08 February 2010
BHL falls for Neo-Kantians of Paraguay
It’s almost too good to be true. France’s (self-)declared national philosopher-as-action-man, Bernard-Henri Lévy – known by his initials BHL, both to adherers and opponents – has finally set the cavity seal on his credibility. In his upcoming book De la guerre en philosophie (About War in Philosophy), due to be published on 10 February, he quotes approvingly from a series of lectures held in 1946 by eminent philosopher Jean-Baptiste Botul to Neo-Kantians in Paraguay, revealing to them that their hero was ‘an abstract fake, a pure spirit of pure appearance.’ Only problem is that Botul is the actual fake,…
Categories: News
by Jörg Heiser
| No responses 07 February 2010 I spend a fair percentage of my time here at frieze opening post, press releases and emails – anything from unsolicited artists’ monographs to generic e-flux reminders. Don’t get me wrong – I don’t think the job is below me. In fact, I find it a secretly enjoyable task. And I’m not trying to brag, but I’ve devised what I think is a pretty organized filing system by which I sort the thousands of emails and invitations by region, creating a special stack on my desk for the most interesting and putting a little orange ‘flag’ next to emails about…
Categories: Correspondence
by Christy Lange
| No responses 01 February 2010 In his 1819 satirical poem, Don Juan, Lord Byron wrote, ‘I hate all mystery, and that air / Of claptrap, which your recent poets prize.’ Coincidentally, after nearly 60 minutes of sitting through Keren Cytter’s theatre performance, The True Story of John Webber and his Endless Struggle with the Table of Content, I had written only one word in my notes: ‘claptrap’. I don’t even use that word, ever, but something about the nature of this particular performance, or it taking place on an exceptionally chilly Sunday night, made me feel like just the kind of curmudgeon who would roundly…
Categories: Art, Events
by Christy Lange
| No responses 29 January 2010 The death was announced this week of the reclusive American writer J.D. Salinger, author of one massively influential novel, The Catcher in the Rye. Written in 1951, Salinger’s tale of teenage rebellion and intellectual precocity has to date sold some 65 million copies and remains a much-loved work of American literature. Salinger’s death will be widely reported, yet this week saw the passing of another bestselling US writer, one far less well-known than Salinger, yet someone who gave voice to rebellion and alienation in other ways: Howard Zinn, who died aged 87 in Santa Monica, California. by Dan Fox
| No responses 26 January 2010 What’s the story of Avatar? In the news, it’s a different one each week. This week it’s simply that of the most successful movie ever, soon to cross US$2 billion, James Cameron surpassing his own Titanic. Last week, the story was that Avatar had been bumped from 2-D screens in China, despite continuing strong attendance, to make space for the epic Confucius featuring Chow Yun Fat in the title role. (Funny that a pioneering hero of Hong Kong gangster drama, with its twisted Mafia-Confucianism of family ties and honour, would eventually be the impersonation for the comeback of Confucianism as…
Categories: Art, Film
by Jörg Heiser
| 3 responses 07 January 2010 Magazines and newspapers in late December and early January are awash with ‘best of…’ roll-calls of the past 12 months and forecasts for next dozen, and the current January–February issue of frieze is no exception. But before 2010 unfolds too far, there’s one item I really feel deserves mention as one of the real highlights of 2009: the DVD box-set released last year by the British Film Institute entitled Gazwrx: The Films of Jeff Keen. Gazwrx surveys the 50-year – that’s right, 50-year – career of British artist and filmmaker Jeff…
Categories: Art, Film, Icons
by Dan Fox
| 1 response 11 December 2009 The Whitney Museum of American Art has announced the list of artists for its 2010 Biennial, curated by Francesco Bonami and Gary Carrion-Murayari. The exhibition, simply entitled ‘2010’, will feature the work of 55 artists, along with selections, from the museum’s permanent collection, of work from previous Whitney biennials stretching back to the 1930s. An interview with Francesco Bonami about the Biennial will be published in the January/February edition of frieze. Categories: by Dan Fox
| 3 responses 09 December 2009 There is a raging battle taking place in the capital of Poland. But for the uninitiated visitor, it will probably go almost unnoticed. Unless, that is, they are able to follow Polish-language media, or are lucky enough to have members of the Warsaw intellectual milieu explain it to them (for me, the latter thankfully was the case). It’s a battle over commemoration and the construction of national identity. I was in Warsaw to give a lecture in connection with a project by artists Agniezska Kurant and Anna Baumgart, which is a temporary monument entitled ‘(…)’, commissioned by the by Jörg Heiser
| 5 responses 07 December 2009 Congratulations to Richard Wright on winning the Turner Prize 2009! Read Alex Farquharson’s 2001 monograph on Wright here and a review of his recent Gagosian show here. Categories: Art, Events, News
by Sam Thorne
| 1 response 01 December 2009 Established in Reykjavik in 2006, Sequences is an independent annual arts festival that was founded by four of the city’s many artist-run galleries: The Living Art Museum (which has been active for more than 30 years); Kling & Bang (established by a group of ten artists in 2003); Dwarf Gallery (a tiny space open several months a year); and the now-defunct Bananananas, along with the support of The Center for Icelandic Art (CIA.IS). With a focus on performance, though also incorporating a programme of seminars, lectures and screenings, Sequences remains the only festival in Iceland dedicated…
From the Mailbag
Air of Claptrap
Other Voices
Categories: Books, News, Obituaries
Extraterrestrial Irish Pub Type
‘A comic strip of Life, printed on Semtex’*: the films of Jeff Keen
Whitney Biennial 2010 artist list announced
Postcards from Warsaw
Turner Prize 2009 announced
Reykjavik: Sequences 09
