News

2 October – 19 December, 2009. The David Roberts Art Foundation is delighted to announce Lithuanian born Raimundas Malašauskas as the second guest curator in the Curators’ Series, which aims to support international curators with unique and experimental vision by commissioning projects for the David Roberts Art Foundation. Raimundas Malašauskas will present group exhibition "Sculpture of the Space Age", developed over the last year. Opening of the exhibition 1 October, 6.30 pm (no invitation needed).

"Sculpture of the Space Age" refers to a purely fictional exhibition mentioned in J. G. Ballard’s short story "The Object of the Attack" (1984). Not detailed in the text, the exhibition was supposedly held at the Serpentine gallery in the late 70’s and exists only as a title in the short story. Malašauskas describes his process as "Re-visiting the exhibition that only took place in a novel: an interdisciplinary experiment of space-time traveling."

Invited artists Gintaras Didžiapetris, Ryan Gander, Mario Garcia Torres and Rosalind Nashashibi will work collectively with the curator and the David Roberts Art Foundation to make the fiction real. The exhibition will examine aspects of art production and transmission, porosities in between fiction and reality as well as positions of the art works in time and space.

Alongside "Sculpture of the Space Age", the curatorial team of the David Roberts Art Foundation will introduce "The Object of the Attack"; a programme of events, performances and artistic interventions expanding on the themes of Malašauskas’ exhibition. For this project, artists and curators will suggest possible interpretative paths through strategies of association and translation, their work entering fictional narratives built from an exhibition.

Guest Curator: Raimundas Malašauskas

Lithuanian born Raimundas Malašauskas was, until recently, curator-at-large of Artists Space, New York. He was curator at the Contemporary Art Centre (CAC) in Vilnius, Lithuania from 1995-2001. Together with Gridthiya Gaweewong, Massimiliano Gioni, Jessica Morgan, Hans Ulrich Obrist and Russell Storer, he was part of the curatorial team for the 2008 Sydney Biennial. Malašauskas' project will be his first exhibition in London.

The Artists:

Mario Garcia Torres (born 1975 Mexico, based in US) Through re-examinations of conceptual art works, Mario Garcia Torres (Mexico, 1975) combines elements of fact and fiction, history and myth, past and present. More than just historical references, his work raises contemporary questions that address politics, memory and the accessibility of information through performances, videos and installations.

Ryan Gander (born 1976 UK, based in UK) harnesses art's potential to communicate and creates work in various written, spoken and visual languages. His practice adopts both familiar styles, such as cartoons and maps, as well as more avant-garde aesthetics. By appropriating existing art and design work to generate new pieces, Gander creates fictional histories, traced from real historical moments and turning points in visual culture. He thematically investigates notions of copyright, intellectual property and the issues surrounding ideas of documentation and collaboration, originality and meaning by playful investigation into facets of the making, presentation, history and documentation of art and design. For ‘Frieze Projects’ this year, Ryan Gander will set up an (almost) instant photo studio to make portraits of visitors to the fair looking at an artwork of their choice. The portrait will be printed immediately, given to the subjects and a copy will be hung in an installation along the entrance corridor to the fair.

Rosalind Nashashibi (born 1973 UK, based in UK) Rosalind Nashashibi studied at Sheffield Hallam University and Glasgow School of Art. Her work is shown internationally and she has recently had solo exhibitions in New York, Basel, Christchurch, London, Glasgow and Dublin. She won Beck’s Futures in 2003. Nashashibi likes to train her camera on people so involved in the moment that they seem indifferent to her presence. Occasionally this introspection can drift into a limbic state of out-of-timeness. She provides a compelling focus on ways in which time passes in public and private spaces, her camera lingering on people and places, observing everyday activities and the environments in which these activities occur. The bleached-out quality of some of her films lends itself to a vague atmosphere of free-floating nostalgia, assisted by her choice of medium – Super 8 and 16 mm film.

Gintaras Didžiapetris (born 1985 Lithuania, based in Lithuania) Gintaras Didžiapetris artistic practice plays with the classical rhetoric of conceptual art. The visual vocabulary of Gintaras' work mixes text and image with approaches of institutional critique and modest but at the same time very present personal positions. Gintaras, represented by Tulips and Roses, Vilnius, will also be part of a new section entitled “Frame” within this years Frieze Art Fair. Consisting of young galleries with less than six years of existence, “Frame” will feature 30 commercial galleries — selected with the advice of curators Daniel Baumann and Sarah McCrory — presenting a solo presentation by one of their representing artists.

The David Roberts Art Foundation is a not for profit charitable foundation initiated in 2007, dedicated to promoting contemporary art. Through its activities, the Foundation encourages collaborations and aims to act as a platform for artistic dialogues. Though their projects, the foundation aims to question the structures of production and reception of art works and exhibitions. The foundation invites artists to explore the different formats of an exhibition and to consider it not as a fixed structure, but as a temporary proposal opened to evolutions, experimentations and modifications. Together with group or solo exhibitions, the Foundation hosts an active programme of performances and discussions. For further information on past exhibitions and events please visit our website www.davidrobertsartfoundation.com.

The exhibition is supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. The Foundation would also like to thank the Embassy of Mexico, London and the Lithuanian Embassy in the UK for their support and assistance. The David Roberts Art Foundation is proudly supported by the Edinburgh House Estates group of companies.

Sculpture of the Space Age

Opening of the exhibition: 1 October, 6:30 pm, no invitation needed.

Dates: 2 October 2009 to 19 December 2009

Times: 02 Oct - 19 Dec 2009 Tue - Fri 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM; Sat 11:00 AM - 4:00 PM

Venue: The David Roberts Art Foundation, 111 Great Titchfield Street (Fitzrovia), London W1W 6RY

Free entrance