WFW in the first issue of Disegno, April 2012
ISBN: 978-889-071-211-1
www.disegnomag.it

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Here is a short glimpse into the feature dedicated to WFW in the new magazine Disegno: la nuova cultura industriale that has been released a few days ago in Milano, just in time for the Salone Internazionale del Mobile.

Initiated by STEFANO CASCIANI (critic, designer, writer and for many years editor of domus magazine), Disegno: la nuova cultura industriale is the first monographic review on paper, in Italian and English, entirely dedicated to the global scene of design and its interaction with contemporary industry. It aims to bring well written and beautifully presented editorials to a wider audience, not just to industry insiders, but also to those who have an interest in reading and examining the cultural aspects of mass production and of the technologies that define the new artificially built world from a new perspective.

And good news: Disegno: la nuova cultura industriale is now available via Books Import in Milano.

Oh, and by the way, I just filled the WFW Flickr with some Milano pictures!

Assembly Instructions (The Pledge- Alfredo Arias), forty seven
framed inkjet ultrachrome archival prints and dotted pencil lines, 2011.
Courtesy: Sprüth Magers, Berlin London; Art:Concept, Paris; Monitor, Rome.

Assembly Instructions (Concerning The Apparent Asymmetry of Time: Painting), detail, 2010
Assembly Instructions (Concerning The Apparent Asymmetry of Time: Painting), detail, 2010
Assembly Instructions (An Immodern Romanticism), 2009, collectin Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
Assembly Instructions (Concerning The Apparent Asymmetry of Time: Painting), detail, 2010

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Assembly Instructions (The Pledge- Alfredo Arias), forty seven
framed inkjet ultrachrome archival prints and dotted pencil lines, 2011
Courtesy: Sprüth Magers, Berlin London; Art:Concept, Paris; Monitor, Rome

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Assembly Instructions (The Pledge- Alfredo Arias), forty seven
framed inkjet ultrachrome archival prints and dotted pencil lines, 2011
Courtesy: Sprüth Magers, Berlin London; Art:Concept, Paris; Monitor, Rome

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Assembly Instructions: The Pledge
exhibition view at art: concept, Paris, October-December 2011

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The Pledge, 2011
courtesy the artist, art:concept, Paris; Monitor, Rome

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Assembly Instructions, The Pledge, Leah Kelly, 2011
Courtesy the artist and Sprüth Magers Gallery, Berlin

The Pledge, Simon Fujiwara, 2011
courtesy the artist, art:concept, Paris; Monitor, Rome

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Eight things you need to know about ALEXANDRE SINGH:

1. born in 1980 in Bordeaux, France,
2. he was brought up in Manchester before studying Fine Art at the University of Oxford, UK
3. he now lives and works in New York
4. his work primarily relies on the narrative conventions of storytelling, artfully manipulating words and imagery while playing with conventional narrative techniques and literary genres
5. the resulting pieces – spanning sculpture, collage, video, installation and performance – delve into diverse disciplines such as science, pseudo-science, industry, magic, business or art history; each element is linked to another producing unexpected congruencies and points of intersection
6. In his intricate, modular crossbreeds of installation, film, theatrical performance and sculpture, linear time routinely collapses, reality and fictions from diverse temporal points meet and meld, tales frequently swallow their own tails and the viewer performs the role of dazed, delighted navigator - MARTIN HERBERT
7. and good news: Witte de With, Center for Contemporary Art (Rotterdam) is going to present the on-site realization of The Humans, a theatrical play that aims to ‘create a new world’ by SINGH
8. this project, on view from 26 April to 28 October 2012, came into being after seven years of correspondence between ALEXANDRE SINGH and DEFNE AYAS, Witte de With’s newly appointed director

Untitled, 2012
Ceramic, 45 x 58 x 27 inches

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all images courtesy of the artist and MOCA

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Commissioned by curator NEVILLE WAKEFIELD to make a piece for the George Herms: Xenophilia exhibition at Los Angeles’s Museum of Contemporary Art last year, MELODIE MOUSSET created a ceramic blanketed figure attempting a yoga pose in Downward Dog and taking inspiration from the relief ornamentation of FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT’s Ennis House in Los Feliz, Los Angeles:

It’s not the house, it’s the pattern. I have this thing, like in THOMAS PYNCHON novels, where I see signs and I have to follow them—even if the signs are totally absurd. I saw the pattern and it felt like I was discovering it before anybody else. - MELODIE MOUSSET

Watch MELODIE MOUSSET in the Ennis House taking a clandestine swim and working on the piece, here

XSYST, 2011
63 x 48 in, black-and-white photographs
Courtesy of the artist and Wallspace, NY; Altman Siegel Gallery, San Francisco; Kaufmann Repetto, Milan

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EKS, 2011
63 x 39.16 in, black-and-white photographs
Courtesy of the artist and Wallspace, NY; Altman Siegel Gallery, San Francisco; Kaufmann Repetto, Milan

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EKSIZ, 2011
63 x 42 in, black-and-white photographs
Courtesy of the artist and Wallspace, NY; Altman Siegel Gallery, San Francisco; Kaufmann Repetto, Milan

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XIS, 2011
63 x 48 in, black-and-white photographs
Courtesy of the artist and Wallspace, NY; Altman Siegel Gallery, San Francisco; Kaufmann Repetto, Milan

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all images from the website project Language is Wild, 2012
courtesy of the artist and DIA Art Foundation

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all images from the website project Language is Wild, 2012
courtesy of the artist and DIA Art Foundation

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Shrouded Monument (Polaroid), 2008 
Courtesy of the artist; Wallspace, New York; Altman Siegel Gallery, San Francisco

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all images from the website project Language is Wild, 2012
courtesy of the artist and DIA Art Foundation

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Sculptures Involuntaires, 2006
Courtesy of the artist

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Best known for her photographic and sculptural investigations of language, SHANNON EBNER has long been interested in exploring both visual and textual modes of representation.

For her first web-based artwork, Language Is Wild,commissioned by Dia and made in collaboration with New York-based designers KLOEPFER-RAMSEY, EBNER has composed an interactive sequence of still images prompting exploration of various combinations of language and image. Utilizing the cursor as a means to “rest” and “unrest” images moving continually across the screen, Language Is Wild asks us to negotiate with the work using a simple binary: “YES” or “NO. The project is online since April 12, 2012, here

SHANNON EBNER was born in 1971 in Englewood, New Jersey, and received her BA from Bard College in 1993 and her Masters of Fine Arts in 2000 from Yale University School of Art. Most recently she has participated in the Whitney Biennial, New York (2008); the 6th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art (2010); and the Venice Biennale (2011). Solo projects include MoMA PS1, New York (2007), and the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2011). This spring Ebner’s work will be shown at MoMA, New York, in the exhibition Ecstatic Alphabets/Heaps of Language. She lives and works in Los Angeles, California.

LOOK, I’M BLIND, LOOK, 1998-1999
68,5 x 69,3 x 2,7 cm (27 x 27 1/4 x 1 1/8 in.)
exhibition view at Centre PasquArt, Biel (Switzerland), 14 April 2012
photo © WFW

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Serenity, 2009
Music by Vernon & Burns
2-D Animation, 3:04 min

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Discovered in the last issue of Slanted Magazine (#17), BENEDIKT RUGAR is a german illustrator and animator based in Berlin, best known for his delightful illustrativ and visceral world.

Over the past several years, he has illustrated various magazines as NEON, Kinki or brand eins among others. His website definitely worth a look if you like your illustration with a filthy dose of the absurd.

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ONLAB Summer School 2011
all images by LAUREN THORSON
more images of the workshop 2011 here

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It’s that time of year again, when you have the possibility to take part in the Summer School of ONLAB in Berlin. After a successful first summer school last year on the topic chronology of a failure, the graphic design agency ONLAB reiterates for two weeks in October on a topic related to cities and people.

The work flow will be similar to last year: the 20 participants will be divided into small groups, which develop the different sections and chapters of the publication. NICOLAS BOURQUIN and THIBAUD TISSOT will closely coach the participants with the support of an editorial board. The result will be a publication that will be printed and exhibited on the last day of the workshop. In addition to that, a public conference with international speakers will be held, as well as daily presentations by external professionals.

There is still one thing you need to know: the application deadline is April 16th 2012, so send your CV and portfolio to ONLAB, now!

Evidence No 2, 2009
archival pigment print, 46 x 58 inches
© ANGELA STRASSHEIM

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American photographer ANGELA STRASSHEIM also goes to the sites of real crimes, in her case homes in which violent acts and murders have taken place at some point in the past.

Through extensive researchs, ANGELA has mapped out the exact locations where violent and horrific crimes were perpetrated. She convinced new owners and tenants to revisit the unnoticed and unseen past. Ambient light, long exposures and a chemical spray called “Blue Star” render the remnants of blood visible by activating the physical memory of blood through its contact with the remaining proteins on the walls even after they have been thoroughly cleaned and repainted.

all images from the series Visiting Jane, 2009 – 2010, Los Angeles
Inkjet prints, 110 x 72 cm
© VIRGINIE REBETEZ

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Connecting identity, history, and memory, VIRGINIE REBETEZ uses photography as a means of exploration, as a tool that allows her to have a different meaning and interpretation of the elements that surround us.

With a series of self-portraits entitled Visiting Jane, VIRGINIE REBETEZ goes on the hunt for crime scenes where people died and who have not yet been identified. The work was produced over a two-year period (2009–2010), during which the artist travelled in the Los Angeles county researching and documenting the locations and the belongings of the deceased.

But her photographs stretch beyond mere documentation: brimming with radiant light, unsettling atmosphere and sinister implications, they are carefully staged tableaux imbued with mystery.

This series has been compiled in a book which contains pictures and extracts from the Police archives, and will be published in a Swiss magazine, Georges (released 16 April, 2012). Additionally her work will be part of the group exhibition The Breath On Our Back in the PhotoforumPasquArt, Bienne (Switzerland) from 14 April (opening) to 17 June, 2012.

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all images © ESTELLE HANANIA and CHRISTOPHE BRUNNQUELL

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A few days ago, a new exhibition opened at Paris’ 12mail gallery, documenting the work of ESTELLE HANANIA and CHRISTOPHE BRUNNQUELL.

ESTELLE HANANIA is a French photographer who quickly gained recognition after her graduation in Fine Arts in 2006. Since then, her photographs have appeared in Vice, The Wire, Exit, Sang Bleu and Capricious, among others, and she has been commissioned by fashion brands including Maison Martin Margiela, Opening Ceremony, Issey Miyake and Zucca. In 2008, she began her ongoing collaboration with CHRISTOPHE BRUNNQUELL, a compulsive artist, always working on some drawings, sculptures and crazy pieces 24 hours a day.

Ambiguous scenarios of violence, dramatic states of mind, and wild glees, their photo-performance projects bear witness to an extraordinary radicality.

➝ HANANIA & BRUNNQUELL , La Guerre du Feu on view through June 1, 2012 at 12mail / Red Bull Space in Paris.