'Underdressed and oversexed'. It's the beautiful in the obscene, and the obscene in the beautiful. NUDE PAPER, the Hamburg-based independent magazine of new standing, reignites the freedom beyond clothes and their politics. 'An orchid paper full of genitalia', Uwe Jens Bermeitinger, Art Director for NUDE PAPER, told me. A conversation in a sauna one day between Uwe Jens Bermeitinger and Hannes Deter (publisher), and NUDE PAPER was born. The first issue was launched in 2009, unknowingly to most. Young men, girls, older men, and transgenders - the only elitism that reigns through NUDE PAPER is the worship of nudity. It all lies somewhere between art, fashion, erotica and a certain philosophy - nudity as physical liberation, a sexual lure, a spiritual exercise. Those naked bodies on the hued paper usher in the unapologetic chic and poetics of beauty au naturel. It reads like sexuality's grammar: our fetish, our perversities, our inner exhibitionist, our unrestricted selves..."LIBERTE. EGALITE. NUDITE!"
NUDE PAPER Issue N°III can be ordered at BOYS BOYS BOYS with a limited 1000 handnumbered copies worldwide, featuring stories with and by Francois Sagat, Nettie Harris, Daniel Josefsohn, to name a few.
Photo Uwe Jens Bermeitinger and text Sophie Pinchetti
Presented at the contemporary Asian art Gallery Lipao Huang, Yin & Yang / Yin is the artistic communion between cult director Alejandro Jodorowsky and French artist and scenographer Pascale Montandon. Having exhibited together at Paris' Gallery Foret Verte and in London's Horse Hospital, the collaboration sees a series of works, each created by four hands: first, drawn by Jodorowsky and then infused with colour by Montandon. The works levitate between psychomagic fantasy, tragedy, humor and spirituality - all of which recall the essence of mysticism and symbolic theatrics in Jodorowsky's films. Montandon's own works are also presented in the next room; her works on paper evoking the metaphysical through purity of construction and colour in natural hues of warmth and cool. Throughout the main room, Jodorowsky - Montandon's works stage surreal scenes of a story of unity, fluctuation and balance between the Yin and the Yang, universal interconnected poles of existence. From L'Amour plus Fort que la Mort to La Sagesse des Langues, the phenomena is manifested - as male and female, body and soul, nature and human, violence and peace, and so forth. Montandon and Jodorowsky's symbiosis creates a sense of these forces, visually expressing their sense of cosmic unity and philosophy with emotion.
Yin & Yang / Yin by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Pascale Montandon is extended and runnng its final week until 28 May at Gallery Lipao Huang, 16 rue Dauphine, Paris. Photo and text Sophie Pinchetti
“Marx Reloaded” is a cultural documentary (52 min., ZDF/ ARTE, 2011) that examines the relevance of German socialist and philosopher Karl Marx’s ideas for understanding the global economic and financial crisis of 2008—09. The crisis triggered the deepest global recession in 70 years and prompted the US government to spend more than 1 trillion dollars in order to rescue its banking system from collapse. Today the full implications of the crisis in Europe and around the world still remain unclear. Nevertheless, should we accept the crisis as an unfortunate side-effect of the free market? Or is there another explanation as to why it happened and its likely effects on our society, our economy and our whole way of life?
Today a new generation of philosophers, artists and political activists are returning to Marx’s ideas in order to try to make sense of the crisis and to consider whether a world without or beyond capitalism is possible. Is the severity of the ongoing recession a sign that the capitalist system’s days are numbered? Ironically, 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, could it be that communism might provide the solution to the growing economic and environmental challenges facing the planet?
Written and directed by Jason Barker – himself an experienced writer, lecturer, translator and doctor of philosophy – “Marx Reloaded” comprises interviews with leading thinkers on Marxism, including those at the forefront of a popular revival in Marxist and communist ideas. The film also includes interviews with leading skeptics of this revival as well as light-hearted animation sequences which follow Marx’s adventures through the matrix of his own ideas.
Interviews with leading experts include: Norbert Bolz, Micha Brumlik, John Gray, Michael Hardt, Antonio Negri, Nina Power, Jacques Rancière, Peter Sloterdijk, Alberto Toscano, Slavoj Zizek.
The Architect’s Brother, is an exhibition series of works and sculptures made by Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison between 1993 and 2005. Including RC prints on panel, hand painted and layered with encaustic, photogravures and sculptures, The Architect’s Brother is the first exhibition in depth in New York of their works, at the Jack Shainman Gallery.
The artists printed their photographs from large paper negatives made by cutting and pasting a variety of images together. Large and richly textured, their pictures explore the possibilities of an apocalyptic future environment, in where people try desperately but still with faith to control the nature. Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison redefine earth landscape and interrogate the play devoted to technologies in the fate of humanity, in associating the content of environment philosophy and the eschatology’s aesthetic. The Architect’s Brother by Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison runs until March 12 at Jack Shainman Gallery, 513 West 20th Street, New York. Photo and Text Pierre-Alexandre Mateos
Noir c’est noir! My impression is that Sophia Kokosolaki did a great job integrating her design philosophy into her first collection for Diesel Black Gold at the Fall/Winter 2010 show. Sophia, who has become known for her draped body-con dresses, created interesting day and nighttime looks that fuse distressed denim with stretch black leather and sheer black mesh coveralls. Photo Olivier Zahm and text Caroline Gaimari
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