Lovely Daze is a journal of artists’ writings and artworks published twice a year in limited editions. The seventh issue: Good Intentions Lead to Hell? is a double issue: one side edited by the publisher and the reverse side by guest editor Alessandra Sandrolini reflecting on a shared topic.
publisher/editor/designer ~ charwei tsai
issue 7 guest editor ~ alessandra sandrolini
editors ~ kelly carmena, lesley ma, sabrina shaffer
contributors ~ jean-michel alberola, francis alÿs, paola
anziché, harun farocki, jean-baptiste ganne, dora garcia, johan grimonprez, ns harsha, alfredo jaar, mike parr, michelangelo pistoletto, renata poljak, joaquin sarmiento,
rirkrit tiravanija, marnie weber, icaro zorbar
cover ~ jean-michel alberola, celui qui parle I, 2002~2003
reverse cover ~ michelangelo pistoletto, love difference table,
2003~2010 copyright ~ lovely daze, fall/winter 2010/2011
printed in my beloved formosa
CONTRIBUTORS…
JEAN-MICHEL ALBEROLA was born in 1953 in Algeria in a French family and currently lives and works in Paris. He studied at the Marseilles Academy of Art and has been teaching at L’École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts, Paris since 1991. His paintings, graphics works, sculptures, and installations have been exhibited broadly in France and abroad including at the Centre Georges Pompidou (1983, 1985, 1987, 1993, 2007, 2008); Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial (2003); Musée du Louvre (1993, 2005); Musée d’Art Moderne de la ville de Paris (1981, 1992, 1997, 2009), Venice Biennale (1982), and Galerie Daniel Templon (since 1982). FRANCIS ALÿS was born in 1959 in Antwerp. He attended the Institute of Architecture in Tournai and the Istituto di Architettura in Venice before living in Mexico City in 1986 where he currently resides. His work encompasses various media often involving the participation and presence of the artist. These performed events are then documented as videos, photographs, writings, paintings, and animations. Alÿs’ work has been shown in many international institutions including a recent exhibition ‘A Story of Deception’ at Tate Modern, London (2010). www.francisalys.com
PAOLA ANZICHE was born in 1975 in Milan. She graduated from the Städelschule, Staatliche Hochschule Für Bildende Künste, in Frankfurt am Main. Her solo exibitions include: Greater Torino: Paola Anzichè-Paolo Piscitelli, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Torino (2010); Tapis-à-porter, Careof, Milano( 2009); The Functional Fake Objects, Placentia Arte, Piacenza (2007); She participated in the residency program, Pact Zollverein, Essen (2010); Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris, Fondation Biermans-Lapôtre, Paris (2009); Centre International d’Accueil et d’Echanges des Recollets, Dena Foundation for Contemporary Art, Paris (2009); group exihbitions include: Meteoriti in Giardino, Fondazione Merz, Torino (2009); Sans les Murs, Glassbox, Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris, Paris (2009); Die Sammlung Rausch, It Takes Something to Make Something, Portikus, Frankfurt am Main(2008). www.anziche.blogspot.com
KELLY CARMENA lives and works in New York City.
HARUN FAROCKI was born in 1944 in Germany. He studied at the Deutsche Film und Fernsehakademie in Berlin where he currently lives and works. He began his career as a film director and was editor of Filmkritik, a magazine where he articulated an important set of theoretical ideas about the image from 1974 to 1984. Employing a wide range of media (photographs, drawings, documentary images, films), his own work questions the production and perception of images, decoding the medium of film and examining how audiovisual culture relates to politics, technology and war. Since 1996 he has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions internationally including Documenta 12 in Kassel, Germany.
www.farocki-film.de
JEAN-BAPTISTE GANNE was born in 1972 in France and currently lives and works in Nice. He studied at Villa Arson, Nice, and was an artist-in-residence at Rijksakademie in Amsterdam from 2003-2004 and at Villa Medici in Rome until April 2007. With various modes of expression such as photography, writing, performances, video, and installations, the activities of Jean-Baptiste Ganne are articulated around the “representation of politics and the politic of representations”. He illustrated Marx’s Capital chapter by chapter (The Illustrated Capital, 1998-2003), he was on strike (cooking) for six days during open studios in Rijksakademie (The Cookist, 2003 and redid the performance at the SFAI in San Francisco, 2007), decided to spread out his production budget converted to ten cents coins in Rome (Senza Titolo (All that Glitters is Gold), 2007) or read the whole Don Quijote in luminous morse code with a red lamp (Amsterdam, 2005; Nice, 2006; Istanbul, 2007; Gent, 2008; Paris, 2009). He exhibited with WHW in Zagreb (2001) published with Fotohof in Salzburg (2003), showed at Ellen de Bruijne Project in Amsterdam (2005 and 2006), was part of Istanbul Biennal (2007) and La Force de l’Art 02 in Paris (2009).
www.documentsdartistes.org/artistes/ganne/repro.html
DORA GARCIA was born in 1964 in Valladolid, Spain. She studied Fine Arts at the University of Salamanca, Spain, and the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam, Holland. She currently lives and works in Brussels. Dora García uses the exhibition space as a platform to investigate the relationship between the visitor, the artwork, and the place. To this end, the artist often draws on interactivity and performance. Through minimal changes, not encroaching on the space, the room is converted into a sensory experience, with each visitor leaving it again with his or her perceptions altered, or at the very least perhaps with a degree of skepticism. She has exhibited at various international exhibitions including The Flower of May, Gwangju Biennale, Manifesta (2010); 2nd Athens Biennale, 10th Biennale de Lyon (2009); Sydney Biennale, H Box, MUSAC, Leon, Spain, MUDAM, Luxembourg, Tate Modern, London (2008) and numerous solo and group exhibitions internationally.
www.doragarcia.net
JOHAN GRIMONPREZ was born in 1962 in Roeselare, Belgium, and currently lives in Brussels and New York. He studied at the School of Visual Arts and attended the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program in New York. Grimonprez achieved international acclaim with his film essay, Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y. With its premiere at Centre Pompidou and Documenta X in Kassel, 1997, it eerily foreshadowed the events of September 11th. Grimonprez’s productions have traveled the main festival circuit from Telluride, Los Angeles, Rio de Janeiro, to Tokyo and Berlin. Curatorial projects were hosted at major exhibitions and museums worldwide such as the Whitney Museum in New York, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich and the Tate Modern in London. Grimonprez is currently a faculty member at the School of Visual Arts (New York).
NS HARSHA was born in 1969, and currently lives and works in Mysore, India. He studied painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Baroda in 1995. Since then he has taken part in a variety of collaborative projects and exhibitions internationally including Serpentine Gallery, London (2008), Maison Hermes, Tokyo (2008); the Singapore Biennale (2006); The House of World Cultures, Berlin (2005); the 2nd Fukuoka Asian Art Triennial (2002); and the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Arts, Australia (1999). Harsha won the third Artes Mundi prize in 2008.
www.nsharsha.com
ALFREDO JAAR was born in 1956 in Santiago, Chile, and currently lives and works in New York. He attended Instituto Chileno-Norteamericano de Cultura, Santiago (1979) and Universidad de Chile, Santiago (1981). In installations, photographs, film, and community-based projects, Jaar explores the public’s desensitization to images and the limitations of art to represent events such as genocides, epidemics, and famines. Jaar’s work bears witness to military conflicts, political corruption, and imbalances of power between industrialized and developing nations. Subjects addressed in his work include the holocaust in Rwanda, gold mining in Brazil, toxic pollution in Nigeria, and issues related to the border between Mexico and the United States. Jaar’s works have been exhibited extensively including Biennales of Venice (1986, 2007), Sao Paulo (1987, 1989), Sydney (1990), Istanbul (1995) Johannesburg (1997), Gwangju (1995, 2000), as well as the Documenta exhibitions (1987, 2002) in Kassel. He became a Guggenheim Fellow in 1985 and a Mac Arthur Fellow in 2000. In 2006, he was awareded Spain’s Premio Extremadura a la Creacion.
www.alfredojaar.net
LESLEY MA is a Ph. D. student in art history, theory, and criticism at the University of California, San Diego. Her most recent research project is on the “modern” choices made by members of the Chinese Women’s Calligraphy and Painting Society in 1930s Shanghai. She is also an official groupie of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan.
MIKE PARR was born in 1945 in Sydney. In 1968, he enrolled to study painting at the National Art School. In 1970, with Peter Kennedy, he established ‘Inhibodress’, an artists’ cooperative and alternative space for conceptual art, performance art, and video. Widely known as a performance artist, Parr also works with drawings, prints, paintings, photographs, and videos. His work has been exhibited in Australia and overseas including most recent exhibitions: MIRROR/ ARSE, Revolutions – Form That Turn at Sydney Biennale (2008) and Volte Face: Mike Parr Prints & Reprints 1970-2005 at Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2006).
MICHELANGELO PISTOLETTO was born in 1933 in Biella. He began to exhibit his work in 1955. An inquiry into self-portraiture characterizes his early work. In the two-year period, 1961-1962 made the first Mirror Paintings, which are the foundation of his subsequent artistic output and theoretical thought. In 1965 and 1966 he produced a set of works entitled Minus Objects, considered fundamental to the birth of Arte Povera, an art movement of which Pistoletto was an animating force and a protagonist. During the nineties, with Project Art and with the creation in Biella of Cittadellarte – Fondazione Pistoletto and the University of Ideas, he brought art into active relation with diverse spheres of society with the aim of inspiring and producing responsible social change. In 2003 he won the Venice Biennale’s Golden Lion for Lifelong Achievement. In 2004 the University of Turin awarded him a laurea honoris causa in Political Science. On that occasion, the artist announced what has become the most recent phase of his work, Third Paradise.
www.pistoletto.it
RENATA POLJAK was born in 1974 in Split, Croatia and currently lives and works in Paris. She earned her undergraduate degree from the Arts Academy in Split, and her post-graduate degree from the École Régionale des Beaux-Arts de Nantes, France. She has been invited to residencies in San Francisco, Vienna, and New York. Poljak’s work has been shown internationally and has received numerous awards including the first prize at the True Diva Biennale, Skowhegan, Maine (2009), Golden Black Box Short Award at the Balkan Black Box Festival in Berlin (2006), and the Annual Award of Women’s Art Center Electra in Zagreb, Croatia (1997). In 2010, her videos were screened at “Renata Poljak, in the frame of Prospective Cinema”, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.
www.renatapoljak.com
JOAQUIN SARMIENTO was born in 1977 in Bogota. He graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Tufts University in the United States. After working as an engineer for several years, he decided to pursue his passion for photojournalism. Sarmiento completed a postgraduate program in Photography at the SENAC School in Sao Paulo and has worked as a freelance photographer since. In 2005, the city of Sao Paulo awarded him a grant which initiated Um Olhar (One View). The Um Olhar project brought cameras and photography lessons to youngsters living in local favelas. After three years in Brazil, Sarmiento moved back to Colombia where he currently resides, and continues his work in photography with a focus on the Caribbean region. Following Um Olhar, he has moved on to organizing workshops in schools and prison facilities in Bogota. His work has been published in various news magazines throughout Latin America and has been exhibited in Colombia, Brazil, and Portugal.
www.joaquinsarmiento.com
ALESSANDRA SANDROLINI is an independent curator, critic, and Phd candidate at La Sorbonne. She currently lives between Bologna where she was born and Paris where she won a curatorial residency of the Dena Foundation For Contemporary Art in 2005. She worked as curator at Villa Medici in Rome and at Centre Pompidou in Paris where she researched and assisted in curating the shows Dada (2005); Mouvements des Images (2006); and Traces du Sacré (2008).
SABRINA SHAFFER is marrying Christopher Finally this fall.
www.otabo.com
RIRKRIT TIRAVANIJA has transformed the constant movement and cultural interaction of his own life into an engaged conceptual art practice. Born in 1961 in Buenos Aires, of Thai origin, he was raised in Thailand, Ethiopia, and Canada and educated in Chicago and New York. He now lives between Berlin and New York, also spending time in Thailand. His work is exhibited around the world in major museums, galleries, and international art events. He is co-curator of ‘Utopia Station’ at the Venice Biennale in 2003.
CHARWEI TSAI is grateful to all her dear friends who are the vital forces of Lovely Daze reaching its fifth anniversary. At times it has been hard for the mind to live with a suitcase and travel all the time, so she is truly thankful to those who made the short encounters become long-lasting friendships. She looks forward to attending her best friend’s wedding this fall in the Dominican Republic.
www.charwei.com
MARNIE WEBER was born in 1959 and currently lives and works in Los Angeles. She received her B.A. from University of California, Los Angeles. Much of Weber’s visual art revolves around a recurring cast of characters. An animal often found in her work is the bear, which is linked to the Greek goddess Artemis. These characters, among others, are placed in vividly colorful environment, ornate, Empire-style interiors, or dark, dense, eerie landscapes. Her work most often focuses on the adventures of women, which sometimes take the form of half-human, half-animal hybrids with bodies cut from pornographic magazines, and other times, pale-faced, folksy ghosts known as Spirit Girls. The Spirit Girls is the name of Marnie Weber’s alt-rock musical group and also refers to a group of characters that are found in her art. Weber has two solo albums, Woman with Bass (1994) and Cry for Happy (1996), both recorded as Marnie. In 2004, a compilation of her work was released entitled Songs Forgotten: The Best of Marnie 1987 – 2004. Marnie Weber has participated in numerous exhibitions internationally and her work was featured on the cover of the 1998 Sonic Youth album A Thousand Leaves.
www.marnieweber.com
ICARO ZORBAR is a Colombian artist who works with machines and songs. His work is of a performative character; using cassette tapes, fans, and music boxes, sometimes his presence among machines and sound takes on the form of “assisted installations”. Icaro holds an MFA from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. He has shown in Buenos Aires’ Museum of Contemporary Art, Galería Vermelho in Sao Paulo, New York’s ‘Younger Than Jesus’ exhibition at the New Museum of N.Y, and the Beijing Biennale. Zorbar currently lives and works in Bogotá, Colombia. www.icarozorbar.wordpress.com
Special thanks from Alessandra to: Emanuela Baldi, Brian Butler, Giuliana Carusi Setari, Ann Cesteleyn, Victoire Disderot, Eugenie Goldshmeiding, Cameron Jamie, Renata Lucas, Aurelie Wacquant Mazura, Maria Pistoletto, Francesca Ruggeri, Didier Shulmann.
Special thanks from Charwei to: first to alessandra; (asia) grandma, especially kiri + takun + their mom + dad, lots of aunts + uncles + cousins, sarah + family, irene + baby, joyce + family, bebe, ronnie + family, jason, mandy, mier, bobby, yulin jie, pao-lin, ali, faustina, heather, eugene, rudy, agnes, andre, chia-en, tcac crew, shilpa, harsha, yongwoo, utrecht, hiroshi, futoshi + staff, taka, jeffrey, elisa, nahoko, alisa, tig + sora staff, va. (us) sub, mr. & mrs. shaffer, ryan, lesley, kelly m, kelly c, angelita + family, tina, ido, naoto, ani, maria, aoi, terresa, duke, erica, eugene, jason, chris liu, yonatan, leif, pat, alex, shunyi, nigel, mingwei, john, vicson, linda, dunbar, arron, hisham, julien, mark, pete, willow, cai + family + studio, bridget, carol, printed matter staff, aa, max, cat, james, peter, fiona. (europe) asun, gerry, alba, louise, charles, grigoris, su-mei, jean-lou, lili, nico, valentine, george, shing, kahn, pablo, pier, guillaume, julie, johan, david, tony, vincent, herve, grazia, jean d l, ariane, antoine, louise, marie, francois, carmen, eloi, m-o, virginie, aurelie, joanna, gilles, claude, louis-albert. (latin america) cristina, cata leon, barbie, federico, joaco, nathalie, sebastien, maria, andres, icaro, thiago, mateo, rosario, cata casas. (australia) suhanya, michael + family, shihoko, mellissa, robyn, qag team, gene + brian + team, voiceless, anna schwartz gallery, simeon, mike.