Supermarket blog

Supermarket are happy to announce that Antoine&Amanda will attend Supermarket Art Fair 2017 to be our backstage blogger and give their perspective on what's going on.

Antoine&Amanda started in Paris with the ambition to create a platform open to alternative and various artistic expressions. We are french/swedish duo that works on organising pop up cultural and art events. We are culture producers and concept creators that work mainly with non-established artists and are starting to represent artists. Our concepts represent us, we want to break the limits and create exchanges with different artistic expressions, make them collaborate with each other and not separate them.

You will see their posts here
https://www.instagram.com/antoineandamanda/
https://www.facebook.com/antoineamanda/

Teater Giljotin gives (in April/May) 10 performances of 'Concealed Party' with the artist Tana Maneva. A visual performance based on the Japanese art form Butoh.
We offer a limited amount of free tickets.
To get the free tickets email us: teatergiljotin@gmail.com
More about the event http://www.teatergiljotin.se/2016-concealed-party

With Supermarket 2017 on the doorstep and the Supermarket Magazine soon to be released, we caught up with artist Ursula Burke, the creator of the porcelain bust that is featured on the cover of this year’s Magazine edition. Ursula is exhibiting with Ormston House from Limerick (IE) and we asked her questions about her work with porcelain sculptures, her inspiration as an artist, and whether or not she has any particularly memorable, intimate moment in connection to art.    

One of your porcelain sculptures is on the cover of our yearly magazine, can you tell us more about its background? Yes, that piece is part of a larger series of baroque busts that were exhibited at Ormston House, Limerick during September 2016. Vestiges is the title of this body of work, which refers to visible evidence of something that is disappearing or that no longer exists. Combining art historical techniques and contemporary themes, I made a suite of Baroque portrait-sculptures that question the legacy of art as a tool for political propaganda.  

Each imperial dynasty, particularly in Roman history, sought to emphasise certain aspects of representation in an effort to legitimise their authority. Using Parian porcelain, famed for emulating the carved marble sculptures from Antiquity, I try to adopt visual tropes and surviving fragments of the Classical tradition in my approach. Rather than enshrine the heroic or the powerful, the work captures the darker side of revolution and conflict, and thus formalises the violence caught at a moment in time. The portrait sculptures are imbued with a potent discomfort: the nameless faces of men and women, bruised and injured, and never to be healed.

This body of work was developed during the centenary of the Easter Rebellion, marking Ireland's struggle for liberation from colonial rule, and in the context of continuing negotiations in post-conflict Northern Ireland. Through Vestiges, my hope is that the work speaks to an indeterminate point in the future when real, meaningful and lasting peace has been realised.

What has been your biggest inspiration as an artist?

My biggest inspiration would have to be the Baroque period in art. I'm always excited by the incredible baroque preoccupation between art and architecture, the use of light and shade and the ability to imbue a work with potent emotion. Artists such as Caravaggio and Bernini are huge influences in my work and I continue to learn both formally and stylistically from researching and viewing their work in the flesh. Creating a collision of influences from antiquity, embedded in contemporary signs and symbols, is what I attempt to do with my work.

Can you recall a specifically intimate moment in connection to art? Perhaps an exhibition or a certain piece? Yes, I was on residency at the British School in Rome during 2014 and I spent many days roaming from church to church to view the countless examples of incredible art. I had tried several times to visit the Cornaro Chapel in Santa Maria Della Vittoria, where Bernini's Ecstasy of Saint Theresa resides. Each time it was either closed or overflowing with tourists taking photos. On one occasion, at the end of the day near closing time, I tried my luck and found the church empty. The sculpture of Saint Theresa and the angel was exquisite and well worth the many failed visits. The heightened tension created by the use of forced perspective and secular eroticism that the work relates felt just incredible. As the light that tunnels through the top of the hidden window in the dome above the work began to fade, I slowly realised the sign in Italian which roughly translated to "For Light - 50 cents". I popped my money into the slot and on came several lights which illuminated every inch of the gold rays emanating from above, making the sculpture appear to float upwards. The fifty cent spent on this extra light afforded me a wonderfully intimate moment with the piece.

Please visit Ursula Burke's website and Ormston House on Facebook for more info! 

Moving Art Initiative F.L.O.A.T from Amsterdam (NL) aims to shed light on the underrepresented artist, as part of a quest to share artistic contributions otherwise not available for the broader audience in Europe and beyond. We talked to them about their nomadic existence, questioning comfort zones and their vision for the future.  

F.L.O.A.T is an artists’ initiative, in constant movement, presenting each new exhibition from place to place – tell us more about your experiences! F.L.O.A.T's  exhibitions always start with a thought, a word, a line, a title, a work of an artist, a work of a non-artist, or an exhibition space. We collect different pieces of art works and ideas, with the purpose of combining them into one flow of pieces – one exhibition –  one thought. To realise such a thought fully, each time we find a different, appropriate or inappropriate space, where we construct the idea in physical dimensions. We always confront ourselves with possibilities and impossibilities, with the goal to make exhibitions in empty spaces or spaces run by other art platforms. We believe thoughts can always be adapted to any space and any audience, whether present or absent. Everywhere, there are different policies, drives and limitations that we like, and also dislike, to challenge.  

What will you showcase at Supermarket 2017?

A person’s role, in all its complexities, is never certain or stable. Acting and manifesting itself in a particular way, it traces the relationships that individual has with their social and physical environment. Somewhere between the human’s outer and inner conditions, a space of unfamiliarity opens up; a place where we wonder.

At Supermarket, F.L.O.A.T. will show a video installation which questions the comfort zones of bureaucratic environment and gestural procedures. In video works, in seemingly improvised situations, sets of unpredictable movements are rigorously repeated in continuous circles, bringing forward the absurdities and tragicomic aspects of a human slapstick.

Do you have a vision for the future? Where will F.L.O.A.T be in 5 years?

So far, F.L.O.A.T has existed for 2 years and we want to keep open in which form will it develop. As times are changing, F.L.O.A.T is floating with the time.

STROBOSKOP ART SPACE is an exhibition space located in a row of old car garages connected to a residential area in Warsaw. Curious about their initiative, we took the opportunity to ask the founders Franciszek Buchner and Norbert Delman a few questions on the current situation of artists’ initiatives in Poland, as well as their take on this year’s theme of intimacy.

STROBOSKOP is an experimental space set to promote various polarised artistic contributions as a means to fill in the gap between public institutions and private galleries in modern Poland. What is your recipe in doing so? And what are some of the challenges?

We believe in initiating grassroots projects and – above all – offering young artists a space in which they can experiment, try different solutions and learn. We also aim to invite foreign artists. Our dream is to create a window for art outside of Poland that will refresh the local scene. Funding is definitely a challenge – at the moment Stroboskop is funded solely by us, and we do not run any projects that are funded by the city or state.

What do you plan to exhibit at Supermarket 2017?

For the upcoming edition of Supermarket, Stroboskop will exhibit works by us, the founders of the space, as opposed to representing another artist – something that normally cannot be seen on site in Warsaw.   

This year's theme is Intimacy. Can you recall a specifically intimate moment in connection to art? Perhaps an exhibition or a certain art piece?

Public appearances are by definition devoid of intimacy. A work of art, however, is the essence of intimacy, a strange construct made of thoughts, instincts, and experiences. The very atmosphere of an exhibition is, nonetheless, an experience that is as intimate as it is public, and it creates an extremely interesting moment. I try to approach each exhibition as if it were a private, eye-to-eye conversation, and there are certain ones we will remember for the rest of our lives.

Visit STROBOSKOPS webpage here for more info!