PRINT: PARIS
‘Pseudonym Project/Paris: Print Party’
Paris's MFC-Michèle Didier gallery is hosting the first of a two-part project that will span two years. The Pseudonym Project/Paris: Print Party is the brainchild of Montréal-born photographer Gabriel Jones, who did a New York version in 2010 featuring works by the likes of Amsterdam-based artist Melanie Bonajo and Austria’s Rainer Ganahl. This time Jones has selected 12 prints by established and emerging artists to be for sale at €295 a piece (each print has a limited run of 50 copies) in a week-long exhibition. The catch is, as it was at the previous edition, that the prints are all under pseudonyms. Customers who buy one will receive a receipt that they hold on to for a full year before the identities of the artists are revealed; only then will the numbered and signed print be delivered. While Jones is out to test our taste and patience, we can’t help but be very curious indeed.
MFC-Michèle Didier, 66 Rue Notre-Dame de Nazareth. Open Tuesday to Saturday, 12.00-19.00. Until 15 March.
micheledidier.com
PHOTOGRAPHY: VANCOUVER
Edward Burtynsky: ‘A Terrible Beauty’
The Vancouver Art Gallery has chosen 44 images by Toronto-based photographer Edward Burtynsky for a new exhibition: A Terrible Beauty. These aerial shots from 1983 to 2013 document how mankind has left its physical mark on the natural world, from Canada to as far away as China. “Homestead #32, View from Highway 8” was taken in British Columbia in 2010. It shows a bird’s-eye view of manmade roads and railways criss-crossing through a patch of green farmland, juxtaposed against a meandering brook that looks like it has been forced to make way for human encroachment. As beautiful as the images are, Burtynsky seems to be asking if we should be content with the direction in which civilisation is heading.
Vancouver Art Gallery, 750 Hornby Street. Open Monday to Sunday, 10.00-17.00; Tuesdays until 21.00. Until 26 May.
vanartgallery.bc.ca
DESIGN/ARCHITECTURE: LONDON
‘Sensing Spaces: Architecture Reimagined’
This season the main galleries of London's Royal Academy of Arts have been transformed to host a series of large-scale installations focusing on the relevance of architecture and the importance of the efficient use of space in modern day life. Seven practices from six countries have been invited to take part in the project including Dublin’s Grafton Architects, which won the Silver Lion Prize at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2012, and Berlin’s Kéré Architecture, owned by Diébédo Francis Kéré (who has been involved in building schools and community houses in Burkina Faso). All the architects on show in Sensing Spaces challenge viewers’ relation to space with innovative construction concepts and by using forms and materials that play with textures, scents and colours.
Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House. Open Saturday to Thursday, 10:00-20:00; Fridays until 22:00. Until 6 April.
royalacademy.org.uk
PHOTOGRAPHY: ZÜRICH
Yann Mingard: ‘Deposit’
From 2009 to 2013, Swiss photographer Yann Mingard travelled the world to document our genetic, digital and cultural heritage. In his exhibition Deposit at the Fotomuseum Winterthur in Zürich, he portrays what we collect and store in our efforts to preserve life, endangered species, data and everything we fear may disappear one day. His stark images capture everything from a Swedish data centre in an underground bunker and scientific documents inscribed on synthetic DNA to Lenin’s mausoleum and Shakespeare’s sonnets. In the glistening darkness of Mingard’s photographs our mortal fears are highlighted as he questions mankind’s desire to manipulate and preserve life in the desperate attempt to leave a legacy.
Fotomuseum Winterthur, Grüzenstrasse 44-45. Open Tuesday to Sunday, 11.00-18.00; Wednesdays until 20.00. Until 25 May.
fotomuseum.ch
MUSIC: GLOBAL
Kevin Drew: ‘Darlings’
Toronto’s Broken Social Scene have practically made a genre out of their clever, widescreen, orchestral rock manoeuvrings; founder and frontman Kevin Drew’s solo work has tended to sail closer to the wind while he sings closer to the mic. Darlings, Drew’s second solo effort, condenses his band’s expansive form of introspection: he gets all confessional and giddy on “Good Sex”; allows some LA noir into the backstage area on “Mexican After Show Party”; and fires up the glitter-synth on “It’s Cool”. For diehard fans of the band this might be a nice comma in the sentence; for fans of literate, witty and hook-strewn pop, this is the definite article, darlings.
‘Darlings’ is out 18 March and available for pre-order now.
kevindrewmusic.com
