February
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Notes from the Overpass
On the occasion of the exhibition "Akklimitizatsia", Open Studio revisits the show's first mounting in Helsinki last summer Notes from the Overpass: New Art from Los Angeles and St. Petersburg by Adam Schwartz “-Since I was a little girl, I dreamed of the West.
at Galleriet G18, August 21, 2007
-In Sweden?
-Yes! Oh yes. I used to have visions about it.
-Visions.
-Vistas would appear.
-Where did you hear about the West in Sweden?
-Movies. American movies. We see that great landscape in our dreams. It haunts us.”
-excerpt from “Gary Cooper, or the landscape”, by Sam Shepard, 1996
In the summer of 2007, several very large and very broad art exhibitions dominated the European art landscape including the Venice Biennale, Documenta, Art Basel and Skulptur Projekte Munster. While these shows all occur at regular intervals, to have them all in one summer laid the ground for a general critical referendum on shows of this type – large, culturally and ideologically diverse exhibitions whose guiding principals tend to have their roots in earlier eras, when a more narrow definition of art existed. The critical reaction to the majority of them was almost uniformly grim, suggesting the future of such shows may be limited. While this may seem like a generally poor thing for art as a whole, the summer was full of strong shows throughout the art world, shows that set much more realistic agendas and largely succeeded. While many were less accessible, or perhaps less marketed, a savvy viewer could discern much more about the currents and trends of the European art world by carefully choosing among these, and they might walk away not as fatalistic as the reviewers leaving Germany or Italy.
Bard and Smolny visit the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts
Helsinki Exchange Bard and Smolny visit the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts On a dark and dreary January day in Finland, four members of the Open Studio team finally had the opportunity to meet face-to-face. Helsinki served as a mid-way point between St. Petersburg and Berlin—my place of departure. More importantly, the trip was a way to begin including the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts in the newly established Bard-Smolny project. Written by Beny Wagner
In January 2008 four Smolny students had the opportunity to study with an international group of art students at the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki. The fruits of our collaboration continue to mellow and in April we will return to further explore each other’s creative practice. In June the class will hopefully be mirrored when artist Liisa Roberts brings her students from the Academy to study at Smolny.
This meeting was particularly significant for me as I have been an active member of the team for the past six months but had never met Emily, the founder and backbone of Open Studio, or any students from Smolny until now. It was great to finally meet Emily, Yana, and Alina in person. Over Hesburgers, the surprisingly American-feeling fast food chain, we discussed many relevant issues and thought of ways to propel the Open Studio website in the direction we have envisioned over the last several months. Some great suggestions were put on the table and as always, we hope that technological hurtles won’t keep us from materializing these excellent ideas.
After resolving our slight disorientation in the middle of a rainy day, we arrived at the off-campus exhibition site of the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts. We were kindly invited to introduce our project to the students and staff of the school and present a short screening of video and film works made by both Bard and Smolny students. The screening was part of a closing event for an exhibition of student works from the Finnish Academy, which revolved around the theme of painting as process. Regardless of the diverse backgrounds of the student-artists work being shown, it was interesting to see parallel lines of practice and technique.
I was really glad to be able to meet not only my Russian counterparts but other art students and be able to speak with them about their own approach to art making. I think this is proof that although our foundational framework and anchor is the website, physical shows and screening are imperative in gaining any real comprehension of the value of our ongoing project. The website, as a means to share information with anyone in the world, already points to the substance found in our similarities. What is important to value in the same magnitude are the vast differences between us and that is where physical exhibitions of our creative processes come to place.
