Unknown Woman 2009-34970

Art Press selected fourteen contemporary artists said to have done some of the 21st century masterpieces. Althought the Sopranos have nothing to do on that A-list (????), the other masterpieces deserve their status. Marina Abramovic, Christian Marclay with the Clock without any doubts. I discovered a 27 years old young swedish artist called Anna Odell. Her work titled Unknown Woman 340701 is one of the most one discussed artworks in the last decade.

The artist simulated a mentally ill person in the streets in Stockholm, police was called by passing members of the public and she was taken to the emergency psychiatric unit in Stockholm, where she was admitted, put on medication, and placed in a restraining belt. The following day, Odell told the staff at the hospital that she had simulated the event and that it was part of a future art project that was going to be presented at the Graduation show of her art school. With her work Odell investigates Swedish mental healthcare, of which she has personal experience. The performance is based on an earlier episode in her life in 1995.

There are a number of aspects to the art work of Anna Odell that gives complexity to her work, a number of possible interpretations and ambiguities. The actions of Odell can well be seen as a way to deal with past experiences and also as criticism of an area of which she has knowledge. But it can also be seen as an example of a private individual that fights back against a large institutional apparatus of power in today’s society.  

Whatt is possible within in art ? What is art about? For who is art made? What sort of art is it that we want, really? Who is Anna Odell really ? What really happened on that bridge in 1995 ? We may never know. Anna Odell remains an "Unknown Woman".

The third room

This past week I tried to go back to oil painting and althought it has never been my favorite medium I'll keep trying before I get something I really like. I've always had something with baths don't know why >Parallele Occurences<

Goudemalion

In an edition of PHOTO magazine, I cut an image of a woman with opening a bottle of Champagne (picture #2) and pasted it on my wall along the thousands pictures covering my room at this time. This image in particular kept my attention because it was written on the bottom "1977 BC." BC means before computer so no photoshop on this photograph and because I am a bit dumb I did not think of any options instead that this massive-bum woman knew how to open a bottle of champagne and that her skills definetely should cost a lot on Mulholland Drive parties.
Anyway I finally got the answer when I went to Jean-Paul Goude exhibition at the Musée des Arts décoratifs in Paris: painting on photograph. I found interesting his way to depict motherhood
 When I''ll be pregnant I'll copy that

  !

and his preparatory sketches.
After the exhibition we decided to do a bit of tourism in our own city so we went to the Eiffel Tower and once there we saw the sunset on the Sacré Coeur so we headed there and saw Paris burning.

Lines of thought

Hemali Bhuta

Richard Long

Sol Lewitt

James Bishop

 Raoul de Keyser

Few days ago I had a skype session with Stefan, one of my best friends who lives in New-York and studies Art Theories at Colombia University. We were briefly talking about art theoricians who are sometimes so boring to read such as Adorno or Greenberg and came to my mind only a single book that I really liked while in art school Point and Line to Plane by Wassily Kandinsky.

Kandinksy (first abstract watercolor in 1910)

Kandinsky, the very first abastract artist, taught art theory at the Bauhaus, the legendary german design&art school. He also conducted painting classes where he developped his studies on point and line forms. He understood point and line forms as a language of pure art beyond appearances that speaks directly to the human soul.The simple act of extending a point by drawing with pen or pencil on paper, has paradoxically made line one of the most powerful forms of artistic expression in the history of mankind. 
Well,that's the theory and if you want to see the practice, there is an exhibition running in London Lines of thought at the Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art which features fifteen contemporary artists who use line as the prominent element of their work. 
How simple is a line but how different it can be. Curved, straight, geometric, continous or broken, lines divide countries, boundaries, create surfaces, separate light from shadow. Line is the core element of nature and shows its extravagancy and complexity.


Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art
29 february - 13 may 2012
14 Wharf Road
London N1 7RW
Admission free !

Paris, march 1st

Elmgreen & Dragset - I Will Never See You Again

Three days ago I uploaded a photomontage on my tumblr page. This quote is not mine, it was written on an artwork I saw at the Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin in Paris and at the Venice Biennale in 2008 of Emlgreen and Dragset.

I found it interesting to write it in fireworks as a celebration of this words you never mean when you say it. A sweet but violent issuance of feelings. Anyway the scandinavian duo produces a very narrative and funny work and I found an interview in a french magazine which I'm going to translate here.

Who does what ? How do you divide your work ?

We are both very lazy, which is one of the reason of our collaboration. This helps us to divide the work but unfortunately we also share our payroll. That said, bureaucratic routine is supported by our manager and studio assistants. We are not "practical" people. We deliver ideas, concepts and basic sketches. After 15 years of working together, we kind of turned into a monster with two heads and one brain. Everyone knows what the other thinks.

Elmgreen, give us three adjectives to describe Dragset :

Quiet, gentle socially, creative.

Dragset, give us three adjectives to describe Emlgree : 

Obsessed, impatient very intelligent

How do you work in collaboration with other artists like Tim Etchells :

We love his sense of humor and the dialogue have been written in a merry flow. A ping-pong gam of emails in a short period.

Does derision amuse you ?

It can be a remarkable tool to say serious things slightly

You have a massive list of exhibitions and representation, do you ever pause ?

There are many more prolific artists...aha...whe produce exactly the number of projects that inspire us, no more no less.

Can you give us your definition of contemporary art ?

No.

With the disapperance of oil, what type of materials are you going to choose ?

Art is not a choice of materials. Moreovern the oil painting is still vert present. Painters are still considered the most important artists in the art market, just look at the auction. The medium in itslef is really not the priority today.

Will you get to carve the marble ?

Yes it is in our projects.

What passionates you the most in you work ?

The next project is always the most exciting.

What fascinates you ?

The constant change in our cultures. It's fascinating to wonder why people dream, wish, fear and behave as they do. Our art is more questions than answers.