Guan Xiao

Every area of our daily life. Hybrid Layers opens at ZKM, Jun 3 – Jan 7

29 May 2017

The Hybrid Layers group exhibition at Karlsruhe’s ZKM opens June 3 and is running to January 7, 2018.

Looking at the intersection of social, technological and aesthetic debate, the show will “reflect on how comprehensively the digital realm influences every area of our daily life, our perception and our production of knowledge” and includes work by Sophia Al MariaAuto Italia South East, Guan Xiao, Katja Novitskova, Yuri Pattison, Tabita Rezaire, and Rachel de Joode among others.

Both physical and virtual, the show will include video, performance, and sculpture, all exploring the way our feelings and actions have been profoundly altered and speculations on what the future will bring. Picking apart the layers of hybridity, the 22 artists included examine how this situation “influences our globally networked world.”

Visit the ZKM website for details.**

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“An exclamation, a passionate outcry.” A short guide to Venice Biennale 2017, May 13 – Nov 26

10 May 2017

The 2017 Venice Biennale is on at various locations around the city, opening May 13 and running to November 26.

The international art exhibition is now in its 57th year, and takes the title Viva Art Viva as “an exclamation, a passionate outcry for art and the state of the artist,” according to this year’s curator Christine Macel. In a statement about the Biennale’s title, Macel notes “Today, in a world full of conflicts and shocks, art bears witness to the most precious part of what makes us human. Art is the ultimate ground for reflection, individual expression, freedom, and for fundamental questions. Art is the last bastion, a garden to cultivate above and beyond trends and personal interests. It stands as an unequivocal alternative to individualism and indifference.” Artists to look out for include Phillippe ParrenoRachel RoseGuan XiaoAgnieszka PolskaShimabuku, and Frances Stark.
Held across the Central Pavilion, Giardini and the Arsenale venues, the programme will present 120 artists from 51 countries, and it is worth noting that of the participating galleries, 103 are taking part for the first time.
There are also a number of ‘Collateral Events‘ featured throughout the programme, including Open Table, Artist Practices Project, Unpacking My Library and Projects and Performance. Here are a handful of event and exhibition recommendations:

– Helsinki’s Frame presents Erkka Nissinen and Nathaniel Mellors’ The Aalto Natives
– Recycle Group’s ‘Conversion‘ installation
– HyperPavilion group exhibition produced by Fabulous Inc + curated by Philippe Riss-Schmidt- Anne Imhof’s Faust at the German Pavilion
– The Antarctic Pavilion curated by Nadim Samman
Katja Novitskova at the Estonian Pavilion
– Diaspora Pavilion with Larry Achiampong, susan pui san lok, Paul Maheke &c
James Lee Byars‘ ‘The Golden Tower’ **

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Infection + transformation in Guan Xiao’s Living Sci-Fi, under the red stars at Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, Apr 28 – Jul 1

27 April 2017

Guan Xiao is presenting solo exhibition Living Sci-Fi, under the red stars at Berlin’s Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, opening April 28 and running to July 1.

The Beijing-based artist will present a series of new sculptures looking at the urban environment and the increased change on our habitat by economic and technological development. There will also be a new video ‘Dengue Dengue Dengue’ which was made for exhibition A Temporary Futures Institute at Antwerp’s M HKA, which also opens on April 28.

The three-channel film looks at how “habits contaminate our behavior, spreading around the world like an infectious disease. The infection is a transformation happening inside of us; the work calls for a retreat from these dynamics in order to learn the possibilities of breaking habits.”

See the Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler website for details.**
 
Guan Xiao, ‘Dengue, Dengue, Dengue’ (2017) Video still. Courtesy the artist + Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, Berlin.
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The search for our evolutionary roots in Jaguars And Electric Eels at Julia Stoschek Collection, Feb 5 – Nov 26, 2017

4 April 2017

The Jaguars And Electric Eels group exhibition is on at Düsseldorf’s Julia Stoschek Collection, having opened February 5 and running to November 26, 2017. 

The show brings together 30 artists who engage in the “search for our evolutionary roots” including Heike BaranowskyEncyclopedia Pictura/ Björk, Ryan GanderDonna Huanca, Isaac Julien, Ana Mendieta, Ben RiversGuan Xiao and Anicka Yi, among others.

Through an observation of nature and ourselves, the works look at ‘indigeneity,’ hybridity and “synthetic forms of life” as well as migration and our “constantly changing perceptions of reality” that affect and influence the way we understand the world. 

Founded in 2007, the Julia Stoschek Collection in Düsseldorf is a private collection of contemporary art that focuses mainly on time-based media art, also opening a space in Berlin in 2016. Both regularly present exhibitions and publications of their collection that houses over 700 works by international artists.

See the Julia Stoschek Collection website for details.**

 

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Re-shelving the dominant archive in NAUTILUS Part 1 at Milan’s Marsèlleria

21 March 2017

The NAUTILUS Part 1 group exhibition at Milan’s Marsèlleria ran from February 8 to March 3, 2017.

NAUTILUS Part 1 (2017). Exhibition view. Photo by Sara Scanderebech. Courtesy Marsèlleria Permanent Exhibition, Milan.

The project features work by Mishka Henner, Malaxa (Alicia Mersy + Tabita Rezaire), Luca Pozzi, Elena Radice, Clement Valla and Guan Xiao, exploring ‘documented culture’ through an installation of video, sound, sculpture, as well as a book and wallpaper.

Inspired by a quote from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, curator Zoe De Luca describes the exhibition’s premise as being divided into two topics: “the utopia of the defined archive in digital era” and “the claim of cultures shelved by dominant visual culture.”**

The NAUTILUS Part 1 group exhibition was on at Milan’s Marsèlleria, running February 8 to March 3, 2017.

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