The 3rd Tallinn Photomonth launched on 17/9 Tallinn Photomonth is an artist-led biennial of contemporary art that engages with the economy and politics of contemporary photographic practices and their contribution to the construction of vernacular reality. Other exhibitions in the biennial’s main programm will run throughout the autumn at Tallinn Art Hall, Tartu Art Museum and Tartu Art House. Main program: “Prosu(u)mer”, Contemporary Art Museum Estonia (EKKM), Põhja pst 35, Tallinn, Duration: 18/9-18/10/15, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun: 13:00-19:00, “Time Lapse” & Cool Water, Tallinn Art Hall, Vabaduse Väljak 8, Tallinn, Duration: 8/10-8/11/15, Days & Hours: Wed-Sun: 12:00-18:00, “The Shadow of a Flame”, Tartu Art House, 26 Vanemuise Street, Tallin, Duration: 26/11-15/10/15, Days & Hours: Wed-Mon: 12:00-18:00, “From Explosion to Expanse. Estonian Contemporary Photography 1991–2015, Tartmus (Tartu Art Musem), Raekoja plats 18, Tartu, Duration: 20/1115-28/2/16, Days & Hours: Wed & Fri-Sun: 12:00-18:00, Thu: 11:00-21:00, www.fotokuu.ee
Echoing the metaphor put forward by the writer Haytham el-Wardany in his essay “Notes on Disaster”, the exhibition “Co-Workers: Beyond Disaster” seeks to examine, not the tragic dimension that inheres in a state of disaster, but rather the transformations and forms of collective action that disaster occasions. The exhibition proposes an alternative perspective, a change of outlook based on the speculative power of storytelling and science fiction, as a means to rethink the ways we inhabit our environment. Info: Co-Workers: Beyond Disaster, Curators: Mélanie Bouteloup & Garance Malivel, Bétonsalon – Center for Art and Research, 9 Esplanade Pierre Vidal-Naquet, Rez-de-Chaussée de la Halle aux Farines, Paris, Duration: 8/10/15-30/1/1, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat: 11:00-19:00, www.betonsalon.net
Known for his original multiform approach, Xu Qu is one of the new generation of young Chinese artists who grew up in the 1980s and who are beginning to appear on the national and international scenes. For over several years, Xu Qu has been exploring a wide range of mediums, such as videos, paintings, sculptures and installations that are questioning the reality of our global world. His solo exhibition at Almine Rech Gallery focuses on two iconic series of recent works that are both parts of a vast ongoing project, “Currency Wars” and “Maze”. Info: Currency Wars, Curator: Jérôme Sans, : Almine Rech Gallery, 20 Rue de l’ Abbaye Abdijstraat, Brussels, Duration: 8/10-14/11/15, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat: 10:00-18:00, www.alminerech.com
Judy Chicago is a part of the first generation of women to incorporate second-wave feminism into their art practice and theory. In this political, social, intellectual and artistic context, this generation questions any inherited knowledge, as it perpetuates male domination. The exhibition “Why Not Judy Chicago?”, at Azkuna Zentroa presents a selection of works and documents that provide an overview of over 50 years of production by this pioneer of feminist art. By looking at the close relationship between her work as an artist, art educator, and writer, the exhibition proposes a holistic approach to her career, inasmuch as it retains, with the intention of transforming, the different instances that structure art institutions. Info: Why Not Judy Chicago?, AZ Azkuna Zentroa, Plaza Arriquibar, 4, Bilbao, Duration: 8/10/15-10/1/16, Days & Hours: Mon-Thu: 7:00-23:00, Fri: 7:00-12:00, Sat: 8:30-12:00, Sun: 8:30-23:00, www.azkunazentroa.com
“Floating Free”, is the first solo exhibition for the Palestinian artist Bashir Makhoul in Palestine. The exhibition will be showing at three venues and will have three consecutive openings. This exhibition comes over 20 years after Makhoul became a UK resident, and hence marks a return of some sort. It explores aspects of what it means for an artist and a by-choice émigré to enact a form of return. This critical enquiry emerges through the production of a body of work that makes close reference to his sense of identity, belonging and loyalty. Info: Floating Free, Curator: Rawan Sharaf, Al Hoash Gallery, Palestinian Art Court – Al Hoash, Zaitouna building, 7 Zahra street, East Jerusalem, Duration: 8/10/15-31/1/16, www.alhoashgallery.org, Birzeit University Museum, Birzeit, Palestine, Duration: 8/10/15-31/1/16, Days & Hours: Mon-Thu & Sat: 10:00-15:00, www.birzeit.edu, & Gallery One, 13 Haddad Building, Al Raja Street, Ramallah, Duration: 11/10/15-31/1/16, Days & Hours: Mon-Thu & Sat-Sun: 12:00-20:00.
“The Demonstrating Minds” exhibition looks at a highly topical theme through the work of 19 artists and artist groups: art as social commentary. Throughout history, artists have shown varying degrees of interest in commenting on world affairs and changing social values. If the political climate of the 1960s was imbued with an earnest hope for a better tomorrow, any such remaining innocence has been stamped out by the arrival of the 2010s, an era in which extremist groups have strengthened their foothold and polarization has grown in various parts of the world. Info: The Demonstrating Minds, Curators: Marja Sakari, Kati Kivinen, Patrik Nyberg & Jari-Pekka Vanhala, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Mannerheiminaukio 2, Helsinki, Duration: 9/10/15-10/1/16, Days & Hours: Tue: 10:00–17:00, Wed–Fri: 10:00–20:30, Sat: 10:00–18:00, Sun: 10:00–17:00, www.kiasma.fi
Neue Galerie Graz honors one of the most significant painters to have emerged in Austria after 1945, Wolfgang Hollegha, who as a member of the avant-garde painters’ group around the Galerie nächst St. Stephan in Vienna, he achieved early international success. His painting is always based on the perception of objects, on the relationship between the artist and visible reality. The exhibition at the Neue Galerie traces Hollegha’s path up to the current day by showing key works. These are presented within their international context alongside pieces by his fellow-artists of the time, Morris Louis and Sam Francis. Info: Nature is Within, Neue Galerie Graz, Joanneumsviertel, Graz, Duration: 9/10/15-7/2/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun: 10:00-17:00, www.museum-joanneum.at
One of the most versatile and inventive artists of our time, Rebecca Horn works across a range of media, including sculpture, installations, performances, painting, film and poetry. Over the last four decades, she has produced a highly complex oeuvre that is grounded and bound together by an ongoing meditation on metaphysical issues and a deep existential desire. Her exhibition in Napoli will present sculptures and drawings related to poetry, also on view will be the large-scale sculpture “Revelation of a Tree”, which casts branches as moving antennas, the new energy point of the tree. Info: The Vertebra Oracle in Napoli 2015, Studio Trisorio, Via Riviera di Chiaia 215, Naples, Duration: 10/10-31/12/1, Days & Hours: Mon-Fri: 10:00-19:30, Sat: 10:00-13:30, www.studiotrisorio.com
The exhibition “The Bottom Line” presents various aspects of drawing as a form of contemporary art: from abstract to figurative, from small format to large, from rapid sketches to slow, large-scale projects and from drawing as film to drawing as performance. Its range of content stretches from personal diary to politically significant, from self-portrait to social group portrait. Some drawings will be done specially for this exhibition. A few of the artists will do them in situ. Info: Drawing – The Bottom Line, S.M.A.K. Museum of Contemporary Art, Jan Hoetplein 1, Ghent, Duration: 10/10/15-31/1/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat: 10:00-18:00, http://smak.be/en
Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles highlights the resonance of Van Gogh’s oeuvre in contemporary art with exhibitions and a wide-ranging schedule characterized by diversity and contemporaneity. For its fourth exhibition program the Foundation presents two artists in two separate exhibitions: David Hockney with 12 drawings created on iPad and the 25 charcoal drawings, these two series testify to the constant curiosity, underlying Hockney’s oeuvre, about new inventions and about renewing the language of art. The other artist is Raphael Hefti, who finds its point of departure in the investigation of the unrecognized potential of materials and industrial processes. The alteration of a sheet of metal or a pane of glass marks its point of arrival. Hefti thereby intervenes not only in technical processes, but also within industrial manufacturing plants, which become the laboratory for his research. Info: David Hockney: The Arrival Of Spring, Curator: Gregory Evans & Bice Curiger and Raphael Hefti: On Core / Encore, Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles, 35ter rue du Docteur Fanton, Arles, Duration: 11/10/15-11/1/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun: 11:00-18:00, www.fondation-vincentvangogh-arles.org
Takuji Kogo is a visual artist, director for the Kitakyushu Biennial and organizer for “CANDY FACTORY PROJECTS”, a Japanese based platform for international collaborative art projects. Takuji Kogo has produced a large body of work and have been presented them at in many international museums. The exhibition “KIMI KIM JALAN JALAN: TAKUJI KOGO + YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES”, consists of several collaborative artworks using multiple screens by the artists: Takuji Kogo and the duo Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries (Young-Hae Chang & Marc Voge). Info: KIMI KIM JALAN JALAN: TAKUJI KOGO + YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES, The Private Museum, 51 Waterloo Street #02-06, Singapore, Duration: 11/10-/12/15, Days & Hours: Mon-Fri: 10:00-19:00, Sat-Sun: 11:00-17:00, www.theprivatemuseum.org
“Alighiero Boetti: A Private Collection”, is an exhibition presenting the complete works from an entire single-owner collection dedicated exclusively to one of the most important artist of Arte Povera, Alighiero Boetti. Featuring over sixty works that date between 1965 and 1989, the exhibition is a mini retrospective of one of the most influential Italian artists of the twentieth century. Info: Alighiero Boetti: A Private Collection, Luxembourg & Dayan, 2 Savile Row, London, Duration: 13/10-12/12/15, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri: 11:00-17:00, Sat: 12:00-16:00, www.luxembourgdayan.com
Elmgreen & Dragset’s exhibition at Victoria Miro will feature a new series of works that are representations of museum wall labels of other artists’ works, A wall label is normally not an integral part of a work of art. It is there to inform the viewer. Apart from the facts it communicates, it has no particular value as an object. Not so in Elmgreen & Dragset’s Self-Portraits. In this new series of works, the artist duo have appropriated wall labels describing other artists’ work, and transformed them into art works in their own right. Info: Self-Portraits, Victoria Miro Gallery, 14 St George Street, London, Duration: 13/10-7/11/15, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat: 10:00-18:00, www.victoria-miro.com
DeWain Valentine’s has first solo exhibition in the United Kingdom. Spanning across several decades, different and utterly fascinating plastic-based media and technical methods DeWain Valentine’s production has continually embodied a unique, quintessentially Southern Californian aesthetic. He is best known for large-scale, translucent resin cast sculptures in a variety of apparently simple, geometric shapes – that vary none the less greatly from the Minimalist grids and cubes. Info: Almine Rech Gallery, 11 Savile Row, Mayfair, London, Duration: 13/10-14/11/15, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat: 10:00-18:00, hwww.alminerech.com
The German sculptor & photographer Thomas Demand is known for making photographs of three-dimensional models that look like real images of rooms and other spaces, often sites loaded with social and political meanings. He thus describes himself not as a photographer, but as a conceptual artist for whom photography is an intrinsic part of his creative process. For the new series “Latent Forms” the artist focused on details: lines, curves and portals are foregrounded, intensifying their abstract potential. The models were originally built to convey ideas in concrete form, to provide the architects a target image of a given proposal. Some of the photographs express serene elegance, suggesting a utopian space for human habitation, while others have a more cluttered, disposable atmosphere, Info: Latent Forms, Sprüth Magers London, 7A Grafton Street, London, Duration: 13/10-19/12/15, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat: 10:00-18:00, www.spruethmagers.com