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<!DOCTYPE html>
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<title>Book review – The Circus as a Parallel Universe</title>
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<div class="title_art">
<h2>Book review – The Circus as a Parallel Universe</h2>
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<div class="maincontent">
<div id="sec_01">
<p><cite>The Circus as a Parallel Universe</cite>, edited by curators <span class="entity person" about="Gerald Matt" data-sort="MattGerald" data-label="Matt, Gerald" data-active="true">Gerald Matt</span> and <span class="entity person" about="Verena Konrad" data-sort="Konrad Verena" data-label="Konrad, Verena" data-active="true">Verena Konrad</span>. With essays by <span class="entity person" about="Birgit Peter" data-sort="BirgitPeter" data-label="Birgit, Peter" data-active="true">Birgit Peter</span>, <span class="entity person" about="Matthias Christen" data-sort="ChristenMatthias" data-label="Christen, Matthias" data-active="true">Matthias Christen</span> and <span class="entity person" about="Verena Konrad" data-sort="Konrad Verena" data-label="Konrad, Verena">Verena Konrad</span>. And interviews with pop artist <span class="entity person" about="Peter Blake" data-sort="BlakePeter" data-label="Blake, Peter">Peter Blake</span> and filmmaker <span class="entity person" about="Ulrike Ottinger" data-sort="OttingerUlrike" data-label="Ottinger, Ulrike" data-active = "true">Ulrike Ottinger</span>.
Published on the occasion of the exhibition of the same name at Kunsthalle <span class="entity place city" about="Wien" data-sort="Wien" data-label="Wien" data-active="true">Wien</span>.</p>
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<img src="assets\img\2.3\2_3_1.jpeg" height="300vmin">
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<p> Publisher Verlag für moderne Kunst writes:</p>
<blockquote>Clear the ring for the world of <span class="entity keyword" data-active="true" about="acrobat" data-label="acrobat" data-sort="acrobat">acrobats</span>, <span class="entity keyword" about="clown" data-sort="clown" data-label="clown" data-active = "true">clowns</span>, and exotic animals! Presenting a number of contemporary works of art, the catalog <cite>The Circus as a Parallel Universe</cite> offers an introduction into the universe of the <span class="entity keyword" about="circus" data-sort="circus" data-label="circus" data-active="true">circus</span> and highlights a wondrous place full of knowledge of the world, surprises and sensations, a place of poetry, but also of excitement, confusion, and unease. The <span class="entity keyword" about="circus" data-sort="circus" data-label="circus">circus</span> as a parallel world has become a projection surface in film and literature, but also in the fine arts.</blockquote>
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<figure>
<img src="assets\img\2.3\2_3_2.jpeg" height="350vmin">
<figcaption><span class="entity person" about="Ulrike Ottinger" data-sort="OttingerUlrike" data-label="Ottinger, Ulrike">Ottinger Ulrike</span>, <span class="entity person" about="Fraeulein Mausi" data-sort="MausiFraeulein" data-label="Mausi, Fraeulein" data-active="true">Fraeulein Mausi</span><br> und Paulchen, <time datetime="1981">1981</time></figcaption>
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<img src="assets\img\2.3\2_3_3.jpeg" height="350vmin">
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<p>I wouldn’t normally review the catalogue of an exhibition i haven’t seen but I was seduced by the description of the book and its accompanying images (midgets! <span class="entity person" about="Anthony Quinn" data-sort="QuinnAnthony" data-label="Quinn, Anthony" data-active = "true">Anthony Quinn</span> in La Strada!) But then I don’t know much about the <span class="entity keyword" about="circus" data-sort="circus" data-label="circus">circus</span>, I’ve never even been to the <span class="entity keyword" about="circus" data-sort="circus" data-label="circus">circus</span>. Not because I have that “clowns freak me out” affectation but because i’ve always been so sad for the animals.</p>
<p>Still, there is something unique and endlessly appealing about the whole <span class="entity keyword" about="circus" data-sort="circus" data-label="circus">circus</span> aesthetics though: the garish colour, the merry silhouette of the tents, the posters, the costumes (which i do wear on some occasions) and <span class="entity person" about="Moira Orfei" data-sort="OrfeiMoira" data-label="Orfei, Moira" data-active = "true">Moira Orfei</span> (do click with sound to max volume). Don’t laugh at <span class="entity person" about="Moira Orfei" data-sort="OrfeiMoira" data-label="Orfei, Moira">Moira</span>, she used to be the most beautiful creature of <span class="entity place country" about="Italy" data-sort="Italy" data-label="Italy" data-active="true">Italy</span>. I just wish she’d leave those tigers alone.</p>
<p>The book has the usual format of a catalogue: a series of essays and then a few pages about each <span class="entity keyword" about="artist" data-sort="artist" data-label="artist" data-active="true">artists</span> participating to the show, plenty of images and a couple of interviews thrown in. The essays are particularly good at identifying the rules and roles of the <span class="entity keyword" about="circus" data-sort="circus" data-label="circus">circus</span>. On the one hand it’s a world of escape and dreams. A world where social conventions, animal behaviour and even the laws of physics are challenged. But it is also a microcosm that sets very clear limits to its own transgressions, makes a business of violating norms and requires that its members operate within a strict framework.</p>
<p>The text <cite>The Circus as a Model of the World</cite> charts the intertwining histories of <span class="entity keyword" about="circus" data-sort="circus" data-label="circus">circus</span> and cinema. Both shared the same venues, the same audiences and the nomadic lifestyle in the early days of the cinema. They might not have so much in common right now but the movie industry has never stopped looking at <span class="entity keyword" about="circus" data-sort="circus" data-label="circus">circus</span> as a source of inspiration (apparently some 600 circus films have already been produced in 30 countries.) The essay <cite>Taste and Prejudice</cite>, however, demonstrates that the <span class="entity keyword" about="circus" data-sort="circus" data-label="circus">circus</span> isn’t meeting with the same appreciation as the other sources of entertainment. While theatre and <span class="entity keyword" about="circus" data-sort="circus" data-label="circus">circus</span> used to compete in the 19th century for example, it is now obvious that one is now regarded as a form of art while the other doesn’t meet with the same respect.</p>
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<img src="assets\img\2.3\2_3_4.jpeg" height="350vmin">
<figcaption>Deborah Sengl, The lioness – as a predator – captures the desired prey through camouflage, 2004</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The interviews in the book are as enjoyable and though-provoking as the essays. They would, however, benefit from some context or at least a short introduction. For example, the interviewer kept asking <span class="entity person" about="Peter Blake" data-sort="BlakePeter" data-label="Blake, Peter" data-active = "true">Peter Blake</span> about his collection. If I hadn’t seen an exhibition about that collection two years ago, i wouldn’t have received much information about it from the interview only.</p>
<p>I’ve said a few words about the essays, the interviews, the images are as good as you can hope in a catalogue. Let’s talk about the small texts explaining the works exhibited by each <span class="entity keyword" about="artist" data-sort="artist" data-label="artist" >artist</span>. Actually there’s only one thing i can say about them and it is that they are in german only! The whole book is in english and german except the part dedicated to the individual works. Why be so cruel? Why translate one half of the book and leave the other part in german only? Still, i did discover a few works i liked a lot. That <span class="entity person" about="Deborah Sengl" data-sort="SenglDeborah" data-label="Sengl, Deborah" data-active = "true">Deborah Sengl</span> does animal anthropomorphism like no one else.</p>
<p>The <span class="entity keyword" about="artist" data-sort="artist" data-label="artist" >artists</span> selected have found inspiration in the <span class="entity keyword" about="circus" data-sort="circus" data-label="circus">circus</span> in its childhood entertainment form (as opposed to glamourous <span class="entity organization" about="Cirque du Soleil" data-sort="CirqueduSoleil" data-label="Cirque du Soleil">Cirque du Soleil</span>-like performances), reconstructing part of its magic, decoding its figures and metaphors, extending its boundaries. Here’s just a small selection of their work:</p>
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<img src="assets\img\2.3\2_3_5.jpg" height="200vmin">
<figcaption>Ugo Rondinone, If There Were Anywhere But Desert, 2000</figcaption>
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<img src="assets\img\2.3\2_3_6.jpeg" height="350vmin">
<figcaption>Ugo Rondinone: Gone, 2006. © Ugo Rondinone, Foto: Adam Reich</figcaption>
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<img src="assets\img\2.3\2_3_7.jpeg" height="175vmin">
<figcaption>Daniel Firman, Nasutamanus, 2012</figcaption>
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<p>In <time datetime="2005" data-active="true">2005</time>, <span class="entity person" about="Javier Téllez" data-sort="TellezJavier" data-label="Téllez, Javier" data-active = "true">Javier Téllez</span> organized a parade of patients from Mexicali’s CESAM mental health center. They were protesting against general views on mental illness in today’s society. The procession stopped in <<span class="entity place city" about="Las Playas" data-sort="Las Playas" data-label="Las Playas">Las Playas</span>, a Mexican town on the US-Mexico border for the first-ever firing of a human cannonball over an international border: from <span class="entity place country" about="Mexico" data-sort="Mexico" data-label="Mexico" data-active = "true">Mexico</span> to the <span class="entity place country" about="United States" data-sort="United States" data-label="United States" data-active="true">US</span>.</p>
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<img src="assets\img\2.3\2_3_8.jpeg" height="175vmin">
<figcaption>Javier Téllez, One Flew Over the Void (Bala perdida), 2005</figcaption>
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<p>In the installation illustrated below, light chains hanging from the ceiling move up and down. The installation is activated by a person pedalling on an exercise bike.</p>
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<img src="assets\img\2.3\2_3_9.jpeg" height="175vmin">
<figcaption>Jeppe Hein, Light Pavillion, 2009</figcaption>
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<img src="assets\img\2.3\2_3_10.jpeg" height="155vmin">
<figcaption>Anthony Quinn in Federico Fellini’s La Strada, 1954 Photograph: AFP/Getty</figcaption>
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<img src="assets\img\2.3\2_3_11.jpeg" height="170vmin">
<figcaption>Ulrike Ottinger, Freak Orlando, 1981. The movie is on UbuWeb</figcaption>
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<img src="assets\img\2.3\2_3_12.jpeg" height="195vmin">
<figcaption>Charles & Ray Eames, Clown Face (still), 1971</figcaption>
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<img src="assets\img\2.3\2_3_13.jpeg" height="200vmin">
<figcaption>Bruce Nauman, Clown Torture, 1987</figcaption>
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<img src="assets\img\2.3\2_3_14.jpeg" height="265vmin">
<figcaption>Diane Arbus, Jewish Giant at Home with His Parents in the Bronx, 1970</figcaption>
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<img src="assets\img\2.3\2_3_15.jpeg" height="215vmin">
<figcaption>Rona Yefman, Clowns line, 2002. Courtesy the artist and Sommer Contemporary Art, Tel-Aviv</figcaption>
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<img src="assets\img\2.3\2_3_16.jpeg" height="340vmin">
<figcaption>Rona Yefman, Gil Jumping Clown, 2002. Courtesy the Artist and Sommer Contemporary Art, Tel-Aviv</figcaption>
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