- Venue
- National Museum Cardiff
- Location
- Wales
In 2012, Artes Mundi returns to the National Museum Cardiff, and arrives at a time of great cultural promise with the emergence of Cardiff Contemporary and the success of recent art festivals such as Made in Roath, Outcasting: Fourth Wall and Cardiff Design Festival.
Its first year in the newly refurbished Contemporary wing, Artes Mundi 5 welcomes with Smile as if We Have Already Won (2012) a monumental and wonderfully intricate, illusionistic, curved tapestry from Miriam Bäckström which depicts a never ending room of mirrors with a crystalline figure as the central, yet back turned protagonist. The figure appears elegant and poised, but there appears a slight narrative of pseudo-myth sitting somewhere between Pygmalion and Narcissus, the mythic allure of the piece is no doubt upheld by its vibrant pearlescence. Each of the thousand planes that are depicted in the tapestry provides a visual synonym that suits the technical ability behind each stitch and weave.
Backing into Darius Mikšys’ portrait of the artist as a museum collection, Y Cod/The Code (2012) is an appropriation of art, objects and artefacts to be presented as the artist’s portrait. The code appears to be a system of archival description and curatorial choices as an artwork in itself, but this is just upon the surface, Mikšys’ work is far more complex and needs time in the intimate space. Some words from an essay on Mikšys were chosen to be input into the Museum’s archive database were ‘Parent’ (referring to his Artist’s Parents Evenings), ‘Cricket’ (After setting up the first Lithuanian Cricket Club) and ‘Fluid’ which returns the results displayed; An Augustus John drawing, a ticket from a 2009 Cricket match of England V Australia and a sheep drenching gun & container, respectively. Some fantastical objects within the ascribed portrait take shape of a disturbed ichthyosaur skeleton, British Seaman’s Identity Card and Utigawa Kunisada’s Entrance to the Teahouse. This considered collection of art, objects and artefacts may seem somewhat disparate, but with a trusty copy of the accompanying black catalogue embossed simply with ‘Y COD’ the whole steel-white room is transformed into the phenomenon that is describing an artist’s practice.
Changing from intimate spaces, either physical or pictorial to Sheela Gowda’s space that house Kagebangara (2009). Rusted out barrels, tarpaulin & sheet metal is arranged in towers, lines and geometric shape arrangements. It is only considering the history of the materials, or what their journeys could have entailed, that you consider with empathy the political labour situation in India. There is something fantastically unnerving about the surfaces of rusted metal paired with the totally synthetic sheen of plastic, combinations of weathered material and weather-proof material provides a thorough metaphor for the exhaustion and exploitation of workforces; where drums and metal represent labour and tarpaulin representing the employers. Amongst the piece, one section, arranged as a shelter arrives like a lump in the throat; these materials although stained with tar and rust mimic where some of the workers are forced to inhabit. Upon a closer inspection, a small shelter space is constructed with clear nods to modernist aesthetics but still utterly contemporary in its context.
There is no work in the museum by Tania Bruguera. For Artes Mundi 5 she has presented her Immigrant International Movement, a project to promote political representation and civil rights to immigrants, worldwide. Handing out of Immigrant respect badges (following a written agreement to support the cause), working with immigrants in Cardiff, and on one night re-presenting Tatlin’s Whisper No. 5, that was first performed at Tate Modern; an un-announced crowd control exercise that was performed by riot police on horseback. A terrifying and stimulating piece, but unfortunately due to the clued up audience and the warning upon entering the museum the element of surprise was somewhat diminished.
Apolonija Šušteršič, an artist concerned with the relationship between architecture and social engagement has created new work concerning the change that occurred a few years back at the Barrage in Cardiff Bay. The film interviews politicians, campaigners, historians and conservationists, all talking about the effect that the new barrage would have and did have on Cardiff as a whole, while giving a history of regeneration in the UK and what its affect is. The work is displayed on a large-scale projection in the middle of the room, with an astroturfed stage on which are a few astroturfed seats. The piece works as a documentary, and the seating, along with a pile of take-away literature pushes the piece to be received as a documentary. Granted what happened was in the past and gone, The Tiger and The Mermaid (2012) (named after Tiger Bay and the new Mermaid Quay) works to remind architectural changes within our surroundings, because if we don’t remind ourselves of the snapshot of the city, it will run the risk of fading out completely.
Teresa Margolles’ cuts through the human condition like a knife, on top of the slight sound of birds bleeding in from Šušteršič’s piece is the gristly Sound of the First Thoracic Incision During the Autopsy of A Murder Victim (Sounds of the Morgue) (2006) which sets up the pivotal theme throughout the work on show. There is something off kilter in its approach, it seems less the unknowing of death, more documentation of physiological afterlife and an abstraction of grief. By using equipment and materials from autopsy rooms, see: Plancha/ Hot Plate (2010), heated metal plates, water from a Mexican morgue; there is a distance that perhaps allows the artist to deal with such a theme in her concise manner. It feels far away from morbid, it deals with the sobering result of violence from Mexican gang culture and creates a beautiful will o’ the wisp.
The final artist, British born, Phil Collins presents us with his free fotolab project, a nostalgic project where he develops film free of charge for anyone who wants their film developed; but with a selfish clause whereby he is allowed to use any and all images for exhibitions such as Artes Mundi. The free fotolab on display serves as a combination of the cities throughout Europe. The intimacy that is achieved in this piece is totally unrivalled, it shows the most personal moments of total strangers, for example a man on his deathbed and a family bathing. This look into the camera exposes it as voyeur, mirror and storyteller, creating something uncomfortably hilarious, with an honest aesthetic, portrayed as document to show the trust in which these people have given to Collins. The trust in emphasised by the medium, 35mm film, slowly being pushed out through newer and newer digital nuances; and in free fotolab an honest love of, and pushing a revival of the medium has pushed this work to succeed so beautifully.
Bob Gelsthorpe
