Art Monthly 407: June 2017

Contents

Lawrence Abu Hamdan Rubber Coated Steel 2016

Interview

The Listener

Lawrence Abu Hamdan interviewed by Chris McCormack

The Beirut and Berlin-based artist engages with the politics of the silenced, with the testimony of ear witnesses whose evidence is excised from history.

Why I got involved was because none of the witnesses ever really saw anything of their space of capture. They were blindfolded when they arrived, they were forced to cover their eyes whenever the guards were in the room, they really only saw the four walls of their cells. Unless they directly experienced it on their bodies, their entire perception centred on what was heard.

Marta Popivoda Yugoslavia: How Ideology Moved Our Collective Body 2013

Feature

Crowdthinking

Bob Dickinson on the political fallout from the rise of referendums

Was Joseph Beuys naive to believe in the power of the people? Some of today's politically engaged artists, such as Bojana Cvejic, Crack Rodriguez and Doris Salcedo, seem to be losing faith not only in political systems but also in the people.

Joseph Beuys and his generation were only too familiar with the use of referendums by dictatorial leaders like Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini to reinforce their control and bring in repressive legislation, which often targeted artists.

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From the Back Catalogue Include me out! Dave Beech on participation in art

Comment

Editorial

This Little Piggy …

The increasing commercialisation of the Venice Biennale is simply a return to the Biennale's commercial roots prompted in part by rivalry with the growth in importance of art fairs – but who ultimately benefits?

But whoever ultimately wins in the struggle between art fairs and biennales, artists – and art – will be the losers.

Letters

More on Incoming

Paul Carey-Kent continues to question Peter Suchin over the aestheticisation of war in art, and Suchin replies.

Artnotes

Manifesto Art

The political parties publish their manifestos, which include statements on the arts; the government's proposed exhibition tax relief falls foul of the election; Wysing Arts Centre hosts Safe Haven residencies for persecuted artists; the Migration Museum opens in a temporary London location; a Christopher Wool artwork is slashed in a seemingly motiveless attack; low-paid staff at Tate are disgruntled at the prospect of contributing towards a sailing boat for the outgoing director's leaving gift; plus the latest news on galleries, appointments, prizes and more.

Obituary

Vito Acconci 1940-2017

Akram Zaatari To Retouch 2017

Exhibitions

Wagstaff's

Mostyn, Llandudno

Chris Fite-Wassilak

Lucy Beech and Edward Thomasson: Together

Tate Britain, London

Laura Allsop

Victoria Lucas: Lay of the Land (and other such myths)

AirSpace Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent

Bob Dickinson

Ipek Duben: They/Onlar

Fabrica, Brighton

Virginia Whiles

Patrick Goddard: Go Professional

Seventeen Gallery, London

Jamie Sutcliffe

Enter Stage Left: The craft of theatre in art

Lewis Glucksman Gallery, Cork

Fiona Gannon

Waltércio Caldas: An Intimate Horizon

Celia Brunson Projects, London

Gabriela Salgado

Akram Zaatari: Against Photography – An Annotated History of the Arab Image Foundation

Macba, Barcelona

Elisa Adami

Aleksandra Domanovic: Votives

Henry Moore Institute, Leeds

Tom Emery

Midlands Round-up

Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery • New Art Gallery Walsall • Ikon • Grand Union

Sara Jaspan

London Round-up

DRAF • Laure Genillard • Domobaal

Kathryn Lloyd

Gallery Weekend Berlin

various venues

Paul Carey-Kent

LA Round-up

CAAM • MOCA • Sprüth Magers

Lizzie Homersham

Reviews

Books

Public Servants – Art and the Crisis of the Common Good

John Douglas Millar

The book seems symptomatic rather than programmatic, the definite result of a curatorial cast of mind rather than, say, an activist perspective.

Martin Herbert: Tell Them I Said No

Chris Fite-Wassilak

What Martin Herbert gathers in Tell Them I Said No is a set of examples where artists consciously divorced themselves from their work and put themselves in the position where we can know about it. In the vast majority of other cases, of course, the artists are simply forgotten.

Life on Sirius – The Situationist International and the Exhibition After Art
Gruppe Spur Manifeste/Manifestos

Michael Hampton

So-called 'faulty performances' were an important part of Spur's armoury.

Reviews

Film

Plastik Festival of Artists' Moving Image

Morgan Quaintance

By so cogently achieving its goal of viscerally affecting audiences, the festival foregrounded a lack of direction for that affect beyond its immediate emotional or physiological impact – a disconnection between the politics of moving image and the politics orienting much social, cultural and environmental activity in the world.

Report

Tehching Hsieh One Year Performance 1980- 81 (Time Clock Piece)
part of 'Doing Time' at the Taipei Pavilion

Letter from Venice

On the Dock of the Bay

Patricia Bickers

In a city that gave the world the word 'ghetto', it seemed invidious to corral artists under the banner of the diaspora who all happen to be non-white.

Artlaw

Public Policy

Wash-up

Henry Lydiate

A week is a long time in politics: rapid and unforeseeable changes can transform the political and economic landscape. During one week in April 2017, UK politicians made significant changes affecting the financial prospects of the UK's public-facing museums and galleries: they scrapped Exhibition Tax Relief (ETR).

Listings

Events

Calendar

The updated events and exhibitions calendar can also be viewed online.

Exhibitions

Exhibition Listings

Art Monthly's exhibition listings can be viewed online.