Summer brings a profound tension between chilling in the sun and making the most of the time off to explore art galleries and museums. My mantra: always minimum compromise. Before I pack for the holidays, these are a few must-do art exhibitions that you can enjoy by the Med, as you sail your summer away. See you there or back in September!
Les Rencontres d’Arles is an annual summer photography festival founded in 1970 in France. The exhibitions take place in various historic sites in the town of Arles in Provence, such as 12th-century chapels or 19th-century industrial buildings. Opening the first week of July with 40 exhibitions together with many other events, it continues until September 24th. My highlights are exhibitions by Michael Wolf, Paz Errázuriz and Masahisa Fukase.
Wolf’s (Germany, 1954) key 21st-century theme is “life in cities”, as he observes it in vast metropolises like Tokyo, Hong Kong and Chicago. The striking feature of these impressive series is the changing points of view adopted by the artist in order to show the complexity of modern city life: from portraits of individual Chinese assembly-belt workers producing toys to satisfy the manic worldwide demand for cheap consumer goods to the compact residential life-style.
Errázuriz (Chile, 1944) began her career as an autodidact under Pinochet’s dictatorship in the 1970s in Chile. Co-founder of the Independent Photographer’s Association (AFI), she used black and white portraits to denounce the dictator, as well as the social dictates which condemned individuals and groups to a marginalisation that made them invisible. From the beginning, her work expressed an insatiable curiosity for the human race. Errázuriz’s works broke many of the taboos of the society deprived of liberty that Chile was before the restoration of democracy.
Fukase: The Incurable Egoist is the first retrospective of Masahisa Fukase (Japan, 1934) to take place in Europe, allowing much previously unseen material to leave Japan for the first time. Fukase is widely regarded as one of the most radical and influential photographers of his generation. This presentation considers all aspects of Fukase’s practice from the 1960s onwards, drawing on vintage prints, graphic work, as well as archival magazines and publications, to show the extent of the artist’s working life. Dealing with issues of family, love, friendship, loneliness, mortality and death, photographs reflect his work through performance, self-portraiture, play and comedy. The exhibition establishes Fukase as one of the most innovative and original Japanese artists of the post-war period.
Also in Arles is the Fondation Vincent van Gogh hosting British sculptor Rebecca Warren (England, 1965) until September 17th before her first major UK exhibition to open at Tate St. Ives in October. Warren works with an eye to extremes and a hint for humour, creating a variety of objects that she describes as existing “somewhere on the continuum between pure fleshiness and pure cartoonishness”.
A one-hour drive will take you from Arles to Château La Coste, a 500-acre estate where wine, art and architecture live in harmony. As well as the architecture pavilions by Jean Nouvel, Frank Gehry, Tadao Ando and the permanent sculpture park with works by Louise Bourgeois, Alexander Calder, Andy Goldsworthy and Tom Shannon among many others, the estate hosts two temporary exhibitions Surrounded by You, an exhibition of painting and sculpture from the past 10 years by Tracey Emin (United Kingdom, 1963) and The Sea and the Mirror, a photography exhibition by Hiroshi Sugimoto (Japan, 1948) to inaugurate the new Renzo Piano Photography Pavilion. The exhibition presents a selection of ten large-format works from the artist’s iconic Seascapes photographed at various locations around the world. A master craftsman, Sugimoto captures subtle shifts in light quality and a rich range of tonalities in the sky and water that acquire a cumulative effect when installed in series.
If France is not your preferred summer destination, surely Greece will hit the spot. Every summer since 2009, DESTE Foundation Project Space has invited an artist or group of artists to develop an exhibition in the former slaughterhouse on the island of Hydra. The restored and renovated building retains the features and traits of the past, preserving the original elements of its old identity while serving as a unique exhibition space. This year, DESTE’s Project Space will feature a site-specific exhibition by Kara Walker. The project transports Figa, the left hand of the sphinx-like monument of the A Subtlety installation made with polystyrene and sugar, from its “new world” location at the Domino Sugar Factory in New York to Greece, the birthplace of Western civilization. The project runs until September 30th.
Did you say Italy? Summer and even early September are much better times to visit the Venice Biennale after the opening crowds have cleared. What to add to the most renowned art event to take place every two years… Go and be horrified at the banalities that such a large-scale project inevitably falls into but also find your own epiphany as you pilgrim your way through the palazzos, a maze of alleys and canals as well as the art exhibitions. You have until November 26th to visit.
Photo credits © IñigoArt Advisory unless otherwise stated.
