On this day, January 29, German engineer Carl Benz patents the first modern automobile (1886) branding the Benz Patent-Motorwagen Nummer 1 the first gasoline-driven car. United Airlines Boeing 747SP, circles world in just under 37 hours (1988). The Battle of Khafji begins (1991), marking the first major ground engagement of the Persian Gulf War. Venice’s opera house La Fenice is destroyed by fire (1996). France’s president Jacques Chirac declares the end of nuclear weapons testing (1996). Thousands of student protesters in Indonesia storm parliament and demand the resignation of President Abdurrahman Wahid (2001). George W. Bush coins the term “Axis of Evil” as part of his State of the Union Address (2002). Scientists discover how to convert normal cells into stem cells in mice (2014). Archaeologists discover the oldest Roman Temple (6th Century B.C.) at Sant’Omobono (2014). Attack on Quebec City mosque by a French-Canadian student kills 6 and injures 17 (2017).
On this day was the birth of Anton Chekhov (1860) and the death of Robert Frost (1963) and the premiere of Stanley Kubrick’s cult classic Dr. Strangelove, or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964).
Welcome to the .082nd edition of Prescriptions. Here is our review of the week in the arts.
Saverio Costanzo / L’amica Geniale
International Film Festival Rotterdam 2019
The festival incorporates exhibitions, performances and screenings of artist film and video on the big screen. This year’s edition Artists’ Moving Image occupies a more central position than ever before. Among the represented include Catherine Opie and Alice Rohrwacher; Artist talks include Alfredo Jaar. The 48th Edition / IFFR, January 23 – February 3, 2019 in Rotterdam.
Xiao Lu / Impossible Dialogue
Sydney Festival 2019
The annual Sydney Festival which launches each new year with a bang, transforming the city with a bold cultural celebration based on critical ideas and cutting-edge art and performance, just wrapped up their events this past weekend, their formidable roster including Dancenorth among many others.
Peter Joseph
Peter Joseph
These paintings are vulnerable…expressions of what I call feeling, attempts at making sense. I’m simply trying to exist and be honest, hoping that some time I can produce something. –Peter Joseph. On view through March 2, 2019 at Lisson Gallery.
Helen Marten
Fixed Sky Situation / Helen Marten
The signature or act of naming oneself is tied to a similar linguistic subjectivity. Even the initials of one’s name wilt or bend on demand, as if racing along towards a newly melodic sense of being. Helen Marten at König Galerie through February 24, 2019.
Francis Alÿs
La Depense / Francis Alys
With his acute poetic and imaginative powers of perception, Francis Alÿs raises questions about anthropology and geopolitics, creating works from his close observations of everyday life. On view through February 24, 2019 at Rockbund Art Museum.
Melanie Manchot
Open Ended Now / Melanie Manchot
Driven by the questioning of individual and collective identities and the exploration of communities, Melanie Manchot develops portraits and performances through a process of collaboration and exchange. At MAC/VAL through February 24, 2019.
Melanie Manchot
RECENT PROFILES
Melanie Manchot’s portraits and performance videos spanning 20 years, Open Ended Now at MAC/VAL submitted by our own Ana Sonderéguer; Francis Alÿs addressing anthropology and geopolitics in La Dépense at Rockbund Art Museum; Helen Marten’s complex and involved Fixed Sky Situation installations at König Galerie; Peter Joseph, paintings of a subtle palette in what he calls vulnerable, on view at Lisson Gallery; Antonia Oikonomou from Athens, choreographer, performer, and Artistic Director of ERGO Collective; Luis Antonio Rojas, photographer hailing from Mexico City, graduate of ICP and a World Press Photo nominee; Dancenorth just wrapping up the 2019 Sydney Festival; and reintroducing Catherine Opie, Alice Rohrwacher, and Alfredo Jaar participating in the 48th Edition of IFFR.
