INTERNATIONAL CONCRETE: An exhibition of multidisciplinary art

INTERNATIONAL CONCRETE: An exhibition of multidisciplinary art

Curated by Dr Judith Duquemin                                                                            Opening 24/10/17

 

Marcela Jardón Art Gallery
Passeig de Gràcia 55-57,
Bulevard dels Antiquaris,
1st Floor, L6, 08007 Barcelona, Spain

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International Concrete is an inquiry based, multidisciplinary exhibition that brings together a mix of international artists who engage with principles of Concrete Art in their working process.  Painter, Theo Van Doesburg, in his Manifesto of Concrete Art (1930), stated to the effect that Concrete Art was imagery devoid of figurative, symbolic or stylistic references. Painting ‘itself’ was defined by the element that only referred to… ‘itself’. Painters such as Gris, Malevich, Popova and Mondrian all separated concrete and non-objective process from earlier forms of abstraction. Elements of line, plane, volume, space, material, colour, and shape were ‘concretized, or reduced to a concrete form so that the artist could use certain elements freely and competently for constructive purposes (Popova, L. 1921). Always characterized by clarity and an economy of means, contemporary Concrete Art is a developing aesthetic that responds to new ideas and new technologies (Lowe, P. 1999), occurring in several creative disciplines such as Poetry, Film, Opera, Jazz, Performance Art, and Visual Art.  International Concrete will highlight principles of concrete process through examples of painting, drawing, photography, digital animation, poetry and film making, and will attempt to challenge popular, aestheticized, sometimes historicized interpretations of Concrete Art, by referring to experimental practice that is cross disciplinary and research based.

 

ARTISTS                           

Lila Afiouni/AUS. Painting www.lilaafiouni.com/
Judith Duquemin/UK/AUS. Painting www.judithduquemin.com
Eduard Escoffet/SP. Poetry http://propost.org/escoffet/
Marcela Jardon/SP/ARG. Drawing http://www.marcelajardon.com/
Nicole Ellis/AUS. Painting/Mixed Media www.artistprofile.com.au/issue-37/
http://dhg.anu.edu.au/events/re-purpose/dhg.anu.edu.au
Hanz Hancock & Patrick Morrissey/UK. Digital Art www.patrickmorrisseyhanz.co.uk http://www.saturationpoint.org.uk/
Francesca Partridge & Franck Dubuck/FR. Film www.60degresproductions.com

 

 

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Lila Afiouni (Australia)                 www.lilaafiouni.com/

Lila Afiouni was born and raised in Australia. She studied fine art at the National Art School, receiving a Bachelor of Fine Art with Honours in Drawing. Her discipline focuses on painting and drawing. Lila was awarded a studio residency at the Cite Internationale des Arts, Paris in 2007 by the Power Institute of Art and Culture. She has been a resident artist both at Root Division, San Francisco and Firstdraft Depot in Sydney.

My paintings form a continuing fascination of colour, shape and composition embedded in the tradition of Concrete Art. Addressed in this particular work is the colour relationship and motif in the urban landscape whose shapes are repositioned in a familiar visual code. Using the urban and natural landscape as a surface representation of shape and colour, I work to absolve the elements of their natural function, rendering the pictorial field as a space of spiritual conduct. The interplay of shape, line and space is paramount to its interaction with colour. As in the past, my concern in composition embodies the philosophy of Josef Albers’ colour experiments. Each works’ relation to another is a phrase that depends upon arrangement and possibility.

 

Nicole Ellis (Australia) www.artistprofile.com.au/issue-37/

http://dhg.anu.edu.au/events/re-purpose/dhg.anu.edu.au

Nicole Ellis lives and works in Sydney Australia. She has a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Tasmania and a Diploma of Fine Art (Painting) from Adelaide College for the Arts and Education. She has exhibited nationally and internationally Australia, France, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Malaysia, and China. Awards include: Australia Council, VAB Skills & Arts Development Grant; International Residency, Rome; China-Kunming, First International Sculpture Symposium Award; Australia Council, New Media Arts Fund, Project Grant: New Work; Australia Council Visual Arts/Craft Board Overseas Studio Grant (London Studio).

Her work in the exhibition combines a woven, multi-coloured textile, with a limited palette of transparent colour, to produce a complex, layered painting, reliant on found colour. The work belongs to an expanded form of abstract painting and consists of a flat painting on textile, a handmade, painted bag, blank canvas coated with gesso. The elements allow for different forms of presentation where the aim is towards a democratic outcome, which expands the understanding of the abstract, painted object. Overall the work raises questions of surface, found-colour, support, and the traditional portability of painting on canvas.

 

Eduard Escoffet (Spain) http://propost.org/escoffet/

Poet and cultural agitator. He has practiced various aspects of poetry (visual poetry, written, oral poetry, action poetry, installation), even though his work is focused on the sound poetry and the live concert. In addition to its activity in the Barcelona’s counter-culture, he has presented his work at festivals and poetry programs throughout Europe, in China, the United States and several countries of Latin America. Escoffet is co-founder of the poetic Untitled projects-propost.org (1996-2016). He was co-director of Barcelona Poesia (poetry International Festival of Barcelona) between 2010 and 2012 and directed the festival of poetic practices current proposal to Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (2000-2004). In parallel, he has also worked as a consultant in cultural policies. He has published the books of poetry Much (farmer, 2012) and The Earth and the Sky (La Breu, 2013), and the artist’s book Estramps with Evru (2011). With the electronic band Bradien, with whom he has collaborated since 2009, has released the albums Dust (spa. RK, 2012) and Scale (spa. RK, 2015). He was also a curator, with Eugeni Bonet, the film series coming soon on this screen on film lyricist at the MACBA (2005). He is co-author of the plays Have Wamba Was! (with Gerard Altaió, Josep Pedrals and Martí Sales, 2005), Puaj./Ecs. (Gerard Altaió, Josep Pedrals, 2005) and The Belbel Underground (with Carles Hac).

Untitled poetic projects – proposta.org is an independent entity dedicated to contemporary poetic practices and adjacent aspects. Since 1993, he has organized exhibitions and recitals and has published magazines and catalogs and, to date, has become one of the most dynamic entities in the field of sound poetry, polypoetry and experimental poetry in general in the city from Barcelona Between January 1997 and January 2000 he organized the stable poetry travel programming in Polynesian. Between 2000 and 2004, he organized PROPOSTA (international festival of poetry + polypoetry) at the center of contemporary culture of barcelona. In 2006 the PROPOSAL dvd (2000-2004) appeared, which shows a good part of the festival’s performances. He is currently organizing the ReVox cycle, dedicated to the new sound poetry, as well as some small activities during the year. He also collaborates with the juxtapositions and poets festival by km2 – poetic festival , both in Madrid.

Marcela Jardón (Argentina/Spain) http://www.marcelajardon.com/

Marcela Jardon holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts. National Professor of Visual Arts, National School of Fine Arts Prilidiano Pueyrredón, Buenos Aires. Her awards include Primer Premio Concurso Audiovisual Azulazul, Barcelona. Finalista en Canariasmediafest04/02, Finalista para los Descubrimientos de Photoespaña 01, Tercer Premio Convocatoria Fotográfica “mirar i veure” Universidad de Valencia, Accésit Concurso Fotográfico “Festa Major de Gracia 2000″c. llibertat, Barcelona. Her work has been exhibited and published in America, Europe and Asia. Institutions such as the University of Valencia, the Buenos Aires Museum of Fine Arts, the Sydney Opera House, Australia, the Kanazawa Citizen Art Center, Japan, the Museum University of Alicante, the Bangkok Regional Office of The Rockefeller Foundation, Thailand, The Center for Contemporary Culture of Barcelona, ​​the Department of Artistic Expressions of the University of Panama, the Argentine Social Museum of Buenos Aires, the Provincial Museum of Quilmes in Argentina, the Museum of Modern Art in Buenos Aires, the Museum and Historical Archive Cabildo of Montevideo in Uruguay, the Center of Art Santa Monica of Barcelona, ​​Reial Cercle Artístic of Barcelona, ​​and in diverse galleries. Some of them already belong to private and public collections of Argentina, Spain, Portugal, Canada, Panama, Ecuador, Uruguay, Australia, Italy, Germany, France, UK, China, Japan, Sweden, USA, Mexico, The Netherlands and Belgium.

Her artistic practice lies at the intersection of drawing, photography, video, new media, installation, visual poetry, artist books. I am interested in the investigation of the relationship between images and language. I understand practice as a way of reflection. The exploration of hybrid forms, where the vision and the process of production embrace various disciplines and distances between the past and the present, the analog and the digital. In my projects I incorporate texts such as “repentismos gráficos”, fragments of texts, decontextualized quotations from different sources, as well as calligraphy, and recreation of fragments of previous works. I am interested in non-narratives, or in other words, non-linear narratives

 

Patrick Morrissey & Hanz Hancock (United Kingdom) www.patrickmorrisseyhanz.co.uk/

http://www.saturationpoint.org.uk/

Patrick and Hanz live and work in London. Patrick holds a Master of Fine Art from Goldsmiths College, London. Hanz’s practice is self-taught.  Their joint project, Saturation Point, was initiated in 2011 with an internationally sourced collection of work by artists, with the intention of establishing an overview or survey or reductive, non-objective and concrete practice. This project has now become the, go to platform, for concrete, non-objective artists, mainly working in the UK. In terms of their personal practice, they work both individually and more frequently, in tandem in the field of concrete, mix media, installation, film/video work. The work is non referential with an implied internal geometry which is the result of the utilisation of a fractured system. There is an emphasis on the formal elements of abstraction in every case, which has the intention of inducing a cerebral immersion rather than an empathic or irrational / objective response from the viewer. Recently and together, Morrissey and Hancock have exhibited nationally and internationally, most recently in the United Kingdom United States and France.

Morrissey employs numerical systems, juxtaposing varying modules, to produce work which has been described as having a ‘meandering geometry’. His wide ranging, experimental approach references the philosophical debate on systems and describes forms that can be found within the built or natural environment. Morrissey’s ontology expands upon late 20^th century international modernist traditions, frequently re-inventing his approach. His joint project with artist Hanz Hancock has re – invigorated a burgeoning  re-assessment and debate around systems based abstraction in the UK by galleries and public alike, fostered by the development of their online editorial and curatorial project Saturation Point. The film presentation, ‘Red Stripe Blue’ is a digitized rendition of a modular painting by Morrissey which has been morphed via coding. It forms the basis of a projected installation project which is forthcoming. 

 

Liz Helman (United Kingdom) http://lizhelmanworks.com

Liz Helman is an artist working in time-based media, which includes sound. She is London based, self-taught and with no formal training as a composer. Practising since 2013 Helman has been: a participating artist/performer for Women in Sound, Women on Sound, lecture about work at Goldsmith’s, London (2017); so.und.ing DUO CONA, Institute for Contemporary Arts Processing, Ljubjlana, Slovenia (2017); MUSLAB festival, Chelsea College of Art (2016); [en]trapped soundpiece included in Synthesis Vol 2, Urban Arts, Berlin(2015); The Truth Inside, album launch, on Kohlenstoff Records, Montreal (2015); Light[drone] screened at Castlefield Gallery, Manchester with LUX13/ Millennium Film Workshop, New York with LUX13 (2014); Light[drone] screened at LAB Film Festival @ Hackney Wicked (2014); New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival (2014); Parallel Moment, tAd Gallery, Denton, Texas, USA (2013); LAB Film Festival, celebrating the working practice of emergent film-makers (2013); DROSSFESTO with Zbigniew Kotkiewicz /Departure Foundation, London (2013).

As a multi-disciplinary, Liz has always had an interest in ambient music and sound art as a form of expression. Her work, both visual and sonic, is a response to place and environment. Sensitive to how these energies make her feel, she is interested in the subliminal and sonic exploration of these experiences.  By walking the streets, and experiencing different levels of sounds, layers and textures she always begins her process with field recordings before studio intervention. She very much likes working experimentally, following the thread of the sound to its ultimate destination, which she likes to think of as sonic alchemy.

 

Francesca Partridge & Franck Dubuck (Australia/France) www.60degresproductions.com

Francesca Partridge and Franck Dubuc have fine arts backgrounds with professional experience in spatial design (museum, exhibition, theatre + film sets), graphic design, illustration, and 3D architectural rendering. More recently their work has turned to filmmaking including documentaries and site-specific commissions. Selected films include: Dialogues – in progress – (52 min documentary), an exploration of the transmission of oral traditions in music through a father/son relationship. Featuring flamenco guitarist, Pedro Soler, and contemporary cellist, Gaspar Claus. To be filmed in France, India and Japan; L’eau dans tous ses états / 2017 – series of site specific films commissioned by Les Angles town hall, France; Lignes et Paysages / Lines and Landscapes / 2014 – (documentary 54 mn), screened: France 3 TV 201, exploration of how artistic insight changed the course of a dying textile mill in Southern France, featuring designers Henri Quinta, Akira Minagawa, Shelly Indyk, Juan Carreterro and artist Judith Duquemin; HELENIS / 2012-2013 – creation of 7 short films incorporating 3D architectural rendering; Cannes la Cité du Cinéma / 2011creation of a short film commissioned by the city of Cannes (in collaboration with Imica and Panalina); Libre Parcours- Bernard Jouanneau / 2011 – (documentary 52 mn). Directed by Jacques Cortal, image, sound + production. Screened: Planète Justice, France – 24 times between 2011-2012; “VEDANTA” / 2011 – medium length film of a concert by the rock group Vedanta (30mn) incorporating projected films created specifically for the concert; Rushes / 2010 – series of clips of performances from the annual contemporary music festival «Aujourd’hui musiques» Perpignan, France; The Shelter / 2010 – video clip (4 mins) for the rock group Vedanta, filmed in London and Southern France.

‘Intervals’ is a 6 min film (40 seconds ÷ 10 seconds) x 4.  A 40 second segment of footage is turned into a loop of itself by reintroducing the starting point of the segment 4 times at 10 second intervals in superimposed layers over the top of the previous sequence. Thus the last sequence starts when the first sequence finishes, with the intermediate layers playing out in between. The 40th second of the segment is freeze framed and carries on for 10 seconds at the end of the loop. It explores the notion of time expressed as a continuing series of moments, inherent to the medium of film. The 40th second is an arbitrary moment or point in time towards which all the previous moments have been moving.  All the moments are underscored by the presence of the 40th second which gradually becomes increasingly visible as the successive layers play out and disappear from the staggered sequence.

Judith Duquemin (Australia/United Kingdom) www.judithduquemin.com

Judith is an Australian and British citizen living and working in London. She has a Master of Visual Art – Research (2000), and a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Sydney (2004), Australia. Duquemin has received an Australia Council New Work Grant; an Australian Post Graduate Award; the Fauvette Loureiro Travelling Artist Scholarship (2004) and the Moya Dyring Studio, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris (2005). Duquemin has exhibited nationally and internationally in Australia, United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Spain, since 1995. She employs abstract geometric technique that can be traced to a legacy of modernist geometric abstraction including hard-edge abstraction, colour-field painting, systems art, concrete and non-objective painting.

Duquemin’s acrylic paintings utilize mathematical code to produce tonal, asymmetric tessellations of multidimensional, multidirectional form. She situates her painting practice within the wider field of art and knowledge that includes conceptual art, experimental art, new media art and some areas of physical and biological science. Experimental art as defined by the Australia Council, is concerned with process because it defines an approach, not an art form. It is characterised by being highly conceptual, and it can result in new methods and forms; it is anti-market; sometimes political; sometimes anti-aesthetic; not concerned with pleasing audiences; and seeks problems rather than solves them. It forms links with history. It involves new materials or can be non-material. It produces new ways of working, new concepts and relations.