"Alex Alex Mirutziu is Romania's leading young performance artist. His arresting practice hovers at the limits of self-exploration, experimentation and extreme personal discomfort.
He is fascinated by the chronicling of time and how it determines the significance of events. This is best expressed in the series Pending Works, which Mirutziu originated in 2009. But what must be understood is that each work is as much about its promise as its occurrence. For Pending Work #4 (2011-12), for example, a block of clay was buried on a mountain in Uetliberg, above Zurich. At the site, Mirutziu recorded data such as radiation and humidity and installed a CCTV camera, which is later controlled from his studio thousands of miles away. In one sense the work could be considered dormant and invisible, but it also functions as a kind of satellite, collecting information about itself and its surroundings, which are then broadcast to the artist. These covert behaviors and distancing tactics call into question whether Pending Work #4 is private act or public work."
(excerpt from text by Jane Neal - p.78-79)
Forget New York, London and Paris – the old establishment is being challenged by a new order of art communities seizing the contemporary art agenda around the world.
Phaidon reveals the twelve global cities to watch for exciting contemporary art: Beirut, Bogotá, Cluj, Delhi, Istanbul, Johannesburg, Lagos, San Juan, São Paulo, Seoul, Singapore and Vancouver.
This comprehensive volume covers the exciting and important contemporary art happening in each of these locations through selections made by curators intimately involved in each of the twelve cities.
Exploring the artistic heritage, cultural climate and contemporary milieu of these emerging cities, this ground-breaking book features a variety of photography, painting, sculpture, installation, video, performance and new media works by this new generation of artists gaining prominence on the international art circuit.
Features a unique, special format jacket, printed on both sides, that folds out in to a large ‘flag’ with a graphic symbol representing each city; extending the ‘new international’ design concept that under-pins the book’s design structure.
An essential and wide ranging perspective on today’s avant-garde artists, shaping the future of art.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Today the art world is more of a world in every sense, with a larger population, a wider territory and a greater number of nationalities. Its prevailing conversation, however, has yet to catch up. Art Cities of the Future: 21st Century Avant-Gardes uncovers twelve distinct avant-gardes that have emerged around the world in recent decades. Twelve curators each selected eight artists to represent the avant-garde of a specific city. These artists are senior figures or newer faces, artists working in familiar mediums or inventing their own, but they all share two qualities: a commitment to experimental art and a dedication to their local milieu. In dialogue with larger concerns, their unique sensibility can be found nowhere else. Lively, thought-provoking, comprehensive, and packed with more than 500 images, this book widens the expected historical narrative, allowing us to imagine a future of diverse aesthetics and shared concerns in the common language of contemporary art.