Artist Brian Kenny not only has a fancy new website, but also posted a couple of really cute drawings inspired by the Petrou\Man Autumn/Winter 2011/2012 show presented at this year’s New York fashion week on his blog a couple of days ago. One of them is also the motive of the show’s invitation. You also find a couple of 3D pictures of the collection by Brian’s boyfriend Slava Mogutin on Mogutin’s blog.
Denim, check patterns, “ethnic” stitchery, crazy boots and tribal faces inspired by the work of David Gómez: this is adorable! Check out the complete collection on Coute Que Coute.
After a longer break Exile Gallery is reopening today at a new space in Berlin-Mitte and celebrates the reopening with an exhibition of a selection of photos by photographer Bob Mizer. As the founder of the Athletic Model Guild in 1945 and the Physique Pictorial magazin in 1951, Mizer was one of the pioneers of contemporary male nude photography and something like the inventor of the “Beefcake” aesthetics. According to the announcement text on the gallery’s website “Select Private Works 1942-1992″ tries to reveal a new side of Minzer, showing never exhibited colored pictures in which the photographer plays with his own male stereotypes and reveals his full abilities as a visual artist. The exhibition has been curated by Christian Siekmeier and Straight To Hell editor Billy Miller in conjunction with the Mizer Foundation. Below you find a little preview of the show and another series of pictures over at BUTT Online.
The new Exile space is located at 39 Köpenicker Straße, the opening will take place today, February 19, between 7 and 10 pm.
“Unknown (Marine)”
Vintage color transparency, c. 1973
Cibachrome print, 10.5 x 10.5 inches (26.6 x 26.6 cm), Edition of 3, printed 2011
“Tony Rome & Ron Nichols”
Vintage color transparency, 1971
Cibachrome print, 10.5 x 10.5 inches (26.6 x 26.6 cm), Edition of 3, printed 2011
James Franco and those circling him are stacking everything possible on his Academy Award nomination; milking it dry to get the biggest boost. Unfortunately, some of that milk is sour. His current show, The Dangerous Book Four Boys (DBFB) at Peres Projects Berlin, should not be on the shelf.
The opening for DBFB was on 12 February 2011 at both Peres Projects locations in Berlin. I chose to visit the Kreuzberg location on opening night. Entering the gallery, I found large partially melted plastic play houses, a pile of rubbish, faux houses and benches made of cheap plywood, photographs, Polaroid’s in a room darkened for a video (they couldn’t be viewed without your flashlight…err…cellphone), and two rooms with looping video sequences. That was just the Kreuzberg location.
Looking at the work in Kreuzberg, I could make out one subject area “dangerous”: explosions, flaming arrows, burning, motorcycle tricks and the like. However, there were many pieces in the exhibit which were completely unrelated to this; the rubbish, Polaroid’s, Star Trek soft porn, Goat Boy, …they just didn’t fit. This isn’t a limit of my imagination. Rather, it is a disorganization and lack of focus that repeats itself throughout the exhibit.
As a new contributor to Catch Fire, I’ll never miss the chance to plug myself. First off, let me tell you about a new party series I’m starting along with DJ Dickey Doo, the first edition of which happens this Friday in Berlin. We’ve also launched the Top Secret blog with YouClouds and SoundTubes to give you an idea of our style.
Second, all episodes of Expatriarch Radio have been uploaded to Mixcloud for easy streaming, including the latest episode, below, which features new tracks from Berliner acts Kool Thing (playing at Kaffee Burger on February 23) and Aerea Negrot (performing both solo and as part of Hercules & Love Affair at Berghain on March 3rd). Enjoy!
Photography by Daniel Trese. Check out BUTT Online for the complete shooting and background information.
Last year singer Seth Bogart (aka Hunx) completely reinvented his band Hunx and his Punx and turned it into a pretty glamorous four-girls-one-fag-group. In autumn the new “girl group”, consisting of Bogard, Shannon Shaw (bass / vocals), Michelle Santamaria (guitar), Erin Emslie (drums) and Amy Blaustein (guitar/organ), released a new single called “Too Young To Be In Love” (see video below). Now the band has finished the production of a new album with the same title, which will be released on March 29 via Hardly Art. The release is followed by an extensive tour throughout the US and Canada in April and May.
Most of the these gigs are are an opportunity to see Shannon Shaw’s band Shannon and the Clams live. The trio, which seems to have the same passion for the wall of sound sound of the 50ies and the garage sound of the 60ies as Bogart releases its second album “Sleep Talk” in April 5 on 1-2-3-4-Go! Records.
Check out “Lover’s Lane”, the opener of the new H&HP album (featuring additional voices by Shannon) and “Sleep Talk”, the title track of the new S&TC album right here, both songs can be downloaded as Free-MP3s. I also posted the pretty trashy / campy clip to S&TCs “Hunk Hunt” and Justin Kelly‘s clip to H&HP’s “Too Young To Be In Love” below the jump.
Hunx And His Punx – Lover’s Lane via Hardly Art
Genesis Breyer P-Orridge will visit Berlin for two three occasions next week. On February 15 she will attend the premiere of French filmmaker Marie Losier’s movie “The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye“, a documentary about Genesis’ life and her “pandrogenist” relationship to artist Lady Jaye, which died in 2007 (trailer below). You may aready know Loiser as the director of the great video to “Have Mercy” of Genesis’ band Psychic TV. You find an interview with her about the background of her film on Still In Motion and the movie’s press kit here. There will also be screenings of the movie in Spain and France in spring.
In conjunction with the Berlinale premiere Genesis will also perform a live concert with musician/artist Tony Conrad on February 19 at Hebbel am Ufer theatre – there are still tickets available on the HAU webpage. Both artists have met during the shootings for the movie and since then from time to time have met for improvised duets with the violin, an instrument they both share a passion love for.
UPDATE: I completely forgot to mention that there is also a third reason why Genesis is here for the Berlinale: She’s presenting an own film called “Ghosts #9″ on the 14th, 15th and 18th at Arsenal cinema. Check out Joey’s comment below and this link for more information. Thanks Joey!
MEN’s new single “Who Am I To Feel So Free” is out Monday 14th February 2011 via iTunes.
The so-called rigourism of the “Berlin New Wave” is topped by by a Portugiese filmmaker who shot his second feature last winter in Berlin “Gropiusstadt” – Swans by Hugo Vieira da Silva will premiere at this year’s International Forum of the Berlin Film Festival.
A constellation of four characters rotates around the body of a woman who is in a coma due to reactions to chemotherapy. An ex-boyfriend who’s going through a midlife crisis and a teenage son who she’s never met are coming from Portugal to see her and live in her flat along with her transsexual thai roommate. What’s really stunning about the movie is the amount of non-communication between these four characters – none of them knows how to deal with each other. Director Hugo Vieira da Silva (who’s first feature Body Rice has quite a cult status in the film festival world) is focusing on their bodies – a troubled, sleepless body (father), a autoerotic, exploring body (son), a ghostly, transforming body (neighbour) and the coma body of the mother which seems paradoxically to be the most agile and alive of them all. A winterly Berlin, some scenes of surrealistic humour and a very slow pace add up to a hypnotic and drifting meditation on somatic perception and the free circulation of desires. Here’s the trailer of the movie, you find more background information on the Berlinale website.
There is a revolution going on in North African countries, the biggest one takes place in Egypt right now. Unfortunately the USA and the EU have been very cautious in their reactions instead of sending out clear messages, supporting the wishes of Israel (i.e. its conservative government) and their attempt to have a better control of the area. Here’s a very interesting interview with Tariq Ramadan and Slavoj Zizek, two well known contemporary intellectuals, speaking about the situation in Egypt, as well as the hypocrisy of USA, EU and Israel and their own believes of a new (real) democracy coming up.
What has Queer stuff to to with this situation?
Here I want to mention that with the use of Islamophobia, dictatorships in middle East or “eastern” countries have been kept up, while thousands of immigrants are forbiden to live a better life in “western” countries after their countries have been destroyed by their wars. Two of the claims that cause negative prejudices against Muslims and that are used to mark Islam as an “unprogressive” religion are women’s rights and the “LGTB rights”. A majority of the gay men in Netherlands for example are conservative and dislike Muslim immigrants because of the prejudice of the homophobic, misogynist muslim. These kinds of stereotypes, that play with the feelings of LGTB people, cause Western gouvernments to support dictators in countries like Egypt and have to be condemned. The real problem is not Islam but the Capitalistic system we are living in. It is what creates “safe”, “clean”, “democratic” countries closing their eyes and borders in the face of thousands of tortured or dead refugees coming from dictatorial governments like Mubarak’s.
