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T S T R A E H T F O Y S E T R U O C
HITLIST THE BEST EXHIBITIONS
✽ Tania Kovats: Oceans Exhibition bringing together water from around the world in this participatory installation from the artist who delivered Rivers to Jupiter Artland in 2012. See preview, page 102. Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, Sat 15 Mar–Sun 25 May.
✽ Helga Paris: Fotografie Major retrospective of the German photographer,
whose work provides an intimate and poignant portrayal of life in communist East Germany. See preview, page 97. Street Level Photoworks, Glasgow, until Sun 30 Mar.
✽ Summerhall’s spring shows See review, left. Summerhall, Edinburgh, until
Sat 22 Mar.
✽ Sarah Lucas The first substantial exhibition in Scotland by the former Young British Artist brings together pieces of work from the past 20 years. Expect provocative art that challenges ideas of body, gender and sexuality. Tramway, Glasgow, until Sun 16 Mar.
✽ The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize First Scottish showing of this internationally acclaimed prize, which has been running since 2005. See preview, page 97. Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, Sat 1 Mar–Mon 26 May.
✽ Louise Bourgeois: A Woman Without Secrets & I Give
Everything Away Louise Bourgeois is such a significant figure in contemporary art that her work on display in Edinburgh has been divided across two major shows. Sadly the Fruitmarket’s show comes to an end all-too soon, but the National Galleries’ retrospective continues all the way until May. Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, until Sun 18 May; Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sun 23 Feb.
SUMMERHALL’S SPRING SHOWS Dignity, devastation and disco crop up in nine new exhibitions
the
L oss, migration, the Holocaust and a strange form of post-apocalyptic euphoria filter in various ways through the nine new exhibitions at Summerhall. The first is seen most explicitly in Kindness of Strangers, first UK show by German-American artist Stefan Roloff, whose large-scale video installation charts the story of two refugees – a Sudanese woman and an Iranian man – in Berlin. This sits evocatively beside shadowed interviews with people describing their ideal world, and an exploration of the detention of Roloff’s father by the Gestapo.
The anonymity of Roloff’s subjects is also reflected in the black-and-white imagery of Karin Gunnarsson’s Apparitions, while the array of Beuysian detritus in Ian Hughes’ remarkable Unearthed Tongues Set Free (pictured) mixes religious iconography with images from the Holocaust to give real-life events dignity and power. 96 THE LIST 20 Feb–20 Mar 2014
Oddly, Peter Gabriel provides a link between Roloff and Hughes. While Hughes has provided album artwork for the former Genesis frontman, Roloff’s video piece ‘Face’ was produced by him, with Gabriel using it as a prototype for the video that accompanied ‘Sledgehammer’.
The retrospective of photographic works by the late Colin Jarvie is a travelogue of light which complements an edited take on Harry Papadopoulos’ celebrated images of Scotland’s post-punk scene. This seems to erupt onto the dancefloor of Love to Love You Baby, Kevin Williamson’s filmic responses to songs by Donna Summer as produced by Giorgio Moroder, the German who revolutionised dance music and brought a generation back to pulsing, neon-driven life. (Neil Cooper)
Summerhall, Edinburgh, until Sat 22 Mar ●●●●●