CHYBIK + KRISTOF COMPLETE RESEARCH CENTRE IN COLLABORATION WITH KOMA MODULAR | PRESENTING NEW INNOVATIVE MODULAR ARCHITECTURE

October 6, 2022

Following their first collaboration in 2007, CHYBIK + KRISTOF and KOMA Modular conclude their collective work on the Modular Research Centre, showcasing an innovative use of modular structures by altering conventional systems. Pushing the boundaries of standard modular architecture, the new research centre creates transparency and openness within the local community while serving as a think-tank presenting new concepts and possibilities of modular buildings.

October 6, 2022 (Prague, Czech Republic) – CHYBIK + KRISTOF (CHK) announce the completion of the newly designed Modular Research Centre with KOMA Modular, a Czech module manufacturer, located in Vizovice, Czech Republic. Latest in a series of collaborations, the recently completed 170 m2 research centre acts as a think-tank – an innovative space to challenge and expand on existing notions of modular construction. Situated at the edge of the KOMA complex, the new research centre carefully integrates the factory into its surrounding environment while creating a large semi-public social gathering square contributing to the employees' liveliness and progressive working culture. The one-story building allows passers-by to view the factory from the street level, further enhancing an accessible, transparent, barrier-free area.

The partnership between CHK and KOMA began in 2014 by creating a master plan for the entrance and public area consisting of three modular buildings. The master plan demonstrates a strategic configuration design of the factory’s entrance, expanding on public space, in which each structure unveils modular versatility. Following the completion of the Modular Cafeteria in May 2014, CHK designed the Czech pavilion at EXPO 2015 in Milan, which was later converted into an office building for KOMA. The newly completed research centre (2022) presents the third and final modular design, rooted in the concept of rotated containers functioning as columns, enabling an architectural malleable space to further expand on the notions of modular architecture.

Set to become an innovation hub for the factory complex to develop and explore new undiscovered building methods with modules, the research centre forms an adaptable system that can meet multi- purpose needs. Acting as an idea generator, the building is an important meeting place for all professionals to create innovative and special products, consequently becoming a default gathering point and evolution center for the future of modularity. Keeping in mind the structure's principal function, it is further underlying the vital element of transparency reflected in its building. Creating a complex that is open and welcoming to the local community confidently reflects on the principle of new concepts envisioned to form inside the rotated containers of the building.

Created as a prototype of a new and adaptable modular system, the research center underlines the studio’s dedication to expanding the limitations of modular architecture and engaging in supporting local communities. Putting the focus on crafting new shapes offering unrestrained modularity and showcasing an innovative system of multifunctional modular shapes, the studio is purposely shifting old paradigms and expanding on the typical rectangular construction to foster a transparent working environment. Bypassing the restriction of the customary use of right-angled units placed side by side, the research centre varies from a standard model in the basic re-imagination of the use of modular structures, making it a user-friendly model for the future of modular architecture.

Containing three main module elements, the floor, the container, and the roof units, the composed space creates a new unique system – spatial units containing the facilities are leveled onto the planar flooring modules, which are anchored to the foundation, functioning as columns. Placed in between the containers and the roof, vast window surfaces draw in an abundance of light, keeping the workplace open and connected to the exterior space.

The juxtaposition of the main modules and glass surfaces forms an all-inclusive spacious open area dedicated to horizontal and vertical working spaces. The area itself is entirely flexible, avoiding negative aspects of large open space offices, and can be readjusted to meet the specific needs of any project, forming multiple adaptable and individual workstations. As a natural continuation of the modularity concept, the furniture design allows the office equipment to be supplemented, changed, and adapted to new needs over time – pieces of equipment can be customized simply by re-connecting the elements. Building materials further aid in reflecting and understanding the innovative modular concept of the research centre, with its perforated surface and visible details used to the maximum extent in their natural form. As a material that KOMA manufactures and uses daily, aluminum was a clear choice for the complex, aiding the understanding of modular build principles easily.

Left Vaulted house in the small village of Pastena, Amalfi, Courtesy of Studio Architetti Artigiani Anonimi; Right Drawing of Proporzione Mediterranea_Daybed 01, Courtesy of Studio Architetti Artigiani Anonimi

CHK encourages further expansion and research of modular architecture and emphasizes its importance,

“As the emerging trajectory for modular architecture and technologies continue to advance, we have positioned our capabilities in this area at the forefront of innovation to create promising solutions towards a future that we believe lies in modular architecture.”

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NOTES TO EDITORS:

About CHYBIK + KRISTOF
CHYBIK + KRISTOF is an architecture and urban design practice founded in 2010 by Ondrej Chybik and Michal Kristof. Operating with 50+ international team members and offices in Prague, Brno, and Bratislava, the practice aims at creating bridges between private and public space, transcending generations and societal spheres. Taking into account local histories and environmental specificities, the studio works on a wide array of projects, ranging from urban developments to public and residential buildings. Recent projects include: the Czech Pavilion at Expo 2015 (Milan, Italy), Lahofer Winery (Czech Republic), Zvonarka bus station (CZ), or Multipurpose arena in Jihlava (CZ). The studio has been awarded a number of prizes, including the 2019 Design Vanguard Award from Architectural Record, and was recently amongst the European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies 2019 40 Under 40 Award winners.
chybik-kristof.com

About KOMA

KOMA is a manufacturer of modular buildings based in Vizovice, the Czech Republic. It is formed from several companies working towards the same goal, emphasizing innovation and design since 1992. They care about a good working and living environment, and they are constantly developing and impro-ving. When designing their solutions, they have the welfare and needs of the customer in mind, to whom they always want to bring a high added value. KOMA believes that the future of construction is modularity.

koma-modular.cz

Project Team:
Ondřej Chybík, Michal Krištof, Ondřej Mundl, Lukáš Habrovec, Martin Holý, Michal Klimeš, Dávid Medzihorský, Vojtěch Kouřil, David Bernátek, Petr Novák, Vladimír Šobich, Přemek Zhoř

Landscape architecture:
Atelier zahradní a krajinářské architektury Sendler

Technical solutions:
Jiří Valenta, Oldřich Studený, Petr Chval

Photo credits:
Jesús Granada, Alex Shoots Buildings, Julius Filip, Pavel Barták

Illustrations:
Alexey Klyuykov, CHYBIK + KRISTOF

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ANNARITA AVERSA FOR ARCHITETTI ARTIGIANI ANONIMI PRESENTS PROPORZIONE MEDITERRANEA | A MEMENTO TO VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE OF THE AMALFI COAST

September 22, 2022

Inspired by the visual and sensorial force of the pure and harmonious forms encapsulating the characteristics of vernacular Mediterranean houses, architect Annarita Aversa designs a limited-edition collection of seating and vases.

*Proporzione Mediterranea_Daybed 01, 2021, Annarita Aversa. Studio Architetti Artigiani Anonimi, Courtesy of Galleria Giustini/ Stagetti, Roma*

September 22, 2022 (Rome, Italy) – Milan-based architect Annarita Aversa, founder of Architetti Artigiani Anonimi, presents Proporzione Mediterranea, a collection of seating and vases emanating from her vernacular architecture study of Mare Nostrum, specifically the vaulted houses of the Amalfi coast. On view from September 30th – October 29th, 2022, at Giustini / Stagetti gallery in Rome, the collection builds on the architect’s ethos of the single idea of space, light and material by fusing design and architecture. Drawing from the wisdom of “Mediterranean vernacular masterpieces,”[1] the collection is a memento of heritage preservation, continually narrating its intrinsic worth and exemplary value.

Aversa returns to the origins and essence of architecture, to rediscover the intimate link between man and inhabited space. The collection calls upon this truthful synthesis of evoking harmony of human proportions, narrating as it does that architecture is a unique and inimitable product of human needs, desires, dreams and abilities. The rhythm of solids and voids, the soft shaping typical of the Mediterranean culture is further enhanced by the rawness of the materials, such as the colored terracotta and hand-worked wrought iron.

Aversa explains: “Conceiving internal and external space and its furnishings as a total unicum, strongly linked to the context, has always steered my work, particularly in this collection. The purpose of the project is to remind architects of the reasons behind our so very delicate task in an era often littered with disorienting images.“

Inspired by the distinctive houses with vaulted ceilings that line the Amalfi Coast, the limited-edition collection includes a daybed, a sofa, a bench and a selection of vases. As an integral part of the architectural Gesamtkunstwerk, the pieces create a natural play of light and shadow underlining Aversa’s intent to merge the world of architecture and design.

Composed of ceramic and metal, the seating alludes to benches set along the edges of coastal terraces, challenging the boundary between architecture and landscape. Produced in Vietri sul Mare, the epicenter of ceramic art and design on the Amalfi Coast, the modular seating pieces create a delicate balance of technique and form as a natural extension of space.

Designed as “architectural dreams,” the vases are a continuation of harmonious proportions. Their “skin” opens in a perfectly balanced mix of space, light, and water, defining a place from which to observe the world surreptitiously. The design echoes the intimacy of vaulted spaces, highlighting the skillful modeling of the raw materials, lending grace and meaning to every creative decision.

Left Proporzione Mediterranea_Vase III, 2021, Annarita Aversa. Studio Architetti Artigiani Anonimi, Courtesy of Galleria Giustini/ Stagetti, Roma; Right Proporzione Mediterranea_Vase 01, 2021, Annarita Aversa. Studio Architetti Artigiani Anonimi, Courtesy of Galleria Giustini/ Stagetti, Roma

As part of Aversa’s mission to preserve the natural and architectural landscape of the Amalfi Coast, she collaborated with the Centro di Cultura e Storia Amalfitana, in Amalfi on a handbook of drawings, photographs and research illustrating the necessity of heritage preservation. It will be available online and in the Casa del vademecum (“the house of the Vademecum”).

Founded in 2013, Architetti Artigiani Anonimi, based in Milan works on the different scales of architecture, elaborating and synthesizing in each project the complexity of the temporal, architectural and cultural context, and promoting the identity of each place.

[1] Bruno Zevi described houses with vaulted ceilings that line the Amalfi Coast as “a vernacular masterpiece worthy of standing alongside Brunelleschi’s dome or Michelangelo’s apse in St Peter’s.”

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NOTES TO EDITORS:

About Annarita Aversa

Annarita Aversa is an Italian architect, educated at the “La Sapienza” University of Rome and the ETSAB University of Barcelona. After having collaborated with some of the most well-regarded architectural studios in Europe - in Holland, Spain, and Milan - she decided to focus on her territory of origin, the Amalfi coast, through participatory planning initiatives such as “Due Punti Architettura” listed by the MAXXI Museum in the “Independent Project”, independent cultural initiatives in Italy.

Founded in 2013, Architetti Artigiani Anonimi, based in Milan, works on projects of different scales, the studio focuses on elaborating and synthesizing in each project the complexity of the temporal, architectural and cultural context, while promoting the identity of each place.

Annarita Aversa is currently carrying out a research project based on the recovery of empathy between man and living space for the “Molino Nuovo” project in Salerno, looking after the architectural design, various architectural projects for private clients and a project for the elaboration of methods for preservation of the architectural and landscape heritage of the Amalfi coast, in collaboration with the Center of Culture and History of Amalfi.

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TRANSPARENCY, FORM AND COLOR OPENS AT ARTEFACT.BERLIN GALLERY ON SEPTEMBER 2

August 16, 2022

The exhibition will present a series of mid-century glassware, featuring fine glass in unusual artistic shapes and various vibrant colors and pastel hues.

September 2 – November 18, 2022

Opening Preview: Thursday, September 1, 2022 | 6-8 PM

*Installation view of ‘Transparency, Form and Color.’ Photo Courtesy of Artefact.Berlin.*

August 16, 2022 (Berlin, Germany) – Artefact.Berlin announces its new exhibition dedicated to a curated selection of fine colorful glassware from the 1950‘s–1970‘s on view from September 2 – November 18, 2022. Transparency, Form and Color presents over 30 unique glass objects in various colors, shapes, and sizes, exhibited in honor of the International Year of Glass 2022, as proclaimed by the United Nations.

Alongside the glass objects, a large-scale unstretched sewed linen canvas by contemporary Berlin-based artist Nadine Schemmann echoes a similarly rooted appreciation of form and color. In her work, Schemmann explores the various layers reflective of human encounters – the spoken and the unspoken, giving these moments a lasting expression. The levels of transparency, the flow of color and its shape mirrors these interactions. In lost connection to mono, 2021, the vibrant green, yellow, and blue, added impulsively to the canvas, represent one of these interpersonal moments in time.

Inspired by the ways in which these two distinctive mediums employ form and color, cultural entrepreneur Anna Rosa Thomae, curates this assemblage as an exemplary symbiosis of art and design, as per Artefact.Berlin’s mission to support and present these intrinsically connected disciplines.

*Nadine Schemmann, lost connection to mono, 2021 284 x 245 Oil paint, chlorine bleach and ink on sewed linen. Photo Courtesy of Nadine Schemmann.*

Over 9000 years ago, the invention of glass by mixing three primary ingredients – silica sand, soda, and potash combined at high temperatures – created an extremely versatile material that with skillful craftsmen and artists reached new artistic heights. Today glassmaking holds an enviable place among art and design. Celebrating this shape-shifting material, the glass vases and objects on display are all mouth-blown and hand-crafted in delicate colorful glass to create sophisticated works of art conveying intricate craftsmanship and a sincere sense lightness. Distinctive for their color variations, ranging from lush Prussian/cornflower blue, cherry red and petrol to pale pastel colors, the pieces are shaped in novel fashion in graceful forms adding a modern sensibility and richness to traditional materials.

Selected objects in the exhibition can be attributed to Albin Schaedel, the internationally renowned glass artist from the Thuringian Forest in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR). Profoundly interested in experimenting and developing new techniques, Schaedel's affinity towards unconventional shapes demonstrated his excellent knowledge and skill of the versatile material. More specifically, he developed the "Schaedeltechnik,” a new technique of blowing vessels with a torch through an assembly technique producing unique pieces.

*Installation view of red, blue and petrol-colored vases and objects. Photo Courtesy of Artefact.Berlin*

Anna Rosa Thomae explains, “The subtle clarity and craft of the glass finds perfect harmony in Schemmann’s study of color and form.”

Predominantly working with large-format linen and various techniques, Nadine Schemmann’s work translates encounters, conversations, and moments in diverse shades on the canvas to engage in emotional interactions. The process involves dying or bleaching the material to then be covered with ink, oil paint or chlorine bleach, resulting in striking, but unexpected color paths forming organic, endlessly changeable edges on the linen canvas. With a desire to expand her color palette, Schemmann materializes feelings as different shades to create an expressive and sensory visual language translating encounters as the deepest and most honest form of dialogue. Reflecting the fragility of interpersonal relationships, Schemmann's paintings find their origin in the interstice that results when two people meet – crafting the space which remains free of color and that which is delimited by cut edges and seams. Only sometimes she stretches the linen fabrics on frames, never banishing them behind glass. Often, they hang freely in a space, or in nature, where they are exposed to wind and weather, where the color and fabric change with time. Just as interpersonal relationships cannot be preserved and made durable, Schemmann does not place this expectation on her paintings.

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NOTES TO EDITORS:

About Artefact.Berlin:

Established in December 2021, Artefact.Berlin is a gallery and project space prefiguring itself as an extension and complement to Thomae’s already reputed international cultural communications agency A R T Communication + Brand Consultancy, founded in 2014. Through a series of curated exhibitions, the project is rooted in Thomae’s ongoing commitment to promoting the interrelatedness between art, design and architecture. With a rich program of carefully selected exhibitions focusing on contemporary art and design, the space stands as an important reference point for art and design collectors and enthusiasts worldwide.

Rooted in the Schöneberg district’s distinct architectural heritage, Artefact.Berlin will continuously connect with local art and design professionals and general audiences alike through a dense program of multidisciplinary events, talks, and performances, once again fostering Berlin’s extensive and widely diverse cultural community and its visibility worldwide.

About Nadine Schemmann:

Nadine Schemmann is a contemporary German visual artist. She studied design and fashion at the Cologne International School of Design from 1997 - 2000 and at the Berlin University of the Arts from 2004 - 2006. In 2001 she moved to Berlin and worked as a freelance designer and internationally recognized fashion illustrator under her stage name Lulu until 2018.

Working with encounters in the broadest sense, her work arises from the need to translate encounters, conversations and moments to give them a lasting expression. In doing so, Schemmann recalls these moments and feelings as colors that then meet again on the canvas. Her own artistic practice is constantly evolving and presented in solo and group exhibitions. Most recently at Gutshaus Schwante, Kunsthaus Lempertz, Studio Berlin at Berghain, and TEXT-ile at Galerie Haverkampf & Leistenschneider, among others.

About Albin Schaedel:

Albin Schaedel (1905-1999) was an internationally renowned Thuringian glass artist – one of the most productive and influential glass artists of his time. Schaedel came from a family with a 200-year tradition in glass production. Following in his father’s footsteps, Schaedel joined the glass bead making workshop, began an apprenticeship in 1924 and was a journeyman with Edmund Müller in Neuhaus from 1927. After seven years of experience in glass making, he started working as an independent art glass blower and following his successful skills, in 1949 he was awarded the quality mark for handicrafts. By the end of the 20th century, he had to stop working in front of the glass flame for health reasons.

Works by Schaedel are held in prominent museum collections, including the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam; Hokkaido Museum of Modern Arts, Sapporo.

Transparency, Form and Color is on view at Artefact.Berlin from September 2, 2022 — November 18, 2022.

Artefact.Berlin | Geisbergstraße 12, 10777 Berlin, Germany

Opening Hours:

Monday – Friday

10 – 6 PM and by appointment

artefactgalleryberlin.com | @artefactgallery.berlin

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THE AFRICAN ARTISTS’ FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES TWO NEW EXHIBITIONS AS PART OF THEIR 2022 FALL PROGRAM | ELEVATING THE VOICES OF AFRICAN CONTEMPORARY ART

August 8, 2022

The African Artists’ Foundation encourages the expansion of African art on its continent and beyond – organizing exhibitions, festivals and residencies working to expand awareness of known and unknown African artists. Two new exhibitions focus on raising the voices of contemporary African Art through regenerative co-production.

August 8, 2022 (Lagos, Nigeria) — Lagos-based African Artists’ Foundation (AAF), established in 2007, announces two new exhibitions opening in August 2022. The AAF organizes a variety of exhibitions, both locally and internationally, festivals, and educational activities and community outreach programs to drive social change as its core ambition. Through their programming, the AAF supports emerging and established artists in Africa cultivating and promoting contemporary African art production. Shout Plenty on view from August 13 – October 1, 2022, is a group exhibition featuring over 30 artists from across Africa, taking place at the AAF headquarters in Lagos in collaboration with Alliance Française. Dig Where You Stand on view from September 2 – October 9, 2022, marks the first exhibition of a traveling show, taking place in several locations across Africa. The announced locations include: Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art (SCCA), Tamale, Ghana, The African Artists’ Foundation (AAF) Lagos, Nigeria, White Cube, Lusanga, DR Congo, Palais de Lomé, Togo and Hangar Centre, Lisbon, Portugal.

Both exhibitions underline the AAF’s mission to develop and promote contemporary African art through thought-provoking concepts of cultural rebirth.

Shout Plenty

Group Exhibition | August 13 – October 1, 2022

The group exhibition nurtures a dialogue between the individual experience and collective memory as a means of problem-solving generational distress. Seeking to build a story interwoven with distinctive voices, the curators gathered artists across different mediums to deliver a unifying message that nevertheless gives value to individual realities. Taking its name from the revolutionary and provocative Fela Kuti’s 1986 LP I Go Shout Plenty, the exhibition similarly challenges collective struggles through the experience of artmaking and interventions. Pondering the various ways freedom and voice echo through a collective experience, Shout Plenty gives agency to the interior lives of multiple artists, and by extension their communities, crafting a powerful means of protest. Alongside imagination and creative thinking, these artistic interventions produce a unique representation and understanding of socio-political shortcomings of generations. With artists such as Ayogu Kingsley, Isshaq Ismail and Audrey d’Erneville and more, the exhibition studies how art can function as a powerful and revolutionary force to challenge institutionalized systems of control.

Dig Where You Stand

Group Traveling Exhibition | September 2 – October 9, 2022

Dig Where You Stand explores the regenerative potential of art within the region and its diasporas, offering a new model of engagement with the questions of decolonization, restitution, and repatriation, both in the art world and the broader economy on the African continent. Cultivating the reformative potential of art across the region by placing an emphasis on travel, migration and (dis)placement, the exhibition is shifting the decolonial paradigm away from Western museums towards a location-specific, solution-oriented approach, leaving behind a toolkit in each location for commencing regenerative economic processes. The artists and local communities explore the economies of the colonial systems that have historically marginalized vulnerable communities and find new methodologies in the art world, which reverse its value systems and return agency to exploited communities on the African continent. Featuring the works of Ibrahim Mahama, Renzo Martens and The Cercle d'Art des Travailleurs de Plantation Congolaise (CATPC) among others, the exhibition curated by Azu Nwagbogu aims to promote contemporary African opus by facilitating a cultural exchange and contributing to communities with ideas rooted in liberation from the ongoing extractive processes in the economy.

Reflecting on both exhibitions, Artistic Director Azu Nwagbogu states that:

“Shout Plenty represents an expression of the exuberant modes of art making through contemporary image making, encompassing broader contemporary visual culture in fashion, media, sound, music and photography. It spotlights the artists identified as change makers using their practice to bring multiple discourses around social justice and fairness.”

“Dig Where You Stand symbolises a monumental shift in the ongoing cultural conversation around decolonization, restitution, and repatriation through the facilitation of pan-African artistic exchange and promotion of local solutions. Connecting key artistic practices from across the African continent and internationally, the exhibition maintains its exclusive modality, engaging artists interested in a circularity of economy around the art world and exhibition making.”

Continuing their programming after a decade of recognizing the artistic potential of its community and actively cultivating it to reach its full potential, the AAF has produced and curated a variety of projects that echo a strong cultural landscape of contemporary African art. In 2010, reflecting the organization’s commitment to engage the community and promote its artists. The first and only international arts festival of photography in Nigeria, LagosPhoto was founded. The annual flagship event’s main goal is to establish a community for contemporary photography uniting local and international artists through images that encapsulate individual experiences and identities across all of Africa.

Additionally 2022 exhibitions and events include: LagosPhoto 2022 Festival, Artist Residencies, including French Artist Delphine Dénéréaz, and another solo exhibition presenting the work French-Algerian Artist Yassine Mekhnache.

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NOTES TO EDITORS:

About AAF

Established in 2007 in Lagos, Nigeria, African Artists’ Foundation aims to encourage the highest standard of art in Africa. African Artists’ Foundation serves a significant role in art and academic communities through organizing art exhibitions, festivals, competitions, residencies, and workshops with the aim of unearthing and developing talent, creating societal awareness, and providing a platform to express creativity. By providing assistance to professional and emerging artists in Africa and support to international exhibitions and community outreach program, African Artists’ Foundation views the contribution to a strong cultural landscape in Africa as a transformative element in driving social change. In addition to a rigorous program of exhibitions and workshops at its gallery in Lagos, African Artists’ Foundation organizes its flagship project, the LagosPhoto Festival, annually.

About Curators

Azu Nwagbogu, AAF Founder & Artistic Director

Azu Nwagboguis the Founder and Director of LagosPhoto Festival, and the African Artists’Foundation (AAF), a non-profit organisation based in Lagos, Nigeria. Nwagbogu was the interim Director/Chief Curator of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art in South Africa from April 2018 to August 2019. He created Art Base Africa, a virtual space to discover and learn about contemporary Art from Africa and diaspora. Nwagbogu is on the jury of major arts awards and committees such as the Dutch Doc, POPCAP Photography Awards, the World press Photo, Prisma Photography Award (2015), Greenpeace Photo Award (2016), New York TimesPortfolio Review (2017-18), W. Eugene Smith Award (2018), Photo Espana (2018), Lensculture and Magnum. Nwagbogu also works as an independent curator and culture critic.

Princess Ayoola, Creative Manager & Curator

Princess Ayoola is a Creative Manager at African Artists’ Foundation (AAF). As a graduate of Engineering from the University of Lagos, shespent the early part of her professional career in the sciences and engineering sector. Her transition to the local art and culture space started when she joined the LagosPhoto Festival team as an intern in 2016. Since then, she has engaged in projects and workshops that border on photography, graphic design, writing, painting and so on, under the mentorship of Curator, Azu Nwagbogu. She was the Festival manager of the Lagos Photo Festival 2019, the first international photography festival in Africa, She strongly believes in the use of various art forms to address and effect change as it relates to personal, political and social issues. She lives and works in Lagos.

Jana Terblanche, Curator

Jana Terblanche is an art curator based in South Africa. She obtained her Honours in Fine Art from the Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town. She has recently been appointed as the Head of Development at Southern Guild Gallery based in Cape Town. She also works as a researcher and curator at the African Artists’ Foundation in Lagos, responsible for an extensive art programme on the African continent and abroad. She has curated shows at several art fairs including FNB Art Joburg, Investec Cape Town Art Fair, 1-54 London and Art Rotterdam. She has also curated a multitude of group exhibitions and mentors local emerging artists. Her curatorial practice predominately addresses decolonial theory, intersectional feminism and pop culture. She takes interest in interdisciplinary collaboration, empathy through artmaking and modern intimacies. The curatorial approach she employs amplifies a multiplicity of voices and champions nuanced storytelling.

Image Credits:

1 Left Samson Bakare Dreams and Everything Beyond, 2022; Right Sarfo Emmanuel Annor, Freedom, 2021, Courtesy of African Artists' Foundation

2 Left Zanele Muholi Muzane I, 2019; Right Zanele Muholi, Bester, 2019, Courtesy of African Artists' Foundation

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NEW-YORK BASED DESIGNER JONATHAN HANSEN UNVEILS CIEL NOCTURNE PORCELAIN AND IN THE CLOUDS COBALT GLASSWARE

August 8, 2022

With these new collections, the designer expands on his previous presentation of Ciels Bleus porcelain and In The Clouds glassware exploring the atmospheric theme of the sky and clouds. The new collections seek to convey a deeper and meaningful essence of the material and its possibilities to portray a sense of lightness and liberation.

July 6, 2022 (New York, United States) – Designer Jonathan Hansen launches two new collections in Fall 2022 as an extension of his previous Limoges porcelain Ciels Bleus (2020) and Bohemian crystal In the Clouds (2021) lines, offering fresh drops of elegance and buoyancy. The meditative Ciel Nocturne collection extends his collaboration with the Parisian porcelain brand, Marie Daâge. It features 16 Limoges adorned tableware and decorative porcelain pieces hand-painted by Daâge’s internationally renowned local artisans. The new cobalt crystal In the Clouds glassware features five hand-engraved pieces including a stemless wine glass, a flute, and tumblers as well as six serving pieces available both in clear and grey. Hansen once again explores the blending of contemporary iterations with classical materials and fabrication methods resulting in a design cosmos of infinite lightness.

Seeking its inspiration from the poetic and graceful Parisian grey cloudscapes, Ciel Nocturne represents a playful complement to the light blue Ciels Bleus collection. Through quick watercolor-like brush strokes, yielding an atmospheric airiness and fluidity, the pieces highlight a meditative experience of the clouds and the atmosphere, perfectly complementing the elegant nature of porcelain. The white color of the clouds is not painted, it is the actual tone of brilliant untouched Limoges porcelain, revealing its natural prized beauty. Reflective of the cityscapes as the day turns to night, the hand-painted grey tones reestablish this state of the sky and its serenity, lending a calm elegance to these signature pieces. As true ornaments of the collection, the clouds are touched by light, allowing the surrounding colors to become muted creating an ethereal sense of spirituality and connection to nature.

Ciel Nocturne, marks the second collaboration with the esteemed French table design brand Marie Daâge. Exuding timelessness, the picturesque Limoges porcelain brings to light the perfect paring of the elegant nature of Daâge’s exuberant watercolor like style with Hansen’s meditative collection. Known for her light and precise brush strokes and painterly quality, Daâge is able to materialize the modern interpretations of historical inspirations that are at the core of Hansen’s work. The wonderous color compositions and fluidity of painterly dimensions that Marie’s workshop achieves are some of the last to be painted entirely by hand in Limoges. Marie and Jonathan bonded on their mutual love in creating works that appeal to both modernist and classical taste.

As an extension of the transparent and tinted grey Bohemian crystal glassware, the new handcrafted and engraved cobalt pieces add a breath of a new life to the In the Clouds collection. Made by master craftsmen of the Bohemian crystal tradition in the Czech Republic, the pieces exude a profound richness – the deep blue cobalt color provides the collection with character and fresh intensity. The engraved clouds prove to be further visible in the opulent blue alignment, as the images of the clouds are finely engraved in the material, each uniquely punctuating the skies of the mouth-blown crystal. The collection grew out of an appreciation for nature, the wonderous deep blues of the sky and water.

“Working on these pieces and nurturing the artistic vision for this collection has enabled me to explore more deeply the subject of the sky and clouds, a focus that continues to hold my attention. Bringing to life the atmospheric depth of the sky and communicating it at the same time with clarity and power of new fitting colors, adds and complements the rest of the collection.” – Jonathan Hansen

Hansen immerses himself once more in the spiritual atmospheric depth of nature, with new pieces exuding a sense of lightness, evoking a boundless space and a fresh contemplative serenity. New models in the collections beautifully accentuate the uniqueness of each material, showcasing the endless beauty of one subject and exceptional craftsmanship.

Having worked with porcelain and crystal glassware since 2009, Hansen has built an extensive portfolio of produced for leading designers and brands, including Thom Browne for Baccarat, Lisa Perry for Coca-Cola, and AERIN.

The Ciel Nocturne and In the Clouds cobalt collections will be launched internationally through various retailers, including Neiman Marcus and Moda Operandi. Prices upon request.

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NOTES TO EDITORS:

About Jonathan Hansen
A contemporary creator with classical foundations, New York-based designer Jonathan Hansen has established his signature through collaborations with some of the leading names of fashion and furniture design. Building on his training in 18th- and 19th-century French, English and American furniture design, Hansen investigates the fragile equilibrium between functionality and abstraction that comes with each interaction between human and object. Placing the human body at the core of his work, he conceives each piece as a biomorphic being endowed with a subtle human essence.

Designing and fabricating objects for the past 20 years, he launched his product design firm Jonathan Hansen + Co. in 2010. Hansen has worked with leading global fashion designers and brands including Thom Browne, Lisa Perry, AERIN, Ralph Rucci, The HAAS BROTHERS, Marie Daâge, and L’OBJET, where he currently acts as Design Director.

In 2018, he debuted his independent design editions, SERIES I: Captum Biomorfe – the first of a continuous series of furniture design collections through which he addresses the ties between design, architecture, sculpture, and the human body. The series’ second iteration, titled SERIES II: Eximo Biomorfe, will be presented in 2022.

Hansen's design work has garnered academic and media attention alike. SERIES I was recently included in Karen Pearse’s Splendor of Marble: Marvelous Spaces by the Worlds Top Architects and Designers (Rizzoli, 2020), and his collections have been featured in The New York Times, Architectural Digest, Vogue, ELLE Decor, and Harper's Bazaar, among others.

jonathan-hansen.com

Instagram | @jonathandhansen

Image credits:

Ciel Nocturne Collection, designed by Jonathan Hansen. Photography by Joseph Kramm. Courtesy of Jonathan Hansen.

In the Clouds Cobalt Collection, designed by Jonathan Hansen. Photography by Joseph Kramm. Courtesy of Jonathan Hansen.

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CHYBIK + KRISTOF AND SKANSKA UNVEIL DESIGN FOR THE ‘SUGAR FACTORY’ | A NEW SUSTAINABLE URBAN DEVELOPMENT WITH EXPANSIVE PUBLIC SPACE IN PRAGUE

June 30, 2022

On the site of the former sugar factory on the outskirts of Prague, the multifunctional buildings with views of the river boast expansive open spaces – activating and expanding public space, fostering interaction and sense of community. The newly developed hybrid construction material, ‘Rebetong,’ is used in a grand scale and for the first time exposed as a façade, affirming the commitment to sustainable building solutions enhancing a circular economy.

*Image 1. CHYBIK + KRISTOF. Visualization of the Sugar Factory, Prague, Czech Republic. Courtesy of Vivid Vision.*

June 30, 2022 (Prague, Czech Republic) – CHYBIK + KRISTOF (CHK) in collaboration with SKANSKA present their new design for the mixed-use residential development on the former sugar factory site due for completion in 2030. Honoring the identity of the Modřany area on the outskirts of Prague, the large-scale project addresses the need to reinvigorate the neighborhood into a multilayered entity asserting the architects’ commitment to a holistic social and sustainable approach. With over 6,600 sqm of new public space, the architects foster public interaction and an increased sense of community, ensuring its relevance for contemporary, and future living. Paying homage to the history of the area, the hybrid construction material ‘Rebetong,’ invented by SKANSKA, is being used and exposed as the façade material – never in a project was the material used in this grand scale – stressing the architects’ continuous thirst for new ways of sustainable building and creatively addressing ways of reusing and readapting existing material for construction.

Facing the south side of the river Vltava, with plans to be surrounded by vast green landscapes, the area consists of seven urban blocks with 790 apartments, an integrated all-inclusive public square, a multifunctional hall, and a range of facilities, such as a coffee house, a brewery, retail outlets, a restaurant, a kindergarten, and a boat club, all responding to the specific needs of the existing and expanding local community. Involved in the design process from the beginning, the local inhabitants were able to shape their future landscape, highlighting the importance of community life and its corresponding social infrastructure.

The preserved sugar factory chimney built in 1927 is carefully integrated into the new urban block and serves as a landmark and symbol of the area in retaining its historical integrity. The new mixed-use 58,000 m2 development extends along the existing urban axis, creating a seamless continuity and connection within its existing urban landscape.

*Image 2. CHYBIK + KRISTOF. Sugar Factory drawings, Prague, Czech Republic. Courtesy of CHYBIK + KRISTOF*

Reflecting CHK’s commitment to sustainable building solutions, the project marks the premiere use of ‘Rebetong,’ as a façade material, a new hybrid construction substance invented by SKANSKA. Following intensive research and experimentation with different sizes, shapes and density, this crucial material utilized in the heart of the development, preserved from leftover bricks, reflects the unique industrial character of the site. It further explores methods of creating an ecologically friendly material, asserting the studio’s curiosity in developing new sustainable resources to expand the importance of the architectural language. To be discernable as a fully visual reminder of its past, CHK proposed using the material not only for structural purposes, but to also be exposed as a façade. Appreciated for its historic significance and ability to fit into the existing landscape, ‘Rebetong,’ acts as a functional and emotional connection to the collective memory of the area, adding value to the local culture, while being a sustainably elegant solution.

Additionally, the mixed-use residential area integrates a blue-green infrastructure and the preservation of green spaces across the whole complex. The advanced system of blue-green infrastructure optimizes water management, while the implementation of renewable energy sources mitigates the carbon footprint of the complex, embracing its biodiversity — creating a friendly space for the local species to build their nests.

*Image 3. CHYBIK + KRISTOF. Visualization of the Sugar Factory, Prague, Czech Republic. Courtesy of Vivid Vision.*

Reflecting the studio’s analysis of the area’s social dynamics, the residential complex is activated by public space in its entirety, from semipublic spaces, such as accessible rooftops filled with greenery, to a fully accessible public square at the heart of the community. The U-shaped design of each block creates expansive green courtyards providing new space for social interaction. Expanding all the way to the Vltava riverbank, the new urban block directly connects to the water through planned walkways and cycling paths, adding more space and function to the accessible public area. This gradation over the various public spaces serves all neighboring districts, putting emphasis on the community aspect of the project by making it accessible not only for its inhabitants. Through a temporary intervention called Cukrkandl, the project has already engaged the community through screenings, temporary playgrounds, and cafés, providing access to the current site and waterfront.

Co-founding architects Ondrej Chybik and Michal Kristof expand:

“Striving to create a diverse residential area with an expanded social infrastructure, our new design seamlessly merges elements of public and private space. The balance of architectural, technical, and sociological aspects formulates the harmonious habitat, which as an outcome, shapes a balanced neighborhood of distinctive identity.”

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NOTES TO EDITORS:

About CHYBIK + KRISTOF

CHYBIK + KRISTOF is an architecture and urban design practice founded in 2010 by Ondrej Chybik and Michal Kristof. Operating with 50+ international team members and offices in Prague, Brno and Bratislava, the practice aims at creating bridges between private and public space, transcending generations and societal spheres. Taking into account local histories and environmental specificities, the studio works on a wide array of projects, ranging from urban developments to public and residential buildings. Recent projects include: the Czech Pavilion at Expo 2015 (Milan, Italy), Lahofer Winery (Czech Republic), Zvonarka bus station (CZ) or Multipurpose arena in Jihlava (CZ). The studio has been awarded a number of prizes including the 2019 Design Vanguard Award from Architectural Record, and was recently amongst the European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies’ 2019 40 Under 40 Award winners.
chybik-kristof.com

About SKANSKA

Skanska AB is a multinational construction and development company based in Sweden. More than 135 years in the making, Skanska is one of the world’s largest development and construction companies, with 2021 revenue totaling SEK 148 billion. They operate across select markets in the Nordics, Europe and the United States. Together with their customers and the collective expertise of 30,000+ teammates, Skanska creates innovative and sustainable solutions that support healthy living beyond our lifetime. Skanska is active in construction, commercial property development (office buildings, shopping centers and logistics properties) and infrastructure development (roads, hospitals and schools) in all of its three market regions. The company plans, develops and builds homes in the Nordic region and in the rest of Europe.

https://group.skanska.com

Credits
Material technology expert: Bohuslav Slánský
Blue-green infrastructure: Jakub Jirák
Sustainability consultant: Radek Jareš
Engineering: AED project
Transportation: Pro-Consult, European Transportation Consultancy
Landscape architecture: Terra Florida
Structural engineering: Recoc
Fire protection: AMPeng
Illustrations: Alexey Klyuykov, CHYBIK + KRISTOF
Renders: VIVID-VISION
Photo: Pavel Barták, Tomáš Hejzlar, Archiv ÚMČ Praha 12

Project Team:

Ondřej Chybík, Michal Krištof, Ondřej Mundl, Šárka Kubínová, Lukáš Habrovec, Ondřej Mičuda, Martin Holý, Matěj Štrba, Ondřej Jelínek, Zuzka Pelikánová, Peter Chaban, Jan Kohút, Karolína Holánková, Lenka Kostíková, Michal Sluka, Frida Block, Ingrid Spáčilová, Francisco Javier Gomariz Moreno, Iva Mrázková

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THEARTISTS IN COLLABORATION WITH THE LUMBUNG LAUNCHES THE LUMBUNG GALLERY AT DOCUMENTA FIFTEEN

June 14, 2022

The new lumbung Gallery will make the artworks of documenta fifteen available on TheArtists.net. Rooted in the principles of collectivity and communal resource sharing, the lumbung Gallery will present artworks by most artists and collectives in the exhibition, including: Britto Arts Trust, INSTAR, Wajukuu Art Project & Gudskul.

*Wajukuu Art Project, Slum Art Festival, Wajukuu, 2018, Photo: Shabu Mwangi*

June 14, 2022 (Kassel, Germany) TheArtists, in collaboration with the lumbung members and artists, present the lumbung Gallery project at documenta fifteen. On view from June 18 – September 25, 2022 and available on TheArtists.net, a non-profit initiative with the goal of supporting and promoting the work of contemporary artists, many of the artworks of documenta fifteen artists will be made available to curators, public institutions, collectors, and communities. This enables the participation in the principles of collectivity by committing and possibly purchasing the artworks and thereby directly contributing to the artists and their connected ecosystems. documenta fifteen exhibition is the gallery space in itself, works can be experienced in situ at all the venues. Additionally, artworks will be available for viewing on the online platform of the lumbung Gallery in collaboration with TheArtists – www.lumbunggallery.theartists.net.

Functioning as a cooperative gallery, it is a project set to contribute to artists and collectives and their local communities, reiterating the principles and practice of lumbung as its core mission, where value, pricing and division of return are reconsidered in a fully transparent way. By sharing returns, the project contributes to a greater transparency in the art market, thus supporting artists as equal partners in this chain of communication. Having the communal element at its core, the project reflects the ethos of the TheArtists, supporting and promoting the work of contemporary artists without permanent gallery representation. Through this collaboration, the collective goal is to further establish an alternative way countering the traditional art market models.

TheArtists expand, “we are excited to be entrusted by the lumbung with this adventure. We expect to learn a lot, to excite buyers and institutions and to engage with the many artists and collectives of documenta fifteen in a direct and transparent way. This has never been done before and we are ready for this special journey!"

*Agus Nur Amal PMTOH, Prehistoric Making in Progress, Courtesy Agus Nur Amal PMTOH*

30% of all individual transactions and/or sales will go into the lumbung common pot, collectively governed by all lumbung members, and from which TheArtists will receive no commission, solely the reimbursement of its costs. The remaining 70% will be used and distributed to the artists and art collectives and their communities. The pricing of the artworks is based on the collectives’ basic needs and artists’ basic income, as well as production costs rather than the pricing system of the current art market. A contract, or declaration of commitment including conditions and recommendations of use and future life of the artwork will accompany all the works. The team of lumbung Gallery will be available in Kassel at ruruHaus to explain the calculation of each individual work in relation to the collective or individual artist and to facilitate a direct exchange with the artists, as well as considering committing to non object based art.

The lumbung Gallery is initiated by the Lumbung and developed and managed in collaboration with TheArtists. It is registered as an association (“Verein”) and will continue to exist beyond documenta fifteen.

In addition to the lumbung Gallery project, TheArtists is excited to announce the next curated selections available from June, 2022. Following the inauguration of the first three hand-picked curated selections by reputed German artist Gregor Hildebrandt, art collective Slavs and Tatars, and UK-based curator Maya El Khalil, the platform is delighted to announce a new selection by conceptual artist and curator Ahmet Öğüt. The selection will present four artists originating from Turkey.

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NOTES TO EDITORS:

About TheArtists
TheArtists is a new non-profit platform with the goal of supporting and promoting the work of contemporary artists not (yet) represented by a gallery. Eager to share new perspectives on the international art scene, and to propose an alternative model to traditional art market models, this new initiative gives the artists a voice and visibility. At its core lies TheArtists.net, an online platform to discover, support, and collect carefully selected works by seldom presented artists, curated by world-renowned artists, curators, and professionals. Behind TheArtists are Maren Brauner, Martin Heller, Hendrike Nagel, Michael Oswald and Beat Raeber. Beat Raeber is an enabler and supporter of contemporary artistic practice and has worked with internationally renowned artists with his former gallery RaebervonStenglin. Michael Oswald is the Creative Director of his agency OSW. Martin Heller is a Berlin-based lawyer and a longtime experienced consultant and counsellor for artists, galleries and institutions worldwide. Maren Brauner is a curator, art mediator and editor. Hendrike Nagel recently joined the team to run and manage the lumbung gallery in Kassel during documenta fifteen.

About documenta fifteen

As the fifteenth edition of the contemporary art exhibition, documenta fifteen will take place from June 18 until September 25, 2022 in Kassel. ruangrupa was unanimously selected by the international documenta commission as the artistic director of documenta fifteen and appointed by the supervisory board. ruangrupa has based documenta fifteen upon the values and ideas of lumbung. ruangrupa is a collective founded in 2000 and based in Jakarta, Indonesia. As a non-profit organization, ruangrupa promotes artistic ideas within urban and cultural contexts through the involvement of artists and other disciplines such as the social sciences, politics, technology or the media so as to open up critical reflections and perspectives on contemporary urban problems in Indonesia.

documenta fifteen | documenta-fifteen.de

About lumbung

lumbung, which directly translates as “rice barn”, refers to a communal building in rural Indonesia where a community’s harvest is gathered, stored and distributed according to jointly determined values as a pooled resource for the future. As a concrete practice, lumbung is the starting point of documenta fifteen: Principles of collective governance and resource sharing are pivotal to the curatorial work and the structure of documenta fifteen. The collective’s way of working is based on a community-oriented model of sustainability in ecological, social and economic terms, in which resources, ideas or knowledge are shared. The idea of sustainability is also comprehensively considered in the exhibition planning in all its manifestations.

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Emporio Sirenuse Unveils New Pieces as Part of its Home Collection during Salone del Mobile, Milan 2022

May 24, 2022

To coincide with Salone del Mobile, 2022, Emporio Sirenuse presents new additions to its Home Collection at Banner, Milan – a splendid series of glassware, decorated ceramics, place mats and coasters that echo the timeless aesthetics of the Amalfi Coast and pay homage to its continuing, evermore travelled tradition.

On View from June 7 – 11

Banner, Via Sant’Andrea, 8, 20121, Milano

*Paolo Bramati. Suzani Plates and Aria glasses. Home Collection 2022*

May 24, 2022 (Milan, Italy) – The reputed luxury lifestyle brand Emporio Sirenuse, founded by Carla Sersale of the iconic family-run hotel Le Sirenuse, will unveil its new pieces to its Home Collection at Banner, Milan, on view from June 7 – 11.

A collection of Murano glassware whose transparency romantically engages with the seascape of the Amalfi coast, and hand-decorated ceramics inspired by the long tradition of the village of Vietri, will join the brand’s carefully designed fashion collections of beach-and resortwear, which continuously distill the values and verve of the inimitable Amalfi Coast hotel.

The Aria Glass Collection lends its name to the air we breathe, aria in Italian, and more specifically to the refreshing breeze that brushes the waves of the expansive sea surrounding Positano. An immersive series of glassware whose surfaces, like the reflective tints of the water once touched by light, project luminescent reflections in motion, their aquatic essence inspires a slow dance of changing hues on a cloud at sunset.

*Chiara Goia. Aria Glass. Home Collection 2022*

Designed to hold cocktails, long drinks, and generous cascades of ice, the Aria pieces embrace Negronis, Spritzes and Americanos as they do the refined champagne and local wines served on the airy terraces of Positano's Le Sirenuse hotel. Each Aria piece is individually blown by master glassmakers in the Murano furnaces of Nason Moretti, a company whose centennial history has long been at the forefront of the artistic Venetian glassmaking scene.

*Prices starting at 110 Euros

The same spellbinding range of motifs that call back to the ancient Suzani-embroidered fabrics of Central Asia, first developed into a collection of cushions, now finds their way into the new selection of Suzani Plates. Hand-painted ceramics from the storied traditions of Vietri, a small village at the end of the road to Amalfi, they revisit the motif, whose embrace of the material looks bolder and more striking than ever. Here, the Orient once again meets the Italian coast, celebrating the ingrained heritage of port cities, beating hearts par excellence of the dialogue between cultures, where objects, ideas, stories, and endless discoveries have never ceased to transit.

*Prices starting at 82 Euros

Raffia Place Mats and Coasters

Made in Florence, the place mats and coasters, like the plates, are inspired by the Suzani traditional patterns. The natural raffia thread is woven in intricate circles, creating a gracious lace.

*Prices starting at 90 Euros

Emporio Sirenuse founder Carla Sersale explains:

My family and I are avid collectors of Suzani embroideries from Central Asia, they were available in the 70’s and now are almost impossible to find. Presenting our plates, Suzani inspired raffia place-mats and our exquisite Murano blown Aria glass collection at Banner in via Sant’Andrea in Milan is a great honor. Biffi and Banner are undisputedly the best concept stores in Milan.

The collection will be on view during Salone del Mobile, Milano from June 7 – 11 at BANNER, Milan and is available online at emporiosirenuse.com, matchesfashion.com, Net-a-Porter.com, Goop.com, Bergdorf Goodman and others.

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NOTES TO EDITORS:

Emporio Sirenuse Home Collection 2022

On View from June 7 – 11

Banner, Via Sant’Andrea, 8, 20121, Milan

Opening times

Mon - Sat.

10.15 am – 7 pm.

About Emporio Sirenuse Positano:

Since opening in 1990 opposite the Sersales's iconic Le Sirenuse hotel, the Emporio Sirenuse Boutique has developed into a flourishing lifestyle brand with an e-commerce site and two adjacent shops in Positano: a Men's, Home Décor & Lifestyle store and a Women's store.

Founder Carla Sersale's own collection of resort wear, Le Sirenuse Positano, was launched in 2013 at the boutique. The line includes a unique range of prints and embroideries on caftans, silk summer dresses, and easy separates. The brand has since grown a loyal following worldwide and is distributed internationally at top retailers including Matchesfashion.com, Bergdorf Goodman, Net-a-Porter.com, Aerin, Kirna Zabete, Ounass, Harrods, Luisa Via Roma, and other select retailers worldwide.

Homeware – including glasses, ceramics and textiles – accessories, and fashion pieces are all handpicked or designed by Carla Sersale and curated to embody the chic, understated elegance of the hotel and lifestyle on the Amalfi Coast.

emporiosirenuse.com | @lesirenuse | @emporiosirenuse

About Le Sirenuse:

Le Sirenuse opened in 1951, when the Sersale family turned their Amalfi Coast summer house in Positano into a stylish small hotel. Today the 58-room resort is considered one of Italy’s leading seaside luxury hotels, though it still retains the intimate, cultured atmosphere of a private home. The rooms are contemporary yet reminiscent of a glamorous bygone era. The hotel may hail the renowned La Sponda restaurant, and a spa designed by architect Gae Aulenti, but Le Sirenuse is still very much a family affair. Second-generation co-owner Antonio Sersale looks after the day-to-day running of the hotel, while his wife Carla oversees the boutique Emporio Sirenuse and designs beach-oriented fashion collection Le Sirenuse Positano. Le Sirenuse has won numerous awards and is internationally renowned for the quality of its services.

sirenuse.it/en

About BANNER Boutique:

Located in Via Sant’Andrea, BANNER is one of the most emblematic streets of Milan’s fashion district and is part of the BIFFI BOUTIQUES group. Designed by the architect Gae Aulenti, inaugurated in 1993, the boutique’s two levels constitute a formal, but modern space. The carefully selected lining materials create an effect of integrity, which is embellished by the artwork of contemporary designers. BANNER’s interior is the perfect setting for presenting the unique creations for women of Italian and international fashion designers.

BIFFI BOUTIQUES, co-founded by the Biffi sisters in the second half of the 60s, promote an eclectic combination of different artistic expressions thanks to the many collaborations with cutting-edge designers, luxury brands, architects and other young creatives from the design community. The group has five stores: Biffi Boutiques, Biffi B-Contemporary and Banner in Milan; Biffi Boutiques and Biffi Boutiques Accessories in Bergamo.

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ANO Institute of Arts & Knowledge | NKABOM – The Museum as Community | Dak’Art, Biennale of Contemporary African Art

May 18, 2022

Following its highly acclaimed opening of the Ghana Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, 2022, ANO Institute of Arts and Knowledge will present the exhibition Nkabom, The Museum as Community, at the Biennale de Dakar, 2022. With Ĩ NDAFFA # – Forger – Out of the fire, the fourteenth edition of the Dakar Biennale calls for the transmutation of concepts and the foundation of new meanings.

Featured Artists:

Rita Mawuena Benissan, Kwasi Darko and Kuukua Eshun

Curator: Nana Oforiatta Ayim

*Kukuua Eshun, Born of the Earth (an experimental film), 2022. © Kuukua Eshun. Courtesy of ANO Institute of Arts and Knowledge.*

May 18, (Dakar, Senegal), Nkabom — The Museum as Community, an exhibition looking at the various ways contemporary artists have interacted with the notion of Nkabom (coming together) as a community and collective will be on view to the public from May 19 - June 21 at the Biennale de Dakar, 2022.

Curated by Nana Oforiatta Ayim, Director of ANO Institute of Arts & Knowledge in Accra and Director at Large of Ghana’s Museums and Cultural Heritage, the exhibition Nkabom explores the idea of community and connection through the work of three artists: Kuukua Eshun, Rita Mawuena Benisson and Kwasi Darko.

Kuukua Eshun explores the reconnection of women of African descent with the earth in her film Born of the Earth; Rita Mawuena Benisson, remodels the Afayhe’s local spaces; and Kwasi Darko, whose work addresses contemporary issues showcasing the involvement of people in public urban spaces in Ghana.

The mobile museums created by Nana Oforiatta Ayim and built as modular, open-source bamboo structures, - fufuzela -, by architect DK Osseo Asare will serve as gateways to the exhibition; and as a gathering space and space of communion in Popenguine, facilitated by the community there. The mobile museum in Popenguine houses works from artists Go Salam and Moussa of Delu6waat, reflecting on their connections with the sea, the communities around it, and their relations to the environment. It is done in partnership with Wakhart, a cultural platform that provides spaces of communion for artists in Senegal.

Nana Oforiatta Ayim states:

“For each artist’s work, the curatorial space takes its cue from the spaces the artist’s reference: the colours associated with the earth which in Akan philosophy is feminine; the colours and textures of historical courtyard houses especially those linked with the ritual and sacred; the urban iconography and colours of street kiosks and places of transport and transition. Nkabom brings these public exhibition spaces into the museum and then reaches out again through the mobile museum."

*Left. Untitled. Rita Mawuena Benissan. Photo: Michael Dawka, 2022. Right. Kwasi Darko. Photo: Kwasi Darko, 2022*

Notes to Editors:

About Nana Oforiatta Ayim

Curator Nana Oforiatta Ayim is a Writer, Filmmaker, and Art Historian who lives and works in Accra, Ghana. She is Founder of the ANO Institute of Arts and Knowledge, through which she has pioneered a Pan-African Cultural Encyclopaedia, a Mobile Museums Project, and curated Ghana’s first pavilion at the 58th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. She published her first novel The God Child with Bloomsbury in 2019, and with Penguin in German in 2021. She has made award winning films for museums such as Tate Modern, LACMA and The New Museum, and lectures a course on History and Theory at the Architectural Association in London. She is the recipient of various awards and honours, having been named one of the Apollo ’40 under 40’; one of 50 African Trailblazers by The Africa Report; a Quartz Africa Innovator in 2017; one of 12 African women making history in2016 and one of 100 women of 2020 by Okayafrica. She received the 2015 the Art + Technology Award from LACMA; the 2016 AIR Award, which “seeks to honour and celebrate extraordinary African artists who are committed to producing provocative, innovative and socially-engaging work”; a 2018 Soros Arts Fellowship, was a 2018 Global South Visiting Fellow at Oxford University, was appointed to the Advisory Council of Oxford University’s Cultural Programme in 2020, was a Principal Investigator on the Action for Restitution to Africa programme, and is currently Special Advisor to the Ghanaian Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture on Museums and Cultural Heritage.

Fellowship, was a 2018 Global South Visiting Fellow at Oxford University, was appointed to the Advisory Council of Oxford University’s Cultural Programme in 2020, was a Principal Investigator on the Action for Restitution to Africa programme and is currently Special Advisor to the Ghanaian Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture on Museums and Cultural Heritage.

DK Osseo-Asare, Fufuzela Architect

DK Osseo-Asare is co-founding principal of Low Design Office (LOWDO), a trans-Atlantic architecture and integrated design studio based in Ghana and Texas. He co-founded the Ashesi Design Lab as Chief Maker and is Assistant Professor of Architecture and Engineering Design at Penn State University, where he runs the Humanitarian Materials Lab (HuMatLab) and serves as Associate Director of Penn State’s Alliance for Education, Science, Engineering and Design with Africa (AESEDA). DK Osseo-Asare creates architecture with and for the people that design overlooks.

Rita Mawuena Benissan, Artist

Rita Mawuena Benissan is a photographer, a cultural curator at the Noldor Artist Residency in Accra, Ghana, and founder of the Sihene archive. Her work explores the identities of Africans and African Americans while showcasing the profound beauty and power of black culture. She received a Bachelor of Fine arts in Apparel and Textile Design at Michigan State University in 2017. She has worked with nonprofit and community outreach programs including the Children Defense Fund and United Methodist Youth Alliance, which gave her the opportunity to teach and create art with student from marginalized areas. She has had exhibitions at Michigan State University, Baltimore Gallery, the Birmingham-Bloomfield Art center, University of Wisconsin- Madison, and the Dortmunder U.

Kuukua Eshun, Artist

Kuukua Eshun raises awareness about social issues and mental health through her writing and film. She is a multi-award-winning filmmaker. Her Film, Artist, Act of Love recently won an award at the worldwide women’s films festival for best visual effect and also screened at the Academy Award-Qualifying Urban world film festival. She has worked with Roc-nation, Vic Mensa, Wizkid, Huawei, Facebook, Variety Magazine, Michaela Coel, Lifetime Tv, The Economist. Her belief in gender equity has pushed her to protest on the streets of Accra and to collaborate with UNFPA Ghana to hold a healing session for young women who are survivors of sexual assault. She is also the co-founder of boxed kids, an organization that prioritizes in the ultimate purpose in providing an education to the youth of Jamestown, Ghana, and of Skate Gal Club, the first all- female skate crew in Ghana, whose goal is to create a safe space for women in sports on the continent.

Kwasi Darko, Artist

Kwasi Darko is a fine arts photographer and multimedia artist living and working in Accra, Ghana. His work uses visual artistry and performance art to create visibility and weave positive narratives for muses he derives inspiration from in his society. His work also explores Blackness and its many intersections. Kwasi is interested in the next step in our human existence, digital identity and evolution. His recent works investigates this phenomenon against the backdrop of the 2020 quarantine, its following isolation and ensuing digital events. His practice involves investigating and creating digital spaces and the possibilities that holds for minorities.

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Chybik + Kristof + Mecanoo unveil competition entry for Vltava Philharmonic Hall | A new cultural landmark and transformation of public space

May 18, 2022

Selected to take part in the prestigious Vltava Philharmonic Hall competition, CHYBIK + KRISTOF in partnership with Mecanoo, unveil design for the new philharmonic hall in Prague’s city center, set to become a new cultural landmark. Offering world-class standards for the musical tradition, the design of the hall expands its function to become a cultural hub and monument while transforming the existing urban landscape.

May 18, 2022 (Prague, Czech Republic) – CHYBIK + KRISTOF (CHK) and Mecanoo present competition entry for the Vltava Philharmonic Hall, a new musical and cultural center located in the heart of Prague. Designed to meet 21st century standards for symphonic music concerts, with the development of modern construction and exceptional acoustic design of the halls, the proposed building addresses the need for an integrated cultural and social hub that compliments Czech history and culture, and simultaneously responds to the contemporary needs of the city.

Prague’s area of Holešovice - Bubny – Zátory offers significant potential for a new vibrant district, waiting to be shaped by a new cultural landmark of fundamental social importance – such as the Vltava Philharmonic Hall, located near the Vltvaská metro station. Expanding on these ambitions, CHK and Mecanoo’s design integrates the concert hall into the existing city landscape, creating seamless urban implementation. In articulating the active part of the building’s program towards the urban environment, the architects propose a diverse mix of public urban spaces, including a transformed waterfront, a square, a courtyard, and a newly shaped boulevard, perfectly aligning with Prague’s unique topography and ensuring long-term economic sustainability and commercial development. Connecting the metro station, its vestibule, the waterfront and all other urban levels, the multi-level harmonious public space allows the concert hall to become a distinctive icon of the city’s urban landscape.

Urban ribbon wraps two separate cylindrical-shapedcylindrical shaped halls and forms an open-air amphitheater, connecting the lobby and open stage for cultural events. Located at the right of Vltava’s embankment, the main hall offers a unique visual experience for its visitors, and along with its structural engineering concept enhances the experience and quality of the architectural scheme.

“The main foyer has a prime position in the design, opening up towards the most notable landmarks of Prague: the Vltava River, Prague's city center, and the castle,“ says Ondrej Chybik , co-founder of CHK.

The five-story main concert hall, composed of the major hall stage level, its balconies, and the foyer supports the panoramic rooftop with a restaurant and bistro which is open to the general public. The second smaller hall is intentionally located outside the view of the dominance of the church towers responding to the HOLKA footbridge for pedestrians. A uniform urban carpet connects the site to its surrounding, creating a maximized pedestrian public space.

Emphasizing the combination of wood and the glass façade as its material, the hall is notable for its acoustic concept, designed by Nagata Acoustics, one of the leading acousticians in the world. The architectural form of the building enforces the perfect acoustic instrument as the great hall creates a clear transmission of sound from the performers to the audience by manipulating the dimensions and interior shaping of the space.

“The main concert hall cladded with wood resonates with the interiors offering coherent materiality and hospitable aesthetics. It creates an organism that functions as an instrument of excellent acoustics,” adds Nuno Fontarra, partner of Mecanoo.

The development of the project allows for the creation of both, necessary architectural expression of the concert hall and additional urban and functional composition, towards becoming a holistic cultural and social hub. The construction of additional features such as the multipurpose hall, a conference hall with the functions of a library and a school, allows the main structure to build on all urban ties in its surroundings by activating the street profiles and emphasizing the use of public space.

Designed as a modern representation of culture, architecture and perfect acoustic instrument the concept for the new Vltava Philharmonic Hall by Chybik + Kristof and Mecanno confirms Prague’s international reputation as a cultural capital.

Other Competitors include:

ALA + OV-A, MVRDV, OFFICE KGDVS + Christ & Gantenbein, Mecanoo + CHYBIK+KRISTOF, Barozzi Veiga + Atelier M1, Sou Fujimoto Architects, Cobe + Lundgaard & Tranberg Architects, ŠÉPKA ARCHITEKTI + MANGADO Y ASOCIADOS, Bjarke Ingels Group, Henning Larsen Architects, Carrilho da Graça Arquitectos, JAJA Architects, Bevk Perovic Arhitekti, Petr Hájek Architekti, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Snøhetta, Ateliers Jean Nouvel, David Chipperfield Architects, SANAA.

The announced winner of the competition is Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG).

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NOTES TO EDITORS

Credits

Authors: CHYBIK + KRISTOF + Mecanoo

Acoustics: Nagata Acoustics

Engineering: Buro Happold, AED project

Traffic concept: John Henley

Cost calculations: Martin Růžička

Fire engineering: Buro Happold, AED project

Art consultancy: Pavel Karous

Program consultancy: Petr Kalousek

Renders: Plomp, Mecanoo, Mangoshake Studio, CHYBIK + KRISTOF

Project Team

Ondrej Chybík, Michal Krištof, Francine Houben, Nuno Fontarra, Rodrigo Bandini Dos Santos, Jiří Vala, Ingrid Spáčilová, Eliška Morysková, Ondrej Mičuda, Tomáš Wojtek, Vadim Shaptala, Tomáš Babka, Daniele Delgrosso, Victor Serbanescu, Omar El Hassan, Selin Gulsen, Pieter Hoen, Isabella Banfi, Dario Castro, Mattia Cavaglieri, Aydan Suleymanli, Alessandro Luporino

About CHYBIK + KRISTOF

CHYBIK + KRISTOF is an architecture and urban design practice founded in 2010 by Ondrej Chybik and Michal Kristof. Operating with 50+ international team members and offices in Prague, Brno and Bratislava, the practice aims at creating bridges between private and public space, transcending generations and societal spheres. Taking into account local histories and environmental specificities, the studio works on a wide array of projects, ranging from urban developments to public and residential buildings. Recent projects include: the Czech Pavilion at Expo 2015 (Milan, Italy), Lahofer Winery (Czech Republic), Zvonarka bus station (CZ) or Multipurpose arena in Jihlava (CZ). The studio has been awarded a number of prizes including the 2019 Design Vanguard Award from Architectural Record, and was recently amongst the European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies’ 2019 40 Under 40 Award winners.
chybik-kristof.com

About Mecanoo

Mecanoo multidisciplinary, global firm with creative professionals working from our office on the Oude Delft, located in the historic heart of the city. Officially founded in Delft in 1984, Mecanoo is made up of a highly multidisciplinary staff of creative professionals from 25 countries. The team includes architects, interior designers, urban planners, landscape architects as well as architectural technicians and support staff. Mecanoo is led by Francine Houben (Creative Director & Founding Partner), Floris Overheul (Financial Director), Dick van Gameren (Design & Research Partner), and Partners/Architects Nuno Fontarra, Rick Splinter and Arne Lijbers.

https://testwww.mecanoo.nl/

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ANO Institute of Arts & Knowledge | 2022 Global Programming | Redefining Existing Museum Models

May 12, 2022

The ANO Institute of Arts and Knowledge in Accra celebrates its 20th Anniversary and announces a series of exhibitions and programming for 2022. Nana Offoriata Ayim, Director and Founder of ANO and Director at Large of Ghana’s Museums and Cultural Heritage, rethinks and reshapes the imperialist model of Western museums and investigates the changing cultural landscape.

*Untitled. Rita Mawuena Benissan. Photo: Michael Dawka. 2022.*

May 12, 2022 (Accra, Ghana) — Accra-based ANO Institute of Arts and Knowledge, specialized in reframing Pan-African and Diasporic archives, institutions and narratives, unveils its program for 2022. Over the past two decades, ANO has been rethinking and reshaping the existing museum model with the mission to challenge different ways of presenting and bringing Ghanaian and African art to the center of global art and culture landscape.

ANO’s 2022 programming will see a series of global exhibitions and projects unfold. Reflecting the organization’s commitment to reshaping the Western museum concept, the program presents a new perspective of the role of the museum, redefining the perception, comprehension and engagement with art and African culture.

ANO celebrates its twentieth anniversary in 2022 with the construction of a new space in Accra, made entirely out of local, sustainable materials, — raffia palm from the Western Region, by 84-year- old designer Ophelia Akiwumi. After two decades of building narratives in the arts, ANO is transitioning into future building, engaging more actively with the environment and education. Its projects which launch towards the end of the year will include models for new kinds of museums, ways of historicising, expression and conservation.

Marking its anniversary, they have announced a series of exhibitions globally, including The Ghana Pavilion at the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia (April 23 – November 27, 2022) and a project at the Dak’Art Biennale of Contemporary African Art (May 19 – June 21, 2022).

*Installation view of The Ghana Pavilion. Black Star – The Museum as Freedom at La Biennale di Venezia. Photo: David Levene. © David Levene.*

Ghana Pavilion, La Biennale di Venezia
Black Star – The Museum as Freedom | 23 April – 27 November, 2022

Following its highly acclaimed inaugural participation at the 2019 Biennale Arte, Ghana will present the exhibition Black Star — The Museum as Freedom. Titled after the Black Star that symbolises Ghana through its flag, and most important monument; connecting Africa with its diasporas through Marcus Garvey’s Black Star Line and his Back-to-Africa movement. Revived now in Ghana as Beyond the Return; as well as for Pan-Africanism and anti-colonialism with the symbol described as the Lodestar of African Freedom. The 2022 Ghana pavilion examines new constellations of this freedom across time, technology and borders. Curated by Nana Offoriata Ayim and designed by architect DK Osseo Asare the exhibition features large-scale installations by Na Chainkua Reindorf, Afroscope and Diego Araúja.

Dak’Art, Biennale of Contemporary African Art
Nkabom — The Museum as Community | May 19 – June 21, 2022

Curated by Nana Oforiatta Ayim, Nkabom — The Museum as Community ponders the various ways contemporary artists have interacted with the notion of Nkabom (coming together) as a community and collective. Investigating our co-existence with the earth, ritual gatherings and the environment, the exhibition features three artists who unify the idea of community and connection. Kuukua Eshun explores the reconnection of women of African descent with the earth in her film Born of the Earth; Rita Mawuena Benisson, remodels the Afayhe’s local festival spaces; and Kwasi Darko, whose work addresses contemporary issues showcasing the involvement of people in public urban spaces in Ghana.

Reopening of the Ghana National Museum

In addition to this year’s program, The Institute’s Director is curating the reopening of the National Museum in June 2022 after seven years of closure, with the mission of creating a museum truer to the communities that make up Ghana.

Commenting on the 2022 program and ANO!s activities, Founder Nana Oforiatta Ayim states that:

"Since moving back to Ghana, ANO has been working on a series of interventions to question what kind of cultural institution might be right for our context. Over the last year, this has expressed itself in a series of exhibitions that reexamine the museum as home, as community, as a space of freedom, as well as ideas of sustainability and local resources and materials. It has also been working on a permanent structure where the alignment and ideas of home, community and freedom, and the use of local materials are expressed. Its twentieth anniversary sees the completion of the new ANO Studio built by 84 year old designer Ophelia Akiwumi, who has spent her career working with local, sustainable materials as well as historical forms and symbols. It also sees a shift in the focus of ANO deeper into the research and foundations of knowledge systems, as expressed in projects like the mobile museum and cultural encyclopaedia; and towards a more integrated model that encompasses not just the arts, but also the environment and education."

*Left. Osu House. Headquarters of ANO Institute of Arts and Knowledge. Photo: NLC Ghana. Right. Portrait of Nana Oforiatta Ayim. Photo: Fifi Abban.*

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NOTES TO EDITORS:
About Nana Oforiatta Ayim

Curator Nana Oforiatta Ayim is a Writer, Filmmaker, and Art Historian who lives and works in Accra, Ghana. She is Founder of the ANO Institute of Arts and Knowledge, through which she has pioneered a Pan-African Cultural Encyclopaedia, a Mobile Museums Project, and curated Ghana’s first pavilion at the 58th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. She published her first novel The God Child with Bloomsbury in 2019, and with Penguin in German in 2021. She has made award winning films for museums such as Tate Modern, LACMA and The New Museum, and lectures a course on History and Theory at the Architectural Association in London. She is the recipient of various awards and honours, having been named one of the Apollo ’40 under 40’; one of 50 African Trailblazers by The Africa Report; a Quartz Africa Innovator in 2017; one of 12 African women making history in2016 and one of 100 women of 2020 by Okayafrica. She received the 2015 the Art + Technology Award from LACMA; the 2016 AIR Award, which “seeks to honour and celebrate extraordinary African artists who are committed to producing provocative, innovative and socially-engaging work”; a 2018 Soros Arts Fellowship, was a 2018 Global South Visiting Fellow at Oxford University, was appointed to the Advisory Council of Oxford University’s Cultural Programme in 2020, was a Principal Investigator on the Action for Restitution to Africa programme, and is currently Special Advisor to the Ghanaian Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture on Museums and Cultural Heritage.

Fellowship, was a 2018 Global South Visiting Fellow at Oxford University, was appointed to the Advisory Council of Oxford University’s Cultural Programme in 2020, was a Principal Investigator on the Action for Restitution to Africa programme, and is currently Special Advisor to the Ghanaian Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture on Museums and Cultural Heritage.

About ANO Institute of Arts and Knowledge

ANO is an arts and knowledge institution based in Accra and working internationally. It was founded in 2002 by Ghanaian art historian, writer and filmmaker Nana Oforiatta-Ayim and has been involved in numerous collaborations, publications, films, exhibitions and events nationally and internationally, with institutions, institutions like LACMA, Los Angeles; KNUST, Kumasi; The aim with ANO has always been to bring Ghanaian art to the centre of, and at equal level of, global art on its own terms, with the curation of the first exhibitions of artists like Ibrahim Mahama, James Barnor, Felicia Abban and of the first Ghanaian Pavilion at international platforms like the Venice Biennale, and to continuously investigate what kinds of structures, institutions, archives and narratives might be right for the Ghanaian, African and Diasporic contexts. In Accra its spaces has provided exhibitions, residencies, fellowships, talks programmes; it has also published books, produced films and workshops, a mobile museum project, and large-scale research projects, likes its Pan-African Cultural Encyclopaedia. anoghana | @ano_ghana

About Ophelia Akiwumi

Ophelia Akiwumi was born in Ghana and trained at the Paris Academy of Fashion in London, where she worked with fashion houses and modelled for prominent photographers and magazines including Drum Magazine. She returned to Ghana in 1963 and turned to interior design in 1976 and created her design company Art Deco in 1993. She works with lesser used species of woods, such as Raffia, Bamboo and Yaya to avoid overfilling and scarcity, and incorporates Ghanaian classical

symbols and fabrics.

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ARTEFACT.BERLIN GALLERY OPENS ITS SECOND EXHIBITION DEDICATED TO ITALIAN ARCHITECT AND DESIGNER MARIO BELLINI

April 28, 2022

Opening on May 7, 2022, The Aesthetics of Mario Bellini spans 60 years of Bellini’s unique approach to design. The exhibition will present a selection of furniture, lighting, glassware and porcelain objects, showcasing his innovative and complex oeuvre.

Opening Preview: May 6, 2022 | 5 – 7 PM

May 7 – June 20, 2022

*Installation view of AMANTA modular sofa chairs as part of The Aesthetics of Mario Bellini exhibition at Artefact.Berlin. Photo courtesy of A R T Communication.*

April 28, 2022 (Berlin, Germany) – After the successful opening of Artefact.Berlin in December 2021 and its inaugural exhibition, titled Remember that Time, featuring large-scale paintings by American artist Gunars Martinsons, the gallery presents The Aesthetics of Mario Bellini. On view in Berlin Schöneberg, from May 7 – June 20, 2022, the exhibition spans over sixty years of Bellini’s unique approach to design and displays different aspects of the designer’s multi-fold oeuvre. Curated by the cultural entrepreneur, Anna Rosa Thomae, the internationally renowned designer’s diversified assemblage is an exemplary symbiosis between art, design and architecture, as per Artefact.Berlin’s mission to supporting and presenting the three avenues as intrinsically connected disciplines.

The exhibition will present furniture, lighting, glassware and porcelain objects presenting a varied assemblage of some of Bellini’s most innovative and iconic designs as well as some of his little- known objects. Although Bellini’s designs were perhaps less ostentatious than his postmodern contemporaries, his work is celebrated for its originality, eternality and technical complexity.

Since the 1980’s Bellini has dedicated himself almost entirely to architecture, yet his furniture remains a timeless relic, celebrating the influential Italian designer and his successful and prolific body of work Anna Rosa Thomae explains, “Mario Bellini is the perfect unification of art, design, and architecture,” qualifying his work as an apt and opportune subsequent exhibition at the Berlin gallery. Accommodating a selection of Bellini’s finest works spanning several decades, witness a staged and curated display of his furnishings carefully sourced, hand-picked and restored to their prior wealth by Anna Rosa Thomae.

*Left. Installation view of Mario Bellini's glassware. Right. Installation view of table lamp Model Area 20 Photo courtesy of A R T Communication.*

The AMANTA modular sofa chairs were developed in the sixties and seventies, and the artefact records the transformational shift from the rigidity of Bauhaus design toward a playful and curvaceous, silhouette that represented the more informal and relaxed lifestyle of the period. For the exhibition, a set of two sofa chairs have been re-upholstered in a taupe velvet fabric, contrasting the customary white fiberglass shell backing. The designs are prompted by functionality as well as aesthetics and can be arranged and rearranged, as if a fluid sculpture one can sit on; its metamorphic temperament preordains its perpetual nature.

Additionally, the exhibition will present some of Bellini’s most iconic lighting designs, including the table lamp Model Area 20, originally created for the legendary Italian lighting manufacturer Artemide. Built upon an elegant ceramic base, the ivory lampshade is perched atop, and its silhouette is reminiscent of an opening flower. The furniture and lighting pieces are complemented by beautifully crafted porcelain and glassware objects from Bellini ́s long-term partnership with German manufacturer Rosenthal.

Established in December 2021, Artefact.Berlin is a gallery and project space prefiguring itself as an extension and complement to Thomae’s already reputed international cultural communications agency A R T Communication + Brand Consultancy, established in 2014. Through a series of curated exhibitions, the project is rooted in Thomae’s ongoing commitment to promoting the interrelatedness between art, design and architecture. With a rich program of carefully selected exhibitions focusing on contemporary art and design, the space stands as an important reference point for art and design collectors and enthusiasts worldwide.

Rooted in the Schöneberg district’s distinct architectural heritage, Artefact.Berlin will continuously connect with local art and design professionals and general audiences alike through a dense program of multidisciplinary events, talks, and performances, once again fostering Berlin’s extensive and widely diverse cultural community and its visibility worldwide.

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NOTES TO EDITORS:

About Mario Bellini:
Born in 1935, Mario Bellini is an Italian designer, internationally renowned for his menagerie of undertakings, ranging from furniture and product design, to architecture and urban planning. Bellini graduated in Architecture from the Milan Polytechnic – and established the international architectural and design firm Studio Bellini in Milan in 1973. He was chief editor of Domus magazine between 1986-91.
Bellini has won eight Golden Compass Awards, and has twenty-five pieces of his assembly held in the permanent collection of the MoMA - Museum of Modern Art in New York, among other prestigious museums both in Italy and aboard. As for architecture, he has contributed a selection of celebrated edifices including the Tokyo Design Centre, the Museum of Islamic Arts at the Louvre, Paris and the Museum of the City of Bologna, Italy.

About Anna Rosa Thomae:
Growing up in Berlin in the 1990s, Anna Rosa Thomae spent her formative years living and working between New York, London, and Berlin. With a career of over fifteen years in the field of global cultural communications Thomae has ceaselessly nurtured the premise that valuable synergies exist between, and can emerge from, art, design and architecture – a vision that led her to establish her own consultancy, A R T in 2014 in Berlin. Ever since, Thomae has worked with creatives across all continents, ranging from gallerists, museums, and artists to designers, architects, and more.
A versed art and design collector, constantly shaped by her professional and personal encounters, Thomae has developed an extensive collection bringing together vintage European furniture from the 1960s—1980s in tandem with Modern, Post-War and Contemporary Art.
Established in 2021, Artefact.Berlin is the symbiosis between these two passions that continue to develop to this day.

The Aesthetics of Mario Bellini, on view at Artefact.Berlin from May 7 2022 — June 20, 2022.

The Aesthetics of Mario Bellini

Artefact.Berlin | Geisbergstraße 12, 10777 Berlin, Germany

Opening Hours:
Monday – Friday
10 – 6 PM and by appointment

artefactgalleryberlin.com | @artefactgallery.berlin

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Le Sirenuse in Positano Reopens for the 2022 Season

March 30, 2022

Iconic luxury and lifestyle hotel Le Sirenuse is excited to announce its re-opening for the 2022 season on April 9.

March 30, 2021 (Positano, Italy) – We are delighted to announce that Le Sirenuse will open on April 9 for its 2022 season.

Le Sirenuse opened in 1951, when the Sersale family turned their Amalfi Coast summer house in Positano into a stylish small hotel. Today the 58-room resort is considered one of Italy’s leading seaside luxury hotels, though it still retains the intimate, cultured atmosphere of a private home. The rooms are contemporary but reminiscent of a glamorous bygone era. It may have renowned La Sponda restaurant and spa designed by architect Gae Aulenti, but Le Sirenuse is still very much a family affair. Second- generation co-owner Antonio Sersale looks after the day-to-day running of the hotel, while his wife Carla oversees Emporio Sirenuse, the resortwear and lifestyle brand sold via the two Emporio Sirenuse boutiques in Positano, emporiosirenuse.com and in leading stores worldwide. The couple’s two children, Aldo and Francesco, joined the family business in 2021, the hotel’s 70th anniversary year.

Le Sirenuse is a leading member of the Best Hotels of the World since 1970.

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MEDIA CONTACT
A R T Communication + Brand Consultancy (Berlin)
Anna Rosa Thomae | CEO & Founder | art@annarosathomae.com

NOTES TO EDITORS
Le Sirenuse
For more information, please visit sirenuse.it

Facebook | Instagram | @lesirenuse

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ANO Institute of Arts and Knowledge | Ghana’s National Pavilion At The 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale Di Venezia

March 17, 2022

GHANA COMES TO VENICE

Featured Artists:
Na Chainkua Reindorf, Afroscope, Diego Araúja

Commissioner: Akwasi Agyeman, Ceo, Ghana Tourism Authority Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture

Curator: Nana Oforiatta Ayim

Architect: Dk Osseo Asare

March 17, 2022, (Venice, Italy) The Ghana Pavilion at the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, under the patronage of Ghana’s President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, will be on show to the public from April 23 through November 27, 2022.

Following its highly acclaimed inaugural participation at the 2019 Biennale Arte, Ghana will present the exhibition Black Star — The Museum as Freedom. Titled after the Black Star that symbolises Ghana through its flag, and most important monument; connecting Africa with its diasporas through Marcus Garvey’s Black Star Line and his Back-to-Africa movement. Revived now in Ghana as Beyond the Return; as well as for Pan-Africanism and anti-colonialism with the symbol described as the Lodestar of African Freedom. The 2022 Ghana pavilion examines new constellations of this freedom across time, technology and borders. Designed by architect DK Osseo Asare, and curated by Nana Oforiatta Ayim, Director of ANO Institute of Arts & Knowledge in Accra and Director at Large of Ghana’s Museums and Cultural Heritage, the exhibition features large-scale installations by Na Chainkua Reindorf, Afroscope and Diego Araúja.

Na Chainkua Reindorf takes masquerade and secret society traditions that historically were largely male, and creates her own mythology of Mawu Nyonu, a fictional secret society made of seven women, at one with the elements around them.

This notion of oneness is taken further by Afroscope’s work Ashe, which explores the spirit that runs through all the elements, using technology as a translator of the flow of life, as exemplified by water.

The theme also underpins Diego Araúja’s work, A Salt Congress, in which the Atlantic Ocean that served to separate those taken from the shores of West Africa to its diasporas, now acts as a unifier, the birthplace of a new creole.

The installation in Venice will be created by architect DK Osseo-Asare, co-founding principal of Low Design Office (LOWDO), a trans-Atlantic architecture and integrated design studio based in Ghana and Texas.

The Venice exhibition is framed by Nana Oforiatta Ayim’s concept of the Mobile Museum, which travels into communities across Ghana in co-curation and exchange, with the aim of creating accessible, contextual, inclusive spaces. In Venice, the Mobile Museum programme will be presented during the Biennale Arte season with events and workshops created in collaboration with diverse communities across the city.

Nana Oforiatta Ayim states: “Ghana in its 65th year still grapples with political, economic, cultural, social and knowledge systems not made of or for its contexts. Systems created within its communities over thousands of years were deemed inferior to ones termed ‘universal’ by dominant powers. As we outgrow and move beyond ill-fitting systems; new ones, not yet defined, that draw on rich histories, not with nostalgia but with discernment of hindsight and experience; are forming.”

“Each of the artists’ work is connected to the theme of the main exhibition Milk of Dreams, they are each of them future builders, creating new possibilities and worlds even and especially in this time of chaos: by exploring our spiritual connections with technology; by centering and expanding representations of women’s bodies and beings; by looking into how we rebuild relationships with our environment and each other.”

*Diego Araúja, Untitled (from the creative process of Diego Araúja's 1st creollage, QUASEILHAS) 2018, Digital Collage* © *Diego Araúja*

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NOTES TO EDITORS:
About Nana Oforiatta Ayim

Curator Nana Oforiatta Ayim is a Writer, Filmmaker, and Art Historian who lives and works in Accra, Ghana. She is Founder of the ANO Institute of Arts and Knowledge, through which she has pioneered a Pan-African Cultural Encyclopaedia, a Mobile Museums Project, and curated Ghana’s first pavilion at the 58th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. She published her first novel The God Child with Bloomsbury in 2019, and with Penguin in German in 2021. She has made award winning films for museums such as Tate Modern, LACMA and The New Museum, and lectures a course on History and Theory at the Architectural Association in London. She is the recipient of various awards and honours, having been named one of the Apollo ’40 under 40’; one of 50 African Trailblazers by The Africa Report; a Quartz Africa Innovator in 2017; one of 12 African women making history in2016 and one of 100 women of 2020 by Okayafrica. She received the 2015 the Art + Technology Award from LACMA; the 2016 AIR Award, which “seeks to honour and celebrate extraordinary African artists who are committed to producing provocative, innovative and socially-engaging work”; a 2018 Soros Arts Fellowship, was a 2018 Global South Visiting Fellow at Oxford University, was appointed to the Advisory Council of Oxford University’s Cultural Programme in 2020, was a Principal Investigator on the Action for Restitution to Africa programme, and is currently Special Advisor to the Ghanaian Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture on Museums and Cultural Heritage.

Fellowship, was a 2018 Global South Visiting Fellow at Oxford University, was appointed to the Advisory Council of Oxford University’s Cultural Programme in 2020, was a Principal Investigator on the Action for Restitution to Africa programme, and is currently Special Advisor to the Ghanaian Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture on Museums and Cultural Heritage.

DK Osseo-Asare, Architect

DK Osseo-Asare is co-founding principal of Low Design Office (LOWDO), a trans-Atlantic architecture and integrated design studio based in Ghana and Texas. He co-founded the Ashesi Design Lab as Chief Maker and is Assistant Professor of Architecture and Engineering Design at Penn State University, where he runs the Humanitarian Materials Lab (HuMatLab) and serves as Associate Director of Penn State’s Alliance for Education, Science, Engineering and Design with Africa (AESEDA). DK Osseo-Asare creates architecture with and for the people that design overlooks.

Na Chainkua Reindorf, Artist

Na Chainkua Reindorf is a mixed media artist and mythmaker. Her work, which ranges from large- scale tapestries to immersive sculptural installations, is an exploration of and an ode to the rich cultural history of West African textiles, focusing largely on the complexities and visual culture surrounding masquerades and ceremonial costumes. She incorporates contemporary materials into her work, using these historical textiles and costumes as inspiration to investigate ongoing social topics centered on the politics of dress, identity and gender and their close relation to culture and tradition. Na Chainkua has exhibited internationally in institutions across the United States, as well as in France, Nigeria and Ghana.

Afroscope, Artist

Afroscope (Isaac Nana Akasi Opoku) is a speculative artist and designer for whom art-making is an attempt to deconstruct normative reality and challenge popular tropes by imagining transcendental visual narratives that comprise otherworldly beings, speculative dreamscapes and peculiar forms. He straddles the worlds of myth, mystery and automatism in his work, and sees art as portals into a multiverse of realities. He has exhibited widely in Ghana and Europe and was winner of the 2017 Kuenyehia Prize for Contemporary Ghanaian Art, Ghana’s foremost art award.

Diego Araúja, Artist

Diego Araúja is an artist born in Salvador-BA, Brazil, where he lives and works as an artist, director, and writer. He has directed the Creole Time process since 2015, considering the ongoing traumatic experience of Afro-Diasporic peoples and their descendants, He was director, playwright, and producer at Teatro Base from 2010 to 2017. In 2017, Diego Araúja and artist Laís Machado founded ÀRÀKÁ Platform, a space of creation and connection between Afro-Atlantic artists. He conceived a choreographic performance for the video installation A Marvelous Entanglement by artist Isaac Julien in 2018, was invited to artist residencies at Atlantic Center For The Arts in 2018 and SAVVY Contemporary in 2020. In 2019, he was invited by the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs to represent Brazil for the 56th Theatertreffen. In 2020, he participated in the Iberoamerikanisches Theaterfestival with his work QUASEILHAS. And in 2021 created an ephemeral architecture with the name Lands Giving Birth Gold connecting Brazil and Ghana through their respective work songs.

GhanainVenice

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Rony Plesl | Trees Grow from the Sky Collateral Event of the 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia

March 1, 2022

The exhibition, a Collateral Event of the Biennale Arte 2022, presents a large-scale site-specific installation of glass sculptures in the historic Chiesa di Santa Maria della Visitazione. Conceived especially for the 59th International Art Exhibition, it marks the global premiere of Vitrum Vivum, a new revolutionary full relief glass casting technology – coinciding with the 2022 International Year of Glass.

23 April - 27 November 2022

March 1, 2022 (Venice, Italy) – The House of Art Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic is proud to announce the exhibition Rony Plesl: Trees Grow from the Sky / Gli alberi crescono dal cielo as Collateral Event of the 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, on view from April 23 - November 27, 2022.

Created by Czech artist and sculptor Rony Plesl, the site-specific installation will unveil four large-scale glass sculptures in the Chiesa di Santa Maria della Visitazione in the Dorsoduro district with views of the Giudecca Canal. They are developed using an unprecedented and unique glass casting technology, allowing the creation of grand glass sculptures without any limitations. Curated by Lucie Drdova, Prague-based art historian, gallerist, and author, the exhibition coincides with the 2022 International Year of Glass as proclaimed by the United Nations – and thus presents a timely artistic and technological exploration of the material.

Plesl has been exploring the possibilities of the materiality of glass and glass sculpture for more than four decades. His sources of inspiration are deeply rooted in his fascination with geometry, the intimacy of the Italian Renaissance, and the architectural opulence of the Baroque. Plesl’s admiration for Caspar David Friedrich’s intense and emotional focus on nature his allegorical landscapes are reflected in this body of work. At the beginning of his career, he spent several formative years in Venice on the island of Murano, studying the material and learning the craft from Italian master glassmakers. In collaboration with glass professionals, he started to shift the perspective of glassmaking and its possibilities within contemporary art and for his own body of work.

As an expansion of the master craftsmen that follow Czech Republic’s centuries-old traditional crystal production, hailing from the regions of Bohemia since the late 16th century, distinguished for the quality and beauty that has come to characterize its ateliers, and the techniques passed on by them, the Vitrum Vivum glassmaking technology further revolutionizes this craft. The unique process consists in casting glass as if it were bronze, giving the artist complete artistic freedom over the creative process that can begin with models made of paper, plaster or even objects found in nature, which in the end become artefacts themselves. Developed over the last 12 years by Jiri Sin, Czech glass master and inventor, the Vitrum Vivum technology reveals a world of possibilities in the glassmaking field. Plesl’s Trees Grow from the Sky marks the world premiere of sculptures of this scale using this new groundbreaking full relief glass casting technology.

The installation concept was created by contemporary Czech architect Josef Pleskot and follows the proportions of the Renaissance architectural canon of symmetry and perspective. Four glass monoliths dominate the nave of the early Cinquecento church. Three pure crystal glass sculptures (600 kg and 205 x 75 cm each), characterized by the real imprint of an 80-year-old oak tree found in the woods of Northern Bohemia, are erected vertically in the centre of the space and mirror the rhythm of the columns of the church altars. The perfection of their bark is accentuated by the haptic character of the material, while the luminous and translucent surface invites the viewer to look inside, encouraging interpretation of an imaginary journey exploring the true essence of things.

The crystal larger-than-life trunks also allude to the symbolics of the number three and to the Franciscan thesis of complementarity of nature and man. The last tree, located near the altar, symbolizes a spiritual and transcendent message of transformation delivered through an actual metamorphosis of the tree's bark into a human figure. Made of uranium glass and covered with a bas-relief of the bodies of Jesus Christ, it illuminates the space with a mysterious, revelatory light. This radioactive uranium technique was discovered in Bohemia during the Baroque period and gives the glass an incredible subterranean phosphorescent glow in a bright yellow-green color.

Trees Grow from the Sky explores the nature of human existence and the definition of humanity through a site-specific path that emphasizes man's introspective nature in a continuous metaphor with the glass as a living material. A spirit that reflects the theme of the 59th International Art Exhibition titled Il latte dei sogni / The Milk of Dreams, curated by Cecilia Alemani, which takes its name from Leonora Carrington's book — a call to self-transcendence, inviting one to re-envision life through the prism of the imagination, an invitation to embark on an imaginary journey through metamorphoses of the body, the conceptions of ourselves, and the definitions of humanity.

Plesl explains, “the overall concept of the exhibition addresses questions of human existence and definition of humanity, touching upon the relation of man and nature, and its multiple layers of meaning. The narrative revolves around a journey; around seeking our path in the world of today.”

The Collateral Event is accompanied by a catalogue with essays by curator Lucie Drdova, Michal Skoda, artist and director of the House of Art Ceske Budejovice, and Petr Borkovec, poet, translator and journalist. The catalogue will be published in Czech, English and Italian.

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NOTES TO EDITORS:
Rony Plesl: Trees Grow from the Sky / Gli alberi crescono dal cielo
23 April – 27 November 2022
Chiesa di Santa Maria della Visitazione
Fondamenta Zattere Ai Gesuati, Venice, Italy
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21 April | 10 am – 4 pm

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27 September - 27 November | 10 am – 6 pm
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About Rony Plesl
Rony Plesl, leading Czech artist, sculptor, designer, and professor (1965, lives and works in Prague, Czech Republic), ranks among top internationally acknowledged artists in the field of glass sculpture. His unique oeuvre grows out of his deep knowledge of quality glassmaking and the technologies he employs in his original designs and primarily in his artistic work. He explores the possibilities of glass sculpture and deliberately approaches it as a distinctive medium, with respect for the work of his predecessors – Professor Libensky and others, who founded this relatively young discipline in the Czech Republic – while also respecting the history of the craft. The monumentality of his work is enhanced by his use of a globally unique glass casting technology. The sense of detail and the precision grinding, typical of the Czech glassmaking school, are paramount in Plesl’s work, although they never supersede the conceptual ideas behind the art. It is yet another step towards the emancipation of the medium of glass sculpture; towards a unique definition of how far the limits of contemporary art can be pushed.
Since 2008, Rony Plesl is Head of the Studio of Glass at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. In 2017, he was appointed Professor of Design and Architecture. Artworks by Plesl are represented in public and private collections in the Czech Republic and internationally.

About House of Art Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
The House of Art Ceske Budejovice ranks among leading European institutions in the context of public museums and galleries. Established and administered by the Statutory City of Ceske Budejovice, the non-profit organization of the kunsthalle type focuses on international contemporary art and architecture as well as leading local artists, firmly believing that one must always strive for high quality even in peripheral regions.
Previously exhibited artists include: Thomas Schütte and Christiane Löhr (both exhibitions moved to 2022), Antony Gormley (2019), Dirk Braeckman (2019), Mirosław Bałka (2017), Sean Scully (2016), Wolfgang Tillmans (2015), Martin Creed (2012), Carsten Nicolai (2011), Christopher Williams (2011), Eva Koťátková (2011), Lawrence Weiner (2010), Liam Gillick (2010), Silvia Bächli (2006), Florian Pumhösl (2005), Günther Förg (2001) and Mimmo Paladino (2000). Previously exhibited architects include: Barozzi Veiga Architects (moved to 2022), Sergison Bates Architects (2018), Peter Märkli (2017), Smiljan Radic (2017) and Caruso St John (2016).

About Lucie Drdova
Lucie Drdova (1982) is a Prague-based art historian, gallerist, and author. She combines her academic expertise (Department of Art History at Masaryk University in Brno and University of Applied Arts in Vienna) and professional experience at European exhibition institutions (Museum of Modern Arts in Vienna and Academy of Fine Arts in Prague) to curate contemporary art and promote the contemporary art scene. In 2012, she founded Lucie Drdova Gallery with a focus on contemporary art based in Prague and Brussels. In 2019, she co-founded The Alliance of Czech Contemporary Art Galleries and its SUMO Prague initiative to cultivate the shared space and establish gallery cooperation. In late 2020, she founded the Luc Art Fund to strengthen the international presence of Czech visual artists on the contemporary art scene. Drdova regularly publishes and lectures on topics concerning the institutional context of contemporary art, gallery practice and work of contemporary artists as well as the art market for Czech professional media and newspapers. She currently pursues a doctoral degree in art history at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, with a focus on institutional practice and operation models of museums and galleries in the field of contemporary art.

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