MAKI UMEHARA
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nüans Summer Academy
July 2009
Hallway, University of Cologne
Summer akademy / group exh. by students
Lectur.
Alexander Wissel, sculpture
Lucy Harvey, video
Anna Heidenhein, painting
Hüsseyin Kalakaya, typography
Alexandera Wolff, sculpture
Martina Klein, painting
Elmar Hermann, drawing
Rick Barnocky, drawing
Maki Umehara, installation
Vera Lossau, sculpture
Supported by / with the coopration of: Katja Stuke; The project 'Zurück auf Los', »School is open«, educational project by students of the University of Cologne
Apogee －A Compilation of Solitude, Ecology and Recreation: Tour
October 2010 - August 2012
#1-6 〈In Florence - New York - Los Angeles - Istanbul - Düsseldorf - Mumbai〉
In March 2010, nüans was located in three different time zones. Thus the search of ideas and material for a new book project started. At the beginning, it existed as a rough sketch of a common island. Further relocations followed and with each city we hit upon further ideas, people and contributions. The data started to pile up in the dropbox. Within the following year we presented a preview of the book at different locations, that is still growing even in the final stages of completion. Gradually, an expansive archipelago had developed and APOGEE gained more and more contour.
#1 Talking to Rock
"Spending a few days alone, I found myself talking to rocks, saying: 'I'm just a visitor to this place, but you have been here forever.´" Daisuke Takahashi, 2005. "That´s not the beginning of the end, that’s the return to yourself." Enigma, Return to Innocence, 1994. The desire for isolation and social borderline experience is not new but fascinates humans for millenia. Some of the most fabulous works have been created far away from civilisation; for instance in the seclusion of medieval cloistures. A retreat like a commitment for a residency demands clear decisions: Waywardness or creative power? Robinson Crusoe or the Holy Scriptures? Romaticism or madness?
October 16 - October 23 2010
Villa Romana, Florence, Italy
Event / preview / group exh. with
Christoph Westermeier (Florence / Düsseldorf)
Gudrun Benonysdottir (Reykjavik)
Jacopo Miliani (Milano)
Jakob Kolding (Berlin)
Leonora Bisagno (Luxembourg)
Lucy Harvey (Düsseldorf)
Marcus Herse (Los Angeles)
Matthias Lahme (Düsseldorf)
Mladen Stilinović (Zagreb)
Paolo Masi (Florence)
Riccardo Ruberti (Livorno)
Rick Barnocky (Düsseldorf)
Toshinao Yoshioka (Nagoya)
nüans: Anna Heidenhain, Elmar Hermann, Maki Umehara
Mattew Licht (Florence) / a lecture
Curators: Paolo Emilio Antognoli, nüans
The organizer: Villa Romana [residence artist: Anna Heidenhain]
#2 The Island Chose You!
"The sun and the moon and the stars would have disappeared long ago ...had they happened to be within the reach of predatory human hands." Henry Havelock Ellis (1923)... frolicking at the park and celebrating another preview of the book. For one night, selected artists connected to the book will have the opportunity to present their ideas at this very special location, a community garden in Williamsburg, NYC:
"Birdcalls" (1972/1981) is an audiotape on which Louise Lawler squeals, squawks, chirps and occasionally warbles the names of twenty-eight contemporary male artists, from Vito Acconci to Lawrence Weiner.
In 1978, at the age of 18, Dolly Freed wrote this manifesto called "Possum Living: How to Live Well Without a Job and With (Almost) No Money." Christina Quinlan, a young Cooper Union art student, is going to present Dollys ideas to the audience.
Jerry Goralnick has been working as a theatre artist for quite a long time, he is going to read a sci-fi short story written exclusively for APOGEE by the painter Glen Rubsamen.
Works by NY based artists Jessica Gispert, Susanna Thornton and Angelica Bergamini are going to be installed in situ.
Kris Pabon & Humberto José Castello from Miami ensemble "Animal Tropical" present a selection of island songs which take the Latin-based art funk that David Byrne made famous in the '80s and turned it on its head.
June 7 2011
ISCP Salon, Olive Garden, New York, USA
Preview / Group exh. with
Jessica Gispert (New York)
Michael H. Shamberg & Turtle Salon
Angelica Bergamini (New York)
Louise Lawler (New York)
Suzanne Thornton (New York)
nüans: Anna Heidenhain, Elmar Hermann, Maki Umehara / "The Island Chose You!"〈publication / "newspaper" / installation by nüans〉
Christina Quinlan / a reading / "Possum Living" 〈a story by Dolly Freed〉, in:APOGEE
Jerry Goralnick / a reading / "Rhyncferrugineus"〈a story by Glen Rubsamen〉, in:APOGEE
Concert / performance by: Animal Tropical
The organizer: ISCP [residence artist: Elmar Hermann]
Supported by: LeWitt Collection, Metro pictures
#3 Comfort Isolates
"Comfort isolates. Solitude limits solidarity, solidarity corrupts
solitude." Susan Sontag
The show in Los Angeles is the last step in a series of APOGEE
previews and features various aspects of isolation and laziness in
an urban context. The monotonous and alienating effect of isolated housing is a main
theme in the whole exhibition.
Gökce Suvari is going to realize some impossible maze wall drawings which combine modernist architecture and dead-end possibilities of finding your way in this pre-organised systems.
Utilizing minimal editing techniques, repetition, and corporal action
to engage the observer, Aaron GM (LA) uses his body, voice, minimal
studio props, and a single lens to create a whimsical and compelling
oeuvre.
Ana Barrado photographed the rockets in Cape Canaveral in 1988 and
created futuristic images that have appeared in J.G. Ballard's story
collection "The Atrocity Exhibition" published by RE/Search.
American artist Dan Graham presents "Homes for America" (1966-67) - a series of amateur-seeming snapshots of suburban architecture, published in 1966 in Arts magazine.
The American Felling Axe that Elmar Hermann uses in his installation
at JB Jurve is an icon of American wildlife romanticism. A perfect
example for taking cultural evolution radically serious. Every
feature of this axe was meticulously designed for uselesness which
turns a woodland tool into a general symbol for snobby weariness.
A famous yoga teacher once said: "If you don't have anymore, maybe
you don't need it anymore.“ - a sentence that inspired Berlin based
artist Klara Adam to use it as a title for a very fragile modell of a
shipwrecked villa.
WJM Kok's "Untitled (As Long As The Grass Grows)" is out of a series video pieces in which difference is provoked by using visualisations from a standard
computer software music player. The video also seems to act as a screensaver, which appears when a computer falls to sleep
mode due to a lack of interaction.
Joe Baiza is a punk rock and jazz guitarist who lives in Los Angeles.
Baiza is a founding member of the bands Saccharine Trust, Universal
Congress Of, and The Mecolodiacs. At JB Jurve Baiza performs
a solo setup during the opening night.
August 7 - September 20 2011
JB Jurve, Los Angeles, USA
Preview / group exh. with
Aaron GM (Los Angeles)
Ana Barrado (Key Largo)
Dan Graham (New York)
Gökce Suvari (Istanbul)
Klara Adam (Berlin)
Matt Sheridan (Los Angeles)
Michael H. Shamberg & Turtle Salon
WJM Kok (Amsterdam)
nüans: Anna Heidenhain, Elmar Hermann, Maki Umehara / "Comfort Isolates"〈publication / "newspaper" / installation by nüans〉
Text by EC Large, Gregory Mohr, Michael Tomasello, V. Vale, WJM Kok, in:APOGEE
Concert / performance by: Joe Baiza (Los Angeles)
The organizer: Marcus Herse, JB Jurve
#4 Out!
October 29 2011Polistar, Istanbul, Turkey
Book launch / group exh. with
Agan Harahap (Jakarta)
Edwin Stolk (Amsterdam)
Borga Kantürk (Izmir)
Felicitas Rohden (Düsseldorf / Istanbul)
nüans: Anna Heidenhain, Elmar Hermann, Maki Umehara
Boat trip including songs, stories:〈“YLICIS, an Island”, a story by Mark von Schlegell〉, in:APOGEE
Boat Recordings by: Borga Kantürk (Izmir)
The organizer: Kristina Kramer, Polistar
Supported by: IFA (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen)
#5 Every day is Friday
November 5 2011Book launch
»Oktoberbar (Single Club)«, temp. project by: Alexander Wissel, Düsseldorf, Germany
Concert / performance by: chiqueria (Düsseldorf) November 8 2011
»Nachtvoyer«, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Germany
Book launch / group exh. / concert with
Alexander Wissel (Düsseldorf)
Anina Brisolla (Berlin)
Markus J. Feger (Düsseldorf)
Martina Klein (Düsseldorf)
Nora Hansen & her Big Band (Düsseldorf)
Shigeru Takato (Cologne)
Text by: Walter Wehner (Essen), in:APOGEE
nüans: Anna Heidenhain, Elmar Hermann, Maki Umehara
Concert / performance by: Alpcologne (Cologne);
sub-tle. (onpa))))) / Berlin) + Usaginingen (Berlin)
The organizer: Kunsthalle Düsseldorf
#6 Oar or Ore?
August 2012Galerie Max Mueller Bhavan, Mumbai, India [residence artist: Maki Umehara, 2010]
The organizer: Goethe-Institut, Mumbai
Group exh., detail ▷
Photo (from left to right, below): nüans; V. Helvaçıoğlu; Y. Akdeniz
apogee ▷
documental ▷
on produceability ▷