International Art

INTERNATIONAL ART This year’s Plymouth Art Weekender will feel more international than ever before. In addition to the self-initiated projects co-ordinated by artists and organisers across the city the 2018 Weekender coincides with The Atlantic Project, a pilot for a new international festival of contemporary art. The Atlantic Project features work by artists from 12 different countries in unusual locations including the National Marine Aquarium, Drake’s Island and Plymouth’s Council House. One of the major highlights will undoubtedly be Hito Steyerl’s presentation in the Grade II listed Civic Centre building. Named by Art Review as the most influential artist in the world in their 2017 Power 100 feature, Steyerl’s research based practice includes video-works, essays and performance lectures. In Plymouth, the German artist will present a video articulating the contemporary status of citizenship in the building previously used as the administrative centre for Plymouth City Council. Another Atlantic Project exhibition certain to excite locals and visitors is Ryoji Ikeda’s The Radar in the disused Millennium Building, formerly used as the Warehouse nightclub. The Japanese artist is known worldwide for his work with sound and electronic media and this large scale installation promises to be extraordinary. Uptown at Plymouth College of Art, Athens born Antigoni Pasidi presents Self Made Structures (for Building, Dwelling, Thinking). Pasidi, also a lecturer at the art school, makes sculptural installations in a range of materials such as wax, sand and bronze and for this exhibition has been inspired by the principle of adhocism & the grassroots practice of the ‘self-built’. True to their year-round programme of exhibitions with international artists, KARST gallery in Stonehouse open an electrifying new show on the Saturday night titled I AM MY OWN PRIMAL PARENT & I WILL COPULATE WITH MYSELF. Organised by Curator Katie Cercone, a self-proclaimed “scribe, priestess and spiritual gangsta”, the exhibition will feature a number of artists from New York including Narcissister, famous for her appearance on America’s Got Talent and declared by the Huffington Post as “The Topless Feminist Superhero New York Needs”, alongside Dutch artist Melanie Bonajo, whose short documentary series Night Soil was shown at Tate Modern in 2016. This is definitely a show to visit but may include explicit content. Written by Vickie Fear, Visual Arts Plymouth Activator. http://vickiefear.co.uk