National Museums Liverpool: there are only a few weeks left of the Walker's two main exhibitions, both of which close on 22 August 2004. Don't miss the humorous drawings of Heath Robinson, which are perfectly complemented by the amazing moving world of Uncanny Valley: recent sculptures by Tim Lewis - the first solo exhibition by this exciting contemporary artist in a public gallery. Visitors to the Walker have until 15 August 2004 to see Lucian Freud's Girl with Beret from Manchester Art Gallery, which is being shown alongside the Walker's own Freud painting, Interior at Paddington. This special loan has been arranged as part of Partners in Art, a joint initiative between the two galleries. Another aspect of Partners in Art is LIV/MAN Part 1 & 2, an audio work which can be heard at both galleries until December (closing date tbc). The family exhibition 'Puppet Worlds' continues at Liverpool Museum until 5 September 2004, accompanied by a range of fun hands-on activities and special events during the summer holidays. In the autumn this will be followed by Beatrix Potter's Graden, 23 October 2004 to 9 January 2005. Good news is that Spirit of the Blitz at the Merseyside Maritime Museum has been so popular that it has been extended until 5 December 2004. Football fans will enjoy Everton's 80s Heroes at the Conservation Centre and The Kop's Last Stand at the Museum of Liverpool Life, both of which run until 19 September 2004.

the Walker
Liverpool Museum
Merseyside Maritime Museum
Conservation Centre

The Kunstverein Hannover is amongst the largest and most important art societies in the Federal Republic of Germany. Established in 1832 as one of the first art societies in Germany, since 1856 it has had its headquarters in the Künstlerhaus, built by Conrad Wilhelm Hase, in Sophienstrasse. As of 2002 the society had about 1,200 members. It presents six to eight internationally oriented monographic and thematic exhibitions annually, which as a rule are planned specifically for the Kunstverein. The exhibitions focus on a main theme, which changes each year, that takes up important questions with regard to æsthetics and society and reflects their influence on contemporary art. The Kunstverein carries out its mission through a comprehensive supplementary program, which includes lectures, panel discussions, discussions with artists as well as "blind dates" - surprise events limited to one evening. The society fulfills an important function for Lower Saxony as a central location for the presentation and promotion of the best artists in the state. In a fall exhibition every two years, a panel of judges honors the life's work of a Lower Saxonian artist by granting him or her the art award of the Sparkasse Hannover. In addition, the Kunstverein Hannover presents a biennial award to young, outstanding Lower Saxonian artists. This award is combined with an exhibition at the Kunstverein as well as a two-year studio scholarship in the Villa Minimo. Elaborate catalogues as well as artists' editions created especially for the Kunstverein are published for each of the projects. At the end of the year it reports on our activities in our member magazine.

L'albero dell'Amore, ovvero graffiti su faggio nelle fotografie di Flavio Faganello è il titolo della mostra realizzata dal Museo Tridentino di Scienze Naturali e dalla Provincia autonoma di Trento, che rimane aperta fino al prossimo 24 ottobre 2004, presso la sede del Museo, in via Calepina 14. In mostra 90 fotografie in grande formato, tutte dedicate all'allegoria delle scritte e dei segni d'amore incisi sulle cortecce di faggio. Un vero "albero dell'amore", prescelto elettivamente tra le altre specie del bosco di mezza montagna per via della tessitura della sua corteccia. L'esposizione fotografica, introdotta da una descrizione dell'ambiente della faggeta, viene descritta nel suo mutare nelle quattro stagioni, nel rapporto con l'ecosistema alpino, nelle sue caratteristiche vegetazionali e di ruolo nell'economia forestale. Le immagini di Flavio Faganello (fotografo di fama internazionale) sono il frutto di cinque anni di ricerca. Cinque anni con frequenti puntate nei boschi, alla caccia appunto dei graffiti incisi su faggio.

Merano (Bz), fino al 29 agosto 2004. Il grande e trasgressivo fotografo americano scomparso di recente, è riuscito a creare, soprattutto negli ultimi 15 anni della sua vita, un mondo di persone e oggetti che esprimono la sua costante ricerca della bellezza. Il suo rigoroso bianco e nero identifica forme che si collocano nello spazio con un'eccezionale naturalezza. Il corpo nudo maschile è il pretesto per una ricognizione sulla forma, sulle sue infinite possibilità. La fotografia molto morbida sembra accarezzare la pelle dei modelli creando degli esempi di perfezione. Lo stesso contrasto tra il bianco e nero si arricchisce delle tonalità di grigi che rende la superficie dei soggetti quasi tattile. Il principio che è all'origine della fotografia di Mapplerthorpe è sostanzialmente questo: tutte le forme viventi costituiscono un tutt'uno con il mondo. La mostra evidenzia che su questo concetto il mondo del fotografo americano possiede una classicità che lo avvicina alla grande arte rinascimentale, sicuramente alla plasticità della pittura di Michelangelo. Pur in una visione laica ma è chiaro che dietro le fotografie in bianco e nero vi è un totale rispetto per la vita, un'idea quasi religiosa. E tutto vi rientra, anche le stranezze e le trasgressioni che certamente appartenevano all'arte di Mapplerthorpe, ma che nei lavori vengono sublimate, quasi trascese.

El Ecomuseo de las Valls d'Àneu (El Pallars Sobirà-Lleida), entidad destinada a recuperar y difundir el patrimonio cultural pirenaico, ha puesto en marcha este verano, coincidiendo con su décimo aniversario, una interesante iniciativa: la recuperaciO'n y comercialización de varios productos que forman parte de la tradición artesanal del Pirineo. El Ecomuseo de las Valls d'Àneu puso en marcha, hace 4 años, un trabajo de estudio y documentación de antiguas manifestaciones artesanales en el pirineo con la finalidad de "recuperar" una amplia variedad de productos hechos de barro (platos, ollas, pucheros), de madera (saleros, queseras, rompenueces), de cesterI'a (vasos de pastor) o de lana. AU'n hoy se recogen testimonios orales, grA'ficos, bibliográficos y sobre todo piezas y objetos antiguos que permiten acercarse a las distintas técnicas de trabajo, las tipologías y los materiales utilizados, así como a la simbología de muchas de estas producciones. Una de las referencias más importantes para desarrollar esta labor de investigación ha sido la obra de Ramón Violant i Simorra, el etnógrafo pallares que con su trabajo ha aportado material gráfico, referencias documentales y piezas originales de contrastada procedencia pallaresa. Toda esta gama de productos de Artesanía Pirenaica, elaborados por distintos maestros artesanos del conjunto de los Pirineos, se comercializa a partir de este verano con el nombre de Ecomuseo. Patrimonio del Pirineo. La citada entidad pallaresa tiene como objetivo la investigación, la promoción y la creación de nuevos productos culturales que integren, por un lado, la recuperación del patrimonio cultural pirenaico y, por otro, el desarrollo económico y social a partir de los recursos propios del territorio.

La stagione dei festival musicali inizia con l'annuale Oslo Jazz Festival, organizzato per la prima volta nel 1986. Durante i sette giorni di festival, che avrà inizio il 9 d'agosto e terminerà il 15, si potrà assistere a concerti jazzistici di tutti i generi dal ragtime al rap, dallo swing al jazz elettronico contemporaneo. Con i suoi circa 80 concerti, la sua professionalità e il solito caloroso ricevimento, l'Oslo Jazz Festival si è guadagnato un posto rilevante sia fra i musicisti che fra il pubblico. L'11 agosto ha inizio invece il Festival del rock - Øyafestivalen che avrà luogo nel parco medievale di Oslo: qui, per 4 giorni, natura e cultura si fonderanno con concerti, cibo, bancarelle e attività. Musicisti norvegesi e internazionali di alto rango si esibiranno durante l'Oslo Chamber Music Festival, il festival della musica da camera, che si svolgerà in diverse località della città a partire dal 13 agosto. L'UIM Class 1 Offshore World Championship vedrà invece gareggiare i migliori piloti mondiali delle barche Offshore nel fiordo d'Oslo il 14 agosto. Infine, l'Ibsen Festival, dal 26 agosto al 4 settembre, porterà al palcoscenico del Teatro Nazionale molte delle famose opere teatrali del più grande autore norvegese, rappresentate sia da compagnie norvegesi che da quelle internazionali.

Ingrid Calame (born 1965) from the United States, Mathilde ter Heijne (born 1969) from the Netherlands, and Jörg Wagner (born 1967) from Germany are guests of the Kunstverein Hannover this summer. The three artists, whose works are only partially known in Germany, have developed wide-ranging and multifaceted pieces for the presentation in Hannover. With Ingrid Calame, Mathilde ter Heijne and Jörg Wagner, the Kunstverein Hannover has fashioned an essay in exhibition form in which the relationships and reciprocal interactions between each of their works become evident. A common feature of their art is their - individually disposed - interest in visibility and absence. The scrutiny of this central theme in contemporary art is a special feature of the Kunstverein's program for 2004. At first sight, Ingrid Calame's paintings can conceivably be seen as a reworking of Jackson Pollock's "Drip Paintings", but the creative process behind them is actually the exact opposite of his dynamic technique. For "Secular Response 2 A.H", she traced everyday spots and stains, remnants of human actions and presence, on the streets of New York, Los Angeles und Las Vegas. The Dutch artist Mathilde ter Heijne, who lives and works in Amsterdam and Berlin, depicts the moment of absence in an eminently existential dimension. Her works, grounded in feminism, examine the concept of self-sacrifice utilizing, for example, suicide attacks, women's altruism and self-destruction in painfully suggestive tableaus: Dummies that resemble the artist are blown up, burned or thrown from bridges. Jörg Wagner, who comes from Waiblingen in southwestern Germany and now lives in Cologne, became known to a wider public with the "paper rooms" that he started working on in 1996. He covers the walls, ceilings and floors of rooms that have a special meaning for him with large sheets of light-sensitive photographic paper, moves all of the furnishings back to their original places and then lights the space. Finally, he uses the prints to create a space that is the same size as the original room. Until September 5, 2004.

28 August - 1 October 2004. ArtSway presents an exhibition of new work by Australian based artist Tina Gonsalves. Somewhere in Between: Studies in Translocation is a video exploration of seascapes and the engagement with the changing and fleeting nature of travel. The work is formed by the extensive journeys undertaken by the artist over the last few years captured on video. These installations explore altered realities, the nature of relationships, and an engagement with time and distances. The footage is used to represent emotional spaces, as each of the installations and video works investigate the parameters of time and space and their physical and emotional effect on people. This creates an atmosphere that is an intensified version of reality. In the main gallery, a video installation explores shifts of reality. Using the real world as a point of departure we are presented with visions of horizons taken during a six week trans-atlantic sail from the Cape Verdes to the Caribbean. These visions are then broken down and whittled away, altered to suggest another reality. They are manipulated such that the details become indistinct, leaving them barely recognisable as seascapes. These revisions reflect our own fragile hold on memory and the impact our emotional state can have on the past and the present.

Der Soziographische Blick 1.1, 22. Juli – 21. August 2004, Kunstraum Innsbruck. Mit ihren 27 Jahren ist diese junge kongolesische Künstlerin zweifellos die Entdeckung der sechsten Biennale der zeitgenössischen afrikanischen Kunst, die von 7. Mai bis 7. Juni 2004 in Dakar stattfand. Michèle Magema konnte mit ihrem Video „Oyé Oyé“, das den Krieg in ihrem Land schildert, die Jury überzeugen und den anspruchvollsten Preis der Dak´Art 2004, den Prix du Président de la République, gewinnen. Die zweiteilige Videoproduktion „Oyé Oyé“ entstand im Jahr 2002. Den historischen Aufnahmen aus der Zeit der Diktatur in Zaïre, als Präsident Mobutu den Mythos des "authentischen Afrika" propagierte, stellt die Künstlerin eine militärisch marschierenden Frau entgegen. Michèle Magema setzt sich intensiv mit der Geschichte der afrikanischen Politik auseinander. Die Künstlerin weist in ihrer Arbeit speziell auf die Rolle der Frau innerhalb einer Diktatur hin, die immer für Propagandazwecke benutzt wurde.

Expo 07.08.04-26.09.04. Massive opposite colour vibrations: Jean-Roch Focant (Be), colourgraphics and Yves Braun (Fr), glass. Supported by la Délégation Culturelle pour la Flandre de l'Ambassade de France en Belgique... "Each of Focant's works draws the eye and the mind to the thick layers and vibrations of a warm, concrete, mat material, as solid as the sky and the earth. The subject can rarely be identified, but radiates an indefinable impression". (Stephane Rey and Collette Bertot in 'L'Echo'). Technical secundary studies in industial graphics at Iata of Namur. Screen made, social-cultural animator, teacher, animator for extra-scolar activities, painter as complementary job. Abstraction matiériste since 1995. About Yves Braun: "made with special types of glass, his chromatic columns underline the interaction between matter and light and explore the domain of the vibration of colours". (Eric Louet, director of the Puy-Guillaume Glass Museum). Son atelier, conçu à l'origine pour le verre soufflé se transforme en laboratoire, mettant en oeuvre des verres spéciaux et des techniques inédites.

The Patronat de Turisme of the DiputaciO' de Lleida has announced the 16th "Pica d'Estats", International Tourism Prize for Press, Radio and Television. This firmly consolidated competition is one of the most important prizes in the whole of Spain for this specialist field. The competition is divided into z7 different sections for the winning entries in each of the following categories: Written press providing general information, Press specialising in travel and tourism, Radio, Television and International Press. There are also two other prizes: the first in recognition of a distinguished and well documented career dedicated to the "Pica d'Estats", and the other reserved for the local media of Lleida. The focus of the competition is aspects of tourism in different parts of Lleida province. The competition is open to all works that have been published in the written press or broadcast on radio or television regardless of the country and language of origin, in the period between 17th October 2003 and 16th October 2004. The period within which works can be presented ends on 16th November 2004.

Concluida la muestra Comercio, mercado y economI'a en tiempos de la reina Isabel, el Museo de las Ferias abre de nuevo sus puertas en su régimen normal de visitas y presenta como “Pieza del Mes” una arqueta japonesa de arte namban, que se expondrA' en el Museo durante los meses de julio y agosto, recordando el importante comercio habido entre la Península y el más lejano Oriente, en este caso el JapO'n, entre la segunda mitad del siglo XVI y las primeras décadas del XVII. Es una arqueta rectangular, con tapa superior convexa, realizada en madera lacada con incrustaciones de nácar. La cerradura, así como el asa desaparecida, se han realizado en cobre grabado. Pieza identificada en 1995 por Sánchez del Barrio, Hernández Redondo y Arias Martínez, se muestra en Medina del Campo por primera vez, tras su restauración y exposición en San Sebastián y Manila (Filipinas) en el marco de la exposición Filipinas. Puerta de Oriente. De Legazpi a Malaspina. Respecto a las características artísticas de la pieza, cabe decir que su ornamentación se basa en ventanas negras enmarcadas por grecas de dientes de sierra y lineales, recogiendo la decoración floral dentro de espacios acotados romboidales y polilobulados. El vacío prima frente a lo lleno, recordando la porcelana de la época; en ella queda de manifiesto que la presión decorativista occidental no ha calado en los artistas japoneses.

Museo de las Ferias

... A new exhibition series for Swedish and international contemporary art: Su-Mei Tse,till September 12, 2004 and Tommi Grönlund and Petteri Nisunen, until August 25. On the first day of each month, a small-scale exhibition of a contemporary artist will open in or outside the museum. The medium and exhibition format will vary depending on the artist; the concept is very flexible, to provide the best possible potential. Some of the exhibitions will be on for a month, while others will be on show for a longer period. The 1st at Moderna Museet will take place in various venues - in or outside the museum - but the opening will always be on the first day of the month, every month, throughout the year. The purpose of the series is to capture what is going on in art right now, what is happening today, and perhaps tomorrow. We want to show our audiences how artists think and work today, what methods they employ and the issues younger and older, established and less well-known, Swedish and foreign artists are engaged with today. And we want to be as flexible as the mind. Curators for The 1st at Moderna Museet are Magnus af Petersens, Camilla Carlberg and Ann-Sofi Noring.

Moderna Museet