Press release:
CIRCLECULTURE GALLERY IS PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE THE FIRST SOLO EXHIBITION OF BERLIN-BASED STREET ARTIST XOOOOX: “MOLOTOV HIGH HEELS”.
OPENING: JULY 17TH 2008, 7PM, EXHIBITION: JULY 18TH UNTIL SEPTEMBER 10TH 2008

XOOOOX has been a prolific graffiti artist since the mid 1990ʼs. Early experiments with collage gradually evolved into the artistʼs signature stencil work, typically life-size figures or appropriated designer logos found predominately on the streets of Berlin and in Paris, Milan, Vienna, New York…
The exhibition will include emblematic stencil work by xoooox, as well as new collage and sculpture made from common materials such as cardboard, flea market furniture, found objects and discarded fashion magazines. A large-scale, public work, will accompany the exhibition.
XOOOOX manipulates immediately recognizable logos of upscale brands like Coco Chanel, re-contextualizing these elitist class signifiers within the inherently egalitarian space of the urban public sphere, while commenting on the visual power of branding in general. Life-sized stencils of females, conspicuously posed and styled as models often are, depict the icons of fashionʼs cult of worship and recall the work of street art legends such as Blek le Rat, Misstick and Banksy, functioning as both traditional figurative studies and ironic representations of societyʼs obsession with the superficial. Although XOOOOXʼs stenciled images are inspired by the fashion spreads seen in magazines such as Vogue and avant-garde publications like Purple, this work is not a deconstruction of couture culture. On the contrary, each stencil, created painstakingly by hand, pays homage to the art form that is couture fashion, while criticizing the massmerchandising and advertising campaigns of global retail chains. Citing Pop Art, DADA and, of course, graffiti as major influences, the artist states, “You can use the power of fashion like a personal weapon. It can act like a shield, or it can destroy you.”

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS:
»Inoperable Poster Show« Vienna, 2007
»Finders Keepers« Milan, 2006
»Hollywood The Remix« New York, 2005
www.xoooox.com

For further information please contact the gallery.
Circleculture Gallery, Gipsstrasse 11, 10119 Berlin Mitte, Germany
berlin@circleculture-gallery.com, www.circleculture-gallery.com

Jan Poppenhagen did a great photoseries about the style from kids from Berlin-Moabit. More about Jan Poppenhagen, here.

Photos from Jan Poppenhagen

Dresses with little pockets for colored felt-tip pens that bleed into the fabric? At first glance this sounds kind of odd to me. But Portuguese artist Fernando Brizio disabuses me.
As part of the Turin-based exhibition “flexibility - design in a fast changing society” Brizio turns heads with his “renewable clothing”, based on the concept I mentioned before. Surprisingly, the dresses are very beautiful and wearable. And the greatest thing of all: the dresses can be cleaned and colored again…and again…and again. Stunning idea! For more, jump to designboom.

All photos from designboom

Liza Snook´s Virtual Shoe Museum is one of the most interesting databases for all kind of „shoe”-themes. In 2004 Snook called on artists, designers and photographers from all over the world to present their creations. Thanks god - they respond the call and helped to create a sweeping and very well arranged virtual exhibition, that is ordered by various criteria like Designers, Styles, Usage, Color, Materials, …
I was looking for the experimental and artsy shoes. But although those who search for danceshoes, cowboy boots, High Heels, high-tec creations etc. will discover amazing stuff in the Virtual Shoe Museum.

All Photos via Virtual Shoe Museum

Since June 18th, the Barbican Art Gallery in London has opened its doors to honor the Dutch design duo Victor & Rolf. The highlights from 15 years of Victor & Rolf fashion design are presented. And…what makes it spectacular? Mentioning is, that it´s the first exhibition ever in the UK that centers the work of the Dutch designers. Besides that, the most surprising fact is, that the key dresses haven´t only put from the designer´s fashion archive to the museum - instead of choosing the easy way, Viktor & Rolf reproduced every single key style in a puppet size.
50 dolls, dressed up in the 50 most mentionable designs by Viktor & Rolf are now standing around in the Barbican Art Gallery, waiting for admiring gawks, for ecstatic delights and for jealous astonishments. For those, who doesn´t live in the middle of London - you have time till September 18^th to book a flight or, you´ll find great pictures and more info at Viktor & Rolf and on the site of the Barbican Art Gallery.

Photos via Victor & Rolf

And here, the official press text follows.
A stunning new exhibition showcasing the work of Dutch fashion designers Viktor & Rolf opens on 18 June. This is the first time in the United Kingdom that an exhibition has been devoted to this highly influential duo. Over the past 15 years Viktor & Rolf have taken the fashion world by storm with their particular blend of cool irony and surreal beauty.
The House of Viktor & Rolf presents each of the designer’s signature pieces from 1992 to now, shown in a specially commissioned and characteristically theatrical installation that dominates the entire Gallery. Highlights include pieces from Atomic Bomb, 1998-99, featuring dramatic mushroom cloud-like cushioned necklines and Russian Doll, 1999-2000, in which a single model was painstakingly dressed by Viktor & Rolf until she was gasping under 70 kilogrammes of exquisite haute couture. For the collection Bells, 2000-2001, models emerged from a smoke-filled space in clothes embroidered with hundreds of brass bells, so they were heard before they could be seen.
Drawing on the Dutch tradition of silver plating a baby’s first shoe as a keepsake, the climax of Viktor & Rolf’s Autumn/Winter collection of 2006-07, was a strapless wedding dress with a wide petticoated knee length skirt, silver plated, including even the bride’s bouquet.

Publication
A 256 page hardback book, the most comprehensive on the work of Viktor & Rolf to date, including 400 fashion photographers, catwalk images and exclusive illustrations and polaroids, is available at a special exhibition price of £32.95 (RRP £35).

Text by Caroline Evans and Susannah Frankel. Designed by FUEL. Published by Merrell in association with Barbican Art Gallery.

The House of Viktor & Rolf Shop
Be sure not to miss The House of Viktor & Rolf shop. As well as selling the book that accompanies the exhibition, a specially commissioned silk scarf by the designers, limited edition versions of their famous perfumes and exhibition postcards, Viktor & Rolf have also selected a unique range of designer objects, books and curiosities that have inspired them.

Fashion Late-Every Thursday until 10pm
Throughout the exhibition, Barbican Art Gallery is open every Thursday evening until 10pm. Join us for late night themed evenings with a BIG difference. Enjoy fashion fun and games, performances, discussions, master classes, workshops and Off the Peg talks by leading fashion commentators.
Meet a friend at The House of Viktor & Rolf bar where you can enjoy a specially mixed cocktail.

The first Thursday of every month offers that extra bit of interactive fashion excitement. Part of Time Out First Thursdays.

The House of Viktor & Rolf events programme is presented by Barbican Art Gallery in partnership with Premsela, Dutch Platform for Design and Fashion.

Radical Advertising - An Exhibition that has to be seen. Online or Live.
It´s shown until august, 17th in Düsseldorf, Germany and online under radicaladvertising. The show includes works by
Cindy Sherman, Zevs, Maison Martin Margiela, and Jeff Koons as well as the famous Adbusters Foundation. The list can be breythless continued with names like Oliviero Toscani, David LaChapelle, Terry Richardson, Banksy andsoonandsoon.
Watch! It´s worth it! Here the official press text:”Both the exhibition and its provocative title show that the transition from the 20th to the 21st century marked a radical paradigm shift in advertising.
Against the backdrop of globalization, the 1990s became the decade of the no-logo movement and ‘ad-busting’, an attack on the cluttering of the semiotic environment with advertising messages.

The fashion industry was instrumental in this regard: not only did it make it fashionable to wear hijacked logos, it also successfully employed anti-advertising techniques in its marketing campaigns. In doing so, it spearheaded a radically changed concept of advertising that successfully incorporated political and artistic attacks on global advertising into its campaigns. The RADICAL ADVERTISING exhibition features ad-buster campaigns, the critical artistic reflections of artists such as Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, Cindy Sherman, and Daniele Buetti, and the opinion-forming campaigns of Benetton, Sisley, Diesel, Helmut Lang, Calvin Klein, and Comme des Garçons.

Many of the advertisements that appeared on billboards or in magazines in the 1980s and 1990s were designed to shock. They not only revolutionised the advertising industry, but also generated heated debates among members of the public. The controversy generated by Benetton, for example, was so intense that some magazines refused to print Benetton advertisements featuring images of death row in American prisons and some retailers stopped stocking Benetton products.

The nineties: radical shock - advertising as a means of attack
The noughties: radical life - advertising as a means of making contact
2010 onwards: radical moral - advertising as a means of co-operation
… these are the central themes of the exhibition.

Since the 1990s, globalization has also produced a fundamental change in the way consumers consume the media. In the 21st century, advertising has reacted to the media overkill caused by the complete fragmentation of television and the advent of the Internet, mobile telephony, and instant messaging with a second, equally radical u-turn: it is withdrawing from mass communication and addressing individuals wherever it encounters them. The relationship with the consumer has changed from being a passive one to being an active one. Buzz marketing, guerrilla advertising, ambient advertising, and Web2.0 have created the participating consumer.

The RADICAL ADVERTISING exhibition will recreate spectacular ambient advertising campaigns in 3-D and introduce the visitor to the advertising world of Web2.0 and Youtube. Exhibits include a MINI that was converted into a hotel room (and parked outside Germany’s World Cup stadiums); a manhole cover that startles the visitor because of the two hands that reach out from beneath it (for Amnesty International); an interactive urinal advertising Frankfurt’s taxi guild; and a dedicated blog written by the popular German comic figure, Horst Schlämmer, advertising Volkswagen products.

Here too, artists launch a subversive and aggressive attack on the world of advertising: Zevs ‘kidnaps’ advertising figures from posters and Tom Sachs ‘crafts’ a model of a McDonald’s fast food restaurant…
… the final campaign highlighted in this series is the one run by American Apparel, a company that chooses not to brand its products with a logo and uses its customers as models in its advertisements. In the spirit of Andy Warhol, everyone in this campaign gets their 15 minutes of fame and it is the consumers who shape the advertisements that seek to encourage them to buy products.

The heart of the exhibition is a Comme des Garçons guerrilla store containing both retro products and the label’s most recent designs. The store will appear at the launch of the exhibition and disappear again when it ends. Although Comme des Garçons has already applied the guerilla store concept in a variety of cities (including Berlin, Singapore, Krakow, and Glasgow), this is the very first time it has used it in a museum. The store rebelliously carries to extremes the notion of the increasingly mercantile nature of museums. It will be surrounded by a wire fence: on one side of the fence, visitors to the store will look out through the wire mesh into the museum, while on the other side, visitors to the museum will catch glimpses of the glittering world of consumerism through the wire barrier.
The term ‘radical’ covers both meanings of the word: ‘radical’ in the sense of revolutionary and ‘radical’ in the opposing sense of fundamental or absolute. This is exactly what the RADICAL ADVERTISING exhibition is about: advertising’s fundamentally different approach, an approach that is revolutionary because it turns the fundamental principles of the system upside down.

The RADICAL ADVERTISING exhibition uses numerous examples to illustrate the history of shock advertising and employs the shortest-lived examples of the genre to bring visitors not only close to, but actually into pop-up stores and guerilla marketing campaigns.
The 400-page exhibition catalogue (on sale for only € 29.90!) contains essays by Werner Lippert, Peter Wippermann, and Diederich Diederichsen, hundreds of photos, and countless interviews by Hermann Vaske with radical advertising protagonists such as Renzo Rosso (Diesel), Oliviero Toscani (Benetton), Kalle Lasn (the founder of Adbusters), and other creative minds from around the world.

The pop band MIA and its sin

ger Mieze provide a completely different perspective on the exhibition. Visitors can listen to MIA’s exhibition guide using any Bluetooth-equipped mobile phone or watch it as a podcast on the NRW-Forum website (www.nrw-forum.de).”

All Photos by radicaladvertising

“The art festival URBAN AFFAIRS is pleased to announce a large-scale exhibition featuring current positions of Contemporary Urban Art and Street Art from July 5th to August 3rd in Berlin- the global epicenter of this international art movement. Forty-two artists from nine countries, all major players in the Urban Art genre, have been invited for a three-day residency at The Friedrichshoehe, a new cultural center in Berlin-Friedrichshain. Located in a post-industrial building, this 900 sq. meter exhibition space is the ideal location for the largest and most comprehensive Urban Art exhibition in Germany to date.”

Press release by/ More infos at Circleculture.com

Jessica Dimmock´s work is a MUST SEE and a MUST TO KNOW ABOUT.
The young photographer Jessica Dimmock became famous for her photo-documentary “The Ninth Floor” - a disturbing portrait of a group of young herion addicts living in a ninth-floor apartment in Manhattan, New York. The series is shown until june 1st in Foam gallery in Amsterdam. For those who won´t make it there, have a look on Jessica Dimmock´s page.

I know, the project has really nothing to do with the “contemporary fashion thing” what´s wrong with the zoo is usually about. BUT, it´s not only a “one of a kind” photo-projects, it´s also worth to be mentioned. Again and again and again.
The theme is actual and will probably always be. Beside the theme it´s the way, Dimmock watches people, i like. Catching them in very private situations, living, fighting, dreaming, on turkey, stoned, loving, desperated, happy… Dimmock shows the multiple facets and of the main characters, she gives us a deep visual insight in their personal life without altering, without judging.

“Foam presents an exhibition of work by the young American photographer Jessica Dimmock (b. 1978). In 2006 in Milan she won the first F Award for socially-engaged photography for her series entitled The Ninth Floor. Dimmock takes a disconcertingly close view of her subject, at the same time sympathetic and ruthless. The result is a series that centres on human emotions, in which despair makes way for anger, reconciliation and then bliss in quick tempo. In addition to The Ninth Floor the show also features a short film about this project, including interviews and video recordings.
Jessica Dimmock charted the lives of the people living in this ninth-floor flat in Manhattan apartment for almost three years. They are addicts, whose everyday lives are filled with buying and selling drugs, sleeping, rowing and sex.
When she was a child, Dimmock’s father also wrestled with drug addiction. Her sense of recognition gave her a special connection with this lonely, isolated community. Dimmock focused on the emotional and social side of their life. The result is a series of intense and innovative images with an intimate and simultaneously unpolished feel.
One influence on Dimmock’s work is film. Her cinematic sense is clearly evident in the way she portrays the space in the apartment. The minimal and often stratified lighting accentuates the sense of unease that The Ninth Floor exudes. Dimmock shot her pictures using only the lighting in the flat: the light of the television screen or a mobile phone.
The tragic intimacy of The Ninth Floor leaves the viewer with a mixture of emotions.
Jessica Dimmock (b. 1978) lives in Brooklyn, New York. She graduated in 2005 at the International Center of Photography (ICP) following a Bachelor in Sociology and Anthropology in 2000 and a Master in Educational Studies. Between 2000 and 2004 she worked as a teacher at a secondary school and on educational programmes for homeless children.
In 2006, The Ninth Floor won both Magnum Photos’ Inge Morath Prize, the Marty Forsher Fellowship for Humanistic Photography of PDN/Parsons. With this series Dimmock also won the first edition of the prestigious F Award. This International Award for concerned photography was created by Fabrica, the communication Research Center of Benetton Group and Forma, Centro Internazionale di Fotografia of Milano – created by Fondazione della Sera and Contrasto.
She has published in Aperture, The New York Times Magazine, Time, Fortune, Newsweek, New York Magazine and Fade.
The exhibition is a Forma production.
The book The Ninth Floor is published by Contrasto (2007).” (Text from artnews.org)