A Landmark Photographic Exhibition opens 10 March at Somerset House, London

The must-see photographic event for London 2010, A Positive View, will showcase an extraordinary range of photography on a truly international scale from the 20th and 21st century, under the Royal Patronage of Prince William supporting Crisis, the homelessness charity. A Positive View was first held in 1994 sponsored by Vogue and exhibited at Saatchi Gallery, while the second show was held in 2000 at the Atlantis Gallery in the Old Truman Brewery (London) and sponsored by Getty. The third edition of this fully curated, museum-scale photographic exhibition, to be held at Somerset House, will bring together more than 100 rare and signed vintage works across almost a century of photography; classic and contemporary works will cross a variety of genres, from still-life, fashion, landscape, portraiture and reportage.



Two outstanding masterpieces by Henri Cartier-Bresson will be on show; his renowned Seville (1933) and the magical Queen Charlotte’s Ball, London (1959). Other highlights will include a rare landscape by Elliot Erwitt, Wyoming Steam-Train Press, (1954); Friends of the Spanish Press (1968) by the winner of the 2007 Venice Biennale Golden Lion, Malick Sidibe, a haunting image from Robert Polidori’s New Orleans series (2006) and Corinne Day’s iconic and first-ever seen photograph of the supermodel Kate Moss, Kate (1990). These will be shown along with a stunning still life of Francis Bacon’s Studio (2001) from Perry Ogden’s 7 Reece Mews series and Wim Wenders’ classic Lounge Painting, Gila Bend, Arizona (1987).



For the first time, A Positive View will also feature work from contemporary artists whose creative practice incorporates photography, with geographically diverse representations from Korea, China, Japan and West Africa. With signature works by Seydou Keita, Yum Joongho, Bohn-Chang Koo and Weng Fen among others, A Positive View will provide an unusual and interesting opportunity to consider how practitioners beyond Europe and America are working with photography. In another departure, the 2010 edition of A Positive View will also include works by unknown photographers, all clients of the homelessness charity Crisis who have been studying photography at the Crisis Skylight, education, training and employment centres in London and Newcastle.



Nadim Samman, Exhibition Curator, commented: "As A Positive View benefits people on the margins of society, this exhibition brings together images of a notional ‘centre’ – social icons, home, the West – with peripheral visions. In some cases the display suggests their unsettling interdependence. At the same time, as with previous editions, A Positive View continues to showcase the achievements of leading photographers past and present."



Each of the works donated by the photographers, or their representatives and estates, have been included in the exhibition following a stringent selection process by A Positive View Patrons, who include Philippe Garner, International Head of Photographs at Christie’s, and Tim Jefferies, Director of Hamilton’s Gallery, with exhibition curator Nadim Samman.


Patron Philippe Garner said: “This exhibition is truly international in scope and represents the contemporary vitality and authority of the photographic medium across many genres. I have spent forty years as a champion of photography and I find it very rewarding to be part of such a stimulating project – one that invites us to celebrate the medium for so very worthwhile a cause.”

A 200-page fully-illustrated coffee-table book will be published in March, and will be available from Somerset House, Christie’s internationally, specialist art bookshops and online (£25, March 2010).

A Positive View opens on 10 March and continues until 5 April, with the charity auction of 100 of the most collectible works being held at Christie’s London on 15 April 2010 with 100% of the sales proceeds going to Crisis. For further information please visit www.apositiveview.com.

Image credits

Kate (c) Corinne Day (1990)
Wyoming, Steam-Train Press, (c) Elliott Erwitt,(1954)
Lounge Painting, Gila Bend, Arizona, (c)Wim Wenders, (1983)
Queen Charlotte's London, (c) Henri Cartier-Bresson,(1959)

Jenny Holzer at BALTIC opens today

A major new exhibition of work by Jenny Holzer opens today in Gateshead at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art. The exhibition, in one word, is stunning. The walk up to the BALTIC reveals the first insight into what is to come inside; the façade of the building emblazoned with “THE BEGINNING OF THE WAR WILL BE SECRET”.



Holzer’s use of text as art rises to a new political level as she takes classified documents from the US Government, made public under the Freedom of Information Act, and creates impressive LED sculptures displaying this information repeatedly in bright, flashing, almost blinding fashion. The documents in question range from emails between US Military officials, emails discussing the interest in oil as the cause of the conflict, and documents regarding prisoner-questioning methods. The sculptures themselves are breathtaking, filling the dimly lit white space with bright pink, green and amber, disappearing in to the walls in their various forms to give a sense of their endless nature. Whilst demanding your attention, it is clear that they are complex and often difficult to stand and read. While I think one of the major points to the work is to reveal once confidential material, just the fact that it is playing on a loop, always being released, unclassified and made public. A statement is always being made and cannot be stopped.



Also included is The Redaction Paintings Series, first exhibited in 2006. The series, taken from original official documents, depicts handprints belonging to US soldiers accused of crimes in Iraq. They have been defaced with heavy marks to erase the prints that differentiate them. By refusing to separate the convicted from the wrongly accused, Holzer demonstrates the failure of war to differentiate.

One of the earliest works of the exhibition, Lustmord Table (1994) is perhaps the most quietly unassuming, yet most disturbing of the show. Trigged by the conflict in former Yugoslavia, human bones laid out neatly on tables are collared with silver rings engraved with text. They illustrate directly the connection between physical and psychological consequences of conflict, war and trauma.



By moving to the upper floor, the exhibition takes a more personal turn into Holzer’s mind, with my personal favourite, Monument, a 20-foot-high LED sculpture, comprising of 22 semi-circular bands emblazoned with the artist’s Truisms and Inflammatory Essays, throwing out ironic sayings that always seem to relate to your own personal experiences. One of the highlights is a huge, floor-based sculpture, ideal for viewing from the top floor viewing platform – definitely recommended if you visit this show.

Holzer’s take on peace, conflict, love and longing and survival are perfectly captured throughout this exhibition, providing the viewer with the best of both worlds – incredibly stunning visuals, coupled with unsettlingly global and personal ideas.

Jenny Holzer is showing at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art from today (Friday 5 March) until Sunday 16 May. For more information, please see www.balticmill.com


Image credits:

HOLZER_Baltic_Press_10_72
JENNY HOLZER
MONUMENT(detail), 2008
22 double-sided, semi-circular electronic LED signs: 13 with red
and white diodes; 9 with red and blue diodes on front and blue and
white diodes on back
194.3 x 57.8 x 28.9 in.; 493.5 x 146.8 x 73.4 cm.
Installation: LIKE TRUTH, Diehl + Gallery One, Moscow, 2008
Text: Truisms, 1977–79; Inflammatory Essays, 1979–82
© [date of publication] Jenny Holzer, member Artists Rights Society
(ARS), NY.
Photo: Vassilij Gureev


HOLZER_Baltic_Press_09_72
JENNY HOLZER
Thorax, 2008
12 double-sided, curved electronic LED signs with white diodes on
front and red and blue diodes on back
104.25 x 58.31 x 37.125 in.; 264.79 x 148.1 x 94.29 cm.
Installation: Jenny Holzer, Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel,
Switzerland, 2009
Text: U.S. government documents
© [date of publication] Jenny Holzer, member Artists Rights Society
(ARS), NY.
Photo: Lili Holzer-Glier


HOLZER_Baltic_Press_08_72
JENNY HOLZER
Thorax, 2008
12 double-sided, curved electronic LED signs with white diodes on
front and red and blue diodes on back
104.25 x 37.125 x 37.125 in.; 264.8 x 94.3 x 94.3 cm.
Installation: Jenny Holzer: PROTECT PROTECT, Museum of
Contemporary Art (MCA), Chicago, 2009
Text: U.S. government documents
© [date of publication] Jenny Holzer, member Artists Rights Society
(ARS), NY.
Photo: Attilio Maranzano

¡México! Festival at BOZAR

In 2010 Mexico celebrates a double anniversary: the bicentenary of its independence and the centenary of its revolution. The occasion is being marked by festivities in Mexico and around the world, all year long. Belgium will play a prominent role in the celebrations. The bicentenary commemorates 200 years of Mexican independence or – to be more precise – the beginning of the country's struggle for independence. It was on 16 September 1810 that the "¡Grito de Dolores!" rang out, the call to fight the Spanish invader issued by Miguel Hidalgo, also renowned for his summons, "¡Mexicanos, Viva México!" About 100 years later the Mexican Revolution was initiated by those who resisted the rule of President Porfirio Díaz. In Mexico the Centenario celebrates the beginning of the Mexican Revolution, one of the first great social uprising of the 20th century. In the context of this double commemoration, Mexico has also organised festivities outside its own frontiers.



The ¡México! festival that will take place at the BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts in 2010 will be the largest Mexican cultural event outside the country itself. Behind the clichés of the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl, the Virgin of Guadalupe, and revolutionaries in sombreros, you can discover, over three whole months, a rich and complex nation that is constantly inventing and deconstructing its own "Mexicanness".

The five exhibitions at the BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts this spring will offer a fine overview of Mexican culture, past and present. The keynote exhibition Imágenes del mexicano (11 February > 25 April) sketches, in 150 portraits, "the Mexican", as seen by both Mexican and foreign artists, including Hermenegildo Bustos, Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and David Alfaro Siqueiros. Frida Kahlo y su Mundo (16 January > 18 April) offers an opportunity to explore the world of Mexico's most famous painter in an exhibition that presents the entire Kahlo collection of the Dolores Olmedo Museum (19 paintings, an etching, and 6 drawings), as well as photographs of the artist's family, friends, and surroundings. Photography and architecture are also represented, in Mundos mexicanos: 25 Contemporary Photographers (11 February > 11 April) and Mexican Modernisms (11 February > 11 April). In The Mole’s Horizon (11 February > 25 April) visitors to the Centre can also discover the work of contemporary artists such as Daniel Guzmán, Jorge Satorre, Ilán Lieberman, Teresa Margolles, Yoshua Okón and Sergio de la Torre. Throughout the festival (11 February > 25 April), moreover, Alejibres, fantastic papier mâché creatures from the Museo de Arte Popular de México, will be on display in the Horta Hall.



In addition to these five exhibitions, the performing arts will also be at the heart of the Mexico festival. There will also be literary encounters with Jorge Volpi (1 April) and Paco Ignacio Taibo II, two worthy successors of Carlos Fuentes. Cinema also features in the festival, with a panorama of the new Mexican cinema (at the CINEMATEK) and a day devoted to the new Mexican documentary, in the presence of the directors (25 April). Onstage, audiences can also see two works directed by Claudio Valdés Kuri, who made a great impression at the KunstenFestivaldesArts and at the Wiener Festwochen, El Automóvil Gris (17 April) and El Gallo (20 April). And on the evening of 19 March local audiences can discover the leading lights of the booming and extraordinarily dynamic Mexican contemporary dance scene. On 21 March, moreover, Party Time at the Centre will have a decidedly Mexican flavour.

For further information, dates and tickets visit www.bozar.be

Frida Kahlo y su Mundo continues until 18 April.

Image credits

Frida Kahlo
La columna rota (The Broken Column), 1944
Oil on masonite, 39.8 x 30.5 cm
© Collection Museo Dolores Olmedo, Xochimilco, México

Frida Kahlo painting the portrait of her father, 1951
Photograph : Gisèle Freund © Archivo del Museo Frida Kahlo. Banco de México Fideicomiso Museos Diego Rivera-Anahuacalli y Frida Kahlo.