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The diary
United Kingdom 09.
The unseen 11. To the great despair of privacy advocates, the UK is today the most surveyed country in the world, with probably just as many CCTV cameras as there are rats on the London Underground. This culture of surveillance has created a fascination with voyeurism, be it at the amateur, professional or artistic level. With over 250 photographs on show, Tate Modern’s exhibition reveals just how deep this fascination runs, with everything from an infamous Marilyn photograph taken by Weegee to a shot of Paris Hilton on her way to prison, as well as a worrying amount of material from everyday peeping toms. Not the most reassuring of exhibitions, but timely nonetheless.
© Jacky Lecouturier
09. Tons of friends When you are given the opportunity to show not at one, not at two, but at three venues concurrently (Antwerp’s Foto Museum, Marchin’s cultural centre and Liege/Luik’s Les Brasseurs) the least you could do is bring some of your artist friends along. And this is exactly what Belgian photographer Jacky Lecouturier has done. Aptly titled ‘Polaroid/Friends’, the show presents Lecouturier’s poetic visual narrative, which begins where Andrei Tarkovsky left off: soft, suggestive and timid. Some of the other photographers on display include Olivier Cornil (one-time Word contributor) as well as Hugues de Wurstemberger.
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10.
Jacky Lecouturier – Des Polaroids / Des Amis Until 19th June 2010 ☞ Les Brasseurs, Liege brasseursannexe.be
Exposed – Voyeurism, surveillance and the camera From 28th May to 3rd October 2010 ☞ Tate Modern, London tate.org.uk/modern
* The show you can’t miss
12.
On-the-spot
Sometimes the work of two artists is so resolutely different in their respective approach that bringing them together creates a new understanding of their work. With its summer exhibition, London’s Serpentine Gallery spurs an unlikely dialogue between English sculptor Barlow and German artist Baghramian. Whilst Barlow’s work has a sense of urgency to it which lends it a certain scruffiness, Baghramian’s is more composed, more calculated. Seen together, their work adds legitimacy to one another’s, in somewhat of a cacophonous expression of shared thoughts and interests.
Spic clean 10. Hygiene is nothing else than a protective system guarding our body against unwanted bacteria. Its application is intrinsically bound to national identity, with certain countries having a darker history than others in the field - the Germany of the 1930s, for example, transformed its Hygiene Institutes into centers for the safeguard and valorisation of the Aryan race. Indeed, to understand our modern fascination with hygiene, one must look to the past, or the arts. In this exhibition, it is done through the collages of Karl Waldmann, the dramatic paintings of Anton Solomoukha or even the toned-down sculptures of Ricard Aymar. Hygiene and (national) identity Until 26th June 2010 ☞ Galerie Pascal Polar, Brussels pascalpolar.be
11.
© Georges Dudognon
meessendeclercq.be
12.
Nairy Baghramian and Phyllida Barlow Until 13th June 2010 ☞ Serpentine Gallery, London serpentinegallery.org
* The show you can’t miss Martin Wilner ‘Making history: UK’
© Baghramian & Barlow
@ Meessen de Clerq, until 29th May 2010 – Sculptures, videos, installations and collages are some of the many medias used by Roach to construct a bewildering, immersive and engaging world of perceptions and interpretations.
© Karl Waldmann
Damien Roach ‘Thought forms’
@ Hales Gallery (London), until 29th May 2010 – New Yorker Milner shows a series of 12 ink, pen and graphite drawings each depicting a month in the year (2009 in this case). Rugged and rough, Milner’s mostly monochromed work affords a crafted sensibility, soft yet poignant.
halesgallery.com