From Ballykinlar in Ireland to Ekumfi-Ekawfo in Ghana, international artist collective Myvillages explore the rural as a space for and of cultural production. Founded by artists Kathrin Böhm, Wapke Feenstra and Antje Schiffers, Myvillages counters the assumption that culture is an exclusively urban phenomena. This exhibition collects material from the course of their career and runs in dialogue with the research and events programme on The Rural hosted by Whitechapel Gallery from 2017-2019. Through long-term approaches embedded within the existing activities of communities, they question who is producing culture,. By committing to work in the rural, their projects subvert established power relationships between the city and the country.

www.whitechapelgallery.org/2019-highlights

Book Presentation: Troch, Pieter & Janssens, Thomas. Layers of Time in the Urban Landscape: Visions of Socialist Urbanity in Mitrovica (Berlin, jovis verlag, 2018).

This book represents a unique cooperation of photography and history to document the legacies of socialist urban transformation in Mitrovica. It forcibly shows that the material remnants of socialist urbanity are more than passive leftovers of a lost age. They continue to give meaning to post-socialist, post-industrial, and post-conflict lives in the city.

Public debate: The book presentation will serve as an occasion for debate between academics (history, sociology, architecture) and civil society on the legacy of socialist urbanisation in Kosovo. Participants will share thoughts on failures and successes of socialist urbanisation, on the place of socialist urban infrastructure in contemporary urban development, and the memory of urban life under socialism.

Participants:
Prof. Dr. Vjollca Krasniqi (University of Prishtina, Faculty of Philosophy)
Prof. Dr. Arta Basha-Jakupi (University of Prishtina, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture)
Prof. Dr. Florina Jerliu (University of Prishtina, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture)
Dr. Pieter Troch (Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies)

https://www.facebook.com/events/

The event is organized in partnership between forumZFD Kosovo Program, Prof. Dr. Vjollca Krasniqi (University of Prishtina) and Dr. Pieter Troch (Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies, Regensburg)

The solo exhibition by Jun Yang is dedicated to fundamental questions of artistic work: what significance do original works, unique pieces, series and reproductions have in art today? How is artistic practice defined when exchanged with others?

At the beginning of 2018, The Monograph Project by Jun Yang was published, a monograph totalling six volumes about the artist and his work, which – in a sort of paradoxical reversal – challenges monographic conventions and biography. For the format, cover and even spelling of the artist’s name changes from volume to volume. This evokes various artists, which is precisely what interests Yang: to break the narrative of authentic, brilliant creators – a narrative that has proven particularly well-suited to the branding of an artist and his/her work.

The solo exhibition at the Kunsthaus Graz links up to this. The exhibition, like the monograph, becomes itself the subject of artistic investigation. Besides the presentation of Yang’s works, the exhibition reflects authorship, constructions of identity and allocations of roles. In this, cooperation with others plays a special role. Alongside this, from February 15th, 2019, the Neue Galerie Graz addresses issues of the reproducibility of art, the significance of the original work, the one-off work and reproduction, in the exhibition titled Too Much Is Not Enough.

With works from:
Erwin Bauer, siren eun young jung, Lee Kit, Oliver Klimpel, Paul McCarthy/Mike Kelley, Michikazu Matsune, Yuuki Nishimura, Yuki Okumura, Koki Tanaka, Maja Vukoje, Jun Yang und Bruce Yonemoto.

More information and programme

Opening: 14.02.2019, 7.30pm
In cooperation with Art Sonje Center, Seoul and Neue Galerie Graz
Curated by: Barbara Steiner and Jun Yang
Assistance: Alexandra Trost, Michaela Humpel

Climate change causes an important rise in the sea level, which is a major threat for coastal areas and small islands all over the globe. Even in urban areas at higher levels and inland, the growing quantities of rainwater in combination with spreading urbanization can also cause a major flood risk for entire city areas, something that is happening more often than before.

The 2nd Edition of the Brussels Urban Landscape Biennial dives into the growing problem of floods in urban areas. How to deal with the evacuation of rainwater in an integrated manner? Can landscape architecture generate answers for these complex challenges? What are the limits of the current way of addressing this question? Through workshops, research by design, an exhibition, a colloquium, curated walks and lectures, the two-month BULB festival tries to sensitize the broader public to the importance of water in the urban landscape. Instead of considering water as a threat, it will be approached as a vital and structuring element in the urban landscape.

At the main BULB exhibition at the Centre for Fine Arts, the Bureau Bas Smets, JNC International and Taktyk will be presenting their vision.

Workshop leader: Architecture Workroom Brussels.

Marco Ranzato, the editor of "Water vs. Urban Scape—Exploring Integrated Water-Urban Arrangements” will give a lecture during the Biennial