Miami Art Basel 2011

Good afternoon contemporary art lovers!
As you may know, the 10th edition of Art Basel Miami will open next week. Let's what's gonna happen and what has to be seen...

To mark its 10th edition, Art Basel Miami Beach will inaugurate a new collaboration with the Bass Museum of Art on the Art Public sector, which will transform Collins Park with unique artworks and performances by renowned artists and emerging talents. For the first time, Art Video will be presented in SoundScape Park on the large-scale outdoor projection wall of the New World Center, designed by Frank Gehry. The free public viewings will be part of a number of special events and performances taking place across Miami Beach for the duration of the show to celebrate the 10th edition. 

A must seen: The Margulies Collection. Housed in a large, newly converted warehouse in the Wynwood Arts District near downtown Miami, the Margulies Collection at the Warehouse is an extensive collection of contemporary and vintage photography, video, sculpture and installation, from the holdings of prominent Miami collector Martin Z. Margulies. 1 st of December: Opening of the exhibition "Visions" at the Daniel Azoulay Gallery. "Thoughs, Mediations and Acts" by Xawery Wolski a the Diana Lowenstein Gallery. And of course the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Miami Art Museum...

Enjoy C u then...

"HEAVEN" by Philippe Perrin

Good morning contemporary art lovers! Philippe Perrin is a fantastic French artist, most known for his sculptures of monumental scale weapons, handcuffs, knifes, razorblades, American punches... Expanding everyday objects gives them a new meaning, another interpretation and it's even stronger when it comes to weapons. His references are provided by the gangsta aesthetic but also by the classic literature and romantic poetry. He perfectly knows how to be provocative, cynical, and manipulative while remaining charming and seductive.

"When an object or its image is made considerably larger, the primary message disappears leaving space to another message of identifical form and different contents." Heaven is an enormous and impressive sculpture that actually represents barbed wire made out of aluminium. By expanding barbed wires, guns, knifes... he gives to those weapons another dimension. Oversized and immobile, they appear deprived of their murderous potentiality. One forget their violent killer function and one focus on the beauty of the objet itself. Here he puts the emphasis on the relationship between religion and weapons. Religion wouldn't it be a weapon? It might be if one thinks about all the wars that started from a religious quarrel. Heaven wouldn't it be the exact representation of the Jesus Christ's crown-of-thorns? If not why would a church takes the responsability of showing a huge weapon such as this one?

Exhibition on view at the church of St Eustache in Paris until November 20th...

Retrospective of Maurizio Cattelan at the Guggenheim's

Good afternoon contemporary art lovers! As you may know, Maurizio Cattelan is an Italian-born artist (1960) who lives and works in New York. Well-know as a provocateur and a prankster, he's also a tragic poet who creates some of the most disturbing, interesting, shocking and funiest sculptures of our times. His work is satirical, caustic, humourous, but deeply serious and intense in its scathing cultural critique. Through his sculptures he tries to reveal contradictions and problems of today's society.

One won't forget his performances (such as: Errotin, the rabbit , 2000. He persuaded his galerist Emmanuel Perrotin to be dressed like an enormous pink rabbit with a giant pink phallus for one entire month), his hyperrealistic sculptures (like The Ninth Hour, 1999, that represents the Pope Jean-Paul II hit by a meteorite and sold at Christies for $3 million.) or his obessional use of taxidermy that presents a state of apparent life premised on actual death (such as Novecento, 1997: a taxidermy horse with leather slings qnd lmetal frame that is supposed to be hanging from the ceiling.)...

Architecture of the museum lends itself perfectly to this exhibition. In the same vein as Duchamp his work is full of ready mades that he uses in his own special way. The main installation hung from the ceiling seems to be so light and fragile! Most of the works he produced since 1989 can be seen here. Exhibition runs until January 22nd...

"Uncursed"! Yoko Ono at the Lelong Gallery

Good evening contemporary art lovers!
Uncursed: a super cool exhibition that's actually an installation of of doors and figurative transparent sculptures. Very conceptual and incomprehensible for the most of the viewers this show however must be seen!

Once Yoko said: " when we were children, we learnt at our elementary school how the warrior, Shikanosuke Yamanaka, vowed to endure seven misfortunes and eight sufferings, thereby giving all the negative things to him that would have been given to the people of the city. I was so impressed with his selfless devotion to people, I wanted to be like him when I grew up. Then I realized that so many challenging situation were given to me in life. Much later, I wondered if it would not be better to ask for seven good fortunes and eight treasures... which I promptly did. It changed my life".

How do they stand on the floor of the gallery by themselves? What is it supposed to be behind each door? Why is there a transparent sculpture almost next to each door? Do they have their own signification? Are they supposed to figure the eight treasures Yoko talked about?? So many questions asked as soon as one gets into the gallery...