The 58th International Art Exhibition

May You Live in Interesting Times

Exhibition: 11 May 2019 – 24 Nov 2019
Opening: 8 May 2019

The 58th International Art Exhibition
Zanele Muholi , Bona, Charlottesville, Virginia, 2015 , Silver Gelatin Print 80 x 50.5cm , © Zanele Muholi Courtesy of Stevenson, , Cape Town/Johannesburg and Yancey Richardson, New York

Opening and award ceremony: Saturday 11 May 2019, 10:00 am

The 58th International Art Exhibition, titled May You Live In Interesting Times, will take place from 11 May to 24 November 2019 (Pre-opening on 8, 9, 10 May). The title is a phrase of English invention that has long been mistakenly cited as an ancient Chinese curse that invokes periods of uncertainty, crisis and turmoil; "interesting times", exactly as the ones we live in today.

The 58th Exhibition is curated by Ralph Rugoff, currently the director of the Hayward Gallery in London. Between 1985 and 2002 he wrote art and cultural criticism for numerous periodicals, publishing widely in art magazines as well as newspapers, and published a collection of essays, Circus Americanus (1995). During the same period he began working as an independent curator.

Ralph Rugoff has declared: «May You Live in Interesting Times will no doubt include artworks that reflect upon precarious aspects of existence today, including different threats to key traditions, institutions and relationships of the “post-war order.” But let us acknowledge at the outset that art does not exercise its forces in the domain of politics. Art cannot stem the rise of nationalist movements and authoritarian governments in different parts of the world, for instance, nor can it alleviate the tragic fate of displaced peoples across the globe (whose numbers now represent almost one percent of the world’s entire population).»

Artists

Works

  • Korakrit Arunanondchai in collaboration with Alex Gvojic , No history in a room filled with people with funny names 5 2018 , Video with boychild: 3 channel video, 30:44 min. , © Korakrit Arunanondchai and Alex Gvojic , Courtesy: Carlos/Ishikawa, London, C L E A R I N G, New York/Brussels, Bangkok CityCity Gallery, Bangkok
  • Mari Katayama , Cannot Turn the Clock Back #005, 2017 , C-Print 150 x 100 cm , Courtesy of Mari Katayama, rin art association , © Mari Katayama
  • Alex Da Corte , Rubber Pencil Devil - 2018 , Video, color/sound; 2:39:52 min. , Courtesy of the artist, Karma, NY and Gio Marconi, Milan – La Biennale di Venezia
  • Walled Unwalled (2019), Lawrence Abu Hamdan. , Photo: Mathilda Olmi © Centre d’Art contemporain, Genève; , courtesy the artist, Biennale de l’Image en Mouvement and Maureen Paley, London
  • Apichatpong Weerasethakul et Tsuyoshi Hisakado, «Synchronicity», 2018. , Single-channel video, sound, light bulbs, projector shutter, microphone, aluminium. , Dimensions variables, 14 minutes 12 secondes en loop. , Installation view at Mori Art Museum, Tokyo , © Apichatpong Weerasethakul + Tsuyoshi Hisakado Courtesy of SCAI THE BATHHOUSE and OTA FINE ARTS. Biennale de Venezia
  • Arthur Jafa, The White Album. 2019, Single channel video projection, colour, sound, Golden Lion for best participant in the International Exhibition May You Live In Interesting Times
  • Marina Abramović, still from the behind the scenes of Rising. Courtesy of Acute Art (2018)
  • Composer and artist Ryoji Ikeda’s practice approaches monumental minimalism, often interweaving sparse acoustic compositions with visuals that take the form of vast fields of digitally rendered information. These integrate to form the artist’s own expansive language, which relies on an algorithmic way of working where mathematics is utilised as a means to capture and reflect the natural world around us.
  • Danh Vo’s eclectic circle of collaborators for the Biennale Arte 2019 includes his boyfriend, his nephew, his father, and his former professor. In Vo’s installations, history meets the artist’s own biography through charged symbolic objects such as cultural icons or damaged religious imagery, and the literal and metaphorical involvement of his family members and friends.