Art Show: Day-to-day Data at Daniel Arnaud

An exhibition of artists who collect, list, database and absurdly analyse the data of everyday life.

A mere mile south of concrete-battered Waterloo is a nice little enclave of Georgian terraces and some bohos seemingly living around this 4 storey house that is part living space of the gallerist (who always opens the door personally) and part exhibition space.

I was naturally attracted by the shows title and I am happy to have seen documentation of trolley abductors where attached tags identify location of lost or stolen trolleys at a local Tesco. Christian Nold's Bio Mapping device allows you to measure your levels of stress and excitement as you walk through the city. Devices will be available to borrow from the gallery on a drop-in basis throughout the exhibition.

My favorite though is the little video in the entrance area of Richard Dedomenici who walked along the boarder of inner London to gather the exact demarcation line of 0207 vs 0207 phone number prefixes.

For fans of conceptual art as well as for geeks and people with a curiosity for the obvious and the odd.

FREE entry; until 23 April at Daniel Arnaud Contemporary Art, Kennington
http://www.daytodaydata.com

Art Show: Tate Triennial 2006

I am sorry. Sorry for Tate Britain and sorry for the artists. Each participant might have his or her own qualities and importance, but the curation is numbingly boring and I swept through this show in less than 15 minutes as there was just nothing that truly caught my eye, mind or emotions. Or perhaps I was just tired and in a bad mood.

The Contemporary magazine has listed 80 biennials and triennials around the globe in its special issue on Curators last year. What all started with Documenta and is still being epitomised by the one in Venice got a bit out of control in my view and it is probably time to scale back. Beuys once famously proclaimed that "Everyone is an artist". But is anyone also a curator?

Less is more!

FREE Entry; until 14 May at Tate Britain

Photo Show: Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Surfing Penguines? Bear Babies dropped off on a tree waiting for mother? High End Snapshots of mother Nature? If that is your cup of tea then this exhibition in Kensington is your must see this year.

While my photography is more similar to that of Wolfgang Tillmanns in the way of quick and low tech snapshots of everyday life but without the consistency and quality of course, these showcased contestants here spend days and sometimes weeks in a row in tree huts and other hideouts with their expensive and sophisticated equipement waiting for the shot of their life. And the results prove them right and the patience has paid off.

And how hillarious the animal kingdom can be? Just look at that deer being trapped while fighting off a competitor even though his "damn I got caught look in his face suggest a slightly different activity...

Great for a lunch break or as part of a whole day trip with your family.

FREE Entry; until 23 April at the Natural History Museum, SW7
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/index.html

Art Show: Page 3 Girls at Fabrications, E8

I went to Hackney today to document E8 as part of my new London post codes project when I came across this little space on Broadway Market. Some 50 to 60 Page Three Girls water colors on paper with different grades of abstraction and naturalism and hung in a grid make a provocative yet pleasing installation.

An invisible statement is expressed through a conceptual and ‘aesthetic-political’ pricing system putting value tags along definitions like ‘ugly wet’. Jody, the artist told me that she wants people to pay up to £200 for the rather beautiful pieces with realistic brushes while the more dodgy looking papers with freak-like faces or lack of personality details can make it home from £40. I am happy to have picked my favorite piece first...

In my view, this work is a well-done sarcastic take on an infamous institution of British popular culture uncovering a macho-driven fetish of British men that has somewhat outstayed emancipation waves and feminist agenda of the 21st century as well as the abundance of free and 24/7 accessible erotica of the internet. Maybe this series makes you start wondering: Who are these ‘sexy bodies’ anyhow? But be careful: They might even have a personality!

This show officially opens on Thursday evening, 6th April and lasts only until Sunday afternoon.

The space is opposite of My Life in Art on Broadway Market which feels like an artisan enclave in E8 that is not yet imperatively hip as Hoxton but still has a rather work-in-progress feel with butcher-cafes, art spaces to rent and little bookshops. For lunch go to La Vie en Rose at the corner and eat the Filet which is delicious!

Movie: Syriana at the Electric Cinema

If you check the review comparison on the guardian online you can see that most of Britain’s newspapers are giving it an 8/10, and with the Sun, FT, Daily Telegraph and the Express these pundits are from the conservative spectrum. On the other hand, The Guardian and The Independent give rather weak marks, which is surprising for this demanding and brave political project.

To say it straight away: I think it’s a great polit-thriller and cannot wait until it’s released on DVD. What makes it refreshingly different from the recent name-and-shame yet valid celluloid attacks from the left-wing a la 9/11 Fahrenheit and The Corporation is it’s lack of accusing Bush and his cronies, or neo-cons in general. The cast is top-notch with many familiar faces to make following the plot at least possible.

What makes it so compelling in my view, is that Clooney & Co. try to make patterns transparent, but they don’t really succeed - and that is exactly the winning momentum. Because the global system dynamics of oil, money, politics, corruption and consumption is too complex even for well-informed people to be fully understood and digested - and that’s why it’s lack a dominating character, but makes a realistic assessment of rather structural leadership and systematic corruption.

After 2.5 hours in the comfy leather sofa of my favorite London Cinema in affluent Notting Hill, an eerie feeling is creeping up my mind: as long as you, I and we all together, drive cars, use plastic bags and all other things made of oil, there will be corruption (official and unofficial) and terrorist attacks (by islamist groups as well as intelligence agencies).

While watching the credits, I compared the movie’s quintessence (delivered by the career-hungry attorney) to that of the principal-agent model of modern corporations: In Syriana, we the consumers are the principals, and we mandate the politicians, the boards, the middlemen and everybody else involved to be the agents that act on our behalf, and that is to provide us with abundant supply. And that is often high-risk, politically and economically as well as personally. So the characters want the respective reward according to another grand model called Risk equals reward. And how do the participants try and cut out their slice of the pie? Correct, through corruption! And why? Unless we revoke our vote, it will not change because the incentive is too low. The corrupt analyst made 80 millions...and got away with it!

And that is a striking point, but it seems to be too disillusioning for some liberal critics. Of course I want those people being put to jail, but it’s the way this unbundled globalized economy works - until we change it...through a new mandate.

Art Show: Deutsche Boerse Photo Price at the Photographer Gallery

1. Photography Gallery in Great Newport Street is a visual retreat during lunch break.
2. This prize is pretty understated and always well curated and of consistent quality
3. My favourite piece is Yto Barrada, Factory 1 - Prawn processing plant in the Free Trade Zone - Tangier. It is a very powerful record of Globalization and why we can afford delicatessen in abundance these days. You just wonder what social price has to be paid in countries of processing...
4. Phil Collins larger-than life video blow-ups of Turkish folks in Istanbul performing karaoke is hee-larious! Multiple accounts of wanna be stars not being cool actually, while some quieter talents reveal the story of their life through dramatic facial expressions, and please wait for the two brothers...if you ever wondered how you looked like having been forced to do karaoke, this piece has unwanted wit and joy - for the observer!
5. Alec Soth should get the price for his depicting rural and poor Mississippi land. The series is very consistent, and shows the grim side of lost and forgotten America, but also weirdly beautiful idiosyncrasies of its settlers. And it hits a contemporary American nerve.

until 22 April at 5 & 8 Great Newport Street, WC2H 7HY Tube: Leicester Square

First Drafts - Experimental Choreography at the ROH

I was invited to this welcoming different event by Steffen, whose friend Mayumi Hotta, Dance Notator for the Royal Ballet, opened the evening with her piece “Spring Day” (imagine a girl gracefully performing on a piano while her partner is playing it...) Over the course of one hour we saw a tango-inspired piece about courtship-love-friendship and other either delicious or funny compositions.

Looking at the guys on stage, we had to accept that lifting female ballet partners up in the air all the time does have an impact on your triceps, but then, who of us regular guys would want to squeeze our ‘rescue belt’ into one of those arse-to-toe grey legging pants anyway.

However, we agreed that this recurring event makes a good date for the following reasons:
1. You (the dude) won’t fall asleep after a long day of boring meetings only interrupted by “grabbing a sandwich” for lunch, because there is just too much action on stage to keep your eyes in ‘rapid follow movement’
2. It is very sumptuous and at times erotic which might give you inspiration for later (think a gorgeous girl doing the tango girl with an equally stunning lad)
3. Since he is always gay, you won’t have any competition from that side as we all know;-)

I will certainly go back next time to witness progress of the next Alvin Ailey or Pina Bausch.

Art Show: Any Warhol at Hauser & Wirth

Think Andy Warhol was a one trick pony only making campbell soup and Marilyn portraits?

Sure, this guy was one of the founders of pop art and his iconoclastic canvas work hangs in all museums and collections of name and fame, but in my opinion his photographic work is not only extremely exiting, it also reveals more of the real drama behind this maniac. If you survive more than one hour of the eight hour Warhol TV footage, than you get an idea why he considered buying tons of socks in a department store a spiritual event and why he is the king of pop, eh soap.

Being a teenager in the 80s, this decade is my key to adoring fame, dismissing America’s political system as corrupt but idealising NYC as the world’s capital, hero-ing John McEnroe and Sylvester Stallone and worshipping Madonna (then young) and Joan Collins (then already sexy mature).

This show contains 250 black and white photographs of the above named, Keith Haring, J-M Basquiat, Jim Carre, Ozzy Ozbourne, a hell of a lot of NYC-invented here mullets, transvestites and that I-wish-I-was-there mingling of eccentric art scene-meets- new age underground crowd that made SoHo and the Lower East side so legendary in the 80s.

You can hear, smell and taste the then scene, which Warhol captured in real life situations, much better and deeper than the ah so many celebrity photographers at the time who in turn became stars themselves (think Newton and Ellen Mark). Warhol was an elder-statesman at the time of most of the presented portraits - kind of post-pop NYC new wave soap...:-)

And as far as curating is concerned, the fact that his (self?) portraits are kept in the vault down in the basement, give the entire show this fascinating notion that in reality this ueber-star was pretty shy and often lonely. I did get goose bums! (Hauser & Wirth Gallery is located in a former Palladium-style banking building and fortunately makes use of all facilities, sometimes even including the ancient elevator. The gallery is worth a visit alone.

Art Show: Joseph Kosuth at Spruth Magers Lee

Don’t consider conceptual art as ‘art? Do you think ‘you can do this yourself’? Do you feel conceptual art is empty and cold?

If you answer one of those questions with yes, you should go and see Joseph Kosuth’s impressive show to turn your knowledge to the better as this is the most beautifully curated small-scale show of any conceptual artist in London ever (ok, to be honest I only know about the last four years, but still:-)

You will see his history making dictionary blow-ups from the 1960s, wall-filling neon tube installations and a ginormeous article print about the Lorena Bobbit cut-his-penise story.

Sprueth Magers Lee is an institution in the art world which I know from Cologne back then. And if you have any questions, please ask the nice woman behind the desk. If she is not on the phone she is actually up for a quick chat about the show and the art wolrd and does not give you that creepy feeling that she snobbishly looks down on you - as so many unfortunately.

until 13 April, 12 Berkeley Street, W1J 8DT

Art Show: Tino Sehgal at the ICA, London

This German hot talent is the best kept secret in contemporary art. Never seen his art? Don’t worry you can’t, you can only experience it!

“Coming from a background in choreography and political economy, Sehgal does not produce tangible objects or any form of material trace.” (ICA text).

If you are up for an instructed dialogue yet improvised human interaction that will leave you puzzled yet enlightened, the £2.50 ticket is a must for you. Somebody will pick you up at the entrance and from there on your pre-conceptions of what art is will be destroyed and re-built. For people who are looking for “progress” this show might be a link to a bigger picture.

Until 19 March, The Mall, SW1Y 5AH