EL BALANCÍN

By ludus ludi

This game is based on two of the oldest and most basic play activities known: stacking and balancing. People have been playing with these elements since the dawn of time. Both possibilities - standing up or falling over - can be equally exciting. The first swing was created when one crossed branch was positioned over another branch. Soon after came the balancing scale, the wheel, the ball-bearing, articulated joints… Read more

Uffington White Horse

Lithograph Dolf Pauw 1980

The Uffington White Horse is a highly stylised prehistoric hill figure, 110 m long (374 feet), formed from deep trenches filled with crushed white chalk. The figure is situated on the upper slopes of White Horse Hill in the English civil parish of Uffington (in the county of Oxfordshire, historically Berkshire), some 8 km (5 mi) south of the town of Faringdon and a similar distance west of the town of Wantage; or 2.5 km south of Uffington. The hill forms a part of the scarp of the Berkshire Downs and overlooks the Vale of White Horse to the north. Best views of the figure are obtained from the air, or from directly across the Vale, particularly around the villages of Great Coxwell, Longcot and Fernham. The site is owned and managed by the National Trust and is a Scheduled Ancient Monument. LINK National Trust UK

North Korean Perspectives

Kims Utopia 
@ Drents Museum

One of the landmarks in the Drents Museum in the new cultural season is the exhibition Kims Utopia - Paintings from North Korea. From 7 April to August 30, 2015 can be seen approximately 80 paintings, made in the period 1960 - 2000 by professional North Korean painters in state service. These figurative works give an idealized image of North Korea, as dreamed and imagined by the great leader. For the first time shown North Korean art such a large collection in the Netherlands. 
The works are from the private collection of the Dutch collector RJCM the Groen. The exhibition shows that art is not voluntary in North Korea, but always at the service of the Leader, the state and society. 
Essential is the glorification of the system and the regime, even in images with the subject's family, agriculture and industry, war and confrontation with enemies like the US and Japan. Kims Utopia is the fourth largest exhibition in the series "International" Realism in the 
Drents Museum. LINK Drents Museum (in Dutch)

Nicole Eisenman

Seder 

Nicole Eisenman’s Seder (2010), the featured work in the Museum’s Masterpieces & Curiosities exhibition series. In a painting style reminiscent of George Grosz or Max Beckmann and with a nod to Renoir’s  and Bonnard’s luncheon scenes, Eisenman’s group portrait takes a humorous, loving if somewhat ironic look at the Seder in its current American incarnation. This 21st Century Seder includes nine participants of varied ages and levels of involvement, from interested and engaged to bored or even asleep, whose faces are portrayed in painting styles ranging from the realistic to the grotesque.  Amusingly, the artist places the viewer in the role of seder “leader” and narrator - it is our enlarged, cartoonish hands that seem to break the afikomen in half. The painting offers up a familiar prospect, the traditional Seder plate, with its Romaine leaf and other symbolic items, flanked by a bottle of Gold’s red horseradish, cups of red wine and iconic red, yellow and black Hagaddahs at hand. LINK jewish museum

Nil Yalter

@ MOT international London 

Paris Ville Nil Yalter / Judy Blum, 1974 photographs, drawings, 
texts on cloth 12 meters, installation view, Istanbul Biennial, 2013

Nil Yalter was born in Cairo in 1938. Having completed her studies in Istanbul, she went to Paris where she worked on painting, sculpture, installations and media for many years. She gave several courses on video arts at Sorbonne University for 1980-1995. She currently lives in Paris since 1965. Yalter is an artist who addresses ethnic problems, cultural identity and women’s issues, incorporating various materials and media into her work often. She concentrates on ethnic approaches and social situations relating to migration, cultural identity and women’s problems. Photography, documents, computer-video or performance are all used to reach audiences with work about human rights in an interactive way. It is said that the first real Turkish interactive artwork has been made by Nil Yalter. Her art works have been exhibited in Europe, Turkey, Taiwan and America. Some of them are in the permanent collections of Centre Georges Pompidou and Long Beach Museum of Art, California. LINK MOT

Leo Gestel

@ Singer Laren

Leo Gestel is considered one of the true modernists in early twentieth century Dutch art. Together with Jan Sluijters and Piet Mondriaan, he was at the forefront of the so called Amsterdam Luminism of around 1910, inspired by the new approaches to art that sprung up in Paris. Several trips to the capital of modern art with his contemporary Jan Sluijters gave him first-hand experience of neo-impressionism and the expressionism of the Fauves. The talented draughtsman that he was, his name being Leendert, his friends called him Leonardo, referring to the Italian master, a name he adopted from then on by signing Leo Gestel  he incorporated different influences with great ease into his continually evolving style. Through the international exhibition in 1911 
of the “Moderne Kunstkring,” of which Gestel had become a member, 
he came in contact with the work of cubists like Picasso, Braque, and 
Le Fauconnier. Le Fauconnier, who stayed and worked regularly in Holland, became an especially important inspiration for Leo Gestel, whose work now became infused with the language of cubism. 
LINK singerlaren (in Dutch)

Mick Pearce

Eastgate Building Harare Zimbabwe

I design low maintenance buildings with low capital and running costs, using renewable energy systems of environmental control. I am constantly developing and refining ways of making buildings that are suited to their natural environment and the people who use them. Architectural expression must construct a balance between the natural, social and economic environments in which a project is sited. My models are drawn from nature from copying natural processes, which I study through the new science of biomimicry. LINK Mick Pearce

Guillaume Cornet

Guillaume Cornet is an emerging artist working with illustration and painting, exploring notions of abstract geometry, influenced by surreal perspectives plus architecture, to construct sometimes monochrome but mostly colorful and vibrant visual spaces. His works tends to be filled with intricate characters positioning themselves in unexpected geometrical environments. Creating a humorous visual language, he frequently depicts unusual and bizarre situations. Most of the Favela Series is inspired by densely populated areas from cities which I have visited in the past three years Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, along with my personal experience from cities where I have lived and worked: Paris, London and Barcelona. The Characters are based on people and situations I come across in my daily life. But also by unusual sounds, objects, misunderstandings and the world which revolves around me... LINK Guillaume Cornet

Serban Savu

@ Monica De Cardenas 

Figurative painter Serban Savu's rendered canvases capture the daily existence of contemporary Romanians at work and leisure. Savu treats his protagonists’ facial characteristics in a generic manner, causing their individual identities to remain elusive. Interior scenes depict people unaware of our gaze and absorbed in their own worlds, viewed through glass and embedded in compositions governed by architectural features. Exterior rural landscapes often portray solitary figures in the middle distance, isolated and overwhelmed. The result is a series of poignant, observational 'snapshots' that obliquely reveal the psyche of the ‘ordinary’ Romanian as the country experiences political change and economic growth. LINK Monica De Cardenas

Олег Климов (Oleg Klimov)

For twelve years, war photographer Oleg Klimov documented the disintegration of the Soviet Union. He was present at almost all conflicts and ethnic tensions in the 90s. His photographs appeared on the front pages of many Western newspapers as silent witnesses of the war in the former Soviet Union. Oleg's career as a photographer has also had a personal effect on him. After all those years, he unexpectedly faces a war trauma. Longing for inner peace Oleg returns to some of the areas where he has photographed during wartime: Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia and Chechnya. In addition to Oleg's memories other realities arise: those of the people he then photographed. Oleg Klimov is not to be compared with the world-renowned photographer Robert Capa. Klimov sees him as his role model. 
LINK liberty.su/olegklimov/ More material

Australian Dance Theatre

Garry Stewart’s Be Your Self reveals the precarious stability of the concept of self as the work steps through the conventions we use to construct a singular and consistent notion of ‘I’. In an analysis of selfhood, Stewart situates the body at the centre of his inquiry. In Be Your Self the Australian Dance Theatre dancers are transformed into erupting, powerful, creative entities projecting a plethora of physical images and impressions set to an unpredictable, cartoonish, electronic score. The staging for the work was designed by the New York architectural firm Diller, Scofidio + Renfro (MacArthur Foundation ‘Genius Award’ recipients). SUPPORTERS Be Your Self has been co-produced by Grand Theatre de la Ville de Luxembourg, La Rose des Vents Villeneuve d’Ascq, Le Rive Gauche Centre Culturel de Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, Centro Cultural Vila Flor and Arts SA’s Major Commission Fund. LINK ADT @ Youtube

Hans de Bruijn

Esso I, 
(design architect Dudok)

Hans de Bruijn received his education at the Royal Academy of Visual Arts in The Hague, where he graduated in 1986, and at the National Academy Amsterdam, graduating in 1988. While exploring an individual style of painting, he simultaneously draws from established painterly traditions. His work refers to styles like impressionism, expressionism and sometimes even touches upon Abstract Expressionism. Despite these references, De Bruijn’s work never becomes imitation. He clearly knows how to combine tradition with innovation and his works can be seen as a bridge between traditional and contemporary art. 
LINK Hans de Bruijn

MuseumNight010

On Saturday, March 7th open 25 museums and cultural institutions in Rotterdam from eight to midnight their doors. With more than 65 exhibitions, music performances, performances, meetings with artists and tours show what Rotterdam has to arts and culture in the home. With a mat you have access to all sites and make use of the free Museumnacht010 bus and tram. LINK read more (in Dutch)

NRC Photo contest

Netherlands takes photographs
This month is the subject movement
DPhoto @ Art Rotterdam

Joining is simple: create an account by entering your name and email address to complete. Then you can upload your photo on the lines of the theme of the month. Ensure that your photo gets the most votes by dividing the image through social media and your family and friends to call to vote for your submission. Who recruits the most votes will win the audience award. Besides the public, a professional jury will evaluate the submitted photos and select a winner every month. LINK vote

Баба Марта (Baba Marta)

Design Dolf Pauw

On the 1st of March Bulgarian people celebrate a traditional holiday called Baba Marta (or Grandma Marta in English) and it is related to welcoming the approaching spring. People all over the world meet spring with joy and new hopes but in Bulgaria it is saved as an ancient tradition. On that day, Bulgarians exchange cards or so called "Martenitsi" ("Martenitsa" - singular, "Martenitsi" - plural) and tell each other, "Chestita Baba Marta!" (Happy Grandma Marta!). This custom is essentially to wish great health, good luck, and happiness to family and friends. The name "Martenitsa" is taken from the Bulgarian word for March, or, as a legend tells, an angry old lady called Grandma Marta - Baba Marta in Bulgarian ("baba" means grandmother and Marta comes from word "mart", which means March in Bulgarian). LINK read more

Morgan Betz

@ Willem Baars Projects 

You Know Who You Are , 2015

Betz spurns comfort and safety, an attitude that places him almost automatically at the forefront of today's image makers. Whatever kind of work he takes on, he never allows himself to be seduced into what has become all too common in today's studio practice: the rationalisation and conceptualisation of the present-day visual culture. On the contrary, Betz produces images that are drawn directly from the reservoir that he has appropriated, in part consciously and in part unconsciously, and in which he instils new life through a process of give and take, in a way that is as refreshing as it is surprising. No theory is needed here. LINK read more

Frank van der Salm

@ Galerie Helder

Frank van der Salm has been travelling regularly to various Asian cities to record the turbulent economic and spatial developments that are taking place there. The results are visible in panoramic overviews of large-scale architecture and complex infrastructures. The photos are not specifically connected to traceable locations, because they give a more general picture of globally recognizable phenomena, such as growing scale enlargement, more intensive use of space, and the development of complex infrastructures. However, Van der Salm’s work consists of more than pure registration. His photos stimulate us to deliberate on the way in which societies are transforming at a rapid rate, visible in the manner and degree to which living environments are organized. 
LINK Galerie Helder LINK Frank van der Salm

Levee Dwellers

launched their CD

Levee Dwellers, formerly the blues band Daantje plays blues that breathes the spirit of the Dutch delta. It's the blues of the metropolitan skyline of the gutter, the clubs and the ports. It is also the blues of the low-lying and the high water of the country where prosperity and adversity are separated by a raised piece of land together.
LINK Levee Dwellers

Much Better Than This

Rafaël Rozendaal @ Times Square

LINKS
Read more
Youtube

Interview Panayot Panayotov by Delnik Интервю Панайот Панайотов ot Делник

Prof. Panayot Panayotov - Paneto: My father was a portraitist and nature... Проф. Панайот Панайотов - Пането: Баща ми беше портретист и на природата... 

Interview with Diana Ivanova
Интервю на Диана Иванова

Prof. Panayot Panayotov was born on August 28, 1944 in Sliven. He is the younger son born in Straldzha artist Panayot Panayotov, bears his name and follows his career. In 1963 graduated from Art School in Sofia. In 1972 he graduated from the National Art Academy in "Mural" at prof. Georgi Bogdanov. In 1973 he became a professor at the Art Academy in 1997, he became associate professor and in 2003 - professor. Currently teaches painting at the National Academy. Read more… 

Проф. Панайот Панайотов е роден на 28 август 1944 г. в Сливен. Той е по-малкия син на родения в Стралджа художник Панайот Панайотов, носи неговото име и следва неговия творчески път. През 1963 г. завършва Художествена гимназия в София. През 1972 г. се дипломира в Националната художествена академия специалност „Стенопис” при проф. Георги Богданов. През 1973 г. става преподавател в Художествената академия, през 1997 г. става доцент, а през 2003 г. – професор. В момента преподава рисуване в Националната художествена академия. Прочетете повече… 

 Долф, гаранции за това блог някои езикови грешки в българския!

LINK delnik.net (in Bulgarian)
LINK Paneto

Rotterdam Contemporary

Tonneke Sengers, David Nuur, Andrew Gilbert, 
Joris van der Ploeg and more...

LINK Rotterdam Contemporary (Dutch)

Baby Leica go's to sleep

See you tomorrow! 
@ Rotterdam Contemporary

LINK @ my Blog

Art Rotterdam Spiros Hadjidjanos, Erwin Olaf and others @ Art Rotterdam

@ Van Nelle complex

LINKS...

Spiros Hadjidjanos

Erwin Olaf

See and Read more 
@ trendbeheer

Or visit Art Rotterdam

Art Rotterdam

Yesterday opening @ Van Nelle complex Rotterdam 
DPhoto

LINK artrotterdam

Martha Rosler

Martha Rosler is a prolific American artist and writer. Her works range from photo-text to video, performance and installation. At the center of her artistic practice are sociopolitical concerns related to, among others, women’s place in society, art and its power structures, post-modernism and corporate media. LINK martharosler

Today Galerie PHOEBUS • 25

DPhoto

LINK phoebus

And do not forget

Galerie PHOEBUS • 25

25 january til March 8, 2015, '25' Phoebus • Rotterdam 

25 years, group exhibition 

LINK phoebus

Pussy Riot visits IFFR

Source: Igor Mukhin

Pussy Riot is a Russian feminist punk rock protest group based in Moscow. Founded in August 2011, it has a variable membership of approximately 11 women ranging in age from about 20 to 33. The group stages unauthorised provocative guerrilla performances in unusual public locations, which are edited into music videos and posted on the Internet. The collective's lyrical themes include feminism, LGBT rights, and opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom the group considers a dictator, and to his links with the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church. LINK iffr