News & Opinion - Art in America

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Rhizome's Seven on Seven, including Boston Marathoner

Rhizome's fourth annual "Seven on Seven" conference on Saturday dovetailed eerily with the Boston Marathon bombings. The purpose of the get-together is to foster dialogue between art and technology, but the bombings drew attention to tracking and surveillance in a surprisingly personal way when it was revealed that one of the participants had run the Marathon. Read More

Pod Hopping in Miami

by Paul David Young 12/11/12

Despite general art world trends toward the performative or dematerialized work, Art Basel Miami Beach 2012 was clearly running a brisk trade in paintings and sculpture. Still, a smattering of video and some performance were thrown into the mix.

The main fair at the Miami Convention Center featured a selection of video displayed in wooden "pods" at the middle of the building, while some galleries found room in their booths to show some as well.
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David Levine's Habit at the Essex Market

by Paul David Young 9/29/12

If you haven't already, cruise by the Essex Market in New York's Lower East Side to catch David Levine's Habit, which runs through Sunday, Sept. 30. Habit, presented by French Institute Alliance Française and Performance Space 122 as part of the Crossing the Line Festival 2012, plays continuously every day for eight hours, but you can watch however much you want and come and go as you please. That's one of the interesting things about Levine's type of art-theater. It frees the spectator from the purgatory of theater architecture and theater etiquette. Habit is also free in the sense that there's no admission charge.

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In Jerusalem, a De-Politicized 'Season'

by Paul David Young 9/19/12

Now in its second year, the Jerusalem Season of Culture is a two-and-a-half-month program of music, performance and art. The festival is an effort to establish Jerusalem as a city with diverse cultural offerings, not just a religious hotbed. Journalists were invited to experience the final days of the Season of Culture, which concluded this month. The Jerusalem Season of Culture was initiated by the Schusterman Foundation-Israel in cooperation with the Jerusalem Municipality and the Jerusalem Foundation. Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat has been an enthusiastic supporter from the outset.

It is impossible to consider the culture of Jerusalem without taking into account its military, political and religious context. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu daily beats the war drum to bomb Iran. Civil war rages in Damascus, just 130 miles from Jerusalem. Stateless Palestinians reside on the other side of a giant concrete barrier that runs along the highway to Jerusalem. The recent attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya, following the distribution of an anti-Islamic video made by right-wing Americans, only heightens the need to question the political uses of culture.
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Theatrical Sound: Q+A with Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller

by Paul David Young 8/27/12

In the vast, dark Park Avenue Armory drill hall, Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller have arranged 98 speakers, each with its own soundtrack, for The Murder of Crows. Cardiff's voice recounts her dreams from an old-fashioned speaker horn, which rests on a table in the center of the room. As the sound varies in source and echoes, it takes on a strange physicality.

A.i.A. spoke with the British Columbia- and Berlin-based artists by telephone last week.
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