Photographer Lisa Klappe and spatial artist Joachim van den Hurk detect decay, boredom and slackness in many people. Is that blatant decadence the price we have to pay for prosperity and the so-called individual freedom in which we live?

With the exposition Decadent Pigeons both (together and separate) hold up a mirror to us. From the parallels they discovered between the behavior of pigeons and people they drew the not very roseate conclusion that if we continue this way, we will end up being exactly as those birds, grey shadows, still further removed from out nature, dismally bored and scandalously discontented.

Their works of art are unequivocally blunt and direct. Static portraits, grubby film mountings and living sculptures do confront us with their black humor and their nearly perverse overtones. In that way, they create an ‘unheimisch’ feeling that in itself leads to an immediate reflective mood.

Decadent Pigeons opens September 09, 2010 until September 30, 2010 at Gallery Fort Pienc in Barcelona, Spain. In October 2010 Decadent Pigeons will under proviso move to the former textile factory De Ploeg near Eindhoven, The Netherlands for a special exposition during Eindhoven’s Dutch Design Week.

MOTLEY is a publication created to inspire, to present creative imagery in an innovative and unorthodox way. We have no set production schedule, it is created when the mood feels correct. Each new issue of Motley will be unique in design and feature the work of new and established artists, Worldwide.

The premier issue launched in Summer 2010 and features the work of nine international photographers. To avoid producing a publication with a traditional story layout, we decided to mix the photographers work together and devised a front cover grid system code to determine each photographers images. It was important to us that the images spoke for themselves first rather than be dictated by their creators or credits.

Motley is currently available in Berlin, London, New York and Stockholm.

From 26th August to 23rd November 2010, Didier Fiúza Faustino will present ‘Agnosian Fields’ at Le Forum de la Maison Hermès in Tokyo. The exhibition comprising two new installations as well as previous work indicates the different scales and obsessions that the work of an architect is based upon. The term ‘agnosia’ – the loss of the ability to recognise objects and perceptive amnesia – sums up the state in which the architect wishes the visitor to be immersed. His work, mainly based on putting the body under tension in its environment, leads him to explore the fields of architecture and contemporary art, assuming equally status as artist, designer and architect.

Following the itinerant video projection space ‘H-Box,’ the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès, which provides the Forum’s programming, has again invited Didier Fiúza Faustino for an individual exhibition. The Japanese public will be able to discover the immersive micro architecture installation, ‘Erase your Head’ (photo below), for which the English artist Russell Haswell has designed a sound landscape. A second installation produced in partnership with Hiroya Oku, author of the Japanese manga Gantz, will appropriate the piece called ‘Hand Architecture.’

The installation will be completed by the ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ discussion room, whilst three pieces will trace other paths between the body and architecture: the model of an unusual Japanese house, ‘Uncut House,’ ‘The Naked Lunch,’ a confusing object which penetrates domestic space and lastly the new seated prototype of ‘Hermaphrodite,’ which puts its user in an ambiguous position (photo above).

Maison Hermès 8F Le Forum, 5-4-1, Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo. Monday to Saturday: 11am to 8pm, Sunday: 11am to 7pm.

At the beginning of the 20th Century, the city of Detroit developed rapidly thanks to the automobile industry. Until the 50’s, its population rose to almost 2 million people. Detroit was the 4th most important city in the United States. It was the dazzling symbol of the American Dream City with its monumental skyscrapers and fancy neighborhoods.

Increasing segregation and deindustrialization caused violent riots in 1967. The white middle-class exodus from the city accelerated and the suburbs grew. Firms and factories began to close or move to lower-wage states. Slowly, but inexorably downtown high-rise buildings emptied. Since the 50’s, “Motor City” lost more than half of its population.

Nowadays, its splendid decaying monuments are, no less than the Pyramids of Egypt, the Coliseum of Rome, or the Acropolis in Athens, remnants of the passing of a great civilization.

If you by any chance will pass Stockholm in the next coming weeks you have the possibility to see the exhibition “The Ruins of Detroit” by Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre at The Gun Gallery, Runebergsgatan 3, Stockholm. The exhibition opens August 27 and runs until September 19.

We recently reported about the Snow exhibition by Tokujin Yoshioka at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo. Here’s a first picture from the installation. The scenery of hundreds kilograms of light feather blown all over and falling down slowly will call for the memory of the snowscape within people’s heart, and it will transcends their sense.

This year Kivik Art Centre presents a new work that manifests the basic concept of our project: an architect and an artist in collaboration. It is also the first time that both are women and we can present a Swedish participants. Architect Petra Gipp has created a Refugium, a refuge in the forest of solid wood and concrete. An architectural sculpture that doubles as a small cinema, a walk-in-cinema” with a few seats for both a contemplative and an intense experience. The film shown was filmed by Runa Islam in a museum in Washington during her research stay at the Smithsonian Institute. The film called Cabinet of Prototypes, was commissioned by Kivik Art Centre and form an exquisite combination with Petra’s architecture.

From previous summers most works are still here. The five structures by Snøhetta Architects, three in collaboration with the photographer Tom Sandberg (2007). The visionary Venturo house by Matti Suuronen (1971/2009) and the sculpture for the individual experience of architecture, a collaboration between David Chipperfield and Antony Gormley (2008). In one of the old stables on the farm the exhibition KIVIK ART 2020 will be installed.
individually studied the conditions for Kivik Art Centre, and then, without any thoughts on politics or money, have visualized their visions for the future. Local presence, sustainability and environmental aspects have formed the critical platform for the project. It is important to note that these are indeed visions - sometimes utopian - but are all healthy stimulus to our imagination and for our dreams of what Kivik Art Centre one day might become.

Photo by Gerry Johansson.

Japanese designer Tokujin Yoshioka is going to present an installation called “Snow” at the “Sensing Nature” exhibition, which will be held at the Mori Art Museum from July 24th.

In a huge space of 15m in width, fine feathers are blown up by the wind and shower down as if real snow does. It reminds us of the snowscape that lies in our memory, and will express the beauty of nature that exceeds our imaginations. The “Snow” installation is completed by reconstructing the work previously designed in 1997.

The latest performance test for Electrolux Ergorapido was conducted by Swedish artist and set designer Tobias Allanson. Experienced in working with the overlap of art and technology, he built a machine to take Ergorapido through a number of challenges.

With Electrolux’ test labs as a benchmark, he put together a test track that any good instant cleaner should pass. “Pick up, easy handling and flexible steering are three important qualities we have developed to excellence”, says Christer Månsson, Product Manager for the Ergorapido at Electrolux. “With this exciting experiment we wanted to see how Ergorapido performs in a test situation outside laboratories.”

“Building a moving piece around a vacuum cleaner was an unusual assignment”, says artist and set designer Tobias Allanson, who has created works for among others Urbanears, WESC, Modart and Freitag.

“The biggest challenge for the machine was to show the two in one function, since the movements are more complex and I really went through some struggles with strong magnets. But my favourite one is the one where a bunch of shoes draggle the floors and Ergorapido picks it up right away.”

The machine was filmed and is now touring Europe to different exhibitions.

Bruce Munro installed his new artwork ‘CDSea’ in a field near Kilmington over the weekend, after his appeal to collect unwanted CDs from the general public netted him 600,000 discs for the installation.

Munro’s ‘CDSea’ is the first of a number of self-funded installations using discarded or recycled materials, planned for Long Knoll Field, which is bisected by a public footpath. “It’s a great public gallery space” says Munro.

Over the weekend 140 friends and colleagues, including Kevin McCloud and other celebrities from the design-art world, helped to lay the installation. One family arriving from Frome in Somerset for a day out helping to build the artwork had a young boy with them. He sidled up to Munro and asked, “ Are you the one making the sea?”

One man who had already donated 40,000 CDs brought his family and a further 1,000 CDs in the trunk of the car, keen to do all they could to contribute to this unusual artwork. Cider, sausages and sunshine added to the atmosphere.

The 10-acre field at Long Knoll is where in 2005 Munro installed a prototype of his installation ‘Field of Light’ which went on to huge acclaim at the Eden Project in Cornwall.

In this setting ‘CD Sea’ is on public view for the next two months. Munro conceives it as an inland sea reflecting light from the sun and moon. His assistants Ben and James fashioned the footpath into a meandering shape, following his design.

“I was very nervous about it” says Munro. “You never know how something will work out, but now I could not be happier. I’m so grateful to everyone who turned out to help. We had a magical weekend and CDSea looks amazing, like a giant painting on the grass.”

Art & Candle is an exhibition by Calming Park that will take place in Milan during the upcoming men’s shows presentation for spring/summer 2011. The dates are June 20th – 27th 2010 and the exhibition takes place at 10 Corso Como, Libreria Carla Sozzani, Milan. The work of Arielle Dombasle, Bruno Pieters, Bruno Peinado, Sabina Sciubba, Kristina Dryza, Agi Simoes and O&E reveals how the stillness and calm of scented candles meet luxury, fashion, music, spirituality, graphic and visual arts.