Good Children Gallery is pleased to announce Hit Refresh Part 1 opening on October 20. The opening reception will be held on October 22 from 6pm-12 am as part of “St. Claude Satellites,” a group of galleries and art events on St. Claude Avenue highlighting the New Orleans art community during Prospect.2.

Hit Refresh Part 1 is curated by Nick Stillman and will feature the work of current Good Children artists Jessica Bizer, Stephen Collier, Generic Art Solutions, Brian Guidry, Srdjan Loncar, Daphne Loney, Sophie T. Lvoff, Aaron McNamee, Lala Rascic, Christopher Saucedo, and Dan Tague. The exhibition will remain on view through December 4.

As the title suggests, the exhibition will “refresh” in the forms of alteration, replacement, destruction, displacement in time for Hit Refresh Part 2, curated by Pelican Bomb editor Cameron Shaw. Hit Refresh Part 2 will open on December 10 with a reception from 6-10 pm and will be on view at the gallery through January 8, 2012. Hit Refresh Part 2 includes the work of all artists included in Part 1, as well as Good Children artist Malcolm McClay.

Good Children Gallery will have special hours during the opening weekend of Prospect.2:

Thursday 10/20: 12-9 pm
Friday 10/21: 12-5 pm
Saturday 10/22: 12pm-12 am
Sunday 10/23: 12-5 pm

October 1, 2011 – January 29, 2012
Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans
900 Camp Street
New Orleans, LA 70130

NOLA NOW, Part I:  Swagger for a Lost Magnificence

A snapshot reflecting a community, NOLA NOW, Part I:  Swagger for a Lost Magnificence, brings together thirty-five artists (thirty-four artists and one collaborative team) producing work in a culturally specific geographical locale that has been strongly impacted by recent sociopolitical and economic circumstances. Made within the last two years, the work encompasses a multitude of impressions and imagery presented through drawing, film, installation, painting, performance, photography, sculpture, sound, and video. One of the many links is what can best be described as a pining for the past. Thus, Swagger for a Lost Magnificence (2010), a film by Ashley Brett Chipman—aptly titled after a line from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night —serves as a subtitle for NOLA NOW, Part I. Many of the works in the exhibition are not necessarily nostalgic, but express a desire for an economy we once knew, an environment less scathed, or even a stronger sense of purpose in a world where things fall apart over and over again. Also found in many of the works is a sense of movement, a physical traversing from one place to another, or, in the Surrealist tradition, a philosophical or psychological journey that seeks to expand the possibilities of human experience. And finally, the notion of “home” and how it defines the individual is overwhelmingly apparent in NOLA NOW, Part I. The influx of a new creative class to New Orleans, paired with the return of many who were displaced as a result of the events that unfolded following Hurricane Katrina, has undoubtedly affected artists living in this city. NOLA NOW, Part Ithoughtfully considers our sense of place and self, exploring a landscape of ideas and visions that embodies where we are as much as where we dream of being.

Artists in NOLA NOW, Part I:  Swagger for a Lost Magnificence are Michele Basta, Ron Bechet, Angela Berry, James Taylor Bonds, Kyle Bravo, Hannah Chalew, Ashley Brett Chipman, Teresa Cole, Aaron Collier, Andy Cook, Dawn DeDeaux, James Goedert, Dave Greber, Sally Heller, Stephen Hilger, Debra Howell, Gene Koss, Erica Lambertson Philippe, Robin Levy, Srdjan Loncar, Sophie T. Lvoff, Grace Mikell, Jennifer Odem, Mary Jane Parker, Brooke Pickett, Duane Pitre, Lala Raščić, Kate Ryan, Club S + S (Stephen Paul Day and Sibylle Peretti), Christopher Saucedo, Nina Schwanse, Margot Walsh, Carl Joe Williams, Monica Zeringue, and Luba Zygarewicz.

A series of curatorial essays will be accessible throughout the exhibition at http://nolanow.cacno.org/essays.

Second World
steirischer herbst festival
www.steirischerherbst.at
‘Second Worlds’ – the theme of this year’s steirischer herbst festival in Graz / Austria – sets out in search of cultural, social, political and psychological parallel worlds: as conceptual alternatives, models of thought, levers for a change of paradigm that suddenly allow us to see things differently. This year’s herbst exhibition ‘Second World’ – conceived by the Croatian curator collective WHW – uses the potential of possible and impossible second worlds as a projection surface for an imaginary and political change of perspective – but still firmly rooted in the geopolitical reality of our time.

Second Worlds: in which the past had different consequences and the future does not depend on the present. Parallel worlds, possible worlds, impossible worlds, ideal worlds. Worlds apart, worlds connected. The programme invokes the unrealised possibilities haunting our present day, as well as the realistic dangers that could wipe out any conceivable future. The notion of another world has become largely apocalyptic – a world in the wake of an unimaginable natural disaster, for example, or a human-induced self-destruction with capital as the sole survivor. The geopolitical construction of a second world from the Cold War era, that for decades euphemistically sought to conceal the dark chasm between the First and Third Worlds with the illusion of progress that would, sooner or later, embrace all people, has gone out of fashion. But the inequalities and divisions that it manifested have continued to grow. Only the ideology of economic growth has superseded that of progress.

In preparation for the CORNERS CAUCASUS Xpedition!
http://cornersofeurope.org/

CORNERS is a new initiative that explores regions far away from the cultural, political and economical centres of Europe, unknown to many. CORNERS shifts perspectives, putting the periphery centre stage. CORNERS is designed to encourage inspiration and knowledge for artists to communicate the rich diversity of these regions of the wider European cultural space.

Presently the regions we are focusing on are in the Balkans (Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro), the East (Ukraine, Lithuania, Moldova, Kaliningrad, Belarus), Caucasus (Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan) and the North (Sweden and Norway).

CORNERS is an intercultural arts project, created and developed by six cultural organisations in Europe. The first phase, CORNERS Research & Development (R&D), consists of four Xpeditions to the outer regions of Europe. More than 40 artists and researchers will travel in each region for almost two weeks to encounter culturally/socially/politically active citizens and organisations and learn about their regions. From this experience they will make proposals for new artistic work. In the Second Phase of CORNERS these proposals will be co-produced by the partners in the project and distributed across Europe.

Lala Rašcic: A Load From the Inside – Reviewed in the course of the Installation series A View from Outside – Reloaded
Sigmund Freud Museum, Vienna
June 22 to October 2, 2011 at the storefront of the house Berggasse 19

1ST TIME MACHINE BIENNIAL OF CONTEMPORARY ART
D-0 ARK UNDERGROUND, KONJIC, Bosnia & Herzegovina
«No Network!» MAY 27th – OCTOBER 27th 2011

Official site: www.bijenale.ba
Virtual tour: www.ark-d0.info

Curators:
Branislav Dimitrijević
Petar Ćuković

Participating artists:
Hüseyin Bahri ALPTEKIN, Caner ASLAN, Maja BAJEVIĆ, BLUE NOSES, Veronica BROVALL, BUNKER RESEARCH GROUP, Petr BYSTROV, Braco DIMITRIJEVIĆ, Jim FINN, Igor GRUBIĆ & Lana ČMAJČANIN, Tina GVEROVIĆ & Siniša ILIĆ, Allard van der HOEK, Vlatka HORVAT & Tim ETCHELLS, Pravdoljub IVANOV, Villu JAANISOO, Bojan JOVANOVIĆ & Smilja IGNJATOVIĆ, Šejla KAMERIĆ, Karsten KONRAD, Marko LULIĆ, Basim MAGDY, David MALJKOVIĆ, Radenko MILAK, Mladen MILJANOVIĆ, MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART (BERLIN), Ioana NEMES, Ahmet ÖĞÜT, Milija PAVIĆEVIĆ, Marko PELJHAN, Ivan PETROVIĆ, Tobias PUTRIH, Lisi RASKIN, Lala RAŠČIĆ, RÖMER + RÖMER, Erzen SHKOLOLLI, MONUMENT GROUP, SZ. BERLIN, Alma SULJEVIĆ, Nebojša ŠERIĆ SHOBA, ŠKART, Wolfgang THALER, Dragoljub Raša TODOSIJEVIĆ, Jelena TOMAŠEVIĆ, Natalija VUJOŠEVIĆ, XYZ Matej Gavula & XYZ Milan Tittel.

Tuesday, 17.05., at 19 h, in Galllery ULUPUH, the exhibition “Female Writings” is opening. The exhibition is a part of the program of the 46th Zagreb Salon of Applied Arts, this year under the topic “Handwriting of the New Age”. It encompasses the works of four invited Croatian artists: Lala Rascic, Renata Poljak, Tina Gverovic and Neli Ruzic. The exhibition is open untill 24.05.

Moe info on www.46zagrebackisalon.com

Opening Saturday April 9, 6 – 9 pm

VIEW EXHIBITION

The Good Children Gallery is pleased to announce the first New Orleans solo show by Lala Rascic, featuring new installation work.
The artist will give a lecture-performance April 16 at 5 PM, Oral Traditons and Narrative Performance, talking about oral epic traditions of the Balkans in reference to her own artisitc practice.

The Good Children Gallery
4037 St. Claude Ave., New Orleans, LA 70117
Exibition Dates: April 9 – May 8
www.goodchildren.com

While Japan was facing an environmental and nuclear disaster the final phases of the new exhibition …brighter that a thousand suns… by Lala Rascic were taking place. Curiously, “environmental” and “nuclear” came hand in hand with the word “disaster”, conveniently setting the stage and context for this exhibition whose keywords are nuclear – environmental – disaster.

Quoting the Bhagavad Gita, Robert Oppenheimer described his experience of the first nuclear test Trinity as “…brighter than a thousand suns…” This became the title of a book by German author Robert Jungk, chronicling the discovery of nuclear energy and consequently, the atom bomb.

In this exhibition inspired by the Jungk book wall painting, video and light combine into a site – specific ambient installation. The book is only a departure point, the titles of the chapters are de-contextualized and re-considered, it’s form appropriated, the meanings altered and changed, giving way to a new narrative.
The artist does not offer optimism but rather poses the question: how can the past inform the present, how does an antiquated idea of a fall-out shelter resonate in today’s unstable world faced with an un-articulated yet omnipresent threat of man-made or environmental disaster that can strike any time, any place? The motif of the flash, a burst of light is repeatedly portrayed, alluding to the instant that the catastrophe strikes, the shake, the lightning bolt, the precise moment when the concrete gives, pillars topple, the levee breaks, when particles or objects collide.

The Damned Dam has been selected for 20th Days of Croatian Film Festival. Come see it as part of Competition 4 screening on Tuesday April 5 at 20h!
www.sczg.hr/dhf/