U.S. Embassy in Beijing
On the occassion of the 2008 Olympic Games, the new American Embassy in Beijing opened last Friday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Though not as prominent as the architectural “monuments” of Rem Koolhaas or Herzog & de Meuron, the eight-story embassy is the second-largest U.S. diplomatic post in the world.
A display of contemporary art inside the embassy includes Art21 artists Louise Bourgeois and Maya Lin (both Season 1), Martin Puryear (Season 2), and Cai Guo-Qiang (Season 3). Works by Yun-Fei Ji, Hai Bo, Robert Rauschenberg, Mark DiSuvero, Ellsworth Kelly, Jeff Koons, and Betty Woodman are also on view. The Art Newspaper reports that the $800,000 spent for art on the Beijing project is the largest sum ever for a U.S. embassy. The State Department calculates its art budgets based on a building’s square footage.
Cai’s gunpowder piece Eagle Landing on the Pine Branch (2007) is, according to China Daily, especially significant: “the motifs of eagle and pine trees were chosen for their symbolic value in both China and the United States, representing the friendship and cooperation between the two countries.” Catch a glimpse of the piece in a New York Times video titled “The Pyrotechnic Imagination”.
The building was designed by the San Francisco office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. Click here to view the firm’s image gallery for the project.
Sound and Vision: A Night with Barry McGee, Japanther, and PAPER RAD
A full roster of public programs accompany Life on Mars, the Carnegie International 2008. On Thursday, July 24th Douglas Fogle, curator of the 55th Carnegie International, will host a conversation with Art21 artist Barry McGee (Season 1). McGee will discuss his work as well as artists’ response to the phrase “life on Mars.” For the exhibition, McGee has transformed an ordinary hallway with his mixed-media installation using bold colors and dynamic geometric shapes. Following the talk will be performances by Japanther, Extreme Animals [Paper Rad], and Centipede E’est with DJs Cutups and Edgar Um in the Sculpture Court. This event titled Sound and Vision will not disappoint.
1968 | 2008
This is not the first time that Summer Olympics Games are embroiled in environmental and political controversies. In 1968, Mexico City, with its high altitude containing 30% less oxygen than at sea level, proved to be a controversial choice. The lack of air led to terrible results for some, while others were able to achieve world records. Forty years later Beijing is faced with massive air pollution as it completes the preparations for the Olympics. The world renowned Ethiopian runner Haile Gebrselassie has opted out of running in the marathon noting “the pollution in China” as a threat to his health. It remains to be seen how the environmental pollution in China will affect the athletes and the Games’ results.China is also plagued with its outrageous treatment of Tibet, resulting in massive protests around the world. Protest was also seen in Mexico City during the medal ceremonies when the two Americans Tommie Smith and John Carlos “performed their Power to the People” salute. Peter Norman, the Australian silver medalist, wore an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge showing his support for Smith and Carlos.
Another athlete to cancel an Olympic Games participation was Bobby Fischer, one of the greatest chess players of all time, who passed away earlier this year. He had plans to play for the United States at the 1968 Chess Olympiad in Lugano, Switzerland and backed out when he saw the playing hall with its bad lighting.
As athletes were breaking records in 1968, artists were busy reshaping culture. Nancy Spero(Season 4) was working on her War Series (1966-70). Bruce Nauman (Season 1) produced his first video titled Pinch Neck. Romare Bearden, in addition to being involved in founding The Studio Museum in Harlem, also established Cinque Gallery with the help of Norman Lewis and Ernest Crichlow. Cinque provided support for younger minority artists.
1968 marked the passing of Marcel Duchamp and the coinage of “15 minutes of fame” when Andy Warhol stated “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.” Frank Zappa released his first solo album Lumpy Gravy and performed King Kong with the Mothers of Invention at BBC Studio in London. Chou Wen-chung, who had studied with Edgard Varese, completed Nocturnal (1961-1968), an unfinished piece by Varese.
In his 1968 Nobel Lecture, Yasunari Kawabata explained, “The excitement of beauty calls forth strong fellow feelings, yearnings for companionship, and the word ‘comrade’ can be taken to mean ‘human being.’ The snow, the moon, the blossoms, words expressive of the seasons as they move one into another, include in the Japanese tradition the beauty of mountains and rivers and grasses and trees, of all the myriad manifestations of nature, of human feelings as well.”
How will 2008 be reminisced forty years from now? What will be the low and high points in our cultural and social achievements? Will 2008 be a critical year marking a pivotal change in the way we treat the environment and each other?
China Haze. Credit. Provided by the SeaWiFS Project, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and ORBIMAGE
Jörg Heiser at Austrian Cultural Forum
On Wednesday June 25th at 7:00 p.m., the Goethe-Institut New York and the Austrian Cultural Forum will co-host a conversation between Jörg Heiser and Brian Sholis, editor at Artforum.com. The event will begin with the presentation of Heiser’s new publication titled All of a Sudden Things that Matter in Contemporary Art. Earlier this year Heiser’s writing also appeared in another book, Romantic Conceptualism, featuring the work of Collier Schorr (Art:21 Season 2, Loss & Desire). The photographs of Schorr are also included in the exhibition, History Will Repeat Itself Strategies of Re-enactment in Contemporary Art, originally opening at KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin and now traveling to Goethe-Institut Hong Kong. For those who might not have visited the ACF building on 11 East 52nd Street, take the virtual tour on the menu to see the intriguing double-height theater located on the 2nd and 3rd floors. This narrow and dynamic building, designed by the Austrian born architect Raimund Abraham, is a poignant reflection of romantic conceptualism. The seating is limited to 80 and reservations for this free event can be made at 212-439-8691.
U.S. Embassy Makes Olympic Rings
These big metallic tulips aren’t just going to be on view in Spain, where they are permanently installed along the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao’s riverside façade, above. An edition of Tulips by Jeff Koons, as well as new work by Art:21 artists Louise Bourgeois, Cai Guo-Qiang, Martin Puryear, and Maya Lin are included on the checklist of 18 contemporary Chinese and American artists that will on view when the massive SOM-designed American embassy opens in Beijing, just before the start of the 2008 summer Olympics. Many of the pieces are either new commissions or site-specific works purchased by the State Department. According to The Art Newspaper, the State Department calculates the budget it will spend on art based on a new building’s square footage, and therefore $800,000 will be spent on art for the Beijing project — the largest sum ever splurged on a new US embassy.
