine. I am interested in seeing how these resources and
technologies can be used by architects and the efects they have on the resulting structures.
What is the mentality with which you approach your work?
The central element of my work are the algorithms used to create the structures I envision. Tradi-
tionally, architects begin a project knowing the end result they wish to achieve. In my case, I do not
have the control over the end result. The notion of control is present only in the beginning stages
in writing the program and choosing which algorithms to use. The outcome ,however, is not entirely
predictable. The use of algorithms makes it so that the result is not random, but rather introduces an
element of surprise which I fnd to be quite exciting as an architect. I do not try to micro-manage
the process, rather I use the available technologies to tweek certain elements and aspects of the
process. One of the challenges, I think, is how one selects the right algorithm in order to satisfy
the search for new forms. In the case of the Subdivided Columns, for example, functionality was not
a factor I prioritised when writing the algorithms. One of my objectives was to give the process as
much freedom as I could in order to test its limits.
Michael Hansmeyer is a Post-Modern architect who works with algorithmic architecture techniques,
generative art mentalities and CAD software to generate complex building projects. He received his MBA
from INSEAD and his Masters of Architecture (MA) from Columbia University. Currently, he is based in the
CAAD Group at ETH's architecture department in Zrich. He is most known for his Subdivided Columns - A
New Order (2010): columns of incredible complexity and symmetry, with prototypes made from a steel
core with a facade of ABS plastic, to be used outdoors and bear weight. His most recent work Digital
Grotesque (2013) uses algorithms to create forms that appear synthetic as well as organic. AMA had the
opportunity to speak with Michael to better understand his vision of contemporary architecture.
Subdivided Columns (2010)
Michael Hansmeyer
Interview
ALGORITHMS OF THE UNIMAGINED:
AN INTERVIEW WITH MICHAEL HANSMEYER
How do your peers react to your work?
The reactions vary country by country, culture by culture. Architects have diferent views about my
work based on how conservative or liberal they are, and depending on which schools they come from.
I would say that it is also a generational thing: older architects are more sceptical about my work and
the processes I use. They often ask: Who designed it: you or the computer? Younger architects glo-
bally use computers and other digital devices for the simplicity and efciency it provides.
How do you understand the relationship between your work and public space?
The aspiration is to make my structures, such as the Subdivided Columns, part of the public space
and create architecture that has several levels. I look to create structures that ofer a new perspec-
tive with increasing amounts of detail as you go closer and closer to it, and with a heterogeneous
multi-scale character. Something that makes you curious, something that makes you want to discover
more.
Where in the world do you see your work existing?
I think it's a question of context: how a structure adapts to a place and how it works with pre-existing struc-
tures. There is a place for everything. I fnd architecture most interesting when it adapts to a place and to
the scale of its environment. Contemporary architects have to work very hard in proving that we can create
structures that can adapt. In the world of architecture, "lacking scale" is a very derogatory term. It is for
this reason that I focus on scale as one of my primary objectives for my work so that as a contemporary
architect, I can overcome this pejorative connotation and continue to prove the worth and relevance of my
structures to the general public.
What scale have you chosen for your structures?
For my columns, I always imagined them in the scale of Ancient Roman columns. In efect, they mirror
certain aspects and dimensions of these pre-existing ancient structures. The intention was always to
create something architectural. The Romans provided the rules of how to construct their columnal struc-
tures, I too have done the same using the available resources to me in a contemporary context.
How do you understand your role in the world as a contemporary architect?
As architects, we must transcend our functionalist approaches. Id like to create an architecture that
evokes a sense of curiosity, wonderment, discovery. It has to be perceived by all senses to bring
forth not only an intellectual but a visceral reaction.
I think were at a unique point right now: with computational design and additive manufacturing, printing the
most detailed form imaginable costs no more than printing a simple box. And printing hundreds of highly
diferentiated, unique forms costs no more than printing the same one over and over again. Ornament
suddenly loses any social connotations. Modernity's rational arguments for a standardisation have lost
their ground. Well see much more customisation and individuality. Complexity long and impedimental
- is turning into an opportunity that is just waiting to be explored. Well see joy, exuberance. And well be
surprised! Over the past hundreds of years, architecture has been split between the schools of Enginee-
ring and the Beaux Arts. Using computational design, I think we now have a historic opportunity to bridge
this ideological gap.
Michael Hansmeyer
Michael Hansmeyer
Museums
RELOCATION
LAXArt relocates to Hollywood
LAXArt is a nonproft, independent art space which plans to relo-
cate from Culver City in California to 7000 Santa Monica Boulevard,
Hollywood, with the new space ofcially opening in January 2015.
The new location is Radio Recorders studio, which once recorded ar-
tists including Elvis and Louis Armstrong, and is in the same area as
galleries such as Michael Kohn Gallery, Hannah Hofman Gallery and
Regen Projects. The gallery, which turns 10 next year, ofers a series
of experimental exhibitions and public art initiatives and describes
itself on its website as the seminal space for contemporary art in LA.
LAXArt told The Los Angeles Times that they chose the space because
its not a traditional exhibition space it feels like an experimental
arts organization. And it seemed to literalize our programmatic needs
and desires. We like to put our resources toward art and artists rather
than any grand renovation.
RETIREMENT
Chief Curator at The Phillips Collection retires from post
Eliza Rathbone, Chief Curator at Washington's Phillips Collection,
will retire from her post at the end of this month, assuming the
new title of chief curator emerita after nearly thirty years working
with the museum.
She was appointed as chief curator in 1992 after seven previous years
at the institution. Her curatorial career started in 1977 as an Assistant
Curator at the National Gallery of Art, also in Washington. During her
tenure, she has overseen the permanent collection of 3,000 works of
art and is responibile for loans from partners such as Tate Britain and
the National Gallery of Canada. The chairman of the museum's Board
of Trustees praised the brilliance and creativity of her work and the
Director of the museum, Dorothy Kosinski, describes her as one of the
nation's most respected curators of 19
th
- and 20
th
-century art.
ARTICLE OF THE WEEK
Matisse exhibition proves to be most popular ever at the Tate
Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs has broken
all records to be the most popular exhibi-
tion in Tate's history.
The exhibition, which took place between
17 April and 7 September earlier this year,
welcomed 562,622 visitors an ave-
rage of 3,901 visitors a day. Previously,
the record for the most-visited show by
a single artist at the museum was held
by Damien Hirst, whose 2012 show at-
tracted 463,087 visitors. The blockbuster
exhibition was intended to show the true
skill and intricacy of Matisse's collages,
which were dismissed by many as child-
like and lacking technical skill. At the
show's launch, Tate director Sir Nicholas
Serota said, Everyone says a child of six
could do it, but when you come and see
the show you'll realise that its only an
old man with this incredible freedom of
imagination who could.
The exhibition will now be shown at
MoMA, from 12 October 2014 until 8 Fe-
bruary 2015.
HONOUR
President of the ICOM, Hans-Martin Hinz, receives Ger-
man Order of Merit
At a ceremony which took place at the Mrkische Mu-
seum in Berlin on 4 September, the Secretary of State
for Culture in Berlin, Tim Renner, presented Hans-Martin
Hinz with the Order of Merit in the name of the President
of the Federal Republic of Germany, Joachim Gauck.
PROTEST
An anti-Guggenheim project in Helsinki
Whilst a competition is being held to see who will have
the honour of designing the Guggenheim Helsinki has
just closed, a group of actors from the city's art scene
are opposing the museum's construction.
Under the name of The Next Helsinki, the collective re-
jects the construction of the Guggenheim Helsinki out
of fear that the identity of the city will end up being
assimilated with the name of the museum, as seen
with Bilbao, Spain. The Guggenheim Foundation has
launched a competition to design on one of the most
beautiful and valuable sites in the city, to construct a
new Guggenheim building, with the hope of a trans-
formation similar to the 'miracle' in Spain. The city of
Helsinki is tempted to spend millions of public money
so that the city can beneft from a brand which be-
longs to someone else., wrote The Next Helsinki on
their website. Indeed, the museum is envisaged to be
constructed on the Finnish capital's port, and will the-
refore change the appearance of the city. Those oppo-
sing the project have also not forgotten that although
the museum in Bilbao was a success, many Guggen-
heim franchises have failed including Las Vegas, Vil-
nius, New York south, Berlin, Salzburg, Rio de Janeiro
and Guadalajara.
The project has already been criticised on a political
level: if the conservatives support the project, the
social-democrats will categorically oppose it. With
an announced budget of 130 million which is to be
fnanced by the city, the mayor Jussi Pajunen
thinks that its construction is necessary for the well-
being of the city, all other large capital cities having
emblematic museums: We need to promote Helsinki
and that's why we need international brands such as
the Guggenheim.
The frst list of proposed designs should be revealed in
the coming weeks.
LAXArt
WHAT'S ON
FRANCE
5
th
edition of AD Intrieurs at the Muse des Arts Dcoratifs
For its ffth edition, AD Intrieurs the annual cultural event organised by Architectural
Digest, is to take place in the nave of the Muse des Arts Dcoratifs, Paris.
Formally organised by the Parisian antiques auction house Artcurial on the Champs Elyses, this
year's event invites 16 designers to take part The task presented to these architect-designers
is more complicated than it seems; with each of them having to select one work from the col-
lections of the museum to incorporate into their design. This work will thus give rise to a single
space, creating from this point a dynamic area that the visitors to the exhibition can view until
23 November 2014. It is also a unique occasion for design amateurs to discover works that are
rarely presented to the public. Notable works on show include an incredible suspension by
Ettore Sottass installed in Charles Zanas Salon de Bains, and Michel Boyers light sculpture by
inside Dressing d'un dandy by Tristan Auer. Each space invites virtuosity and contemplation;
these designers and creators have called upon the most highly skilled craftsmen to realise these
unique universes installed across the nave. This successful 2014 edition showcases French tra-
ditions and technical prowess boasting some of the most prominent of Parisian architects
such as Pierre Yovanovitch, Vincent Dar and Alberto Pinto.
SPAIN
Self Portrait by Alberto Garca-Alix at Crculo de Bellas Artes, Madrid
Self Portrait, an exhibition of photographs by the Spanish photographer Alberto Garca-Alix, is
currently on display at Madrid's Circulo de Bellas Artes until 29 September 2014.
The exhibition showcases photographs from the late 1970s until the present day, for-
ming part of what the artist describes as a self portrait, even though they may not be
typical. In this display the idea of self portraiture becomes expansive; encompassing
much of the artists work, which is intensely self-refexive.
Alberto Garca-Alix is an extremely renowned Spanish photographer, having won the National
Photography Prize in 1999, and more recently the PHotoEspana Prize in 2012. He began the
main body of his work after the death of the dictator General Franco in 1975, and was a lea-
ding fgure in La Movida Madrilea, a movement which worked against the traditional values
of the regime. He uses black and white photography to document not only his own life, but
the changing society around him, resulting in unfinchingly raw portraits stripped of artifce.
UNITED STATES
Todd Hido at the Boston University
Art Gallery
The San Francisco-based artist Todd
Hido is to exhibit a selection of over
100 of his works from his most recent
monograph Silver Meadows at the
Boston University Art Gallery until 19
October. The work, named after the
Ohio suburb where Hido grew up, ex-
plores his own childhood, with Hido's
photographs of suburban America
complemented by the presentation
of photographs from his past, news-
paper clippings, and other documents
which infuenced the series. His work
is often described as dramatic and
reminiscent of screenshots from flm
noir; he uses long exposures and na-
tural light only to create a haunting,
eerie efect. Doug Rickard, in Ameri-
can Suburb X, praises the authenti-
city of Todd's vision and the violent
undercurrent of emotion that hits the
viewer like a baseball bat.
Hido's work is found in numerous
collections, in institutions inclu-
ding the Guggenheim and the San
Francisco Museum of Modern Art,
as well as being featured in maga-
zines such as The New York Times
Magazine and Vanity Fair.
Chaise (2013)
Julie Blackmon
#10789-2109
Todd Hido 2012
COMING SOON
AUSTRALIA
My Trip: photography at Art Gallery of New South Wales
From 27 September until 7 December 2014, the Art Gallery
of New South Wales is to present My Trip, a photographic
exhibition by Australian artists Micky Allan, Max Pam and
Jon Rhodes. The photographs were all taken in the 1970s
and 80s and focus on the subject of travel. Although they
share a common subject matter, each photographer tackles
the topic in a different manner, lending their own unique
voice to their travelogues.
From the beginning of his four-decade-long career, Max Pam
has captured the chance encounters that occur during travel
and responded to the visual richness he found on his travels,
which were a stark contrast to his suburban upbringing. Like
Pam, Jon Rhodes is also interested in exploring but chooses
to focus his work closer to home, having explored indigenous
Australia and integrated himself with the communities which
he photographs in order to solicit a greater intimacy from his
work. His pictures form a narrative, acting like a storyboard
and showing a journey. Micky Allan has also worked across
Australia; her series My Trip, after which this exhibition is na-
med, sees her take a 17-day trip through Victoria and photo-
graphing everybody she meets, inviting them in turn to take a
picture with her camera. All three artists are brought together
in this exhibition to show how the camera can be used to
make sense of the unfamiliar.
FRANCE
Art in Pop at Le Magasin
From 11 October 2014 to 4 January 2015, Le Magasin,
Centre National dArt Contemporain, Grenoble, is to show
the exhibition Art in Pop.
The exhibition breaks down the barriers between high
and low culture, or those between the intellectual aspect
of art and its industrial cultural production. Art in Pop
focuses particularly on music, turning the musician into a
new kind of artist and exploring how pop music creates a
confluence between art and music. Additionally, the exhi-
bition is to feature work by artist-musicians, such as Jimmy
Hendrix, Philippe Katerine, Janis Joplin and John Miller.
GERMANY
Annette Messager at Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen
K21 Stndehaus, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen,
Dsseldorf, is to show an exhibition by Annette Messager
from 27 September 2014 until 22 March 2015.
French artist Messager's last show in Germany took place
25 years ago and the exhibition is to feature works from
the 1980s to the present. Having worked as an artist for
over 40 years, Messager's visual style is highly refined and
is demonstrated through both drawings and installations in
this exhibition. Her recent series Les Interdictions en 2014,
created especially for the exhibition, is a series of 68 pain-
tings (a reference to the revolutionary events in Paris in May
1968) depicting various restrictions across the world, ran-
ging from the banal, like the ban on smoking; to the discri-
minatory, such as the ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia.
These at times difficult themes are approached with charac-
teristic humour and insight.
Annette Messager has had a great impact on the French contem-
porary art scene and she remains an important fgure in the
international art world. She studied at the cole Nationale Su-
prieure des Arts Dcoratifs in Paris and her art covers themes
such as memory and questioning the perceptions of women.
SWITZERLAND
Andr Robillard at Collection de lArt Brut Lausanne
A collection of works by the artist Andr Robillard is to be exhibited at
the Collection de l'Art Brut Lausanne, Switzerland, from 28 November
2014 until 19 April 2015.
Robillard creates guns, spaceships and sputniks from items found
in rubbish heaps, bound together with adhesive tape and iron
wire. Jean Dubufet, the artist who coined the phrase "Art Brut" (in
English described as "Outsider art"), discovered Robillard's work
and began collecting his pieces.
Andr Robillard grew up near Orleans in France and was committed to
a mental hospital aged 19. He moved into his own apartment in 1989,
after 38 years in the hospital, where he continues to work undisturbed.
UNITED STATES
Bill Cosby loans his collection to the National Museum of African Art
in Washington
The actor Bill Cosby and his wife Camille are going to loan more than
300 pieces from their collection to the National Museum of African Art
in Washington.
The works, acquired over the last forty years, will form the centre of
an exhibition entitled Conversations : African and African American
Artworks in Dialogue. The Cosbys' collection includes paintings,
prints, photographs, sculptures and drawings from artists including
Faith Ringgold, Elizabeth Calett, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Romare Bear-
den and Beauford Delaney. Pieces of both traditional and contempora-
ry African art are presented, featuring works of William Kentridge and
Fod Camara. The exhibition will be open from 9 November until
the beginning of 2016.
Acrobats (1989, printed 1990)
Max Pam
gelatin silver photograph 35.2 35.6 cm
Art Gallery of New South Wales Purchased 1990
Max Pam
Report
GLOBAL CHINESE ART AUCTION MARKET
REPORT 2013
China Guardian Auction
Image: Forbes
Structure of the Chinese market
The Chinese art auction market is much newer than established Western markets and thus in mul-
tiple instances has a radically diferent structure. Having only been established for 22 years, the
Chinese market is still evolving and thus the pattern of growth and infrastructure varies from Wes-
tern growth.
Art and Antiques in China has been the strongest-growing market worldwide over the last ten years
and has had a huge impact on the art world as whole, both from its domestic and its international
sales. The market saw particularly huge growth in the period between 2008 and 2011, during which
aggregate sales soared by over 500%. The market also benefted from the efects of the Chinese
economy being much less afected by the global fnancial crash of 2008, explaining growth during
this period being much higher than in other international markets. There was, however, a signifcant
decrease in growth in 2012, during which it slipped to the second biggest market worldwide; yet,
thanks to an apparently successful recovery, the Chinese art market once again was the global leader
in 2013, with year-on-year proft across all sectors. The moderation in prices after the dip of 2012
appears to be indicative of long-term, more sustainable growth in the future.
At its peak in 2011, sales of Chinese Art and Antiques reached a total of $9.3 billion (62.848 billion) and
the market grew to over fve times its size during three years. As prices soared, the market became fooded
and as such, there was a large number of low-quality works selling for disproportionately high prices; whilst
there are some laws in place regulating the Chinese auction market, the lack of infrastructure means that
valuations are not always subject to scrutiny. All of the above, along with a slowdown in economic growth,
led to the market losing more than half its value in 2012 with the volume of transactions decreasing by 27%.
Results for 2013 have, however, shown rather uniform recovery with a value increase of approximately 20%;
in contrast to the global market trend whereby contemporary and Modern sectors contribute most to sales
growth. Growth is yet to return to the levels of 2012, indicating that buyer confdence will take some time to
re-establish as they have a lower tolerance for low-quality, high-priced works.
artnet and the Chinese Association of Auctioneers (CAA) have released the second edition of their
Global Chinese Art Auction Market Report, which ofers an in-depth analysis of the global market for
Chinese art in 2013. Their fndings include results from sales in mainland China, which have been
vetted by third-party groups, global market sales and contributions from industry experts.
Report
REPORT 2013
In stark contrast to other international markets of a comparable size, auction sales make up the vast
majority of sales in mainland China; in the UK and US, the gallery sector and private sales account for
the majority of the market value. Auction sales are the main catalyst for growth, accounting for nearly
70% of the market in 2013. By the end of 2013, the number of recognised auction houses in main-
land China was up 59% since 2009 the highest in the markets 22-year history. Sales from houses
reached $6.1 billion (39.8 billion) in 2013, a 22% year-on-year increase, and constituting 20% of
all auction sales worldwide second only to the US (which accounts for 33%). Where Chinese auctions
follow a similar pattern to the international market, however, is in the concentration of sales within a
small number of auction houses. Much like the international market, which is dominated by Christies
and Sothebys, the Chinese market seems to be heading for a duopolistic structure with the houses
Poly International and China Guardian emerging as market leaders.
Whereas private sales are a boon for Western auction houses, in China, houses are not expressly permitted
to carry out such sales by law leading them to operate instead in a grey area, conducting sales through
other sectors of their businesses; however, houses are lobbying for new legislation to regulate the practice.
Furthermore, non- and late-payment, whilst existing in the global market, is a particular problem in China
with 38% of lots sold in 2012 for more than 10 million were not fully paid as of 31 May 2014. In an efort
to combat this, the four major auction houses dealing in Chinese Art and Antiques (Chrities and Sothebys
and more recently Poly International and China Guardian) have implemented deposit schemes.
Protection of home-grown market players
Domestic auction houses are somewhat protected from foreign competition; yet Sothebys China
launched in 2012 and Christies gained a licence to trade in mainland China in 2013. As foreign
companies, they are, however, forbidden from trading in cultural relics (Chinese porcelain, classi-
cal ink) which have proven to be the most valuable sectors in the Chinese market. Both brands have
instead chosen to focus on diferent sectors in mainland China.
In terms of the value of lots being sold, in Fine Art, 94% of lots sold were under 500,000 in accord
with the global average. There is also a strong polarisation of the market in China, with high-end works
earning an increasing share, yet it remains more balanced than elsewhere with works of the highest tier
(greater than 10 million) making up just 14% value share, as opposed to 66% in the US and 54% in
the UK. This is due to high-end works having a lower average price than in other markets, something
which is typical of a newer marketplace with a relatively limited pool of buyers. The number of top-tier
works being sold has decreased since the boom of 2011, showing a trend towards moderate pricing a
trend which is opposite to that appearing in the US, where price escalation appears almost unstoppable.
Whilst the domestic market may be relatively new, Chinese Art and Antiques have been an important part
of the international art market for some time. In 2013, 280 auction houses outside of mainland China sold
Chinese artworks, with sales totalling $2.3 billion. Hong Kong saw the majority of these sales (70%), as
the centre for international exchange with China and benefting from generous tax rates and a more deve-
loped infrastructure. The entire global market for Chinese art in 2013 was $8.5 billion, 70% of which came
from mainland China, which represented 28% of the global total for art and antiques sales.
If growth is to continue, it is imperative that China develops its infrastructure, increasing the number
of galleries, experts and consultants in order to ofer greater buyer support. Sales will also have to
shift away from the classical sector, as supply stagnates as works are absorbed into the museum sec-
tor or by collectors who are not looking to resell.
Chinese economy
One of the reasons for the increase in the Chinese art market is the rapid growth of the Chinese eco-
nomy. From 2003 to 2013, GDP increased 10% on average, making China the third-wealthiest nation in
the world behind the US and Japan. Whilst China may be home to only 4% of the worlds millionaires,
constituting just 0.1% of its population, an expanding middle class with a taste for luxury goods and
the increase of average disposable household income by 1,500% since 1990 mean that the Chinese art
market is likely to see a huge expansion in its buyer base. Operating in a country with a currency which
is not easily convertible and with few other desirable investment opportunities, wealthy Chinese buyers
are looking increasingly to invest in art.
Report
REPORT 2013
Results for 2013
In 2013, public auction sales of Chinese art, worldwide, earned $8.5 billion (54.8 billion), an increase of
28.8%. $2.3 billion (15.0 billion) of this total came from the overseas market, showing how the market for
Chinese art is concentrated in mainland China with 72.5% of global value coming from domestic auc-
tions. Whilst this means that 27.5% of the value came from overseas sales, this total came from just and
11.4% share of total volume, demonstrating the higher amounts paid for works in the overseas market.
After overall sales decreased by 42.6% in 2012 from 2011, in 2013 sales climbed 28.8%, increa-
sing by 24.4% in mainland China and by 42.0% overseas. Whilst markets have still not returned to
their 2011 levels, these increases are indicative of more sustainable long-term growth.
As with the global market, domestic sales were bolstered by the low-end market, with 95% of
lots sold in China coming from this lower tier and 90.9% of lots sold globally; however, the ave-
rage price for works in China ($17,135/110,484) was signifcantly lower than the global average
($50,400/325,194). In mainland China, this represented a 32.4% decrease in average price since
2011.
Globally, the highest-selling sector was Fine Chinese Paintings and Calligraphy which constituted
45% of all lots sold and earned 55% of the total market value. In terms of value, 85% of sales in this
category came from mainland China where it was the top-selling collecting category; overseas, the
highest-grossing sales came from Chinese Antiques and Artworks. The domestic market outperformed
the overseas market in all categories except 20
th
century and Contemporary Chinese Art.
In mainland China, Fine Chinese Paintings and Calligraphy made up 66% of the domestic market
value, with total sales topping $4.0 billion (26.3 billion). The volume of lots sold in this category
in mainlaind China represented 47.5% market volume and totalled 3.5 times the number of works
of all Chinese lots sold overseas. However, overseas this category constituted just 29.1% of market
value, making $681.5 million (4.3 billion) and representing 19.7% market volume.
Chinese Antiques and Artworks represented the second-largest sector in mainland China, making
up 19.5% of the domestic market value and 23.0% volume. Overseas this category was the stron-
gest-performing sector, with a 46.5% market share by value and a huge 71.8% volume share.
Despite growth, 20
th
century and Contemporary Chinese Art made up just 6.6% of the domestic
market value and 3.2% volume; overseas, this sector performed better, constituting 23.6% market
value share and 6.9% market share by volume. There were a small number of record prices in this
sector during 2013.
The number of auction houses dealing in Chinese art rose by 12.7% from 2012, with the top fve
auction houses all of which were located in Beijing or Hong Kong generating over 42% of total
revenue.
In China, the majority of auction sales were concentrated in the Beijing-Tianjin region, selling
54.0% of lots and earning 70.8% of revenue. The second largest area was the Yangtze River Delta
(Shanghai), which sold 33.9% of lots and brought in 20.0% of revenue. The top 25 domestic auction
houses created 54.6% of global sales ($4.6 billion/2.9 billion).
The largest overseas market was Asia, with 73.2% overseas sales by value. This is in large part
thanks to Hong Kong, which contributed 95.2% of the value in this region. The volume of lots sold
in Asia increased signifcantly from 2012 by 57.7%. The second largest overseas market was Europe
(13.7% value, 26.3% volume) followed by North America (12.9% value, 33.8% volume).
The top auction houses globally selling Chinese Art, by global market share (value), were: Poly
International, Beijing (11.7%); China Guardian, Beijing (10.7%); Christies Hong Kong (7.1%); So-
thebys Hong Kong (6.8%); and Beijing Council, Beijing (6.0%). The top 25 auction houses globally
accounted for over 70% of sales value, 20 of which were located in mainland China. Overseas, the
top 25 auction houses amounted to 25.4% of global sales.
Galleries
ARTICLE OF THE WEEK
Spanish galleries battle cuts in funding
Spanish art galleries are showing their
unity faced with cuts to the funds which
help them project themselves to an inter-
national audience.
The budget allocated to this fund is to be
101,000, split between 37 galleries, ma-
king it 41% less than last year and a far cry
from 2011's 1.2 million. Gallery director
Max Estrella told Elconfdencial.com that
some Spanish galleries make around 90%
of their sales abroad, meaning that this fun-
ding is crucial to their welfare in the context
of the fragile Spanish art market. The grant
allows galleries to take part in fairs such
as Art Brussels, ArtBasel Miami Beach and
Frieze New York (where a small stand alone
costs 25,000), and in doing so extend the
infuence of Spanish artists.
Galleries afected have decided to show
their solidarity through joint openings
and fairs such as Abierto Valencia, due to
take place 26 September, which hopes to
bring new buyers to Spain and encourage
international sales.
OPENINGS
Jrme Pauchant opens his own gallery
After working for 10 years at Galerie de Noirmont, Jrme Pau-
chant is opening his own gallery on 18 September 2014, at 61
rue Notre Dame de Nazareth, in Paris' 3
rd
arrondissement.
The opening exhibition will be by the young French artist Sambre,
displaying his works made from wood and disused objects, las-
ting from the gallery's opening until 25 October. The exhibition
is expected to totally transform the space, evoking Kurt Schwit-
ters' Merzbau, an immersive piece installed in Hanover during the
1920s and 30s.
Pauchant states his motivation for opening the gallery as desire
to defend artists who wish to explore the limits of the creation
whatever medium they use or origins they have, writing on the
gallery's website that it is most of all concerned about presen-
ting the instigators of a meaningful work that includes the he-
ritage of the past as much as react to the contemporary world
from which it emerges. Pauchant also works as a consultant for
large frms about their artistic direction, and also for private col-
lections, giving curatorial advice.
New details on Sprth Magers new LA space
Sprth Magers, already with two galleries in London and Berlin,
is to open a 14,000 ft. sq. space in Los Angeles next spring.
Philomene Magers in conversation with the Financial Times
explained that they chose the American city because of its
cultural and intellectual climate, saying that like Berlin, it's an
artist's city. The space will be located at 5900 Wiltshire Boule-
vard, directly opposite the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Sprth Magers joins the likes of galleries such as Maccarone,
Gavlak and Hauser & Wirth, who are also opening spaces there.
The gallery hopes to forge connections with more artists from
the area, having already worked with natives including Barbara
Kruger, Ed Ruscha and Sterling Ruby. The inaugural exhibition
will be dedicated to the Los Angeles-based artist John Baldes-
sari.the Director of the museum, Dorothy Kosinski, describes
her as one of the nation's most respected curators of 19
th
and
20
th
-century art.
OPENING
Gallery Ibid to open new Los Angeles space
The London based gallery Ibid is to open a new space at
675 S. Santa Fe Avenue, Los Angeles.
The decision to make the move to Los Angeles comes at a
time when its status as the new desirable location for artists
is becoming well established. At the end of August 2014,
the artist Shepard Fairey declared that The reason why LA
is becoming a hub is because LA still has afordable spaces
for artists to have studios. The director of Ibid gallery also
explained to the Financial Times that things are changing
there. Indeed, the art schools and the local artists com-
munity are very strong [] And while the collector scene is
growing as well, I am not relying on them alone I hope to
attract an international audience to the new space.
The inaugural exhibition to take place at Ibid Los Angeles
will be dedicated to the young artist Christian Rosa.
Usually you can smoke
Christian Rosa
Image courtesy of the artist and Ibid
Leiko Ikemura. Zarathoustra
1455, rue Sherbrooke O. Montreal
HUMAN RESOURCES
Richard Gray Gallery appoints Tabor Story as Associate Director
The Richard Gray Gallery, New York, has appointed Tabor Sto-
ry as its new associate director and art fair coordinator .
The gallery was founded in Chicago in 1963, opening in
New York in 1996, and is one of the leading galleries spe-
cialising in Modern and contemporary European and Ameri-
can art. It has sold works by renowned artists such as Picas-
so, Dubufet, Matisse, Mir and Litchenstien, and represents
artists such as Jennifer Bartlett, Magdalena Abakanowicz,
David Hockney and Suzanne Caporael. It has also partici-
pated in numerous art fairs around the world such as Art
Basel, Art Basel Miami Beach and TEFAF Maastricht.
Tabor Story was previously the Art Fair Coordinator at Gladstone
Gallery, New York and an associate at Matthew Marks Gallery,
also in New York. She studied at the Maine College of Art.
REPRESENTATION
Mike Weiss Gallery now representing Valerie Hegarty
The Mike Weiss Gallery in New York has recently an-
nounced that it is representing the artist Valerie Hegarty.
Hegarty produces works which reimagine historical pain-
tings after they have been subject to a test (often linked
to their historical or cultural signifcance) such as fre, wa-
ter, guns or earthquakes. She constructs the paintings as
though they have been subject to this destruction, but on
closer inspection by the viewer it becomes apparent that it
is entirely the work of the artist. The efect of this, as the mu-
seum describes it, is to make the audience question authen-
ticity, a questioning which extends itself to our interpreta-
tions of reality in general. Her 2013 exhibition Alternative
Histories in the Brooklyn Museum presented one of the mu-
seum's period rooms in a completely reworked way, allowing
the artist to draw attention to a darker side of its history.
REPRESENTATIONS
Lehmann Maupin represents Patrick Van Caeckenbergh
Lehmann Maupin Gallery, based in New York and Hong
Kong, has announced that it will be representing the artist
Patrick Van Caeckenbergh.
Born in Belgium, Van Caeckenbergh's work is described by
the gallery as follows: Van Caeckenbergh strives to create
a world of his own design, populated by characters and enti-
ties inspired by his collection of scientifc diagrams, religious
stories, and fairytales. These complex and varied interests
form the foundation of his larger-scale sculptures and ins-
tallations, which draw on a long and rich tradition of Belgian
Surrealism. He has had numerous solo exhibitions including
a retrospective at M Museum in Leuven, La Maison Rouge in
Paris and Muse de Beaux-Arts in Nmes.
Rachel Lehmann, one of the two founders of the gallery, said
that she was particularly drawn to the artist's work at the 2013
Venice Bienniale, adding that his engagement with wide-ran-
ging philosophical ideas makes him particularly suited to the
gallery and its current range of artists.
Blum & Poe to represent Alma Allen
Blum & Poe gallery, who have spaces in Los Angeles, New
York and Tokyo, is now representing the artist Alma Allen.
Allen is a self-taught artist who uses a range of techniques,
such as hand carving to computer-assisted fabrication, to
produce deceptively simple sculptures which are often
viewed as outside of any recognised art movement. The
artist works with a form in mind, but allows the sculpture to
change with unexpected damages and setbacks that occur
in its fabrication, meaning that the fnished result can often
be far from the intended piece. He works mostly in marble,
wood and bronze from his desert compound in California.
Blum & Poe was founded in 1994 by Tim Blum and Jef Poe
in Los Angeles.
WHAT'S ON
GERMANY
Jill Barof at Galerie Christian Lethert
Until 18 October 2014, Galerie Christian Lethert is featuring
a solo exhibition by Jill Barof entitled stolen moments.
The exhibition features drawings which develop themes
of chance and patterns of change. The large-scale Floa-
ting Line Drawings are comprised of simple, lyrical shapes
drawn in oil pastel which emerge in part by chance. The
more recent Continuous Line Drawings are created using
a similar method, but instead employ a continuous line
which interacts with the page. Circular Tide Drawings show
the ebb and fow of the sea and the efect of a storm on the
water, whilst the site-specifc installation stolen moment
utilises the play of light in the gallery.
New York-based artist Jill Barof was born in 1954 and
has had solo exhibitions at institutions including Mar-
garete Roeder Gallery, New York, Bartha Contemporary,
London and Kunstraum Metropol, Munich. She has also
participated in group exhibitions in Germany, the UK
and the USA.
IRELAND
Dorothy Cross at Kerlin Gallery, Dublin
Running until 18 October 2014, Kerlin Gallery, Dublin,
is showing the exhibition View by Dorothy Cross.
This exhibition features a new series of sculptures and pho-
tographs. In her work, Cross explores the relationship
between living beings and the natural world, using unu-
sual re-appropriated objects such as the wig of a lawy-
er, a telescope, a shark's skin and a skull. Playing with
the natural fux of light in the gallery, the sculptures
redesign the gallery space.
Irish artist Dorothy Cross has created several large-scale
public artworks, such as her work Ghost Ship which won
the Nissan Art Project in 1998. She was the subject of a
solo exhibition at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in 2005,
as well as at the Bloomberg Space in London in 2009. Her
works form part of the collections at a number of institu-
tions including the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin;
the Norton Collection, Santa Monica; Art Pace Foundation,
Texas; the Ulster Museum, Belfast; Goldman Sachs Collec-
tion, London; and Tate Modern, London, to name a few.
ROMANIA
Sigma1 retrospective in Cluj
A retrospective dedicated to the 1.1.1. and Sigma1
group is open 12 September until 21 September at The
Ofce Cluj-Napoca as part of the Cluj Art Weekend.
The exhibition, organized by Jecza Gallery in collabora-
tion with Triade Interart Foundation, Volker Diehl Gal-
lery, Johnen Gallery, Baril gallery and the Museum of
Art Timisoara, is the largest retrospective dedicated to
the collective to date. The Sigma1 group explores the
interaction between diferent artistic media and social
scientifc disciplines, in a transgression of the normal
artistic approach. Their vision opened up the way for
experimental art in Romania and exists at the intersec-
tion between art, science and the living world, questio-
ning the way in which contemporary art is understood
in the context of the late-20
th
century.
Sigma1 were active in Timisoara from 1969 until the
mid-1980s and were inspired by the art experiences of
the Group 1.1.1.
UNITED STATES
James Nares High Speed Drawings at Paul Kasmin Gallery
High Speed Drawings, an exhibition by the British artist James Nares,
is currently being held at the Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York, until 25
October.
The exhibition presents a series of drawings created using paper
attached to a motorised steel drum, which rotates as the artist uses
Chinese ink to draw lines with paintbrushes created especially for
this purpose. The result is rippling lines of various widths, sugges-
ting the idea of high-speed movement captured through visual re-
presentation. Nare described the work to the New York Observer as
a visual accompaniment to STREET [his 2013 flm depicting New
York from a camera attached to the back of a slow moving SUV], as
its also in this lateral mode, always going in the same direction,
adding that its kind of the opposite, because the thing is moving,
and Im standing still.
Although born in London, Nare has been working in New York since
1974. His flms and paintings are found in a number of collections
such as the Whitney Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art
and the Museum of Modern Art, all in New York.
Untitled (2014)
James Nares
Ink on paper
95 x 60 inches (241.3 x 152.4 cm)
Image: Elizabeth Bernstein, courtesy of the artist and Paul
Kasmin Gallery
COMING SOON
GERMANY
Christoph Keller: "Anarcheology" at Esther
Schipper
From 19 September to 25 October 2014,
Esther Schipper gallery, Berlin, is to present
ANARCHEOLOGY, a presentation by artist
Christoph Keller.
Keller's work explores the interactions
between Western Europe and the Amazon,
not just from an anthropological perspec-
tive, but by examining the methods by which
information is collected. The show features
large-scale images based on digital scans of
foliage he collected in Brazil, such as the se-
ries Herbarium Amazonas in which leaves are
shown in varying stages of desiccation; the
decay of the leaves shows the impossibility
of halting entropic processes and the futility
of permanent preservation. The images of the
scanned leaves are hung against the backdrop
of vertical scan lines generated by a faulty ca-
libration of a digital scanning device, showing
the interaction between nature and technolo-
gy. The exhibition also includes a flm entit-
led Anarcheology where images of a deserted
tropical island are interspersed with text to
create a picture essay about Western engage-
ment with other cultures.
German artist Christoph Keller studied Mathe-
matics, Physics and Hydrology in Freiburg,
Berlin and Santiago de Chile, as well as liberal
arts and flm at the University of Arts, Berlin
and at the Academy of Media Arts, Cologne.
LUXEMBOURG
Robert Brandy at Bernard Ceysson
From 27 September until 15 November
2014, Galerie Bernard Ceysson, Luxembourg,
is to feature an exhibition dedicated to Ro-
bert Brandy.
Brandy was born in 1946 in Luxembourg and
began his career in 1972 when he began
studying fne art in Aix-en-Provence. Upon
returning to Luxembourg in 1975, the artist
presented his frst exhibition. His paintings
are infuenced by his fondness for motor cars;
the money he earned from his frst exhibition
was spent on an Austin Healey Frogeye. A co-
lourful individual, Brandy created a double of
himself in 1994 who he called Bolitho Blane,
a creation which goes hand in hand with the
exploration of his own identity.
Brandy has had over 135 solo exhibitions in
Germany, Russia, Poland, Eastern Europe and
Japan. His works are part of the collections
of institutions including the Musum dart et
dhistoire in Luxembourg, the Muse Canto-
nal des Beaux-Arts in Lausanne, the Stedelijk
Museum in Amsterdam and the Bibliothque
Nationale de Paris.
Robert Brandy has exhibited at the gallery in
Luxembourg and Paris three times previously.
PORTUGAL
Galeria Mrio Sequeira questions the nature of the contemporary
From 11 October 2014 until March 2015, Galeria Mrio Sequeira in Braga,
Portudal, is to present the show What is contemporary in contemporary art?
The group exhibition is curated by Fernando Castro Florez and is to feature
the work of 22 artists including Angela de la Cruz, Fernanda Fragateiro,
Franz West, Manuel Caeiro, Nan Goldin, Robert Longo and Jos Bechara.
Galeria Mrio Sequeira opened in northern Portugal in 1994 on an old farm
site. For its early exhibitions, the gallery presented the art of well-known
Spanish artists, before including international contemporary artists inclu-
ding Richard Long, Gerhard Richter, Anselm Kiefer, Sigmar Polke, Andy Wa-
rhol and Rachel Whitheread. The activity of the gallery has opened up art
in the region, attracting collectors mainly from Portugal, Spain and Brazil.
SOUTH AFRICA
Goodman Gallery announces Africans in America for start of 2015
South Africa's Goodman Gallery has announced their exhibition Africans
in America to take place at the start of 2015.
The three-part project focuses on African immigrants or the frst generation
of Americans with African parentage. The exhibition will alternate between
the gallery's spaces in Johannesburg and Cape Town in the run up to the
gallery's 50
th
anniversary in 2016 .
It is curated by Hank Willis Thomas, an African-American conceptual and
photographic artist who was born in 1976 in Plainfeld, New Jersey. He
studied photography at New York Universitys Tisch School of the Arts and
received a masters in fne art from the California College of the Arts in San
Francisco. He has since exhibited in Paris, Milan and San Francisco and has
given conferences in universities including Yale and Princeton as well as
Muse du Quai Branly in Paris and Birmingham Museum of Art. His work
explores ideas of identity, history and popular culture.
Installation view
Anarcheology
Christoph Keller
Esther Schipper, Berlin 2014 Image: Andrea Rossetti
Interview
BUILDING FROM ZERO:
AN INTERVIEW WITH ASSEMBLE ARCHITECTS
Cineroleum
Image: Assemble
Assemble is a London-based architectural collective that came together organically in 2010, de-
buting with their self-initiated pop-up cinema in an abandoned petrol station Cineroleum. Since
then, the frm has reduced its team and taken on more commercial projects, whilst remaining true to
their socially-engaged principles: creating structures that serve the community, keeping costs low,
and maintaining a simple aesthetic. AMA spoke with Alice Edgerly of Assemble who explained some
of these projects in more detail and gave us an insight into their practice.
How did Assemble begin?
We formed in 2010, having recently graduated from university, and our frst project Cineroleum
was a derelict petrol station on Clerkenwell Road which we turned into a pop-up cinema. We
were all volunteers at the time and had zero budget. There were 20 of us and we each put in about
100 and we also applied for an arts fund from Ideas Tap which gave us a further 2,500. The whole
project was realised with 6000 to 7000.
The building was made from industrial materials that we could bulk-buy, cheaply; and around 150
volunteers helped us construct it over three weeks. It was open for about four weeks, tickets were
5, and it sold out it did really well. This frst project really shaped the nature of our work. We are
now working on a number of permanent projects, and have cut the team down there are 12 of us
either part-time or full-time. It's really important to us to keep the public in mind and try to involve
the eventual users of the building as much as possible in the actual production of the project. It is
a great way of creating a sense of shared ownership and giving people a direct involvement in a
project that it being built on their doorstep.
Interview
BUILDING FROM ZERO:
Can you explain the working process for your self-initiated projects?
Our second project was also a self-initiated one. It was a temporary structure called Folly for a
Flyover, where we built what looked like a brick house under a fyover in Hackney Wick. It was an
interesting juncture between the 19
th
-century Lee Navigation Canal, and the 20
th
-century fyover.
We applied for funding again with the Curate Art Award, with a slightly larger budget of 40,000.
We collaborated with Barbican on their summer exhibition, Watch Me Move, which was all about
animation and movement. The Folly screened flms and hosted music performances at night, then
during the day there were a lot of family-focused activities: such as workshops and lessons.
What happens to the materials from these temporary spaces?
We always look to extend a building's lifetime. For example, after Folly for a Flyover, the wood and
bricks used were remade into planters that have now been given to a Primary school. They have now
become integrated into the curriculum, as they use them to give lessons on gardening etc.
Would you say that there is a defining style or aesthetic at Assemble?
I think we are defned by our aim to make spaces as public as possible whether that is how they
are built, or how they are run. There's a made by many hands concept which is always visible and
creates a certain style.
Oto Cafe
Image: Assemble
Interview
BUILDING FROM ZERO:
How do you manage to create affordable projects?
Its mainly through material which we look to use in an afordable way. However, quite a lot of the
time we are involved in many diferent elements of the project. As well as designing and building,
we set up the business plan, we are the landlords, we are the ones who get exterior funding. Right
now we are working on a programme in Glasgow called Baltic Street Adventure Playground, in Dal-
marnock a really rundown part of the city where we are building a playground for the local
children. In fact it us the only kind of play provision in the area and we have been involved in setting
up all of the job applications for the workers who are going to be running the space. As part of the
initial stages for the project, we hosted a number of workshops on the site with children in the area.
Fundamentally, costs are kept low because we do most of the work ourselves!
What is the attraction in building on these abandoned sites?
Things that are often overlooked in architecture can be incredibly valuable. An obvious example of
this was a huge rubble site in Dalston, which had been empty for a number of years. This plot has been
awaiting development for a really long time and looks to be indefnitely empty. We worked with Caf
Oto a music venue and caf to build on this space. Again the budget was very low and we had to
think about ways to keep the costs down, but thankfully there was loads of waste material and rubble
on-site which we used to construct the building. So material-wise, there is zero cost and at the end of
the project, when the building is demolished, it will go back to exactly what it was before.
What is coming up for Assemble?
We are starting a few projects right now: one of them is the public gallery space at Goldsmiths
our frst large-scale public building which is pretty exciting. After that we are building a large
greenhouse in the shared gardens of a housing estate round the corner from our ofces. We are also
doing a project in Liverpool, refurbishing a row of derelict terrace houses in a place called Granby
where there were the riots in the 80s. These spaces have been abandoned for a number of years,
but used to be the nicest waterfront houses in the area. The council wanted to demolish them and
build new ones from scratch, so we proposed to keep them and do them up.
Folly for a Flyover
Image: Assemble
Artists
APPEAL
Le Corbusier sites apply once again for World
Heritage status
Despite two previous failed attempts, several buil-
dings by Swiss architect Le Corbusier are applying
to be put on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Seventeen sites from seven countries are fea-
tured in this application, three of which are in
Chandigarh, Northern India. Marc Petit, mayor
of French town Firmini and president of the
Association of Le Corbusier Sites, told Le Fi-
garo, Weve redone our application taking
into account the experts recommendations,
particularly regarding the reduction of the
number of sites, adding that the proposal is
supported by the Fondation Le Corbusier, and
the French ambassador at UNESCO Phillippe
Lalliot. The application also has the support
of the Indian government.
INTERNET
Morris Louis catalogue goes online
The catalogue of Morris Louis (1912-1962)
has been put online.
MorrisLouis.org, which ofcially launched this
weekend, holds the complete illustrated cata-
logue of the artist's works with information on
over 1,000 paintings and drawings. The site,
which began in 2011 upon the death of the ar-
tist wife, was thought up by Diane Upright Fine
Arts LLC the descendants of Morris Louis
and The Morris Louis Art Trust. The site's pro-
ject manager, Jennifer Musawwir, said of the
project: We wanted to create something which
would preserve Louis' work and we knew that
creating a site would be the future of this.
The site went live at the same time as the
Mnuchin Gallery, New York, opened an exhibi-
tion dedicated to the artist. The exhibition will
take place until 18 October 2014.
AWARDS
Yto Barrada awarded the seventh Abraaj Group Art Prize
The photographer Yto Barrada has been awarded the seventh Abraaj Group Art Prize.
The artist is to receive $100,000 and has the opportunity to present one of
her works at the Art Dubai fair running from 18 until 21 March 2015.
Yto Barrada is a Franco-Moroccan photographer who was raised in Tangiers, Moroc-
co. It was Jean-Marc Tingaud who introduced her to photography before she left for
France to study History and Politics at the Sorbonne. She then went on to continue
her studies at the International Centre of Photography in New York. Barrada's work
has been exhibited at the Antoni Tpies Foundation, Barcelona; at Witte de With, Rot-
terdam; the Jeu de Paume, Paris; L'appartement 22, Rabat; the Museum of Modern Art,
New York and the Villa Mdicis, Rome. In 2006 she was the Laureate at the Academy
of Arts, Berlin. She has also initiated the Cinmathque de Tanger project and is cur-
rently represented by the Polaris gallery, Paris and the Galerieofmarseille in Marseille.
Nina Beier wins the Bttcherstrasse Prize
The 44
th
edition of the Bttcherstrasse Prize in Bremen has been won by concep-
tual artist Nina Beier, who wins 30,000.
The prize founded by Ludwig Roselius Junior rewards a living artist in a Ger-
man-speaking country who has not yet been recognised for the quality of their
work. The jury, composed of Marion Ackermann (Artistic Director of Kunstsam-
mlung Nordrhein-Westfalen), Ulrike Groose (Director of Kunstmusuem Stuttgart),
Fabrice Hergott (Artistic Director at Muse d'art moderne de la ville de Paris),
Thomas Kellein (independent curator and art advisor) and Adam Szymczyk (Di-
rector of Kunsthalle in Basel) said: The jury has unanimously chosen Nina Beier
as the winner. Her work has an important sculptural presence.
ARTICLE OF THE WEEK
Controversy over the winner of the Carmignac-Gestion Photojournalism Award
Controversy is developing over the win-
ner of the Carmignac-Gestion Photojour-
nalism Award.
For its ffth edition, the prize, dedicated to
Iran, has been taken away from the pho-
tographer Newsha Tavakolian. The photo-
grapher announced on her Facebook profle
that she was renouncing the prize and giving
back the money. The cause is, according to
the organisers of the prize, pressure from
Iranian authorities, but the photographer's
version of events is very diferent: Mr. Car-
mignac was keen to personally edit my
photographs and to change the texts which
accompanied them. The interferences of Mr.
Carmignac culminated after he chose a com-
pletely unacceptable title for my project.
The title in question is Lost Generation,
which she describes as a clich.
The work of the photographer concentrates
on nine people from 25-35 years old, and
particularly on young people whose parents
took part in the revolution and now fnd
themselves without a future. According to
her, douard Carmignac was expecting so-
mething more spectacular.
Fondation Carmignac told AMA: This year,
the Fondation Carmignac was faced with
an unexpected situation whereby Laureate
Newsha Tavakolian was put in real danger.
Having submitted her work on Iran, the ar-
tist informed the Fondation of the potential
risks that she and her family and friends
may incur; she also expressed her desire
to tone down the Burnt Generation project
chosen by the jury. Given the situation the
Fondation preferred to defer the project
They also added: The current debate about
the censorship apparently committed by
the Fondation is far from the reality. If there
is censorship in this case, it is the result of
the pressure from a government anxious to
control freedom of expression.
Le Corbusier Centre in Zurich
Interview
ARCHITECTURE AS AN ART FORM:
AN INTERVIEW WITH GASPAR LIBEDINSKY
Mister Trap
Gaspar Libedinsky
Can you encapsulate your practice to us?
I defne myself as an artist, architect and curator. My studio operates within private and public
space, in order to mediate the realm between urban scale and the intimacy of the human body. If I
could encapsulate the ethos of my work, I would say it was an investigation into "primary emotion
childs unintellectualised reaction to fantasy. The experience continues and takes on new dimen-
sions while discovering a new complexity and multiplicity of layers.
My studio expends the same amount of rigour for small-scale works such as a pair of slippers, to
those of monumental size, such as my forthcoming project for the Buenos Aires Obelisk. We try and
stay clear of pigeon-holing our work as architecture, art or design, so that we can question limits
in the broadest sense. Every work is a pursuit for the truth.
Gaspar Libedinsky is an Argentinian artist and architect whose CV boasts an impressive mix of work
for high-profle frms including Diller Scofdio + Renfro, and Rem Koolhaas' frm, OMA, as well as his
solo projects created within his atelier. While his studio is based in Buenos Aires, Gaspar currently
works and lives between New York and London, presenting his alternative architectural installa-
tions in public spaces. AMA had the chance to speak to the artist about the philosophy behind his
architecture, his design for the High Line park, and how his native culture has afected his work
throughout his career.
Interview
Youve used clothing to create architectural installations how does this differ from traditional
materials?
I have created three textile works: Arquitectura para el cuerpo, Mister Trapo and Monumento al
hombre comun. I view clothing as miniature architecture, one that serves as an inhabitable skin.
Textiles allow me to generate both miniature architectures, such as in Arquitectura para el cuerpo
or much larger structures such as in the Monument to the Common Man. They can be expanded to
consume space or compressed to ft in a suitcase.
How does your Argentinean identity affect your work?
My work focuses on the city as an organic system and I am particularly interested in my own city,
Buenos Aires, an extremely fertile ground for some of the issues which I am passionate about: the
appropriation of the space by the individual, the development of urban identities, the institutiona-
lisation of informal systems into the city fabric and the questioning of limits as inhabitable spaces.
My work is deeply related to a conception of the city which matured during my early times as a street
juggler. In Buenos Aires I was the frst to juggle with hats (in my case a top hat!) at trafc lights. I was
interested in the possibility of working with an audience through a show that was modulated by the
duration of the red light: an urban choreography that focused on the relationship between the body
and the city's rhythm and infrastructures. Likewise, I was interested in the cohesion a sort of ethe-
real social glue that I managed to generate to keep the audience captivated enough to watch my
show. The performance acted as an urban device, capable of operating the citys fow of people and
it was through this that I developed the concept of performing architecture.
What was your main aim behind your design of the park on New Yorks High Line?
The High Line park created a series of new paradigms. It repositioned New York as the most innova-
tive urban city since the development of the skyscraper. The High Line became a new typology of
public space in its own right, encompassing the transformation of industrial structures into hedo-
nistic spaces of leisure and fantasy in post-industrial times. The project was founded by the Friends
of the High Line in order to preserve the structure from being demolished. As a non-governmental
organisation, their biggest obstacle was to change the perception of the existing structure from
being considered an obstacle, to a legitimate development project.
Long before the Mayor cut the red ribbon, the infrastructure was generated to integrate into both the
social and urban fabric; a social cohesion within the community was created during the building pro-
cess, which I think was the most relevant state policy. Through a series of street festivals, gala dinners
and open presentations to the public during design phases, the High Line's public space was created
long before the park opened. In terms of design, through a strategy of Agri-Tecture, the project blur-
red the boundaries between green surfaces of vegetation and hard concrete walking surfaces. The
High Line, like Alice in Wonderland, operates as an escape from the City into a secret garden.
What did you learn from being part of the Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Rem Koolhaas teams?
Diller Scofdio + Renfro are very ambitious, in that they aim for every single project to contribute
to the discipline's progress, and to apply creativity, not only in terms of design, but their planning
strategy. With OMA, Rem Koolhaas' frm, they develop their proposed projects in such a way that
they make you believe that no other possibility could, or should, exist.
Within both studios theres a horizontal structure in their projects which I identify myself with. I
don't believe in vertical structures for the production of architecture. Concepts should be juggled
and moulded in an open critical environment.
Can you tell us about your installation in Buenos Aires Obelisk in 2016? How do you view the
architecture scene in Buenos Aires compared to elsewhere youve exhibited in the world?
The Obelisk is 67 metres tall; an icon in Buenos Aires and designed by one of Argentinas most
prominent Modern architects: Alberto Prebisch. This hollow structure doesn't mean much symbo-
lically to the Argentinian culture, and it is this lack of political and fgurative attachment which
transformed it into the city's centre of celebration. Buenos Aires is at once a very vertical city full
of skyscrapers and a horizontal one, represented through its various residential neighbourhoods.
My principal thought for the project was that Buenos Aires doesn't have a viewing point to allow
people to have diferent perspectives of the horizon.
Interview
I developed a temporary structure made out of construction elevators and scafolding systems to
generate an aerial promenade which allowed people to inhabit and appropriate the Obelisks verti-
cal space, while scanning both the monument and the city. While its geographical and phallic form
acts as an urban GPS, the Obelisk allows us to position ourselves within the city to understand
where we are standing. When you stand at the top of the Obelisk, you can see 9 de Julio Avenue in
both directions, and you completely lose a sense of where you are. Like a magic trick, the Obelisk
disappears when people become the Obelisk themselves.
I believe that Buenos Aires should create, as in this case, new public spaces at various strata; un-
derstanding that the ground level is not the only potential view. Roof terraces and highways can
also be appropriated as public spaces. Auto Parque is my vernacular version of the High Line
which has been built on unfnished highways across the city, intersecting on diverse socio-econo-
mic neighbourhoods: from luxury neighbourhoods to favelas. Because of its political incapacity to
develop large surface areas of the city, Buenos Aires should generate within the social fabric a
series of inventive public spaces with a minimal footprint and a maximum impact.
You teach at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and the Architectural Association what
problems does architecture face today?
I think architecture is on the brink of extinction as a relevant discipline. In order for it to survive,
it needs to generate new experiences in public spaces which focus on the culture of physical en-
counters against the virtual realm. In terms of site-specifcity, we need to ask ourselves; what can
be done here that cannot be done anywhere else? Architecture should be as creative as virtual
communities in order to survive. I teach what I actually want to learn myself and all my workshops
generate works with students that has a life beyond the academic limits.
Which architects/artists influence your work?
My Maestros are Rem Koolhaas, Liz Diller and Guillermo Kuitca. However, while I respect their work
ethic, my production is independent and based on my direct observation of the world.
Can you tell us about your projects coming up?
I will be exhibiting Mister Trapo from 27 September to 30 November 2014, at Playtime, Les Ate-
liers de Rennes for the Biennale dart Contemporain. I am also working on a new series of works for
Galleries Lafayette in Rennes. Also I have just found out that I won an open installation competition,
and the prize is the opportunity to construct my work Carousel in Parque Patricios in Buenos Aires.
I've redefned the traditional children's carousel by replacing horse-power with bicycle-power.
Monumento al hombre comun
Gaspar Libedinsky
Interview
ARCHITECTURE TODAY:
AN INTERVIEW WITH JUAN LUIS BRICEO
Juan Luis Briceo Tell us about your architectural background.
I've wanted to be an architect ever since I frst started playing with Lego. Ive been very involved in
architecture since a young age; it was always my thing. I began working at 16 and went on to begin
my frst degree in Venezuela; then I moved to Finland for my frst Masters degree, where I ended up
staying for the next 16 years. I moved to Paris a couple of years ago to do another Masters degree in
Urbanism. My background is in quite traditional architecture but now I am working with a frm [Bush]
which deals mainly with interiors I think it's fascinating the cross-over that the two can have. It's
also interesting for our clients in that we can talk about a particular interior space but at the same
time have a clear understanding of what goes on beyond the walls.
Who has been the biggest influence on your work?
For me, it's without a doubt the Finnish architect Alvar Aalto; an iconic fgure in the Modern move-
ment who is very diferent from Le Corbusier and the likes. He really introduced a human element
to design: materiality, sensuality, and touch. He is also very much inspired by nature.
Juan Luis Briceo is a Venezuelan-born architect and is currently director of architecture and
urbanism at Bush Architects based in Paris. His work combines many nuances of his diverse cultu-
ral backgrounds; he has lived in South America, Scandinavia and Central Europe. AMA caught up
with Juan in his Paris ofce to talk about how sustainability should be perceived in the context of
construction, and the movement of architecture today.
Interview
ARCHITECTURE TODAY:
How would you describe your approach?
It's completely directed by customer needs; we are tailors. We begin by fnding out as much as
possible about the client their expectations, desires and so on , and then put that into context
with our architectural experience and knowledge.
In this era of technology, how important is it for an architect to be able to draw these days?
Let me show you my notebook You cant live with out drawing, it's absolutely fundamental. Tech-
nology is very handy and practical, but it forces you to work towards a fxed end, and leaves little
space for the creativity and creation that actually takes place within the process itself. There is so
much freedom with a sketchbook; just tracing out lines and sketching allows other ideas to form.
How has the industry changed since you began working as an architect?
Of course the world has changed a lot in the last 20 years, but I think it's the clients who have
changed the most. They believe that they have a better understanding of architecture I jokingly
blame TV shows such as Grand Designs which can be damaging to our profession when people
view architecture as 'easy'. Clients can arrive with incredibly specifc expectations you have to ful-
fll. Of course this is part of our job, but it can be stifing to our creativity and leaves no room for our
expertise to be employed. It's our role to analyse, suggest and to open up a dialogue rather than
follow a prescription. The market often forces us to do just this, which can disrupt the relationship
between architect and client.
What does your culturally varied background bring to your work?
Coming from a diferent culture each time you arrive somewhere allows you to contribute something
new and apply it to a new context. By now my experience has become incredibly diverse, which is
very valuable; coming from South America, with extensive experience in Scandinavia and now living
in central Europe, I have gained the ability to understand a client coming from Singapore just as well
as I can an American. Its not because they are similar, but because I have had to consider so many
profles I now can pick out what is relevant in each culture and what needs to be respected.
What do you consider to be the biggest innovations in architecture?
It has to be the communication aspect the fow of information today is remarkable. We can be
working on a project in Turkey, and at the same time sending emails with sketches to somebody in
London who will analyse it and get it back to you by the afternoon. Before this you had a drawing
and you had to get on a plane to show it. It is really the speed and the pace of projects that have ad-
vanced, meaning that today things take shape so quickly. However, it does pose some new challen-
ges as it puts a lot of pressure on the client; sometimes you really do need to meet people face to
face for these discussions to take place.
Can you tell us a little about Bush?
Bush is a well-established company which focuses mainly on interior architecture. We specialise in
acting as a link between foreign clients and frms who are looking to develop in France, by providing
expertise on the French way of doing things, the laws and customs etc. We are construction-driven
and therefore very operational.
Is Bush making any efforts in terms of sustainable development?
Defnitely, however we have our own ideas as to what we see as sustainable. Our view is a rather
low tech one, in that a good design is able to adapt and to last it's the most sustainable way of
building really. For example, we dont rely on solar panels and that kind of 'on-trend' technology; as
although it gets the label of ecological, it's expensive and complex. We are looking at spaces that, in
the future, clients will want to turn it into something else and it will still serve a purpose.
What are your future projects, both personal and with Bush?
Personally, I am fnishing a large-scale project in Morocco, where we are looking at building a university
campus in a new town. At Bush we are working primarily on ofce spaces particularly in empty buildings
and questioning the problem of what to with the oversupply of ofce buildings. We have been working
on how to make something of these; it may be that they need to fnd an entirely new function. We have
worked with artists too, turning abandoned or unused spaces into ateliers or living quarters. This is also
an example of sustainability, developing what already exists rather than piling money into a superfuous
construction. I think that these spaces have great potential, as often they are in great locations.
Interview
ARCHITECTURE TODAY:
We work with temporary spaces too; if things are bound for demolition in two years we try to ensure
its use until the very end if you can extend the life span of a building it must have a positive envi-
ronmental impact. I have always collaborated with artists, for example often with installations turning
projects into workable pieces; work which requires structural knowledge or even civic permission.
There is a lot of demand for development, so we have to look at how can we expand in a sustainable
way. Unfortunately, the rules and regulations in cities often limit this kind of creative innovation.
We try to link clients with architects in order to resolve this problem. It can be an overwhelming idea
and that's where architects come in.
Can you define any geographical locations which will see significant development this year?
Europe is still in a bit of a downturn; I have been working a lot in the Maghreb in North Africa, which
is experiencing remarkable growth. It is an interesting area; it has great links with Europe but at the
same time it's deeply rooted in its ancient culture. It is very diferent to the whole boom of the Gulf
area which has a seemingly shallow culture these days, in that the construction taking place there is
volatile and too focused on current trends. Lots of people are focused on India or China or the Gulf
but I think it is important to look closer at North Africa. Growth is slower, but it is much more solid.
Voix du monde
Juan Luis Briceo
Luc Tuymans Art Analytics Luc Tuymans Art Analytics
Born in Mortsel, Belgium, in 1958, Luc Tuymans is primarily a fgurative painter whose work is
heavily infuenced by the examination of history and memory representing subjects such as WWII
or colonialism. Tuymans is also a curator, having organised multiple cross-culture exhibitions, and
was a guest tutor in painting at the Dutch institute Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten.
Tuymans began his studies in Fine Art at Sint-Lukasinstituut in Brussels in 1976, after which
he continued his education at the cole Nationale Suprieure des Arts Visuels de la Cambre in
Brussels, Belgium, from 1979 to 1980 and at the Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten in
Antwerp, Belgium, from 1980 to 1982. Tuymans then went on to study Art History at Vrije Univer-
siteit, Brussels, from 1982 to 1986.
The artists work focuses principally on fgurative painting, yet he spent some time experimenting
with video and flm stills. Whilst his work focuses on signifcant events such as the Holocaust or
Colonialism, Tuymans also plays with everyday objects, creating wallpaper patterns or Christmas
decorations.
Some of the artists most notable work includes Gas Chamber (1986); a work that gained Tuymans
critical recognition, which depicts Dachau concentration camp. A room which at frst resembles
the cellar of an ordinary house, the use of warm tones at frst seems inviting; yet on closer inspec-
tion, the holes in the ceiling and strange stained walls reveal that this is a gas chamber. Mwana
Kitoko (beautiful boy) (2000), comments on the state visit of King Baudouin of Belgium to the
Congo in the 1950s.
The work of Luc Tuymans has been featured in multiple exhibitions, notably at the Venice Bien-
nale in 2001, as well as solo retrospectives at Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany; Tate Modern,
London, United Kingdom; and Muse d'Art Moderne et Contemporain (MAMCO), Geneva, Swit-
zerland, amongst others. His work is part of some of the largest collections of contemporary art
at museums including: the Centre Georges-Pompidou, Paris, France; Museum fr Moderne Kunst
(MMK), Frankfurt, Germany; Tate Britain, London, United Kingdom; and MoMA, New York, United
States.
Evolution of the number of
exhibitions by type
Evolution of the number of
exhibitions by type of venue
0
10
20
30
1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012
group shows solo shows
0
10
20
30
40
1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012
gallery museum biennials other
AMA NEWSLETTER 170 33 18 SEPTEMBER 2014 AMA NEWSLETTER 170 33 18 SEPTEMBER 2014
Luc Tuymans Art Analytics Art Analytics
Distribution by venue type
Distribution by exhibition type
Distribution by country
It is in Belgium, the artists country of origin, that he has been most frequently exhibited, ahead of
Germany, the United States, the Netherlands and Switzerland. The artists with whom Tuymans is most
regularly exhibited include: Marlene Dumas, Gerhard Richter, Raou de Keyser and Bruce Nauman.
Tuymans has been most regularly exhibited at the following institutions: Zeno X Gallery, Belgium;
David Zwirner, USA; Museum voor Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen, Belgium; Stedelljk Museum voor
Actuele Kunst, Belgium, and Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany.
0
75
150
225
300
1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Evolution of the number
of articles published on
Luc Tuymans
Distribution of the number of
articles by langage
Distribution of the number of
articles by country
Top 3 authors and publications
whose works have addressed
Luc Tuymans
18%
11%
32%
39%
English German
Dutch other
group shows
solo shows
7%
64%
27%
gallery museum
events other
24%
76%
45%
13%
19%
23%
Belgium Germany
United States other
The Independent
Sddeutsche Zeitung
Financial Times
0 70 140
100
119
125
Jackie Wullschlager
Catrin Lorch
Guy Gilsoul
0 5 10 15
7
7
14
45%
15%
20%
20%
United Kingdom Germany
Belgium other
Evolution of the
number of lots
Evolution of
revenue
Evolution of the
average value of lots
At auction, Luc Tuymans work has totalled almost $18 million, averaging at $80,700 per work.
The record for the artists highest selling work was set at Christies New York in May 2013 for his pain-
ting Rumour (2011), which sold for $2.3 million (hammer price). Also sold at Christies New York is the
2000 painting Sculpture sold in May 2005 for $1.3 million (hammer price), rendering it the second
most expensive work sold by Tuymans. These pieces are followed by the painting Deal No Deal
(2011), sold in September 2011 by Christies New York for $956,500 (hammer price).
Whilst painting represents 95% of the artists turnover in public sales, amongst the 224 sold lots,
52 drawings have been sold for an average of $13,600 per work, whilst multiples are the most
successful medium with a 20% unsold rate. Tuymans has also sold one photograph for $2,723
and one sculpture for $4,385.
The number of lots at auction has seen a steady increase over the recent years.
0
10
20
30
40
50
1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
$0k
$100k
$200k
$300k
1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
$0m
$1m
$2m
$3m
$4m
1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Luc Tuymans Art Analytics
Multiples Drawing
Painting Photography
27%
73%
sold bought in
3%
22%
27%
48%
95%
4%
United States United Kingdom Belgium
Germany other
11%
18%
21%
23%
27%
8%
24%
66%
41%
10% 10%
11%
29%
Christies Phillips De Vuyat
Sothebys other
9%
19%
1%
20%
52%
Art Analytics
Regarding country of sale, it is in the United States where the large majority of the artists
turnover has been generated (66%), with a significant portion also accounted for by the United
Kingdom (24%).
The rate of unsold work is 27%.
Rate of sold/unsold lots
Distribution of lots by auction
house and revenue
Distribution of lots by
medium and revenue
Distribution of lots by
country and revenue
Total sales by price of works Rate of unsold lots by price of works
> $50k
$10-50k
$5-10k
$2-5k
$1-2k
< $1k
0% 25% 50% 75% 100%
sold bought in
> $50k
$10-50k
$5-10k
$2-5k
$1-2k
< $1k
$0m $5m $10m $15m $20m
36
39
41
33
49
24
Auctions results from Artprice.com
Evolution of unsold rate
Number of lots presented, and
sales figures by year
Until 2 November the artists work is on display at the Kunsthalle im Lipsiusbau, Dresden, as part
of the group exhibition Architekt - Busdriver - Zwei Brcken - 20 Jahre Gesellschaft fr Moderne
Kunst in Dresden.
Until 10 October his work is also on display at the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg as part of the group
show Spuren der Moderne as well as at the Museu Serralves, Porto, as part of the group exhibi-
tion Histories: Works From The Serralves Collection on display until 21 September.
The rate of unsold work remains relatively stable in recent years despite the rise in the number
of lots at auction.
An important percentage of the artists turnover was generated by works created between the
year 2000 and 2001, the period from which the two most expensive works were created, reali-
sing 20% of the total turnover from public sales.
0
10
20
30
1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012
$0m
$2m
$4m
$6m
lots turnover
0%
25%
50%
75%
100%
1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
sold bought in
ART MEDIA AGENCY (AMA)
Art Media Agency (AMA) is published by the A&F Markets company, Limited company with a registered
capital of 40,000, incorporated in the Company and Trade Register of Paris under the n530 512 788.
267 rue Lecourbe, F-75015 Paris, France.
Director of Publication: Pierre Naquin
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Auctions
ARTICLE OF THE WEEK
Record price for Oceanian art at Sotheby's Paris
Sotheby's Paris has just announced a new
world record for the sale of Oceanian art, at
their auction on 16 September 2014.
The sale in question was of the Murray
Frum collection comprising 49 lots ,
which came to a grand total of 7,530,838.
Fourteen of the lots sold for more than
100,000, and three of the lots surpassed
the million euro mark. The 2,300 people
present all recognised the quality of the
works up for sale; each item created a bid-
ding war, whether they were collectors of
Primitive Art or other genres.
This event has been the most important
event dedicated to Oceanian art in the last
40 years. The result of tonights sale pays
tribute to the eye of Murray Frum. The col-
lection has become the new point of refe-
rence in this area and has placed Oceanian
art in the category for universal collection,
said Jean Fritts, International Director of the
African and Oceanic art department at Sothe-
by's. The two highest-selling works were the
statue of the ancestor Uli from New Ireland,
selling for 1.6 million breaking the wor-
ld record for a piece from New Ireland; and a
Maori statue from New Zealand, which made
1.4 million. Amongst the most prominent
buyers were European collectors and a num-
ber of important American collectors.
OPENING
Phillips plans to open salesroom in Hong Kong
As part of the auction house's continuing expansion
plans, Phillips is opening a new saleroom in Hong Kong.
The announcement follows that of the opening of
new ofces and an exhibition space in Mayfair, Lon-
don. Since his appointment in July earlier this year,
new chairman and chief executive Edward Dolman has
made clear his ambitions for the company. During his
time with Christie's, Dolman opened salerooms in Pa-
ris, New York and Hong Kong and gained experience in
the Chinese market. The move to Hong Kong is part of
the company's vision to expand into emerging econo-
mies in Asia, Africa and the Middle East in an efort to
launch themselves into the upper echelons of the art
auction business.
We are going to do our best to align Phillips with
these new contemporary art movements worldwide,
Dolman told The Art Newspaper. He also said that ope-
ning a branch in the Middle East was a possibility, but
emphasised that the frm is currently prioritising larger
markets such as Hong Kong.
AUCTION
Georgia OKeeffe Museum to sell three paintings
The Georgia O'Keefe Museum in Santa Fe, USA, is to
sell three paintings by its eponymous artist through
Sotheby's New York.
The museum currently owns 1,149 of O'Keefe's paint-
ings, drawings and sculptures and is looking to refne
its collection with profts from the sale going towards
the museum's acquisitions fund. The works to go on
sale are intended to be representative of O'Keefe's
oeuvre as a whole and include the landscape On the
Old Santa Fe Road, estimated at between $2 million
and $3 million, Untitled (Skunk Cabbage), expected to
sell for $500,000 to $750,000 and Jimson Weed (White
Flower No. 1), which is expected to reach between $10
million and $15 million. Jimson Weed is typical of
O'Keefe's sensual fower paintings and has hung in
the White House during the presidency of George W.
Bush, as well as travelling to exhibitions in London and
Mexico City.
The museum holds half the artists output throughout her
life, Robert A. Kret, the museums director, told The New
York Times. But still there are gaps that need to be flled.
HUMAN RESOURCES
Laure Raibault appointed Senior Specialist in Asian 20th Century and
Contemporary Art at Christie's
Christie's Asia has announced the appointment of Laure Raibault as
Senior Specialist in Asian 20
th
Century and Contemporary Art.
Raibault will be based in Hong Kong and will be responsible for
arranging regular auctions of Asian contemporary art, as well as ad-
vising buyers and sellers. A French citizen, she has over ten years
experience working in the art world , most recently working as a se-
nior specialist in Asian contemporary art at an international auction
house in Hong Kong.
Raibault graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in law and economics
(2001) and a Masters in Art History (2003) in Bordeaux, France, as
well as a Masters in Art and Archaeology (2004) from the School of
Oriental and African Studies in London. During the course of her
studies she also helped carry out various projects for institutions
including the Muse d'Orsay in Paris.
I've Seen an Elephant Fly
BHARTI KHER
Image: Sotheby's
WHAT'S ON
UNITED KINGDOM
Beyond Limits 2014": Sothebys Annual Selling Exhibition At Chatsworth House
Running from 8 September until 23 October, Sotheby's will present its 9
th
annual
selling exhibition entitled Beyond Limits at Chatsworth House the ancestral
seat of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire.
Beyond Limits is to feature 22 sculptures by modern masters such as: Aristide
Maillol, Eduardo Chillida, Germaine Richier and Giacomo Manz, as well as contem-
porary artists including: Marc Quinn, Christopher Le Brun, Lawrence Holofcener, Mi-
chal Rovner and Xu Bing. Artists who have previously exhibited at the Chatsworth
House selling exhibition include: Damien Hirst, Marc Quinn, Jaume Plensa, Manolo
Valds and Thomas Heatherwick.
This years Beyond Limits is remarkable both in terms of the range of major works
and the unprecedented way in which weve been able to display them, allowing for
exciting new dialogues with both the buildings and the landscape at Chatsworth. So-
thebys has been staging exhibitions here for nine years now, and yet every year, each
new group of works interacts with this extraordinary location in a host of new and
unexpected ways, explains curator of the exhibition, Simon Stock from Sotheby's.
The private house will be open to the public throughout the duration of the exhibition.
COMING SOON
UNITED STATES
Donald Judd's last stack to go on sale at Christie's
Donald Judd's work Untitled (Berstein 93 - 1) is to go on sale at Christie's New York on
12 November 2014 as part of their Evening Sale of Post-War and Contemporary Art.
The 15-foot-high sculpture is made from ten rectangular units of brass and green
Plexiglass, which was created in 1993 a few months before his death, was the last
sculpture of the Stacks series which he started in 1965. Senior specialist at Chris-
tie's Jonathan Laib said of the series that they are arguably the most successful,
recognisable and transcendent pieces of his uvre, and also described the piece
as a masterwork which could break the record for Judd's works at auction. The
most expensive of his works sold in the past was Untitled (DSS 42) (1963), which
sold for $14 million in 2013. Judd is one of the most important sculptors of the 20
th

century, who often uses abstraction to explore ideas of sensation and perception.
UNITED STATES
Two-day auction of 19
th
& 20
th

century prints & drawings at
Swann Galleries
Running from 23 until 24 Sep-
tember 2014, the New York auction
house Swann Auction Galleries is
to host its annual 19
th
& 20
th
Cen-
tury Prints & Drawings sale to mark
the beginning of its auction season.
The sale on the 23 September
will include 200 lots featuring
works by artists including: James
A.M. Whistler with The Courtyard
(1887), with a pre-sale estimate
between $25,000 and $35,000;
Edgar Degas' Au Salon (1897) pre-
sale estimate $30,000 to $50,000
and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's
Femme en Corset-Conqute de Pas-
sage (1896) estimated between
$20,000 and $30,000.
The following day is to feature 75 fne
prints by Henri Matisse and Pablo
Picasso dating from 1900 to 1970
including, Picasso's Grand Tte de
Femme (1962) estimated between
$120,000; and $180,000 and Ma-
tisse's lithograph Figure endormie
aux babouches (1929), with a pre-
sale estimate of $20,000 to $30,000.
The works will be on display for a
public exhibition running from 18
September until the end of the sale.
Chatsworth House
Image: Sotheby's
Fairs & festivals
ARTICLE OF THE WEEK
Cancellation of Art Moscow 2014
The organisers of Art Moscow, the oldest art
fair in Russia, which would have taken place
from 17 until 21 September 2014 at the
Central House of Artists, have announced
that its 2014 edition has been cancelled.
The decision was taken for political and
economic reasons. Even at the beginning
of September, The Art Newspaper reported
that the organisation of the event was
compromised. Vasily Bychnkov, Director
of Expo-Park exhibition projects who or-
ganised the fair, have declared that the
sanctions applied by the EU and the United
States would have serious consequences.
We have decided to use the resources that
are usually used by Art Moscow whether
it be people or money on other projects.
However we don't want to make informa-
tion public as long as our doubts have not
yet been confrmed, assures Vasily Bych-
kov. More precise explanations as to why
the fair has been cancelled are given on
the blog of Maria Baibakova (founder of
Baibakov Art Projects) who writes that the
problems range from politics (now it is
hardly surprising that certain artists and
galleries can boycott a fair in Russia), to
economics (the art market in the country
is not very good), to the age old problem
of censorship.
INITIATIVE
Art Basel to use Kickstarter to fund
nonproft projects
Art Basel the annual art fairs held in
Basel, Hong Kong and Miami Beach has
launched a crowdfunding initiative with the
online platform Kickstarter to promote and
fund nonproft art projects.
Each project will select their own target and
deadline, and if they do not reach their goal
in time, no money will be awarded. Projects
which wish to be funded through the initia-
tive will have to frst be selected by Art Ba-
sel's jury; Hammad Nasar, Glenn Phillips and
Mari Spirito. The page has launched with a se-
lection of four projects from centres around
the world the 4A Centre for Contempora-
ry Asian Art in Sydney, Gasworks in London,
the Society for the Activation of Social Space
Through Art and Sound in Los Angeles and,
SculptureCentre in New York.
Marc Spiegler, the director of Art Basel, said
that the initiative would bring new support
and visibility to one of the areas where it is
most needed in today's art world those
non-proft arts organizations worldwide that
serve as the foundation and testing ground
for so many important cultural projects.
HUMAN RESOURCES
Vita Zaman leaves ViennaFair
Vita Zaman, one of the two artistic direc-
tors at ViennaFair The New Contemporary,
has decided to step down from her post in
order to focus on her curatorial projects.
She was appointed to the post in 2012,
after working with Ibid Projects in London,
the Pace Gallery and Brooklyn's Journal
Gallery. She studied at Goldsmiths and the
Royal College of Art, London.
ViennaFair is Austria's biggest contemporary
art fair which is to be held from 2 until 5 Octo-
ber 2014, providing an international platform
for artists from Central, Eastern and South-Eas-
tern Europe. Last year's fair was a record suc-
cess, welcoming around 23,000 visitors.
COMING SOON
FRANCE
7
th
edition of the Festival Photo Levallois
From 10 October to 15 November 2014 the 7
th
edition of the Festival Photo Leval-
lois is being held in Levallois, in the Paris region.
The festival will host fve exhibitions on three diferent sites. The duo Larry Sultan
and Mike Mandel will present their series Evidence at the town hall, as well as a
selection of promotional posters entitled Billboards. Lucas Blalock, for his part, will
present in the gardens of the town hall, showing his humorous photographs. The
winners of the town's photographic prize, Stphanie Gudra, Sylvain Couzinet-Jaques
and Esther Teichmann will represent young international photography at the gallery
de l'Escale. Also on show will be an installation by Hana Miletic, as well as a pro-
gramme by Photo-Club, who will present a collective exhibition.
The festival is to award an artist under the age of 35 a prize of 10,000 and will ofer
them the opportunity present their work at the festival. This year, 168 candidates
from 31 diferent countries have entered the competition for the photographic prize.
The jury is composed of Joshua Chuang (Chief Custodian at the Centre of Creative
Photography in Tuscon), Lucy Conticello (Director of Photography at M Magazine Le
Monde, Paris) Stphane Decreps (deputy to the Mayor of Levallois and in charge of
culture); Aron Mrel (Editor at Mrel Books, London) and Jol Rif (author of the blog
Chronique Curiosit, Paris).
Screenshot Kickstarter
SculptureCenter Presents:
Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook
COMING SOON
SWITZERLAND
14
th
edition of the Biennale de limage en mouvement
From 21 September until 23 November 2014, the Centre dArt Contemporain, Geneva, is to host
the Biennale de limage en mouvement (BIM).
This year's edition, the Biennale will feature 22 artists, including visual artists Ed
Atkins, Mark Boulos, Tom Huett, Marie Kolbaek Iversen, Donna Kukama, Li Ran and Jeremy
Shaw and performances by Alexandra Bachzetsis, Andrew Hardwiddge, Isabel Lewis
and Mai-Thu Perret. Under the artistic direction of Andrea Beillini, in collaboration with
Hans Ulrich Obrist from the Serpentine Gallery, London, and Yann Chateign from the
Geneva University of Art and Design, the artists will present unseen works commissioned
by the Centre d'Art Contemporain.
A series of events will also take place during the BIM across Geneva including: Exposition
dun flm at the Auditoire de la Fondation Arditi, Histoires en devenir at the mdiathque
du fonds municipal dart contemporain and 6-4-2 at LiveInYourHEAD. The Haute cole dart
et de design (HEAD) will also feature conversation between artists and professors at HEAD.
UNITED KINGDOM
LAPADA Art & Antiques Fair, London
The 6
th
annual LAPADA Art & Antiques Fair is to be held from 24 to 26 September 2014 in Berkeley
Square, London, where over 100 experts and dealers are to sell and display a range of fne art and
antiquities including, furniture, jewellery, tapestries, ceramics and silver.
Last year's fair was a huge success, with over 19,000 visitors from around the world buying and
viewing works vetted by a team of 50 specialists. The vetting committee comprises a team of
experts from the trade such as restorers and auction house specialists who ensure the quality
and authenticity of the pieces on sale. This year, 100 dealers and experts will participate in the
events, with prices ranging from 500 to 500,000 and above.
LAPADA, The Association of Art and Antiques Dealers, is the largest of its kind in the UK.
Founded in 1974, it has 600 worldwide members and is a trusted resource for dealers in
the UK and 16 other countries.
UNITED KINGDOM
7
th
edition of The Other Art Fair
The 7
th
of The Other Art Fair is to be
held from 16 until 19 October 2014
at the Old Truman Brewery in Lon-
don.
The fair presents itself as an alter-
native to the Frieze festival, which
is being held in London at the same
time and has already seen huge suc-
cess, with 13,000 people attending
its most recent edition in April. Artlyst.
com describes it as a fresh alternative
to the Frieze and Time Out adds that it
was overfowing with creative talent.
This year's edition will see a 25% in-
crease in the number of exhibitions
on view, with 130 artists taking part as
well as a selection of workshops, lec-
tures, music and theatre on ofer. The
fair prides itself on allowing artists to
sell their work independently, without
the help of commercial galleries.
The team selecting artists for the
fair comprises of Anita Zabludowicz,
Founding Director of the Zabludowicz
Collection, Omar Kholeif, Curator at
Whitechapel Gallery, Sophie OBrien,
Senior Curator at the Serpentine Gal-
lery, and artist Polly Morgan.
Image: LAPADA Art Fair
Report
UNSEEN PHOTO FAIR 2014:
NEW PHOTOGRAPHY SEEN DIFFERENTLY
Phanta Visual Spotlight on Japan
This year's packed programme includes a particular focus on Japanese photography. The exhibition
Anima on photo, curated by Chihiro Minato and Shigeo Goto, addresses the silent presence of
animism in Japanese photography, a concept according to which animals have a soul or a mind.
Furthermore, a new work by Sohei Nishino, who featured in Foam Magazine Talents 2013, will be
unveiled to the public. The work's imposing vision of Amsterdam is part of the series Sohei Ni-
shino: Cities, which consists of portraits of cities conceived by the young Japanese photographer.
These large-format dioramas are the result of a lengthy process whereby over the course of several
months, Nishino photographed the town from multiple angles. The thousands of images were then
put together to form a map of the town of monumental scale, measuring 4 x 4 metres.
Returning for its third edition, Unseen Photo Fair unusual in that it is both a festival and a fair is
to take place between 18 and 21 September 2014 in Amsterdam. Having welcomed 24,000 visitors
to its second edition in 2013, the festival intends to cement its success this year. The enthusiasm
of the public, gallerists, artists and visitors last year gave us the drive to go even further with our
proposals, director of Unseen, Sacha Stone, explains to Art Media Agency.
Report
UNSEEN PHOTO FAIR 2014:
NEW PHOTOGRAPHY SEEN DIFFERENTLY
During the festival, Unseen will also present the interactive photography project Trust the Cloud by
Phanta Visual in collaboration with Mulder Montage, Publi-Air, Studio Stomp and the Hogeschool of
Amsterdam. After having ascended several metres up an escalator, visitors are invited to leap onto a
glowing infatable cloud. The jump, which will be photographed then uploaded to the digital cloud,
can be seen for a brief moment before it disappears, much like the jump itself. Through this process,
Phanta Visual hope to make the abstraction of this distant digital storage system more tangible.
An integral part of the fair, this year's Unseen Book Market features more than 60 independent edi-
tors including Mrel Books, Self Publish, Be Happy and Goliga and Rorhof, as well as an exhibition of
50 works preselected for the Unseen Dummy Award 2014. Multiple awards are handed out during
the course of the festival: Through these prizes, we hope to support young talent in photography,
but also to highlight the work of curators [..] Certain winners are also awarded with an exhibition at
Foam Photography Museum in Amsterdam, explains Sacha Stone.
There is a place in the art market for this new photography
Furthering the theme of innovation, Unseen Premieres is another key part of the event which will
exhibit works which have never before been shown by a gallery, museum or online. The idea is to
create a platform dedicated to new photography by young talent and new collectors, says Stone.
More than 60 previously unseen works will be displayed by the 53 participating galleries and on the
evening of 19 September, the artists involved will explain to visitors the stories behind their works
and potentially attract buyers. As the fair is looking to encourage new collectors who are interested
in contemporary photography in the Unseen Collection, a selection of around 70 works will be on
sale for less than 1,000. The success of Unseen is undeniable proof that there is a place in the art
market for this new photography, Stone says.
Ever trying to encourage both the discovery of photography and interest in collectors, the festival is
launching its own magazine Unseen, dedicated to new photography on the market. I am a bit ner-
vous, because it's an key project for us [..] This publication will be the extension of experiments and
ideas that we developed with Premiers, admits Stone, who adds that: The magazine will also allow
readers to fnd lots of information on the photography market as well as useful resources for col-
lectors. Well-known fgures, such as Francis Hodgson from the Financial Times, have agreed to take
part in the launch and their contribution will, I hope, be appreciated by seasoned collectors. Sacha Stone
Interview
YOUTH TAKING THE LEAD:
INTERVIEW WITH MARGAUX FRITZ
FAMM What is your architectural background?
I started my training in 2007 with a preparatory year at Axe Sud in Marseille, the cole Suprieure
of Graphic Arts and Visual Communication. I then studied for a year at ESAT (Ecole Suprieur des
Arts et Techniques) in Paris. I continued my education at the cole Bleue an interiors, product and
graphic design school for another fve years before receiving my degree in 2013.
Finishing my studies, I instantly felt the desire to work for myself. I didn't want to go down the agen-
cy route. I wanted to choose and complete my own projects, and I felt like I was capable of doing so.
It's also in my personality: I wanted to work for myself. I had the chance to get my foot in the door,
to get a start and then launched my personal project.
The frst interior project I designed for was a bar, following this was a series of small spaces, mostly
apartments. It was a perfect place to start and to learn the basics of interior design. Now, I'm still
learning, but my projects are more varied : restaurants, shops, ofces..
I am currently creating a frm with my associate, Amandine Mazella; it will be called FAMM architecture.
Fresh out of the cole Bleue, Paris, Margaux Fritz has launched her career in dreaming up spaces
and designing objects. After a year and a half on the job, she has completed more than a dozen
projects and has launched her architecture frm, FAMM architecture, with her associate Amandine
Mazella. Art Media Agency went to meet her to get a better grasp on the profession and the close
links that it has with art.
Interview
How would you define your work?
The profession of interior design, as long as you are working for yourself, necessitates a certain in-
terdisiplinarity. You have to be a designer; be able to work with computer graphics and 3D software;
be a salesperson; even a sociologist all at the same time! It's a fascinating, absorbing, profession
which is never too much. Each project is diferent and corresponds to diferent people and therefore
to diferent desires and needs. You must always be up to date on new technologies, materials, new
objects, the latest artistic trends..which all can embellish, improve and transform the daily lives
of my clients. This refection allows me to nourish the creative process of diferent phases of my
projects.
What inspires you?
I fnd inspiration everywhere. Obviously in art, but also in all the images I see everywhere: on the
Internet, in architecture and design books.. I grew up in the South of France, in Marseille, so thats
why light plays an important role in a lot of my projects.
How does art influence your work?
Art allows us to understand the world around us. It's a sign which helps me to identify with a mo-
ment, an infuence, a movement. In a way, it allows me to stay connected and contemporary. On the
other hand, aesthetic research in art is similar to aesthetic research in architecture. It's research of
an emotion, of a feeling; the goal is the same. We're looking for harmony. FAMM
Interview
What recent exhibitions have really impressed you?
I recently went to see an exhibition by Laurent Grass, called Soleil Double, at the Perrotin Gallery.
In this exhibition, he makes us question our relationship with time and power, notably the power of
images. He really succeeded in mixing his work with the architecture of the space, ofering up a beautiful
imaginary voyage. Imagination, poetry and dreamscapes are the leitmotifs of my vision of architecture.
Another exhibition which struck me was the Daniel Buren exhibition Dfni, Fini, Infni, on the
roof of Le Corbusier's famous Cit Radieuse at the MAMO in Marseille. I found his work exceptional.
He plays with this amazing space, completely disrupting our sense of perception by playing with
refection and shadows. The sky and the light take on another dimension. His work, discreet enough
to handle to power of the space, integrates perfectly with the decor and creates a kind of metamor-
phosis of which the visitor is the true master. The play with light is truly captivating.
How did you foresee your architectural career when you started out?
I dreamt of being able to continue creating spaces, each one diferent from the next. Clearly, I would love to
have projects or budgets which allowed me to fulfl my every desire as well as that of my clients and my as-
sociate. It's true that fnancial constraints often paralyse our sense of expression, and sometimes restrict us.
However it's also a challenge within itself to create with this restriction, and the results are often surprising.
What is the key to success for someone young and launching their career on their own?
Firstly, it's about being very motivated, switched on, attentive and rigorous. Being curious about
everything, looking around yourself to see what's going on, contemplating. I would also say what
is key is having a good dialogue with people. Most of the time this least to something positive;
whether it be a new project, a new meeting, a partnership, an exchange, a piece of information etc.
Communication is a very important part of our work.
Flaurent Linkers

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ARCHITECTURE, A MORE SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

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