CULTURUNNERS - an Edge of Arabia Project

http://culturunners.com

On the 4th July, CULTURUNNERS will embark on the second phase of its epic cross-country road trip across America, heading East to West, from New York to San Diego, in a retrofitted Gulf Stream RV. I will be participating on the kick off from New York to Palestine, Ohio to Detroit, Michigan.

Travelling in the CULTURUNNERS RV, we will host a revolving group of artists in search of interconnected stories and common concerns between the Middle East and the United States.

From Palestine, Ohio to the Badlands of South Dakota, CULTURUNNERS will be facilitating border-crossing journeys and projects by artists including Yazan Khalili (Palestine), Anne Katrine Senstad (Norway), Faisal Samra (Saudi Arabia/Bahrain), Matthew Mazzotta (US), Sara Ouhaddou (Morocco/France)), Ava Ansari (Iran/US), John Mireles (US), Orkan Telhan (Turkey/US) and many more.

CULTURUNNERS will be sending regular artist-led 'Dispatches' from the road through social media and our interactive website. CULTURUNNERS believes in the power of the travelling artist to open the public imagination and inspire greater empathy across physical and psychological borders around the world. Conceived as a new model for cultural exchange, it combines the localised rituals of an artist road trip with the far-reaching power of communication and cultural technologies.

For its first major project, and as a core component of Edge of Arabia's multi-year US Tour in partnership with Art Jameel, CULTURUNNERS is inviting artists to explore one of the most contested yet interconnected ideological and political borders of our time - that of the wider Middle East and the United States.

CULTURUNNERS is co-authored by Azra Akšamija and Stephen Stapleton, produced by Edge of Arabia in partnership with Art Jameel, and developed in collaboration with international artists, scientists and curators who met during a week-long gathering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in September 2014. CULTURUNNERS is currently being co-curated by Ava Ansari and Stephen Stapleton.

56th Venice Biennale - The Vanity of Vanities exhibition Installation views

The Vanity of Vanities by Anne Senstad at El Magazine Dell'Arte during the 56th Venice Biennale. Sound by JG Thirlwell. Curated by Roberta Semeraro, organized by RO.SA.M. In partnership with Zhulong gallery, PNEK, Kunstforum, Apt Global.

May 9th - June 30th 2015


An immersive Video installation  at El Magazen dell’Arte curated by Dr Roberta Semeraro, consisting of hanging mirrors, mutliple projectors and sound. The exhibition suggests the idea of waterways and canals, as seen in the video piece The Swamp and echoes the canals of Venice. The cinematic and haunting video score is composed by well known musician and composer JG Thirlwell who is a longtime collaborator of Senstad. The combination of music inspired by the history of the deep south with the more abstract composition in the video piece The Vanity of Vanities, will take the viewer through a visual, mental, experential and emotional journey, reflecting nature, the anthropocene, ecology, the sea and water movement. The mirrors will act as reflectors of space, the video imagery, creating a labyrinthian experience of the space as well as imply the mirroring effect of still waters as seen in the video The Swamp. Visitors will be able to walk in between the hanging mirrors. The installations consist of a full color experience as seen in The Swamp with lush green colors travelling through the swamps of Baton Rouge in Louisiana, for then to be engaged in the drama,  undercurrent violent beauty of the black and white video projection installation of The Vanity of Vanities. The installation will be a visually rich, narrative, optic, sonic and multi sensory experience where the environment is a narrative of shifting associations, purporting the sensorial, psychological and visual. Senstad has a wide experience with multiple projection installations including the use of surround sound, wind, insence/aroma, fabrics, multiple projectors, Arabic beduin carpets and pillows and so on, to create multi sensory installations, most recently in Abu Dhabi and Texas. She additionally has been invited to create a large site specific multiple projection and sound installation in Bahrein in 2016 and as part of Aurora Dallas 2015, she will create an immersive multi projection with sound and fabrics in a church in Dallas.

Installation views The Swamp

©Photos by Andrea Luizza

Installation views The Vanity of Vanities

©Photos by Anne Senstad 

Safina Radio Project - 56th Venice Biennale

JG Thirlwell's soundtrack for The Swamp, part of Anne Senstad's installation The Vanity of Vanities at El Magazen dell'arte during the 56th Venice biennale, is now up on Safina Radio Project, a curated Radio Boat platform in Venice, organized by Alserkal Avenue in Dubai, Special thanks to Anabelle de Gersigny, Safina Radio Project Curator:

http://safinaradioproject.org/2015/04/28/soundtrack-by-jg-thirlwell-to-the-swamp-a-film-by-anne-k-senstad/

The Safina Radio Project is an itinerant space, a boat transformed into a recording studio that navigates the waterways of Venice, transporting passengers from one place to another, acting as a roving platform for expeditions and crossings, reflecting on place but unbounded by locality.
In the midst of travel, passengers are invited to be guests in dialogue, building a journey that is physical and imaginary, exploratory and informative. Untethered by a fixed relation to objects and images, the radio space becomes one for binding different realities and experiences – with participants and listeners prompted by ideas of utopia and oppression, accelerationism, borders, trade and surveillance. A combination of travelogues (conversations) and happenings will interrogate artistic practices, inviting a broad spectrum of artists whose practices draw from a variety of social and political contexts.

Bruges Contemporary Art and Architecture Trienniale May 20 - Oct 18 2015

The Inaugural Bruges Art and Architecture Triennial May 20 - Oct 18 2015 

 http://www.triennalebrugge.be

Joshua Treenial - Site responsive Art Laboratory in the High Desert

http://www.joshuatreenial.com

Bernard Liebov and Dr. KJ Baysa 
Founding Co-Directors and Co-Curators

Memorial Day Weekend | Preview Party - Friday evening 22 May 2015

Site-Responsive Installation Art and Performance in the High Desert

May 22 - 25, 2015
62732 Sullivan Road
Joshua Tree, CA 92252

More than 40 artists from 10 different countries at venues in and around Joshua Tree, California. BoxoHOUSE, The Integratron, Joshua Tree Astronomy Arts Theater, The Palms Restaurant & Bar. 

Sponsors: BoxoHOUSE, The Honolulu Biennial Foundation

56th Venice Biennale

ON THE OCCASION OF THE
56TH LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA

El Magazen dell'Arte, Associazione Culturale RO.SA.M. and curator Dr Roberta Semeraro are honored to present an immersive installation by Anne Senstad 

May 9 th - June 30th, 2015
Opening reception: May 9th, 2015

6-9 pm

El Magazen dell'Arte

1375 Dorsoduro, 30123 Venezia

http://rosam.it

http://elmagazendellarte.net

Still image from The Vanities of Vanities, 2013 by Anne Senstad. Sound composed and performed by JG Thirlwell

How to get there: El Magazen dell'Arte is steps away from the boat-bus stop “Zattere” (dock for lines 2, 5.1 and 5.2 – from the railway station and San Marco – and line 6 – from Piazzale Roma and the Biennial Gardens). 

In partnership with: 

Anne Senstad and M Plummer Fernandez exhibition Color Gamut at Zhulong Gallery, Dallas. Feb 5 - March 7 2015