LEO XU PROJECTS

Gabriel Lester participates in dOCUMENTA (13). The exhibition runs from June 9th through September 16th 2012, in Kassel, Germany.

For dOCUMENTA (13), Gabriel Lester produced two site-specific projects, continuing his experiments in time and space and probing possibilities of cross edits and cinematic repertoire. Located in Karlsaue Park, “Transition 2012” (2012) is an architectural sculpture in shape of a curved tunnel about 5/8 of a circle and 5/8 in diameter. The work borrows its title from a cinema term that indicates a technique of film editing by which scenes or shots are combined. “Transition 2012” is a punctuation mark and functions as a narrative instrument, as the artist comments. It materializes the fade-in and fade-out, and represents a cinematographic passage from one scene to another. Leading the viewer through a transient moment of black-out, the tunnel reveals how the angle of perception is reversed, and becomes a metaphor for day and night, life and death, or despair and hope.

Also on view is “Kaufhaus Incidentals—Music for Department Stores” (2012) a sound project at the SinnLeffers, the department store in the immediate vicinity of the Kunsthalle Fridericianum. A research on silent film score database conducted (between 2011 and 2012) led the artist to discover about twenty compositions listed at the Amsterdam Film Museum under the category of “thoughts”, which were presumably used to underscore scenes in silent films of actors’ thinking, pondering, plotting, conniving, or daydreaming. This inspired a recording of music for thoughts—16 tracks selected by Gabriel Lester and John Snijders—which are installed in and outside the SinnLeffers. During the one hundred days of dOCUEMNTA (13), the increase of sales at the department store is anticipated, and the sound intervention lends an atmospheric layer of contemplation to a site where people are stimulated to think whilst engaged in business and consumption.

Details »

August 8th through September 6th, 2012
CAFA Art Museum, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing

Gallery artists Chen Wei, Cheng Ran, Cui Jie, Li Qing and Liu Chuang participate in the first “CAFA·Future” exhibition titled “Sub-phenomena”.

Curated by Xu Bing and Alexandra Munroe, the show survey the art expressions of a younger generation in China who work in a fast transforming social context and are inspired by new media and unprecedented lifestyle. More information on this exhibition, please visit CAFA Art Museum’s website.

March 16th, 2012, 7pm
Rockbund Art Museum Shanghai
Bldg/F, 570 West Huaihai Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai

As part of the exhibition “Model Home: A Proposition By Michael Lin” program, Gabriel Lester will be giving a talk on the time and space relationship.

Titled “TimeSpace”, a term indicating the three-dimensions of space supplemented with the fourth dimension of time, the talk will focus on Gabriel Lester’s spatial installations. These artworks, resembling cinematic stage sets, architectural design and interior settings, strongly suggest movement and dramatic evolution. Recognizing life asprogressions through time and space, the lecture will also address narrative structures, the constitution of memory and a psychology of space.

Amsterdam and Shanghai-based artist Gabriel Lester , as a member of the interdisciplinary team of Irma Boom (graphic designer), Hella Jongerius (designer), Rem Koolhaas/OMA (architect) and Louise Schouwenberg (theoretician), has won the competition for the re-design of the UN’s North Delegates Lounge, one of the most prestigious and crucial spaces in the United Nations headquarters in New York.

Located near the General Assembly’s main plenary hall and enjoying a view of the East River, the space serves as a meeting place for thousands of policymakers and diplomats from the 192 UN’s member states. Four teams were asked to submit designs. To continue the tradition of the UN buildings originally designed by a team of well-known architects, including Wallace K. Harrison, Le Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer, the winning team takes an interdisciplinary approach that centers on the original 1950s design and “combines a thorough architectural overhaul with a subtle use of materials and furnishings”. The renovation will be completed by the end of 2012.

Gabriel Lester (b.1972 in Amsterdam) works across various disciplines including cinema, music, performance, installation, sculpture and architecture. Atmospheric and perceptual, many of Lester’s works evolve around the very nature of the media of our time, and transform the space and time through meticulously altering the media and forms. “All Right” (2011), a re-production of his contribution to Busan Biennale 2006, is a short film solely composed of images and video clips found online. It was produced for the gallery’s inaugural exhibition “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)”. His work is currently on view in the group show “TV Commune” (through January 24, 2012) at Nam June Paik Art Center, Korea.

October 22nd through November 6th, 2011
Venue: Yokohama Creativecity Center

Cheng Ran: Immersion and Distance

September 5th through October 31st, 2009
Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA)
798 Art District, No. 4 Jiuxianqiao Rd, Chaoyang District, Beijing, China

The Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA) presents Cheng Ran’s exhibition, Immersion and Distance. Cheng Ran presents his works Punk’s Here, which includes a ‘midnight’ museum installation and a video displayed by three screens. The exhibition will be on display until October 31, 2009. Details »