Magazine
Cover image #12
The Weight of art
Michael Dans: Untitled, indian ink on paper
Ways of Desertion
The desert location of Playas, New Mexico, hadn’t seen much action since the town’s copper smelting operation closed down. Now the few remaining residents are living with the ‘war on terror’, as the place has been turned into a training ground for SWAT teams on the lookout for wannabe suicide bombers.
© Jason Oddy
A Modern Comeback
It’s 50 years since Berlin’s Interbau 57 exhibition sought to re-imagine the city devastated by the physical and psychological effects of the Second World War. The modernist architecture ensemble that followed this event has been a somewhat neglected icon, but in a series of events and artistic interventions its legacy is being celebrated.
Raymond Lopez and Eugéne Beaudouin, Paris
Art For Art’s Sake
Sergei Sviatchenko takes DAMn°’s selected highs from the 52nd edition of the Venice Art Biennial and Documenta 12 and turns them up, down and inside out – creation from creativity.
Art for Art’s sake © Sergei Sviatchenko
Mice And Men
Like so many of the world’s borders and migratory paths, down on the US/Mexican border there is a palpable tension. In the Border Film Project, a group of artist activists seek to address the human aspect of both sides without giving in to the regular rhetoric or stereotypes.
Boarder Film Project
Ground Appeal
Chile’s capital might not be the most obvious place in the world to get your coffee served lycra-clad style. It’s not as sleazy as it sounds; Hertha Hurnaus photographed two coffee chains in the city that provide a caffeine experience that should make multinationals weep.
photo: Hertha Hurnaus
Out Of Africa
The auction and sale of one of Jean Prouvé’s Maison Tropicales has raised the status of the French designer’s ‘brand’ even higher. But what does it say about the value of design in the art world?
The restored Maison Tropicale on temporary location at the Queensboro Bridge, NY
Nowhere In Africa
In the Portuguese Pavilion at the current Venice Biennial, artist Ângela Ferreira responds to the ideas and voids that have been formed by Jean Prouvé’s portable cabanas.
Maison Tropicale (Brazzaville) #1, Photo: Ângela Ferreira
Best Of Both Worlds
The combined work of Nipa Doshi and Jonathan Levien brings together Indian and European sensibilities and experience. In work for Moroso, Tefal and the British Council, a hybrid design culture is explored and embodied.
Mosaic,Tefal cookware for local foodcultures
Hand In Glove
The Artisanal Collections of Maison Martin Margiela transform displaced materials that criss-cross through fashion, art and design. In the metamorphosis of materials, wearing your luggage is a great idea.
Slashed top, Martin Margiela
Another Capital
Architect David Adjaye’s on-going, personal research project to study the new patterns of urbanism that exist in Africa’s 52 capital cities resonates as a visual stream of consciousness.
View from downtown of the Kibera settlement in Nairobi, Kenya © photo David Adjaye
Diamonds & Caviar
The optical illusions of Brazilian artist Vik Muniz can turn junk into a Caravaggio and peanut butter into the Mona Lisa. Ideas of visual representation abound, and reveal the distance between what you see and what you get.
Mona Lisa (Peanut Butter and Jelly) 1999, Courtesy Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York
Power Games
Power – Producing the Contemporary City is the thread that runs through this edition of the event. With starachitects finding new and lucrative playgrounds in China and Dubai, excitement and relevance is to be found in the bottom-up experiments.
Caracas, Venezuela, photo by George Brugmans
Wheels Of Fortune
The wheelbarrow operators of Liberia’s capital Monrovia don’t select their work or mode of delivery through choice but necessity. In a country experiencing the aftermath of civil war, customisation and symbolic value are also on the move.
Young man on the roadside selling shoes from his wheelbarrow, which he pushes around town while looking for customers, Photo: Christopher Herwig
What Gets Me Going
Driven by a desire to improve and rethink everyday objects such as the vacuum cleaner or wheelbarrow has made Dyson an international brand. For DAMn° he reflects on his motivations and inspirations.
James Dyson giving a powerpoint presentation at the British Embassy in Berlin © photo: Walter Bettens
Gut Feeling
Not being interested in products might sound like professional suicide to some designers, but the French Florence Doléac would rather trust personal intuition than commercial demands. Serious about her work, having fun is a large part of the brief she gave herself.
Le jeu bénit, installation in the chapel of the Chamarande castle, for the exhibition Singuliers voyages (2003) The picture, Quelque chose d’Œdipe, is by Florence Chevalier
Change Of Plot
He may be young, but that hasn’t stopped architect Julien De Smedt picking up tasty commissions from Copenhagen to China. With his new practice JDS, a mix of wit and precociousness is being translated into buildings that actually get built.
Sunset beauty: the V-house in Ørestad gives its ugly neighbours the spikey shoulder, Photo: Allard van der Hoek
Vampires & Tears
Belgian artist Michael Dans is a bit hinky and even a little kinky, but there is also something about the dark places in his art that illuminates human frailties with the right balance of tenderness and humour.
Untitled, 2004, Michael Dans
The Kit Kid
With his company IBK, one of the features of French artist Benjamin Sabatier’s work is making art available at no charge. Comfortable in discipline hinterland, for him, having access to art is not only a question of possession.
IBK’s Box, 2006 Assembled cardboards, © Benjamin Sabatier Courtesy Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont, Paris
Highlights From Milan
From the Zona Tortona to downtown Milan, DAMn° sets it sights on the faces, products and spaces that made their mark on the city’s annual design fest.
Marcel Wanders’ solo exhibition, Milan, Photo: Siegrid Demyttenaere
Damn° Productivity
DAMn° casts its collective beady eye over the latest products, places and prototypes that amaze and amuse in equal quantities.
xxl Chair, Design: Frank Tjepkema at Design Academy Eindhoven
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