artBahrain Online Gallery
...where unseen masterpieces is just a click away!
Copyright © 2010, artBahrain.org. All rights reserved. Use of this site constitutes agreement with our Terms and Conditions.
Soeul - April
ArtGuide - Museum
Join artBahrain.org
Artsonje Center
and Hermès Korea
Artsonje Center 3F
until 1 May
and Hermès Korea
Artsonje Center 3F
until 1 May
H BOX 2011
Programmed by the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès and hosted by Artsonje Center and Hermès Korea, H BOX-a nomadic video art screening room-will be presented on the 3rd floor of Artsonje center until 1 May. Also H BOX: Loops, a special exhibition of the previous works that have been presented in the H BOX will be held on the 2nd floor of Artsonje Center.
SOEUL. INITIATED in 2006, H BOX, a commissioning program that has offered stipends to four artists every year, in order to produce single-channel works in video. These works are presented in a collapsible screening room designed by architect Didier Faustino, which travels the world with a selection of works updated yearly. To date, 21 videos by artists from all over the world have been produced, and H BOX has screened in major museums and art centers in Europe and North America (USA and Mexico). It was also presented at the Yokohama Triennale in 2008 and will travel to Beijing and Guangzhou later in 2011.
In Seoul, the H BOX screening room features videos produced in 2009 and premieres four new works produced in 2010. In addition 5 works conceived as loops are screened as an exhibition.
Video is the first medium that has been appropriated by all cultures; it has been used by artists all over the world from the very beginning of its existence, to document performance and/or experiment with new narrative structures and image formats. The H Box is an object that blends references: a screening room, a travel kit, and a modern curio cabinet of sorts. It creates a specific context for the viewing of exciting new works by artists who, for the most, have lived and worked in numerous places, and often have a multiplicity of cultural references and bases.
H BOX is a program of Fondation d’entreprise Hermès
Curator: Benjamin Weil
Architect: Didier Fiuza Faustino
In Seoul, the H BOX screening room features videos produced in 2009 and premieres four new works produced in 2010. In addition 5 works conceived as loops are screened as an exhibition.
Video is the first medium that has been appropriated by all cultures; it has been used by artists all over the world from the very beginning of its existence, to document performance and/or experiment with new narrative structures and image formats. The H Box is an object that blends references: a screening room, a travel kit, and a modern curio cabinet of sorts. It creates a specific context for the viewing of exciting new works by artists who, for the most, have lived and worked in numerous places, and often have a multiplicity of cultural references and bases.
H BOX is a program of Fondation d’entreprise Hermès
Curator: Benjamin Weil
Architect: Didier Fiuza Faustino
Rosa Barba (born in 1972 in Sicily, Italy / lives in Berlin, Germany)
The Empirical Effect, 2009 16mm transferred to HD Cam, 22 min.
Cinema as a narrative construct and as a physical technology is at the core of Rosa Barba’s creative investigation. Along with complex installation, the artist has been developing a series of classical narratives entitled Fictions. The Empirical Effect is the latest in the series, and focuses on the Vesuvius, a volcano, which Barba understands as a metaphor for the complex relationships between society and politics, more specifically in Sicily, where the artist is from.
The Empirical Effect, 2009 16mm transferred to HD Cam, 22 min.
Cinema as a narrative construct and as a physical technology is at the core of Rosa Barba’s creative investigation. Along with complex installation, the artist has been developing a series of classical narratives entitled Fictions. The Empirical Effect is the latest in the series, and focuses on the Vesuvius, a volcano, which Barba understands as a metaphor for the complex relationships between society and politics, more specifically in Sicily, where the artist is from.
Nikhil Chopra (Born in India in 1974, lives and works in Mumbai) with Munir Kabani (bio info unknown, lives and works in Mumbai) Man Eats Rock, 2011 HD-CAM mastered tape, 20min.
Nikhil Chopra has been performing for many years using the identity of various alter egos he has created for his various actions, which usually tend to take place in the public sphere. The artist, dressed in costumes, conducts mundane actions as if on stage, and yet in the midst of the city, with the passerby as his audience. During those long performances - they often last for days - he generally produces elaborate, large scale drawings, which almost function as backdrops to his performing. He explores the mingling of personal and collective experience, the changing perception of time and place, the consciousness of one's fragmented identity in post-colonial India, a country that has also gone through tremendous change in the past few decades. Only recently did Chopra decided to document his performances in film, and this video is the first where the performance was truly staged to be filmed. Along with a cast of actors, the artist travels through a spectacular landscape, this time drawing on rocks.
Nikhil Chopra has been performing for many years using the identity of various alter egos he has created for his various actions, which usually tend to take place in the public sphere. The artist, dressed in costumes, conducts mundane actions as if on stage, and yet in the midst of the city, with the passerby as his audience. During those long performances - they often last for days - he generally produces elaborate, large scale drawings, which almost function as backdrops to his performing. He explores the mingling of personal and collective experience, the changing perception of time and place, the consciousness of one's fragmented identity in post-colonial India, a country that has also gone through tremendous change in the past few decades. Only recently did Chopra decided to document his performances in film, and this video is the first where the performance was truly staged to be filmed. Along with a cast of actors, the artist travels through a spectacular landscape, this time drawing on rocks.
Omer Fast (Born in Jerusalem, Israel, in 1972 - lives and works in New York and Berlin) Sunday Morning (Part III of The Tunnel), 2010 HD Video with Sound, English, 5min. 30sec.
Omer Fast has based most of his work in video on his keen observation of the work, and his interest in what does not to be shown, or discussed. Rather than straight forward documentary, the artists builds a fictional structure "based on a real story", as Hollywood films sometimes state. In this way, he reflects upon the way fiction sometimes transcends reality, or offers a perspective that may altogether make it look more real. The Tunnel is a series of short videos that explore the world of pilots who operate drones, somehow adding one layer of reflection, this time pondering how reality and virtuality have become so entangled. Indeed, those pilots participate in military operations, but sitting at a desk and operating a computer: their experience is somehow closer to the one of teenagers playing online games, than the one of field battle and their reality closer to an action film.
Omer Fast has based most of his work in video on his keen observation of the work, and his interest in what does not to be shown, or discussed. Rather than straight forward documentary, the artists builds a fictional structure "based on a real story", as Hollywood films sometimes state. In this way, he reflects upon the way fiction sometimes transcends reality, or offers a perspective that may altogether make it look more real. The Tunnel is a series of short videos that explore the world of pilots who operate drones, somehow adding one layer of reflection, this time pondering how reality and virtuality have become so entangled. Indeed, those pilots participate in military operations, but sitting at a desk and operating a computer: their experience is somehow closer to the one of teenagers playing online games, than the one of field battle and their reality closer to an action film.
Ali Kazma (born in 1971 in Istanbul, Turkey / lives in Istanbul, Turkey)
Taxidermist, 2009 digital video, color and stereo sound, 17 min.
Ali Kazma has been producing short documentary films, which focus on production systems, as well as working processes. His camera keenly, intimately, and meticulously observes the way things are made. The artist has ventured into the studios of artisans, as well as in jean factories and slaughter houses, always with the same obsession: to track what usually is invisible and hence, mysterious. Taxidermist depicts the extraordinary work of illusion of the eponymous professional. Under his hands, an animal skin comes back to life through incredibly precise gestures and artifice.
Taxidermist, 2009 digital video, color and stereo sound, 17 min.
Ali Kazma has been producing short documentary films, which focus on production systems, as well as working processes. His camera keenly, intimately, and meticulously observes the way things are made. The artist has ventured into the studios of artisans, as well as in jean factories and slaughter houses, always with the same obsession: to track what usually is invisible and hence, mysterious. Taxidermist depicts the extraordinary work of illusion of the eponymous professional. Under his hands, an animal skin comes back to life through incredibly precise gestures and artifice.
Mark Lewis (born in 1958 in Hamilton, Canada / lives in London) TD Centre, 54th Floor, 2009 Single screen projection, 35mm and 4K transferred to 2K, 6 min.
Mark Lewis produces short films, which are usually projected in dark rooms, as would any regular feature film. Time is suspended in those scenes, which do not seem to have any beginning or end. The narrative is merely one of a simple movement of the camera, which creates a tension. Its length is determined by the film stock. TD Centre, 54th Floor is shot from the top of one of the last buildings designed by Mies van der Rohe, in 1967.
Mark Lewis produces short films, which are usually projected in dark rooms, as would any regular feature film. Time is suspended in those scenes, which do not seem to have any beginning or end. The narrative is merely one of a simple movement of the camera, which creates a tension. Its length is determined by the film stock. TD Centre, 54th Floor is shot from the top of one of the last buildings designed by Mies van der Rohe, in 1967.
Hwayeon Nam (Born in 1979 in Seoul / lives and works in Seoul and Berlin)
Do not harm your ghost, 2010 HD video with sound, 16min. 40sec.
Hwayeon Nam has been focusing on theatricality and the rhetorical modality of the world through diverse forms of practice ranging from performance, installation, writing and drawing to films. With Do Not Harm Your Ghost, the artist further investigates these themes by staging a performer in a landscape, while a voiceover tells the tales of various performers. The stories all relate to their experience as they perform, memories and fantasies. The idea of a performance being told confronts the fact it may never have ever existed, and that this collection of tales may in fact be a scenario for a film performed by an actress. Where does fiction start, where does it end?
Do not harm your ghost, 2010 HD video with sound, 16min. 40sec.
Hwayeon Nam has been focusing on theatricality and the rhetorical modality of the world through diverse forms of practice ranging from performance, installation, writing and drawing to films. With Do Not Harm Your Ghost, the artist further investigates these themes by staging a performer in a landscape, while a voiceover tells the tales of various performers. The stories all relate to their experience as they perform, memories and fantasies. The idea of a performance being told confronts the fact it may never have ever existed, and that this collection of tales may in fact be a scenario for a film performed by an actress. Where does fiction start, where does it end?
Julika Rudelius (born in 1968 in Cologne, Germany / lives in New York) Dressage, 2009 HD video transferred to DVC pro, 9 min.
In her video works and photography, Julika Rudelius explores the relationships and bonds between people. She interrogates prejudices and clichés that shape attitudes and govern behavior. In the foreground of her work are forms of communication, verbal and non-verbal, that can be observed within specific groups or groupings and that essentially characterize their image. These are social codes, which social classes employ to define them- selves against others, from which hierarchies within a class emerge and identity is created. In the case of Dressage, a group of young well-to-do pre teenagers gets ready for a film shoot, but things take an unexpected turn.
In her video works and photography, Julika Rudelius explores the relationships and bonds between people. She interrogates prejudices and clichés that shape attitudes and govern behavior. In the foreground of her work are forms of communication, verbal and non-verbal, that can be observed within specific groups or groupings and that essentially characterize their image. These are social codes, which social classes employ to define them- selves against others, from which hierarchies within a class emerge and identity is created. In the case of Dressage, a group of young well-to-do pre teenagers gets ready for a film shoot, but things take an unexpected turn.
Wang Jianwei (born in 1958 in Sichuan, China / lives and works in Beijing) Zero, 2010 HD video with sound, 18 min.
Wang Jianwei was trained as a painter. This background is decipherable in the way he composes the visual structure of his filmed performances, which look like classical paintings, more so than cinema. The minimal settings in which he stages his actions, and the way he chooses to treat social themes somehow evoke the theater of Bertolt Brecht. From very early on, Wang Jianwei has been reflecting upon the rapid mutation of his country, keenly observing and then staging key aspects of this change, whether as performances, actions or works in video. Zero explores intermediary states of being, one of transition, wherein an individual is in limbo, whether literally or not.
Wang Jianwei was trained as a painter. This background is decipherable in the way he composes the visual structure of his filmed performances, which look like classical paintings, more so than cinema. The minimal settings in which he stages his actions, and the way he chooses to treat social themes somehow evoke the theater of Bertolt Brecht. From very early on, Wang Jianwei has been reflecting upon the rapid mutation of his country, keenly observing and then staging key aspects of this change, whether as performances, actions or works in video. Zero explores intermediary states of being, one of transition, wherein an individual is in limbo, whether literally or not.
In addition to the selection of films presented in the H BOX screening room, we are happy to present a selection of works that are best screened as loops, as they tend to negate the notion of beginning and end in their structure. These works were selected from the archive of the H BOX commissioning program.
Sebastián Diaz-Morales (born in 1975 in Comodoro Rivadavia, Argentina / lives and works in Amsterdam, Netherlands and Buenos Aires, Argentina)
Oracle, 2007 video, color, sound, 11min.
‘Oracle’ confronts us with a seemingly random succession of images. An immobile man, filmed from the back, stares out to the sea. Two goldfish swim in a pond littered with banknotes. A crumpled plastic bag is blown over the street and arrives in the gutter. Clouds from explosions form and dissolve again. Motives of rounded shapes and centrifugal motion are recurrent: a lonely man stands in the centre of a roundabout, a colorful merry-go-round speeds around, a solar eclipse appears several times. These images act as signs; like an oracle, they speak about the future as a continuous extension of the present, without judgment or interpretation. ‘Now’ is revealed to the viewer as a point of tension between the past and the future. Or, as J.G. Ballard says: ‘After all time is no more than a neuropsychologic structure that we inherit and that like the appendix or corporal hair no longer need. Our next great evolutionary leap will not be of the physical but mental type. We will learn to live thinking that everything happens at the same time. That is to say "No Future".’
Oracle, 2007 video, color, sound, 11min.
‘Oracle’ confronts us with a seemingly random succession of images. An immobile man, filmed from the back, stares out to the sea. Two goldfish swim in a pond littered with banknotes. A crumpled plastic bag is blown over the street and arrives in the gutter. Clouds from explosions form and dissolve again. Motives of rounded shapes and centrifugal motion are recurrent: a lonely man stands in the centre of a roundabout, a colorful merry-go-round speeds around, a solar eclipse appears several times. These images act as signs; like an oracle, they speak about the future as a continuous extension of the present, without judgment or interpretation. ‘Now’ is revealed to the viewer as a point of tension between the past and the future. Or, as J.G. Ballard says: ‘After all time is no more than a neuropsychologic structure that we inherit and that like the appendix or corporal hair no longer need. Our next great evolutionary leap will not be of the physical but mental type. We will learn to live thinking that everything happens at the same time. That is to say "No Future".’
Cliff Evans (Born in 1977 in Australia. lives and works in New York, USA)
Citizen: The Wolf and Nanny, 2009 HD digital video, color and sound, 6min. 30sec.
Cliff Evans offers an interesting perspective on the constantly recomposed mental landscape of our globalized world, one where the real and the virtual intersect in an increasingly more complex dynamics. The Wolf and the Nanny is a collage of material found online, which “renders” a realm that increasingly blends layers of time and space, cyber-culture and local, “here and now” experience. This short animation tells about how the constant flow of images we are exposed to daily somehow has changed our comprehension of the world we inhabit. It is a philosophical tale that shows both the modern utopia and its reverse while keeping a strong degree of poetry and humor.
Citizen: The Wolf and Nanny, 2009 HD digital video, color and sound, 6min. 30sec.
Cliff Evans offers an interesting perspective on the constantly recomposed mental landscape of our globalized world, one where the real and the virtual intersect in an increasingly more complex dynamics. The Wolf and the Nanny is a collage of material found online, which “renders” a realm that increasingly blends layers of time and space, cyber-culture and local, “here and now” experience. This short animation tells about how the constant flow of images we are exposed to daily somehow has changed our comprehension of the world we inhabit. It is a philosophical tale that shows both the modern utopia and its reverse while keeping a strong degree of poetry and humor.
Kota Ezawa (Born 1969 in Cologne, Germany Lives and works in San Francisco) Diorama, 2009 animation, anaglyphic 3D; color and sound, 1 min. 55 sec.
Kota Ezawa reprocesses famed images and film footage with animation, creating a new context for images that have permeated our collective unconscious, or have become part of classic cultural references. His 3D animation is based on footage drawn from the first broadcast of a concert by the then unknown Beatles and Rolling Stones, part of a famous British television program which is known to have led both bands to their enormous fame. The found footage of the two bands is blurred, forming one large band that plays a cacophony. Its brevity accentuates the tenuous link of memory we have to these early stages that defined mass culture.
Kota Ezawa reprocesses famed images and film footage with animation, creating a new context for images that have permeated our collective unconscious, or have become part of classic cultural references. His 3D animation is based on footage drawn from the first broadcast of a concert by the then unknown Beatles and Rolling Stones, part of a famous British television program which is known to have led both bands to their enormous fame. The found footage of the two bands is blurred, forming one large band that plays a cacophony. Its brevity accentuates the tenuous link of memory we have to these early stages that defined mass culture.
Sara Ramo (Born in Madrid, Spain in 1975. Lives and works in Belo Horizonte, Brazil and Madrid, Spain) A Banda Dos Sete (Band of Seven), 2010 HD digital video, color, sound, 20 min.
In her artwork, Ramo appropriates everyday elements and scenes, displacing them from their original context and rearranging them in her videos, photographs, collages, sculptures and installations. The artist investigates the moment at which the objects stop making sense in people’s lives in order to create situations bereft of calm and order, making the world appears helter-skelter. Both formal and conceptual strategies overlap in a constant enactment of mapping a chaotic reality. The video is inspired by the circular movements of a music box - and its machinery. In front of a blank wall, a band of seven musicians appears and disappears, playing out of tune. Each stand behind one another on a rotating platform, making them look as if they could just be characters. This feeling is emphasized by the fact they are wearing paper masks.
In her artwork, Ramo appropriates everyday elements and scenes, displacing them from their original context and rearranging them in her videos, photographs, collages, sculptures and installations. The artist investigates the moment at which the objects stop making sense in people’s lives in order to create situations bereft of calm and order, making the world appears helter-skelter. Both formal and conceptual strategies overlap in a constant enactment of mapping a chaotic reality. The video is inspired by the circular movements of a music box - and its machinery. In front of a blank wall, a band of seven musicians appears and disappears, playing out of tune. Each stand behind one another on a rotating platform, making them look as if they could just be characters. This feeling is emphasized by the fact they are wearing paper masks.
Su-Mei Tse (Born in 1973 in Luxembourg. Lives and works in Luxembourg) Open Score, 2007 digital Video, color and sound, 10 min.
The work of Su-Mei Tse often refers to music, as the artist was first trained as a musician before electing to work primarily with visual arts. In Open Score, the artist stages herself in a virtual squash court, as if she was doing a performance. The court further dematerializes as the video elapses, accentuating the idea of the void and of confrontation with a space that can also stand for mental space, and the artist increasingly starts looking like a character in a computer game. The sound of the ball bouncing on the wall is a key element of the piece, as the ball itself appears and disappears. As a dot, it evokes game as much as it evokes a note on a musical score. One also thinks of the famous closing scene in Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow Up, when a group of youngsters mimic a game of tennis on a tennis court, although without rackets or balls. Yet the sound of the ball bouncing can be heard, creating the illusion of their playing for real. This work evokes computer gaming as much as it refers to dream and illusion.
The work of Su-Mei Tse often refers to music, as the artist was first trained as a musician before electing to work primarily with visual arts. In Open Score, the artist stages herself in a virtual squash court, as if she was doing a performance. The court further dematerializes as the video elapses, accentuating the idea of the void and of confrontation with a space that can also stand for mental space, and the artist increasingly starts looking like a character in a computer game. The sound of the ball bouncing on the wall is a key element of the piece, as the ball itself appears and disappears. As a dot, it evokes game as much as it evokes a note on a musical score. One also thinks of the famous closing scene in Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow Up, when a group of youngsters mimic a game of tennis on a tennis court, although without rackets or balls. Yet the sound of the ball bouncing can be heard, creating the illusion of their playing for real. This work evokes computer gaming as much as it refers to dream and illusion.
H BOX Curator : Benjamin Weil
Benjamin Weil has worked on the H BOX project since its inception. Working in close collaboration with the Hermès team, he has conceptualized the project and participated in its implementation. Since the beginning he has also selected the artists whose work have been commissioned (to date H BOX has commissioned 21 works in its 5 years of existence).
Since 2009, Weil has been the Chief Curator of Laboral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial, a new cultural institution located in the north of Spain, whose mission is to support the production and exhibition of emerging cultural forms resulting from the changes brought by technology; ranging from contemporary visual arts and sound, to design and architecture. Weil has also been the Curator of Media Arts at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2000-06) and the Director of Artists Space in New York, an historical alternative art space (2006-08).
Benjamin Weil has worked on the H BOX project since its inception. Working in close collaboration with the Hermès team, he has conceptualized the project and participated in its implementation. Since the beginning he has also selected the artists whose work have been commissioned (to date H BOX has commissioned 21 works in its 5 years of existence).
Since 2009, Weil has been the Chief Curator of Laboral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial, a new cultural institution located in the north of Spain, whose mission is to support the production and exhibition of emerging cultural forms resulting from the changes brought by technology; ranging from contemporary visual arts and sound, to design and architecture. Weil has also been the Curator of Media Arts at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2000-06) and the Director of Artists Space in New York, an historical alternative art space (2006-08).
H BOX Architect : Didier Fiuza Faustino
Didier Fiuza Faustino is an artist and architect. In 1996 he set up the Laboratoire d’Architecture, Performances et Sabotages (l.a.p.s.), and in 2002 founded Bureau des Mesarchitectures. Faustino designed H BOX as ‘a screening space designed as a travel kit,’ a screening room conceived as an itinerant piece of furniture or a suitcase. ‘In placing the body at the centre of the world, at the confluence of visual and audio flows, H BOX explores what an experiential architecture might be. Taking the form of a camera obscura, it is a hybrid object, both hidden refuge and an agent of extreme exposure, whereby the body becomes a photosensitive film, a hypersensory receptor.’ [Didier Fiuza Faustino]
Didier Fiuza Faustino is an artist and architect. In 1996 he set up the Laboratoire d’Architecture, Performances et Sabotages (l.a.p.s.), and in 2002 founded Bureau des Mesarchitectures. Faustino designed H BOX as ‘a screening space designed as a travel kit,’ a screening room conceived as an itinerant piece of furniture or a suitcase. ‘In placing the body at the centre of the world, at the confluence of visual and audio flows, H BOX explores what an experiential architecture might be. Taking the form of a camera obscura, it is a hybrid object, both hidden refuge and an agent of extreme exposure, whereby the body becomes a photosensitive film, a hypersensory receptor.’ [Didier Fiuza Faustino]
Works of H BOX: Loops
Works of H BOX 2011
About Fondation d’entreprise Hermès
- Artists' Opportunities
April 2011
