BALSE NEWSLETTER 036

 


 
 

The observer. Looking out, over the world. As she closes her eyes, we seize existence. As she reopens, a new existence.

 

Machine that sow together time.

 

Two weeks, at Balse.

Much focus on music. Digging into, catching up with German pop.





 

From Ukraine: Dare to Dream - La Biennale di Venezia 2024

official collateral event of the 60th International Art Exhibition — La Biennale di Venezia

at Palazzo Contarini Polignac in Venice

20 April until 1 August 2024

At the Edge of the Sun

Jeffrey Deitch, LA

February 24–June 1, 2024
 

Pe Lang Future Relics

STANDING PINE東京 Tokyo

2024.06.08 Sat - 2024.07.06 Sat
 
 

Words of Wisdom

 

Again and again, I return to this question of who among us can see the angels, and why they are so often invisible to the preponderance of people in the contemporary world. In past epochs, visionaries and prophets, mystics and poets were privy to the shimmering resplendence of the celestial choir flitting about in the cosmos. I, who have never seen an angel, and can scarcely believe that such a creature is possible, am envious of William Blake with his espying them in the trees at nightfall, every golden wing quivering in the sunset, every halo glowing in the dusk. As with so much of that which ails us—our nihilism and our prejudices, our alienations and our oppressions-I've long favored that myth of disenchantment, that faith that at one point the ladder to heaven was a bit sturdier and one need not have been as remarkable a soul as Blake to hear the flapping of the angels' wings. "There is a widespread sense of loss here," writes the philosopher Charles Taylor in A Secular Age, "if not always of God, then at least of meaning." I'm not sure that an overabundance of meaning was ever the birthright of humanity, but like all creation myths, this parable about disenchantment does what it needs to do in aiding me to make sense of the world. Because an angel is not something to be etherized and anatomized, dissected and categorized; an angel refers to nothing so vulgar as a body that can be examined with scalpel and calipers, but is closer to a fleeting feeling, a figure of speech, a turn of phrase, a sense that there is something greater and truer and more beautiful than you, and that despite it all you are loved and are capable of loving in return. For you see, an angel is merely love that is given a proper name, grace that is imagined with a face. A blessed wisdom that is so close we can sometimes hear it call to us in our names, the reminder of a wholly foreign and holy Other beautiful and irrational goodness. -ED SIMON Elysium page 15




At issue with Aquinas's systemization isn't that passages such as the one quoted above don't make sense, but rather that they make too much sense. Serpentine though the reasoning may be, Aquinas's logic is unassailable and, based on the axioms he assumes, conceives of an angelology as rigorous as Euclidian geometry. What's unclear is whether any of it corresponds to an actual reality. With the rise of Scholasticism toward the end of the Middle Ages, what we see in evidence isn't an overabundance of faith but rather a crisis of it. What's clear in reading Aquinas-especially once it's remembered that he abandoned his own philosophy after a mystical experience that was supposedly infinite in its beauty-is that the Summa Theologica is a project of trying to convince yourself of something. Neoplatonists had the benefit of admitting that their systems were forever deferred, always falling short of whatever ultimate things flit unseen beyond the veil of human senses. When it comes to approaching angels, science is deficient in a manner that poetry simply isn't. A powerful tool, poetry — as long as it isn't mistaken for the referent-one that dominated until the High Middle Ages, only to return with the Renaissance humanists, occultists, and Neoplatonists. The Areopagite was among the most subtle of thinkers in this regard, in avoiding intellectual idolatry that confuses the painting of a winged being with intangible celestial forces themselves—a feature of the aforementioned apophatic tradition of which he is an exemplar, a wisdom that understands that the spoken god is never the real God. This is the "being beyond being" as he calls it in Divine Names, something that "is cause of all; / but itself: nothing." What Dionysius's angelology offered was a system of symbol, metaphor, simile, and cipher in which to express the experience of the inexpressible, to hear that which is silent, to see that which is invisible. A language to speak of those without tongues, a hand to write among those lacking limbs, a mind to envision for the thought that is greater than all experience. For Dionysius, angels were both agents of inspiration and a metaphor for meaning; returning celestial beings to their most crucial function, his was a theory of the message. - ED SIMON Elysium page 64

AVOWAL Midori Arai

Tokyo International Gallery

Saturday, June 1, 2024 – Saturday, June 29, 2024

CÉZANNE SPEAKS…


(I publish [...] these notes collected by Cézanne's son without adding one line of my own, not wanting to alter in any way the thoughts, reflec-tions, and opinions of the artist ...)


I Critics' opinions about art are formulated more on literary principles than on aesthetic ones.

Il The artist must avoid literature in art.

Ill Art is the manifestation of an exquisite sensitivity.

Iv Sensitivity defines the individual. At its highest level, it identifies an artist.

v Great sensitivity is the most powerful characteristic of any beautiful artistic creation.

vi The most seductive element in art is the artist's own personality. 

vIl The artist gives form to his sensibility, to his own, innate individuality.

vIll The nobility of an artist's creation reveals his soul.

Ix The artist materializes and individualizes.

x The artist knows the joy of being able to communicate to others his excitement about nature, that masterpiece whose mysteries he believes he has deciphered.

xI Genius is the ability to renew one's emotion by daily contact with nature.

xII For the artist seeing is creating; creating is composing.

XIII Because the artist does not note down his emotions as the bird sings his song: he composes.

xIv The universality of the immediate impact of a work of art does not indicate its importance.


xv Art is a religion. Its goal is the elevation of thought. xVI He who does not hunger for the absolute (perfection) is content with placid mediocrity.

XVIl An intellect's excellence can be judged by the originality of its creations.

XVIII A mind that can organize powerfully is the most precious collaborator with sensibility in the realization of a work of art.

XIX Art is the adaptation of things to our needs and tastes. xx The technique of any art consists of a language and a logic.s xx1 Style is perfect when it is commensurate with the character and grandeur of the subject it interprets.

xXII Style does not result from the slavish imitation of the old masters; it develops from the artist's personal manner of feeling and expression.

XXIII The manner in which a work of art is rendered allows us to judge the distinction of the artist's mind and insight.

xxIv The quest for novelty and originality is an artificial need which can never disguise banality and the absence of artistic tempera-ment.

xxv Line and modeling do not exist. Drawing is the relationship of contrasts or, simply, the rapport of two tones, white and black. xxvi Light and shadow result from the rapport between colors.

These two most important phenomena differ not by their general intensity but by their individual resonance.

xxVII The form and contour of objects are created by oppositions and contrasts which result from their particular hues.

XXVIII Pure drawing is an abstraction. Drawing and color cannot be separated, since all things in nature are colored.

xxIx As we paint, we gradually draw. Accuracy of tone gives an object both its light and shading. The better the color harmonies, the clearer the drawing becomes.

xxx Contrasts and relations of tones are the secret of drawing and shading?

xxxI Nature exists in three dimensions. There is a distance-a plane- between the painter and his model; it is atmosphere. All bodies seen in space are convex.®

XXXlI Atmosphere forms an enduring foundation. Oppositions of colors divide all the phenomena of light into separate elements upon the screen that is atmosphere. This atmosphere, then, envelops the painting, contributing to its synthesis and general harmony.

xxxIII We can say, therefore, that to paint is to create contrasts. xxxIv There is neither light painting nor dark painting, but simply relationships of tones. If they are placed well, by themselves they will establish harmony. The more numerous and varied they are, the greater is their effect and the more pleasing they will be to the eye?

xxxv Like all the arts, painting has its own techniques, but beauty of tone and harmonious combinations of sensations depend entirely on the artist's discernment.

xxxvi The artist cannot perceive all these relationships directly;

he must feel them.

xxXVII To sense correctly and represent that sensation fully is the foundation of style.

xXXVIII Painting is the art of combining sensations, in other words, of establishing harmony between colors, contours, and planes.

xxxx This method comes from contact with nature and develops through experience. It consists of searching for the expression of what one feels and of organizing sensations within a personal aesthetic.

xL Schools of art, a priori, do not exist. 10

XLl To paint from nature is to set free the essence of the model.

Painting does not mean slavishly copying an object. The artist must perceive and capture harmonyl from among many relationships. He must transpose them in a scale of his own invention while he develops them according to a new and original logic.

XLII To paint a picture is to compose.


Documents of Twentieth-Century Art

Conversations with Cézanne

Michael Scott Doran, Julie Lawrence Cochran (Translator), Richard Shiff (Introduction)

Greenhouse - Portugese Pavilion, Venice Biennale 2024

Created by artist-curators Mónica de Miranda, Sónia Vaz Borges and Vânia Gala for the Portuguese Pavilion


Main Studies

 
 
 

ED RUCHA

LACMA, Los Angeles

Apr 7–Oct 6, 2024
 

APPENDIX:


MARA & VELA - Fliegen davon (Official Video)
Schüttelfrost - fyne (Official Video)
Liebesbriefe - fyne (Official Video)
Magdalena Bay - Image (Official Video)
Jordana - Push Me Away (feat. Magdalena Bay) (Official Video)
FCUKERS - "Bon Bon" - 2024/3/13 13th Floor, TX
“Basura” Soltera visualesdekari
Why You Can’t Trust Good People - The Philosophy of 1984 and George Orwell
Continuously Evolve as a Photographer: Stephen Shore
Lucinee | HÖR - August 5 / 2024
PALLAR - MÄR | 03.24
Somniac One - HATE Podcast 397
Cirkle - HATE Podcast 395
KUČKA - Drowning (from the album ‘Wrestling’)
KUČKA – ‘Not There’ (live for Like A Version)
KUČKA - Wasting Time (til the end of the world)
KUČKA - Eternity (from the album ‘Wrestling’)
KUČKA - Contemplation (from the album ‘Wrestling’)
KUČKA — No Good For Me (from the album ‘Wrestling’)
Pretty Girl - All Good (Official Music Video)
Pretty Girl - Inside (Official Music Video)
KUČKA - Heavyweight (Official Video)
KUČKA - Heaven (Live Version)KUČKA - Flux 98
KUČKA - Real (from the album ‘Wrestling’)
SPIN Sessions Presents: KUČKA (Live)
Flume feat. KUČKA & Quiet Bison - ESCAPE (Official Music Video)
S1RENA - Atlantis (Official Video)
Schüttelfrost - fyne (in 360°)
S1RENA - Weit Entfernt (OFFICIAL VIDEO)
S1RENA x mickyi - Zone Out (OFFICIAL VIDEO)
ELIF - ABER WO BIST DU (Official Video)
ELIF - BEIFAHRERSITZ (Official Video)
Domiziana - Amore (prod. by Miksu/Macloud & Sizzy & Sira | Offizielles Musikvideo)
Tove Lo & SG Lewis - Busy Girl (Official Music Video)
Pretty Girl - Sun Phase
1,000,000 Film Photos. 234,000 Undeveloped Upon Death. What Happened to Them? Garry
Winogrand
Inside Open Ground: A very interesting new Club with an incredible sound system (Subtitles)
Hiroko Yamamura | Boiler Room: Chicago
ELIF - ABER WO BIST DU (NACHT SESSION)
ELIF - NUR MIR (Official Video)
 



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Pletnev: Mozart Chatting to Us in Verbier

Mao Fujita: Verbier Festival 2024

Lieber Franz 親愛なるフランツ








 
 

I Saw It: Francisco de Goya, Printmaker

Norton Simon Museum, LA

April 19, 2024 – August 5, 2024
 

BALSE NEWSLETTER 035

 
 

Two weeks, at Balse.

A superb, must see documentary film by Wim Wenders - Anselm (2023) - Official Trailer, on the German contemporary artist Anselm Kiefer. Stunning. Great for learning the artist and his works.


Danh Vo Interview: Art Should Estrange - experiencing his work at the Venezia Biennale Arte 2015 Danish Pavilion may have been the first true and deep encounter with contemporary art. Continuing the research on the artist.

Other contemporary art research Berlinde De Bruyckere (Interview). And found this nice video of the actual Pierre Huyghe <Liminal> exhibition at the Punta Della Dogana.

What do I know - Montaigne - the art of living. ESSAIS, to experiment, to try.

Logic is not for me, she says. Logic is not hospitable to a creative mind. interesting. Love it.

Some Nietzsche - Nietzsche and The Human Animal: The Domesticated and The Strong

  • "In order to be able to create, we must give ourselves greater freedom than has been given us before; at the same time, liberation from morality and relief through festivals (premonitions of the future! celebrate the future; not the past! compose the myth of the future! live in hope!) Blissful moments! And then cover up the curtain again and turn our thoughts to fixed, close goals." (Nietzsche)

  • "Society tames the wolf into a dog. And man is the most domesticated animal of all." (Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra)


Suffering and bliss - you DO need suffering in your life | Arthur Brooks. More, Carl Jung - The Psychology of The Hero - Carl Jung's Archetype, and a bit new-agey but nevertheless, some research done Eckhart Tolle on Transforming Desire into Fulfillment

Visiting documentaries on Martin Margiela fashion designer. And other fashion related studies.


Research on art critique. ADSR Art Critique method - a method of understanding works of art and design. No, I did not go to art school, and I am interested in the method.

Meet the Collectors | Troy Carter - a fresh perspective. Interviewing art collectors.

IVA GUEORGUIEVA Seascapes, Snowscapes, Kukeri

NIGHT GALLERY SOUTH

JUNE 22 - AUGUST 24, 2024
 
 
 

Hiroto Tomonaga -望遠 In the distance

KOSAKU KANECHIKA

June 1 to June 29, 2024

Words of Wisdom

 

Yet one thing is clear: Leonardo da Vinci did not view the visual arts - especially painting - as a science: as far as he was concerned they were the science. He recognized the impossibility of communicating scientific ideas without recourse to visual art as the knowledge in question had to be illustrated in order to be understood correctly. Anatomy, for example, cannot rely on written descriptions alone, it must be recorded and disseminated visually as well. All this led Leonardo to the conclusion that knowledge and understanding - the foundations of science - could not exist without painting. Through him, there was a growing awareness that art in general and painting in particular could contribute to the further development of knowledge in the broadest sense. In this way, he definitively paved the way for artists towards the sciences - artes as they were known at the time, while conversely demonstrating that imagination and creativity

- ingenium or ingenuity - are essential to the achievement of new insights.

NEW HISTORY OF WESTERN ART - Chapter 2 Art as Idea page 149

Both that which appeared to Ezekiel in the desert imploring him to be not afraid and the little figurine are terrifying, but beautiful as well, for what they embody and represent are that sacred and forever-distant world of meaning that for a few brief moments sometimes intercedes in prosaic exis-tence. Cohen's observations about the prevalence of the word "angel" in the radical poetry of the Beats (and in his own work) speak to something that creative artists have always known-that this something always shimmers a bit when engulfed in the process. Creative acts-painting and dancing, music and writing-are so often where that enchanted conduit to the transcendent remains obvious. It should be pointed out that so often the miracle of angels is a literary one; the being that commands Ezekiel to eat a scroll rolled in honey, making those words part of his flesh; Gabriel appearing to the Prophet Muhammad with the perfection of the Qur'an; Moroni with Joseph Smith and those golden tablets of Palmyra. Angels are writers. And dancers. And musicians. And painters. And sculptors. They endure because they are such a perfect encapsulation of the mysteriousness that still defines creation, that can't be entirely explained away by neurology or sociology. They are like what Federico García Lorca called the duende. - ELYSIUM, Ed Simon, page 11

Julie Mehretu. Ensemble

17.03.24 — 06.01.25

Palazzo Grassi, Venezia



"It would be tempting to reach for a universal definition that could apply across all these cultural settings," writes Valery Rees in From Gabriel to Lucifer: A Cultural History of Angels. Supernatural beings or cultural archetypes, transcendent creatures or poetic symbols? Or somehow all of these things?Rees writes that if "we wish to consider the idea of angel as a psychological archetype we must first decide whether we are considering a simple messenger, a protector, a concept of goodness, a motivating idea, or a soul free from bodily form. For angels fulfill all these roles." Their variability is certainly part of what makes angels so evocative still, but Rees's identification goodness as being one of their most important attributes can neither be skirted over nor sandwiched between other roles of such beings. "Goodness," after all, is one of the most operative connotations of the very word. "You're an angel," "Be an angel," "She was an angel." For all that is mysterious about the heavenly choir — their behavior and appearance, their function and their agency-nothing is stranger than their goodness It remains the great scandal of the angelic, arguably the great scandal of ethics. In our bloody and wicked century, inheritor of the monstrous twentieth century, nothing can seem more foreign, more irrational, than goodness. To be good is to not act in self-interest; it's to reject the instrumentalization of other people, it's to recognize someone else beyond the veil of culturally and economically enforced solipsism. Goodness remains radical, it remains strange and yet it's very much real. In making angels symbolic of goodness, there is a union of metaphysics and ethics, so often kept philosophically distant, though they are intrinsically connected. To say that angels are symbols of transcendence and of ecstasy must not be purchased with an ignorance of goodness, for such mystical reveries are only masturbation unless they also acknowledge the idea of goodness, the idea of the sanctification and sacredness of other consciousnesses. - ELYSIUM, Ed Simon, page 11




Brancusi: Carving the Essence

March 30 [Sat] - July 7 [Sun], 2024

Artizon Museum, Tokyo

Main Studies

 
 

Matthew Barney - SECONDARY: commencement

Regen Projects, Los Angeles
June 1 – August 17, 2024
 

APPENDIX:

Ruhrtriennale 2024: Berlinde De Bruyckere (Interview) - comtemporary art

Meet the Collectors | Troy Carter - art collection

Once You Stop Caring, the Results Come - The Philosophy of Michel de Montaigne - philosophy

Why I'm done being logical. - inspiration

John Berger / Ways of Seeing , Episode 4 (1972) - documentary

007 CULTUR FM (2024 Live Afrobeats Mix by Tayo Iku) - music

parismatiq vol.7 | aprtment life x nomad travel club (alternative r&b, amapiano, afro sounds) - music

somewhere in Between (full album) - music

Eckhart Tolle on Transforming Desire into Fulfillment - psychology

Tokyo Underground - Short Film (R35 GT-R, BMW E30, FD RX-7, Honda NSX and more) - music

The Psychology of The Hero - Carl Jung's Archetype - psychology

Anselm (2023) - Official Trailer - documentary/film

The Dior Cabine chronicles: A scarf for every attitude - fashion

Valentino Rendez-Vous | Starring Zendaya - fashion

Alexander McQueen | Fall Winter 2023/2024 | Full Show - fashion

Charli XCX | Boiler Room & Charli XCX Presents: PARTYGIRL - music

ayrtn - FEEL THA BASS - music

Sorry, but you DO need suffering in your life | Arthur Brooks - philosphy

Danh Vo Interview: Art Should Estrange - art

Nietzsche and The Human Animal: The Domesticated and The Strong - philosophy

TDJ | SCR Guestmix | SCR - music

Pierre Huyghe, « Liminal », Punta della Dogana, Venice, March 2024 - art

Uma Scheffer | Boiler Room: Buenos Aires - DJ set

How Art Critique *SHOULD Work. MONSTER EPISODE! - A New Method - In Depth | Elliott Earls - creativity

The Artist Is Absent: A Short Film on Martin Margiela - fashion/documentary

 

MATTER(s) - Group Exhibition

ANOMALY, Tokyo

2024.6.8 (Sat.) - 7.7 (Sun.)



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Happy 80's! Maria João Pires Bach Works

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Pianist Alexandre Kantorow, Hard to miss new generation

What makes a good listener? - Music Critic, Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim

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Oliver Lee Jackson Machines for the Spirit

March 16 – May 4, 2024

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Rei Nakanishi - 「表層の季節」

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