UK, Saudi Arabia & UAE artists to create digital artworks from 1000s of miles apart January 14, 2021
The Arab British Centre, in partnership with the British Council, announced the artists selected for the Winter edition of their Connect ME Digital Residency program.
LONDON The Arab British Centre, in partnership with the British Council, announced the artists selected for the Winter edition of their Connect ME Digital Residency program. Connect ME pairs creatives aged 18-30 based in the GCC (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates) and the United Kingdom to create collaborative digital work over a 4-week program of online mentoring by a leading artist or curator.
Haroon Mirza stages a socially-distanced, modular opera, year zero
Inspired by viral footage of Italians singing from their balconies and windows at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
year zero is the latest iteration of Haroon Mirza’s ‘modular opera’ series, featuring works written by Mirza and realised in collaboration with musicians, artists and designers.
Drawing inspiration from viral footage of Italians singing from their balconies and windows
at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mirza considers these communal, hyper-local performances as emblematic of a collective optimism and a unifying connection to, and through, music.
Exploring twin narrative elements of pandemic-induced lockdown and a shamanic reconnection with the powerful forces of nature through ancient cultural practice, the artist connects a recital from vocalist Sarah-Jane Lewis with a balcony performance from Alessandro Ravasio, a musician based in Bergamo, the Italian city most severely impacted
Liverpool Biennial launches programme for the 11th edition in spring 2021
Haroon Mirza, Digital Switchover, 2012. Installation view at Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen. Photo: Gunnar Meier.
LIVERPOOL
.-Liverpool Biennial launched the programme for the 11th Edition happening in spring 2021, running from 20 March 6 June, with previews held on 18 and 19 March.
This inspiring programme of commissioned exhibitions, screenings, sculpture and sound will unfold over 12 weeks, showcasing and celebrating the citys most iconic buildings and architecture. New venues announced include the historic Lewiss Building which will host 16 works. The Grade II listed former department store is well-loved by Liverpools residents and after 10 years of closure, the site will be reopened for LB2021, with two floors dedicated to a wide array of multi-disciplinary art works, including many new commissions.
Photo by Andy Romer Photography, courtesy of Madison Square Park.
Abigail DeVille will chat on Zoom with Edward Berenson, a Statue of Liberty expert, about her new exhibition “Light of Freedom,” on view through January 31, 2021. It’s inspired by Lady Liberty’s arm and torch, which were displayed in Madison Square Park from 1876 to 1882, as part of the effort to fundraise for the massive sculpture’s completion. DeVille invites audiences to reconsider this symbol of American freedom through the lens of African American history, from the first slaves brought to New Amsterdam in 1626 through to the present-day Black Lives Matter movement.
Cuts and controversies hogged headlines. But, despite the pandemic, there were some glittering gems
12 December 2020 • 2:00pm
Artemisia Gentileschi, Jael and Sisera, 1620 (detail)
Credit: Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
We may hanker to forget 2020, but cultural historians will be studying it for years. And, when they do, they will surely debate which moment was more important: the spring evening when Britain’s museums and galleries went dark ahead of the first national lockdown, or the summer afternoon when protesters toppled a bronze statue of an English slave trader into Bristol’s harbour.
Covid has left many institutions in a state of emergency. The brute reality is that it costs the same to open a gallery for 200 visitors as it does for 2,000 – and, with visitor numbers down by four fifths, the deficits are unsustainable. The consequences are already apparent: the loss of hundreds of jobs at Tate, the Royal Academy, the Southbank, and the National Trust. We should als