SOMA: Carsten Höller in Berlin

On the quest for another world, Carsten Höller follows in the Hamburger Bahnhof the origin of Soma, a mythical libation of the Indo-Germanic Vedas from the 2nd millennium BC. Soma brought the Vedas enlightenment and access to the divine sphere and was highly praised in their hymns. The herbal ingredient of this libation has not been passed on without a doubt, but from a botanic, ethnologic and etymologic view there is evidence that it could have been the fly agarics.
Based on these circumstances Carsten Höller develops a scenario between laboratory and vision, alleged objectivity and increased subjectivity.
Before the eyes of the observers unfolds an expansive “living picture”, a symmetrical experimental field, which is divided in two parts along its center line and which compares the ordinary world with the realm of Soma in a double-image experiment. This is an experiment, that find its completion in the imagination of the observer and whose evaluation is subject to your power of observation. On a mushroom like platform in midst of the arrangement resides a bed, where guests will have the opportunity to spend a night at the museum and to dive into the world of Soma.

Carsten Höller SOMA
5. November 2010 - 6. Februar 2011
Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart - Berlin
Invalidenstr. 50–51,
D – 10557 Berlin

Massive Change: a manifesto for the future of global design

Design has emerged as one of the world’s most powerful forces. It has placed us at the beginning of a new, unprecedented period of human possibility, where all economies and ecologies are becoming global, relational, and interconnected.
In order to understand and harness these emerging forces, there is an urgent need to articulate precisely what we are doing to ourselves and to our world. This is the ambition of Massive Change.
Massive Change is a celebration of our global capacities but also a cautious look at our limitations. It encompasses the utopian and dystopian possibilities of this emerging world, in which even nature is no longer outside the reach of our manipulation.
For many of us, design is invisible. We live in a world that is so thoroughly configured by human effort that design has become second nature, ever-present, inevitable, taken for granted.
And yet, the power of design to transform and affect every aspect of daily life is gaining widespread public awareness.
No longer associated simply with objects and appearances, design is increasingly understood in a much wider sense as the human capacity to plan and produce desired outcomes. Engineered as an international discursive project, Massive Change: The Future of Global Design, will map the new capacity, power and promise of design.
Massive Change explores paradigm-shifting events, ideas, and people, investigating the capacities and ethical dilemmas of design in manufacturing, transportation, urbanism, warfare, health, living, energy, markets, materials, the image and information. We need to evolve a global society that has the capacity to direct and control the emerging forces in order to achieve the most positive outcome. We must ask ourselves: Now that we can do anything what will we do?
The best way to express the capacities of our modern world is through its fullest range of media. To date, Massive Change has taken on the form of a traveling exhibition, a book, a series of formal and informal public events, a radio program, an online forum, and this blog. Since the exhibition’s opening in October 2004, several school boards have expressed interest in incorporating the project’s ideas into educational curriculums.

Susan Philipsz wins the 2010 Turner Prize for Contemporary Art

The Scottish artist is the first person to win the £25,000 award for a sound installation.
Lowlands is a recording of Philipsz singing 16th century laments which she then plays in unusual locations, including supermarket aisles and a series of bridges over the Clyde in Glasgow.
The Turner Prize, which was set up in 1984, is awarded to a British artist under the age of 50 and is "intended to promote public discussion of new developments in contemporary British art".

Peter Fischli & David Weiss, Cosa fa la mia anima mentre sto lavorando?, 2003. Foto Roberto Marossi, Milano

"Dal Partenone al panettone": Francesco Bonami hits again with his new publication

Jeff Koons vs Benvenuto Cellini

Edward Hopper vs Richard Prince

Gian Lorenzo Bernini vs Maurizio Cattelan

Bonami is a strange character, he has not a claer job; in his website he defines himself as a curator, writer, activist, optimist and casinist.
During his lectures he always says something that makes someone angry and certainly also his last book will have the same effect on many readers.
It is a sort of journey in art history, from ancient Egypt to the contemporary, through 130 couple of images in wich Bonami hazards the most unusual connections between ancient and modern works of art.
He dares comparing the "Cristo Morto" by Mantegna with a picture of the Che, the "Giudizio Universale" by Michelangelo with the Pollock paintings and a Bernini sculpture with a Cattelan piece.
There is no doubt that also this publication will make talk about itself.

Lecture with Kazuyo Sejima, Anton Garcìa-Abril and Christian Kerez at the Venice Biennale

Sejima speaking about her last projects

from left to right: interviewer Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Christian Kerez(ETH/SIA Architekt), Anton Garcìa-Abril(Ensamble Studio), Kazuyo Sejima(SANAA), Paolo Baratta(Biennale president)

the space of Teatro delle Tese

archistar calling

Dre Urhahn and Jeroen Koolhaas, the Dutch duo who paints favelas

In 2006, the Dutch artists Jeroen Koolhaas en Dre Urhahn conceived the idea of creating community-driven art interventions in Brazil. Named ‘Favela Painting’, their first efforts yielded two murals which were painted in Vila Cruzeiro, Rio's most notorious slum. The first mural is entitled ‘boy with kite’ and has a surface of 150 m2. The second mural proved to be more challenging, with a surface of 2000 m2. Painted on a staircase in the heart of Vila Cruzeiro, it depicts a flowing river with Koi Carp fishes in the style of a Japanese tattoo, designed together with Rob Admiraal. The artworks for the murals are painted in collaboration with the local youth. Training and paying them as painters, learning them the tricks of the trade and empowering them by contributing to the development of the artwork. These projects received worldwide press coverage and have become points of pride both within the community and throughout Rio.
Using a grassroots-based bottom-up approach has proven to be a key factor in the success and final results. In order to generate support and approval for their activities, the artists always make the favela their home. By spending their time within the local community, they’re able to connect to their surroundings more easily, winning the hearts and minds of people. In their point of view, the inhabitants of the favela are a legitimate part of the city, but not seen that way from the outside. Using these beliefs, they work with the locals to paint the artworks, literally helping them changing the face of their community. Over the years, inhabitants of the favela’s have become aware of this method, and are actively requesting their favela to be turned into an artwork. As one woman from Vila Cruzeiro put it: ‘I’ve never been to a museum in my life, and now I’m living in one’.
Favela Painting is supported by the Firmeza Foundation in the creation of striking artworks in unexpected places. It collaborates with the local community to use art and color as a tool to inspire, create beauty, combat prejudice and attract attention. The Foundation facilitates the worldwide realisation of art interventions, and looks after their maintenance. It also develops relevant spin-off projects in the areas of education, socio-economic / social support and development of local people involved in the projects.



As of March 2010, Favela Painting has established a collaboration with AkzoNobel’s decorative paint division. Based on their mission of “adding colour to people’s lives”, AkzoNobel intends to participate in an inspiring and meaningful manner in local communities in the countries in which it operates. The objective of the cooperation between both parties is to realise worldwide, large scale “community driven” works of art. Works of art that make a colourful difference in the lives of individuals, groups, communities and cities. Works of art that have the potential of inspiring others elsewhere, that leave an indelible impression and can work as a catalyst in the processes of social renewal and change.

visit http://www.favelapainting.com/ for more info