Best of 2016: Our Top 15 Exhibitions Around the World · 12/31/2016 Best of 2016: Our Top 15...

12/31/2016 Best of 2016: Our Top 15 Exhibitions Around the World

http://hyperallergic.com/348469/best-of-2016-our-top-15-exhibitions-around-the-world/ 1/18

ARTICL

e t of 2016: Our Top 15 xhi ition Around

the World

Our pick for the e t art how in the world thi ear.

H perallergic 2 da ago

(photo of Marrakech iennial Hrag Vartanian/H perallergic)



hake peare ma have aid “all the world i a tage,” ut we know it’ al o full of

gallerie , mu eum , and iennial . We a ked H perallergic’ editor and critic to pick

their favorite from a ear that eemed to e full of urpri e .

1. Marrakech iennial (Marrakech)



am Gilliam’ in tallation at Marrake h’ ahia Palace (photo Hrag Vartanian/H perallergic)



Fe ruar 24–Ma 8

I wa deepl moved the 2016 Marrakech iennial. Curator Reem Fadda gave u a

prawling how — with lot of hi torical material — that alluded cla i�cation ut till

had ome clear thread throughout (decolonization, materialit , moderni m out ide of

the We t, hi torie of power, and re i tance to homogeneit ). Important commi ion

l Anat ui, Dineo e hee opape, Haig Aivazian, and man other , felt en itive to

their urrounding and helped make thi exhi ition memora le. A I wrote in m review

of thi cit wide exhi ition (which i accompanied a H perallergic podca t):

The future of iennial a multifaceted con tellation rather than cohe ive tatement or declaration .

The logic of neocoloniali m, part of the power tructure impo ed powerful nation on other ,

compel the force of re i tance to take diver e, ometime amorphou form . ven if the arti t

remain at the center of thi truggle, the art can feel un ettling a their idea worm through our

rain to ignite new �ame that ma topple the force of control and homogenization.

An added onu , thi wa the �r t ear the iennial wa free. Thi wa a how that

mattered. —Hrag Vartanian

2. Thea ter Gate : How to uild a Hou e Mu eum at the Art Galler of Ontario (Toronto)



In tallation view of Thea ter Gate ’ di co-in pired room at the Art Galler of Ontario, Toronto (photo HragVartanian/H perallergic)

Jul 21–Octo er 30

Thi wa a fanta tic how an arti t who i often a ociated with hi am itiou reale tate art project in Chicago rather than hi galler work — though hi in tallationpiece at la t ear’ Venice iennial (“Mart r Con truction,” 2015) wa quite ahow topper. I didn’t review thi how ecau e I felt like the performance , lecture ,

and event were too integral to the exhi ition, and I ju t couldn’t e in Toronto for anof them. ut the how I aw wa ver excellent. Gate ha een allowed to work withHou e mu ic-founder Frankie Knuckle ’ archive and he uilt a little hrine to the vin lLP — one of which, he told me, included a mall aggie of what appeared to e cokewith a note from Madonna that aid, “ ta hard.” Overall, the exhi ition exploredrepre entation of lackne in the U (via W. . . Du oi ’ infographic , for in tance),the piritual nature of hou e mu ic, and the ae thetic of monument and nightclu .



M favorite piece wa the imple neon near the entrance of the how that glared, “ urna urn.” It captured the inten it of the emotion we often a ociate with mu ic ut

al o the wa meaning travel and change from unlikel origin — the term wareputedl coined R& di c jocke Magni�cent Montague, ecame a rall cr duringthe 1964 Watt riot , wa tran formed into a popular di co ong The Trammp , andha had man live ince. Gate add another la er demon trating how hard it i to�x the meaning of uch a mercurial phra e, which take on a di�erent meaning for eachviewer a ed on their cultural knowledge. You can’t top good idea from morphing intonew thing , Gate eem to a , ju t like ou can’t live forever in that moment in anightclu when ou realize the mu ic, the crowd, and the timulant are all in nc andou’re having the e t time of our life. uilding monument to the ephemeral and

�eeting eem more important now than ever. —HV

3. eat Generation at the Centre Pompidou (Pari )



Gregor Cor o, “There i No More treet Corner …” (1960) (© DR; photo © Archive Jean-Jacque Le el) (click toenlarge)

June 22–Octo er 3

Thi how wa divided into three main ection (Pari , New York, California), with twomaller area dedicated to Mexico and Tangier — where the eat developed a magicall

elated conception of the poetic. The entire air la out of the Centre Pompidou’retro pective of the eat Generation wa �awle , delicatel and luxuriou l alancing



the dim lighting requirement needed to how the mixing of text , painting ,photograph , collage , ephemera, hi toric document , magazine , ook pu lication ,jazz mu ic, poken word recording , and fanta tic underground �lm . It content wa ahard rejection of American right-wing ideali m, raci m, and homopho ia. —Jo ephNechvatal

4. incerel Queer: é a tien Lif hitz Collection at Le Rencontre d’Arle (Arle )



A photo from incerel Queer: é a tien Lif hitz Collection at Le Rencontre d’Arle (photo Jillian

teinhauer/H perallergic)

Jul 4– eptem er 25

Thi exhi ition looked una uming — room after room of mo tl mall, amateur, lack-

and-white photograph — ut wa va t, telling an informal hi tor of cro -dre ing and

other form of gender- ending from the 19th centur to the 1970 . ome of the torie

on di pla were pu lic — including that of Coccinelle, the �r t French per on to have

exual rea ignment urger and one of the �r t openl tran performer — ut the

majorit were purpo el private, and viewer were given little information e ond the

remarka le image the aw: a picture of male pri oner of war in a Nazi camp in

frump dre e and wig , tudent at a women’ college in the U drinking in over ize

men’ clothe . ocietal de ate till rage over whether gender i a con truct; according

to incerel Queer, it ha een for a ver long time. I’m not normall a fan of exhi itionthat draw from ju t one per on’ collection, ut �lm director é a tien Lif hitz ha

ama ed a trul remarka le trove. I hope it will e hown again. —Jillian teinhauer

5. d Atkin , Harun Farocki, and Jo h Kline at Fondazione andretto Re Re audengo (Torino)



Harun Farocki at Fondazione andretto Re Re audengo

eptem er 27–Januar 29

For the fall ea on, Fondazione andretto Re Re audengo held three major

imultaneou how , drawing on it collection while al o addre ing ome of the

dominant theme in contemporar art. The late Harun Farocki’ large, multi- creen

video in tallation “Parallel I-V” (2012–14), completed near the end of the arti t’ life, i a

me merizing vi ual hi tor of computer game graphic ince the 1980 , focu ing not

onl on technological progre ut al o on the evolution of m ol and how the video

game con�gure in our new digital realit . Another arti t intere ted in the digital, d

Atkin , pre ent hi mo t recent work, “ afe Conduct,” a three-channel video

in tallation, mapping out the contemporar anxietie of migration and the rapid

di appearance of the pu lic domain. La tl , American arti t Jo h Kline’

“Unemplo ment” explore the nature of contemporar la or in a crucial moment of

hi torical and political tran ition worldwide, and addre e the tran formation of the



human condition,in an era of automation and tran national capital. The three how

operate independentl , ut a a whole the are at once remarka l anal tical and poetic

model of po i le future . —Ari Akkerman

6. André Ma on: From Mar eille to the American xile at the Mu ée Cantini (Mar eille)

Page from the collective drawing of the urreali t (ca 1940–41) (photo enjamin utton/H perallergic)

Novem er 13, 2015–Jul 24, 2016

What made thi exhi ition o uniquel compelling — e ond the opportunit to delve

into André Ma on’ particular rand of urreali m, which dwell heavil and vi cerall

on the trauma of modern warfare while propheticall incorporating p chedelia and



�irting with a traction — wa the pread of exqui ite corp e ketch ook . The e werecolla oration countle urreali t , made while pa ing through Mar eille a the�ed the Nazi and ought afe pa age to the America . — enjamin utton

7. The Thinking Machine, Ramon Llull and the “Ar Com inatoria” at Centre de CulturaContemporània de ar celona ( arcelona)

The Thinking Machine. Ramon Llull and the «ars combinatoria». #cccb #Barcelona #dontsnapshoot #es

davide_bau • 2 weeks ago Follow

21 likes 0 comments



Jul 14–Decem er 11 Thi quirk , am itiou exhi ition marked the 700- ear anniver ar of the death of

Catalan monk, mi ionar , and philo opher Ramon Llull, who i often known a the

father of computation hi tor through ometime unlikel connection . The exhi ition

egan with erlin- a ed, outh Korea- orn arti t Jeongmoon Choi’ immer ive

in tallation “Drawing in pace-Connection , In tallation” (2015), a medle of colored

thread illuminated under UV lighting. Thi wa followed a room of pla ma creen

pla ing livel animation of the 13th-centur medieval comic illu trating hi life. Other

ection included ever thing from a cop of the late-17th-centur mechanical calculator

uilt Gottfried Wilhelm Lei niz and the work of John Cage. An expanded ver ion of

the exhi ition open next ear at the Center for Art and Media Karl ruhe (ZKM) in

German , where a codex including a m ol of Lull’ doctrine i kept. —Alpe h KantilalPatel

8. N K: From Kapital to Capital at the Garage Mu eum of Contemporar Art (Mo cow)

In tallation view of N K: From Kapital to Capital at the Garage Mu eum of Contemporar Art (image courte theGarage Mu eum of Contemporar Art)



eptem er 30–Decem er 9

The �r t major urve in Ru ia of the lovenian art collective N K, it wa originall

conceived at the Moderna Galerija in Lju liana and curated it director Zdenka

adovinac in 2015. The how trace the ke event of the four core group that

compri ed N K from 1980 until the di olution of the collective in 1992, partl due to

the reakup of Yugo lavia. The exhi ition wa cleverl et up a a erie of important

event in the chronolog of the collective, and articulated the pirit of the period, a

decade of wift ut far-reaching tran formation who e con equence we have egun to

feel onl now: The end of the utopian imagination of modernit , the collap e of national

tate , and a changing political rhetoric around coloniali m and capitali m. Through a

decade of how , performance , concert , theatre, and guerrilla action , N K, and other

arti t group that grew out of it, egan to po e one of the central que tion of

contemporar art toda : How to live with a new glo al order? What kind of

organization and in titution are po i le now? Revi iting thi period and the work of

N K in particular ena le u to look ack and think for our elve how to deal with the

legac of coloniali m and totalitariani m. —AA

9. O waldo Goeldi and vandor Carlo Jardim: The ngraving and the Compa at the Mu eumof Contemporar Art, Univer it of ão Paulo ( ão Paulo)



vandor Carlo Jardim, “Interlago XIV / Luz e om ra” (1967) (image courte MAC U P I irapuera)

March 28, 2015–March 28, 2017

While thi exhi ition wa onl two mode t room , each print revealed a rich world of it

own. The curator Claudio Mu arac mined MAC’ collection and found a eautiful

pairing: O waldo Goeldi and vandor Carlo Jardim. Focu ing on Goeldi’ engraving

from the 1950 in Rio de Janeiro and Jardim’ from the ‘60 in ão Paulo, The ngravingand the Compa wa a portrait of the two metropolitan citie and the life along theirout kirt . White window and treet lamp crack through Goeldi’ dark land cape of

home and park , which are inha ited lone �gure or one right-red o ject, like a

moon, um rella, or dead � h. In Jardim’ engraving , lack de�ne the detail on the

white page , revealing geometric form of moderni t uilding and an a tract �eld of

ird . oth of the e arti t ’ work eem et in an earl evening light, and evoke the



quietne of the out kirt and the lonel ur an cit . The e arti t , etter known at homethan a road, made me e peciall enthu ia tic for a medium that i often et a ide.— li a Wouk Almino

10. Jill Magid: x-Voto at LA OR (Mexico Cit )

Jill Magid, “The Propo al” (2016, detail), uncut, 2.02 carat, lue diamond with micro-la er in cription “I amwholeheartedl our ,” ilver ring, ring ox, document ; etting de ign Anndra Neen (photo tefan Jaeggi forKun t Halle ankt Gallen)

Jul 23– eptem er 3

In a multi ear project that exploded e ond an one galler pace, New York- a edarti t Jill Magid reactivated the legac of Mexican moderni t architect Lui arragánwith her exhi ition at the Kun t Halle ankt Gallen in witzerland, the an Franci coArt In titute, and Mexico Cit ’ LA OR galler . he wove a pell inding we of



document , letter , culpture , and near-cop right infringement for the project, which,

when pre ented in Mexico Cit , were in talled acro the treet from the architect’

home and per onal archive. “A legac ha to e not onl cared for, ut continuall

engaged,” Magid told me. “That can onl happen through it acce i ilit .” —Devon Van

Houten Maldonado

11. Mónica Ma er: i tiene duda … pregunte at the Mu eo Univer itario Arte Contemporáneo(Mexico Cit )

i tiene duda … pregunte. Una expo ición retrocolectiva de Mónica Ma er. MUAC, 2016 (via muac.unam.mx)

Fe ruar 6–Jul 31

At the entrance to MUAC’ Mónica Ma er retro pective, a wall plaque o�er a “recipe

for viewing a femini t art exhi ition” with the following ugge tion : “ efore going in,

reathe deepl and arm our elf with a handful of que tion … Once in ide, keep alert …

And, when in dou t … a k.” Thi provided a good introduction to her 40- ear career,

which i characterized a con tant que tioning of ocial, political, and arti tic

Date post:	04-Feb-2021
Category:	Documents
Upload:	others
View:	0 times
Download:	0 times

Best of 2016: Our Top 15 Exhibitions Around the World · 12/31/2016 Best of 2016: Our Top 15...

Documents