Eleven Blowups #10. 120 x 146 cm. 2006

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Implying a complete personal engagement and a real experience of the land, SOPHIE RISTELHUEBER‘s work borrows from journalism its tools (photography) and one of its major themes (war), but bends them to the processes of art: her oeuvre is not built around a documentary project to represent, but, starting from an aesthetic project, to interrogate the notion of trace/scars, on the body and on the place.

SOPHIE RISTELHUEBER’s picture of a bomb crater, one of a series representing the scars inflicted by conflict, is a reconstruction involving several images – a technique that has earned her a place on the shortlist for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2010.

Truffle project by ENSAMBLE STUDIO
Location: Spain – Laxe. Year: 2006- 2010. Status: Built

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La Trufa (The Truffle) is the brilliant result of an unusual design exercise involving straw bales, in-situ concrete and a cow called Paulina. Intended as a weekend retreat, the rock-like structure is perched on the Costa da Morte in north-west Spain.

Here’s the full story from the architect ANTÓN GARCÍA-ABRIL of ENSAMBLE STUDIO:

The Truffle is a piece of nature built with earth, full of air. A  space within a stone that sits on the ground and blends with the  territory. It camouflages, by emulating the processes of mineral  formation in its structure, and integrates with the natural environment,  complying with its laws.

To build it, we made a hole in the ground, piling up on its perimeter  the topsoil removed, and we obtained a retaining dike without  mechanical consistency. Then, we materialized the air building a volume  with hay bales and flooded the space between the earth and the built air  to solidify it. The poured mass concrete wrapped the air and protected  itself with the ground. Time passed and we removed the earth discovering  an amorphous mass.

The earth and the concrete exchanged their properties. The land  provided the concrete with its texture and color, its form and its  essence, and concrete gave the earth its strength and internal  structure. But what we had created was not yet architecture, we had  fabricated a stone.

We made a few cuts using quarry machinery to explore its core and  discovered its mass inside built with hay, now compressed by the  hydrostatic pressure exerted by concrete on the flimsy vegetable  structure. To empty the interior, the calf Paulina arrived, and enjoyed  the 50m3 of the nicest food, from which she nourished for a year until  she left her habitat, already as an adult and weighing 300 kilos. She  had eaten the interior volume, and space appeared for the first time,  restoring the architectural condition of the truffle after having been a  shelter for the animal and the vegetable mass for a long time.

“La trufa / The truffle” has been featured widely. However, today, I stumbled upon the video documentation showing the construction process of the project and I’ve been blown away. Additionally I suggest you to watch ANTÓN GARCÍA-ABRIL interviewed by HANS ULRICH OBRIST at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2010.

Grillen / Crickets. 2008. videos stills. DVD, colour, sound, 3:00 min. © JUDITH PICHLMÜLLER

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For the video “Grillen / Crickets” JUDITH PICHLMÜLLER ties the (dead) insect to an upright wire as if bound to a stake, wings and feelers hang forward, the explosives bound to its back, green foliage in the background. As soon as the flame begins to approach on the fuse, the insect begins to jiggle, white smoke clouds emerge as if in a time loop across the image, a glowing orange rain of sparks fills the image, a dark thunder spreads and culminates in a sudden explosion. The cricket lurches back and forth, and finally explodes, and crashes to the bottom.

Animals, usually insects, stand in for individuals and for society as a whole, in both JUDITH PICHLMÜLLER‘s photographs and videos. Insects carry explosive devices on their back ironically reflecting a tragicomical figure of the Political.

She is a graduate of photography and experimental video of the master-class at the HDK Berlin and has been attending the international Sommerakademie Salzburg. After studying journalism at Vienna University, she worked on exhibitions and in galleries from 2002 until 2008. She interned in Berlin and Vienna and consequently started administrating and directing the Fotogalerie Wien, where she also worked as a curator. Since November 2009 the independent artist holds an assistant position at the University for Applied Arts in Vienna.

all images © RYO KAWANISHI

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Japanese photographer RYO KAWANISHI has been rocking my mouse finger, clicking through her portfolio over the past few hours. He shoots everything, everytime, everywhere. Incidentally his flickr is the perfect place to kill time.

Collecting Contemporary Art. English edition. November 2008
Edited by ANDREA BELLINI with CECILIA ALEMANI and LILLIAN DAVIES
ISBN: 978-3-03764-015-9. Softcover, 105 x 165 mm. 128 pages

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Collecting Contemporary Art is a compilation of 40 collectors from Europe, the Americas, and Asia, revealing some recurring motivations while emphasizing differences of approach.

This small book has been my reading yesterday and as usual, I can’t resist to share with you the interview of IVO WESSEL who belongs to the younger generation of art collectors.

IVO WESSEL is a software developer and resident of Berlin. WESSEL writes books about the development and structuring of software, which he enjoys embellishing with the drawings of his favourite artists or with epilogues written by his favourite authors.

And if you want to see a glimpse into the private collection of IVO WESSEL, make sure to visit Freunde von Freunden. Amazing!

Cover: Travelling. 2009

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Booby Trap. 2010

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Candidate. 2007- 2009

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This is not a Lullaby. 2008

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Radar. 2009

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The tied-down Rope Law and the Wild Drag Race. 2008

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Baignoire à moteurs hors bord. 2006

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No Country for Engines. LUC MATTENBERGER. 2010
68 pages, 22.5 x 16.5 cm, hardcover. ISBN 978-2-9700623-9-4

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LUC MATTENBERGER is a Swiss artist that I discovered at Galerie Analix in Geneva last year. Since then he never stopped to impress me as much by its awards as by its projects.

At the heart of LUC MATTENBERGER‘s work are the machines, an industrious mechanical collages which their intended use has not yet been fully defined. They could be weapons or just weird toys. But one thing is sure; all of them can function in space (the motors includes in his sculptures are required to be more than merely decorative), if only someone dares to drive or touch them.  And finally, it’s what his work is about: a subtle and ambigous play between good and evil, fear and fascination, pleasure and insecurity.

No Country for Engines – published by AHEAD Foundation – is the first monograph of LUC MATTENBERGER and includes essays, interviews as well as his major installations from 2006 to 2010.

Make sure to watch LUC riding his Booby Trap on the Rhine and if you are in Paris from 11 February until 8 May 2011, don’t miss his participation at the exhibition “Ailleurs” at the Espace culturel Louis Vuitton

Riding Modern Art. 2007. a photographic collection around a replica of KATARZYNA KOBRO’s Spatial Composition 3 (1928)

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Riding Modern Art, MIKE BARKER, “backside smith grind”. Paris, La Défense. 2006
Padova. 2008. boxing plywood and Carrara marble. 550 x 36 x 130 cm

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Riding Modern Art, MIKE BARKER, “backside smith grind”. Paris, La Défense. 2006
La déduction de Nollet, l’éxpérience de Ménard. 2009. photo via

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La déduction de Nollet, l’éxpérience de Ménard. 2009
two cast iron shape. 120 x 120 x 120 cm.photo via

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Mystery Board #2. 2007/ Mystery Board #2. 2007
Mystery Board #1. 2006/ Mystery Board #3. 2007
vector drawing, light-jet, 39 x 39 cm

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Les Formes du repos #10. 2003
Light-jet. 70 x 100 cm

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Les Formes du repos # 2. 2001
Light-jet. 80 x 53 cm

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Les Formes du repos #9. 2006 / Les Formes du repos #7. 2003
Light-jet, 70 x 100 cm

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Les Formes du repos #1. 2001
Light-jet, 70 x 100 cm

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A skateboarder and artist, RAPHAËL ZARKA collects sculptural forms and structures such as a concrete breakwater, unfinished monorail which litter the urban landscape. Through sculpture, video, written essay and photography ZARKA creates an archive of these abandoned constructions that never came to fruition, turning them into involuntary sculptures whilst creating an atmosphere of the mysterious and the unknown.

RAPHAËL ZARKA believes in the chronology of the object, starting with its transformation, playing with its process of diversion, and contaminating its forms and meanings. His work gives rise to many different interpretations, from a scientific-cum-historical vision which will delight nerds, to the more Pop vision adopted by the skaters’ friend. The reality of his work is possibly situated this side of all this, in a poetic interstice where the forms can be read in several ways without these different meanings being mutually exclusive.

RAPHAËL ZARKA, born in Montpellier, France in 1977 lives and works in Paris. In 2008 he was awarded the Ricard Foundation prize for contemporary art. He is currently undertaking a residency at the Villa Medici, Rome.

Untitled. (for Parkett no. 76). 2006
Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Daniel Buchholz, Köln/Berlin © LUCY MCKENZIE

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Scottish artist LUCY MCKENZIE creates, curates, collaborates and skillfully mixes fine art, history with pop culture, creating a very personal discourse between past and present.When making work, she often questions the role of the artist, the nature of artistic production and the value systems that support it. She frequently fixes on the artist as the subject, whether depicted or imagined, and focuses on the actual process of making art.

Her practice incorporates painting, printmaking, drawing, and public performances such as concerts and poetry readings. In 2007, she started the interior decoration company Atelier with illustrator BERNIE REID and fashion designer BECA LIPSCOMBE to collaborate on designing public and private social spaces.

And good news: the exhibition “The Editions” at Museum Ludwig, Cologne (Germany) is showing – until June 26, 2011 – approximatively 50 pieces including linocuts and silkscreen prints, along with posters for events, silk scarves, record covers she has designed, and a special mural. Additionally Parkett n°76 which features collaborations with JULIE MEHRETU, YANG FUDONG and LUCY MCKENZIE is now available in the WFW Store

Horizon. Possible colors for the horizon; Position; cardinal point; external center I-VII. Berlin 2010. 61 x 46 cm. ink,  Tinte, oil chalk, pencil on paper

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(XVI) Horizon. Possible colors for the horizon; Position; cardinal point; external center I-VII. Berlin 2010. 61 x 46 cm. ink,  Tinte, oil chalk, pencil on paper

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(V) Horizon. Possible colors for the horizon; Position; cardinal point; external center I-VII. Berlin 2010. 61 x 46 cm. ink,  Tinte, oil chalk, pencil on paper

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Horizon/Territory Ⅶ
Horizon; 12 (possible colors for the horizon); Position; Rotation; external center; cardinal point; continental border; Airport/ Territory; Now, Loop, Rotation
Stuttgart 2010. 26 cm x 36 cm. ink, oil chalk, pencil on paper

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WV 2010-099. Airport-Study (Supersymmetrie)
Berlin 2010. 51 x 36 cm. ink, pencil on paper

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Today I found a very nice portrait of JORINDE VOIGT by photographer HEJI SHIN. Intrigued, I made a research and I discovered her incredible works.

Berlin-based artist JORINDE VOIGT works methodically and with mathematical precision, filling the paper with pencil patterns drawn with broad gestures; arrows, figures, words and lines form a dynamic composition that seems almost to move and vibrate. Blurring the border between science and art, she analyzes the structures of diverse cultural patterns and natural phenomena. The resulting notations are an attempt at making the invisible visible.

As a starting point for her drawings, she sets various basic parameters (such as distance, speed, orientation, frequency, pop charts, genre)  from which compositions emerge and become representations of subjective thought processes. With incredible perfection and great patience, she produces these extremely complex systems which appear chaotic but are in fact defined by rhythm and order like musical scores.

My work is like music. You can enjoy it without being able to read the score.

Untitled. 2009–2010

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Untitled. 2010

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all images: untitled. 2010

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Untitled. 2010
all images ©EMANUEL ROSSETTI

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Swiss artist EMANUEL ROSSETTI creates digital portraits of totemic stones, hypnotic donuts and screens looping 3-D tours of hypothetical art pavilions drawn in Google SketchUp.

My constructions are fictional, mainly not functional and based on very simple concepts. Sometimes these drawings are largely inspired by designers but they are always limited by free 3D softwares like SketchUp which generates utopian models and structures.

Additionally to his personal projects, ROSSETTI acts as a curator, organising exhibitions and publications because he is one of the buys behind the Basel-based Art Space New Jerseyy, the publishing house Used Future and The Ettore Sottsass Museum!

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Swedish artist IDA LEHTONEN attends the School of Photography at the University of Göteburg in Sweden. Meanwhile she creates playful settings and installations with every objects. And incidentally she also like to experiment with internet. The result is simply interesting, fresh, amusing and yeah, a bit disturbing. For more visual experimentation, don’t miss her flickr

Untitled. 2008
Digital C print. 127 x 96.5 cm (50 x 38 inches)

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JAMES FRANCO is, at 33 years old, a famous actor and celebrity movie star. Additionally he has combined his movie career with activities as a screenwriter, director and producer. But he has in recent times emerged himself in the art world.

FRANCO‘s works – short films, drawings, photographs, ephemera, sculptures and installations – draw upon traditional depictions of boyhood, sexuality and destruction, upending them in manners at once humorous, salacious and disturbing. He experiments with the conceived barriers between each of the media in which he works, and urges the viewer to not view them distinctly.

And good news: the first European solo exhibition of JAMES FRANCO, “The Dangerous Book Four Boys” is actually on view at Peres Projects in Berlin until April 23rd, 2011.

Zuma Series (folder one) / L Z14F0CS. 1977
© JOHN DIVOLA

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Zuma Series (folder one) / d Zuma I. 1977
© JOHN DIVOLA

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Zuma Series (folder two) / bh Z41F03. 1975
© JOHN DIVOLA

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Zuma Series (folder two) / cc ZUMA ES. 1975
© JOHN DIVOLA

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Zuma Series (folder two) / cb Zuma A 5_17_02. 1975
© JOHN DIVOLA

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Los Angeles based artist JOHN DIVOLA explores the contemporary landscape as a complex site of loss and potential. In the Zuma works from 1977, he entered a lone vacant house on Zuma Beach many times over the course of a year not only to record the decomposition and dilapidation of this structure, but to participate, like an natural elemental force of nature, in the transformation of the structure.

“On initially arriving I would move through the house looking for areas or situations to photograph. If nothing seemed to interest me I would move things around or do some spray painting. The painting was done in much the same way that one might doodle on a piece of paper. At that point I would return to the camera and explore what ever new potentials existed.”

Through the mechanics of photography DIVOLA truly reveals the nature of his subject, the stark flash of the camera lays bare all that is painted, in motion and burned against the background of ocean waves at sunrise or sunset. A remarkable body of work which skirts the borders of fiction and the real.

If you like his work, I invite you to read a good interview of JOHN DIVOLA on Americansuburbx.com. Additionally the book “Three acts” which includes the Zuma series is available in the WFW Store

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Fragments of Then & Now. Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles. 1973-2004

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Then & Now is a project initiated by American artist ED RUSCHA in 1973. He photographed in black and white every building on either side of Hollywood Boulevard. He’s taking the photos from the flatbed of a Datsun pick-up while his brother, Paul, is doing the driving, stopping, building by building.

At a distance of thirty years, the artist re-shot the same 12 mile artery. This time the photos are in color, taken in three days (they finished the job in eight hours in 1973!) with a three person camera crew riding in a SUV. For this shoot, the same type of camera equipment was used to re-photograph the street on 35mm color-negative film. The resulting material of both shoots–4,500 black & white and 13,000 color images–have been scanned and digitally composed into four panoramics of the complete 12 miles.

Flux, transformation, transmutation, face-lift: one boulevard reflecting the dynamic, anarchic drive of change in a city driven by change. – by KAREN MARTA

And good news: the book “Then & Now” published by Steidl is now available in the WFW Store