English summary: We watched during the last edition of the International Film Festival in Nyon a full-length film about a Finnish punk band called « Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät ». The group is composed of four members, all with mental health problems. At improvised rehearsals to concerts, the directors Jukka Kärkkäinen and J.-P. Passi filmed the life of these musicians, who scream their pain while remaining integrated within Finnish society despite their disabilities.

En pleine période de festival, bref retour sur un film primé lors du Festival international de film Visions du Réel à Nyon (Suisse) le mois dernier.

Kovasikajuttu signifie « The Punk Syndrome ». Le punk n’est pourtant pas le seul syndrome dont sont atteints les membres de Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät, groupe finlandais un peu particulier. En effet, les quatre musiciens sont atteints de troubles mentaux. Et le chanteur, Kari, hurle sa haine du système dans des morceaux dévastateurs :

“Coffee is good / L’amour, en un mot, c’est cool, génial, fantastique, incroyable ! / Pourquoi les pédicures existent-ils ? / Les décideurs enferment les gens dans des maisons closes / Perrti a un handicap mental et ne peut pas avoir de café / How do you spell humain being ? / …”

Le film documentaire est varié et rythmé, il s’intéresse au quotidien de ces musiciens peu communs lors de road trips, concerts, après-concerts, etc. Les réalisateurs Jukka Kärkkäinen et J-P Passi y évoquent brillamment les bienfaits de la musique et son pouvoir libérateur, tout autant que la marginalisation de personnes considérées comme anormales.

Le film n’est malheureusement pour l’instant pas en ligne, vous pouvez cependant visionner la bande-annonce.

What if you pick up the phone, dial a random number, and get Allen Grinsberg whispering his poetry on the line?

John Giorno is an American poet and performance artist born in 1936 in New York. His installation, explores the relation between information and poetry. Beginning in 1968, for a period of about four years, anyone could contact contemporary poets via phone. As a way to experience art in our daily lives, Giorno aimed to have the public participate more actively than they would by simply looking at a painting or reading a poem. All that you had to do was pick up the phone. The telephone, a daily household item, primarily reserved to channel intimate information became an artistic medium of abstraction.

Giorno wanted the regularity of the telephone to heighten the content. With this concept in mind, participations were led to flirt with poetry and the telephones power to provide an extension to our day-to-day concerns. Stripped down, the poems act as a sort of time capsule from the 1960′s, featuring the voice of major figures of the beat generation that range from Burrough to Patti Smith.

In “Ecstatic Alphabets/Heaps of Language”, on view through August 27 , the MoMA is currently displaying an installation of four phones recording Giorno’s work to enable visitors to relive how poetry transformed the environment of New York 44 years ago.

The current economic crisis has had a major impact everywhere, and even the spheres of art, culture, dance and entertainment have not escaped the repercussions.  This situation has led to many changes, particularly in the contemporary dance scene where fixed contracts are now rare, whilst the number of freelance dancers has risen sharply. So, what are the consequences and possibilities today for the professional dance?

Nicole von Arx is a brilliant young Swiss dancer, who has been living, studying, and now working for more than 4 years in New York. Immersed in the art community of New York, she is confronted directly with this situation.  She does not, however, see a threat to the dance profession, and to her career in particular. According to her, the present crisis is in fact having a positive effect on the profession, in that the situation is stimulating even more innovation and creativity – key elements in the world of dance.

In fact, this new challenge facing dancers today means that they are in constant contact with new influences and ideas.  This is creating new opportunities that require an open and flexible attitude, the possibility to adapt to change, deep determination and excellent social skills in order to be able to survive, evolve and excel.  It is no longer enough to be ‘just’ a beautiful dancer, it is also imperative to be able to cope with any change – in any direction – and fast.

Nicole von Arx studied at the prestigious Alvin Ailey School in Manhattan, and has since continued to evolve in New York, having also trained throughout the United States and in Europe (Holland, Britain, Belgium, France, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland).

Nicole is currently working freelance for several different companies including Gallim Dance, Malcolm Low/Formal Structure, and Yin Yue Dance Company amongst others.  She recently auditioned amongst more than 400 dancers at the Metropolitan Opera House at The Lincoln Center and will be in the new production of the opera ‘Rigoletto’ for the 2013 season.

She has many horizons.  She sees herself continuing to dance for different companies, whilst simultaneously collaborating with innovators in the audio-visual field, with projects promoting arts and performance.  Her choreographies have been presented in Switzerland, Iceland, New York and Guatemala.

Her international background has given her a unique mix of talents and, by using her many contacts based throughout the world, she would like to develop partnerships in New York to create projects in the video and audio-visual fields.  The economic crisis is just another challenge in the life of a young performer.

Sokio is a Chilean musician, artist, composer, producer, remixer and above all else, music lover. Every fifteen days, he will contribute to BaseNow with an article on Chilean pop music. (www.sokio.org).

Say Chile, say Pop! | BaseNow

Fakuta

“Al vuelo” (Michita Rex, 2011)

Fakuta (www.fakuta.cl) is Pamela Sepúlveda Ariza, she joined the Santiago indie rock circuit as a bassist in her band Maria Celeste, Golden Baba y El Banco Mundial. Pamela began writing songs for what became his solo project. Pop songs in the words of Fakuta are “deployed in warm and spacious atmosphere, and sometimes more subtle rhythms that hold powerful and contagious vocal melodies” in a world built from synthesizers, programming and voice.

Fakuta live shows are accompanied by Las Laura Palmers (Anita Garcia, Danae Morales, Felicia Morales), trio of backup singers, reinforcing the proposal of this pop singer-songwriter. Their debut album “Al Vuelo” was released in 2011, with Pablo Muñoz and Milton Mahan (aka DeJaneiros) as producers.

The album art was created by Ir y Venir, who also does all the art for the label that keeps Fakuta, Michita Rex, and emotionally charged pieces that show in part the content of the songs from “Al Vuelo”, which makes important part of the aesthetic of dream and city landscapes in conjunction with her delicate videos.

Listen “Aeropuerto”

Watch “Aeropuerto”

Download “Al Vuelo”from Michita Rex

http://www.michitarex.com/?file_id=17

“Al Vuelo” on Spotify

http://open.spotify.com/album/36IP9A6vHdQmDMtCuWCX2N

“Al Vuelo” on iTunes

http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/al-vuelo/id455999054

English Summary: Barcelona will be from tomorrow till 2nd of June the world capital of videoart. Why?Because here takes place the SCREEN/LOOP festival, which celebrates in good shape ten years leading the artistic vanguard. An unmissable event for anyone eager to find out, about, see and purchase the latest video productions. BaseDesign has renewed the communication campaign, turning it into a more powerful and iconographic one, which invites everybody to look at videoart “in a different way”.

Dicen que no son buenos tiempos para la lírica, quizá tampoco lo sean para el arte en general, sin embargo el mundo audiovisual celebra a partir del 17 de mayo y hasta el 2 de junio su gran fiesta en Barcelona de la mano de la 10ª edición del SCREEN/LOOP festival.
Uno de los festivales más importantes a nivel internacional en lo que a videoarte e imagen en movimiento se refiere que sigue en plena forma y que además se establece como la cita obligada para coleccionistas, galerías y profesionales relacionados con el arte audiovisual.

Durante estas dos semanas, una de las ramas del festival, el citySCREEN ofrecerá piezas de videoarte repartidas en más de un centenar de espacios en toda la ciudad (bares, restaurantes, tiendas, librerías…). Así, esta propuesta se convierte en un elemento aglutinador entre  el videoarte y la población en general, que verá los espacios más cotidianos e insospechados de su ciudad transformados en pequeñas galerías.

El festival SCREEN culmina con la feria LOOP, nacida también hace diez años, y concebida como la primera feria dedicada exclusivamente al videoarte. Debido al convulso entorno socio- económico en el que vivimos, este año la feria se presenta más que nunca como el acontecimiento para el descubrimiento, la comunidad y la promoción del medio audiovisual como expresión artística. Para ello, participarán un total de 46 galerías de 13 países, presentando obras de 55 artistas, de las cuales 23 son premières.
La feria LOOP abrirá el día 31 de mayo únicamente para profesionales, mientras que los días 1 y 2 de junio estará también abierta al público. La cita es en las habitaciones del hotel Catalonia Ramblas (C/Pelai, 28).

La gran novedad que se incorpora este año es el SCREEN Forum Pro, un conjunto de 6 mesas redondas que bajo el título What about production? abren un espacio de reflexión para examinar las preocupaciones y desafíos en torno a la producción de películas y vídeos de artistas. Entre los asistentes, nombres como James Lingwood (codirector Artangel, Londres), productores como Simon Field o Luis Miñarro, directores de cine como Agnès Varda, Peter Greenaway o Pedro Costa y artistas como Fiona Tan o Phil Collins.

Pero el SCREEN Forum Pro no es la única novedad de este año, ya que BaseDesign se ha encargado de renovar la imagen para dicho acontecimiento, creando una campaña que invita a mirar al SCREEN/LOOP y a todo lo que él representa “con otros ojos”. Este festival no es uno más, sino que es la prueba de que el videoarte está más en forma que nunca.

The Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the US is an organization that is a cross-cultural switchboard bringing both countries closer by promoting French culture, literature and education in the US.

Our relationship with the Cultural Services began two years ago when they approached us with the challenge of branding French culture in the US. We were tasked with developing a web initiative consisting primarily of three highly complex websites built for both fixed and mobile platforms. However, in order to leverage this ambitious project, we recommended that they revise and broaden the reach of their visual identity in order to make French culture visible to a broader audience. We embarked on the redesign with a focus on keeping a balance between the seriousness of a governmental institution and the creativity needed for their cultural mission.

The website, the centerpiece of the project, will be launched late summer with the firm intention of reinforcing to Americans what we already know: that France is not only home to the baguette and great cheese, but also a rich culture and beautiful language.

The history of Chicago gangs is the history of the city itself, featuring some of the most feared gangsters that tried to achieve the American dream under their own rules.

Besides being ruthless bandits they were also strategic businessmen growing a specific type of branding.  In the late 70’s, every Chicago neighborhood was overrun by local “gangsta” crews. Not only gun shots, but genuine gangster business cards were also exchanged. Hand drawn illustrations, gang symbols and iconography promoted gang membership and the services it offered. So if you wanted to “hit” someone, open your wallet and pull out your favorite business card you received on the city streets.

]]> http://www.basenow.net/2012/05/11/gansta-branding-tattoos-guns-and-business-cards/feed/ 0 http://www.basenow.net/2012/05/09/lea-peckre-inspires-us/ http://www.basenow.net/2012/05/09/lea-peckre-inspires-us/#comments Wed, 09 May 2012 12:26:20 +0000 fabianjeanvillanueva http://www.basenow.net/?p=13558

Graduated at the National School National School of the Visual Arts of La Cambre in Fashion Section, Léa Peckre won the Grand Prix L’Oréal Professionnel at the 25th Festival of Fashion and photography of Hyères, in 2011, with her collection entitled  “Les cimetières sont des champs de fleurs”. At the same time her new brand “Léa Peckre” is taking its first steps, little by little. Base Brussels had the privilege to develop its brand new identity and to manage the entire art direction under the supervision of Base Brussels art director, Pierre Daras.

She earned her stripes at Jean-Paul Gaultier, Givenchy or Isabel Marant and now she occupies the post of Art Director of “De Gris”, a line of high-end leather craft.

At the Festival of Hyères 2012, Léa Peckre will present a collection which is a preview to her first commercial collection for Spring Summer 2013, to be presented in Paris in fall.

For this collection, Léa Peckre was inspired by thoughts of the architect Adolf Loos.

She created long monolithic silhouettes, or slenderly mastered volumes that erode themselves little by little to morph into organic forms.

As a transposition of the time which passes inevitably and of its interventions of natural wear.

This erosion is translated by symmetric and indented ornaments, vegetal details embroidered and imbricated in laser cuts of a surgical precision.

At the same time precious and radical, the cloakroom of Léa Peckre tries to transcend all the borders.

To my big surprise I bumped into Dimitri Broquard at the Frieze NY Art Fair yesterday. He told me he had an exhibition at the Swiss Institute here in NY.

Next to the fact that I really like the Swiss Institute’s program, I was really curious to see what Dimitri B. had been doing since he left BaseNY so I popped in and discovered a really great show.

He came over with his two Swiss friends Vincent Sahli and Kimou Meyer to build our NY office in 1999 with my partner Geoff Cook, where he worked for 2 years. A bit homesick Dimitri left NY after his stint with us and got settled in Zurich.

Since 2002 he has been working with Bastien Aubry. They’re also known as FLAG and produce great graphic work and illustrations… but feeling limited by the graphic medium, they turned toward ceramic-making in early 2007 for the exhibition “My Monkey à Nancy”. For this show they access the classic form of jugs and render them in an untraditional manner that touches upon discussions of kitsch and grotesque.

Also in the show are artists Linus Bill and Adrien Horni. They began working together just last year, for Horni’s irregularly published magazine, Turbo. As a result of their first effort, they were commissioned by the Swiss Advertising Commission to create a publication presenting the awardees of 2011. Limited to the palette of the original source material, the two employed strategies of collage and abstraction to create a varied textured output. For this exhibition, the artists adapt the imagery by expanding its scale and sourcing silkscreen and painting to achieve a rhythm which is both fast and slow, one that confounds medium specificity.

The show contains this interesting scenography with the juxtaposition of the small twisted ceramics put on top of these empty shelves and the very impactful flat graphic silkscreen paintings…

Great show and well curated, bravo Dimitri, Bastien, Linus and Adrien. It’s great to see where graphic design brought you today!

( http://www.swissinstitute.net/exhibitions/ )

Most graphic designers, myself included, like music.  A lot.

So, prior for relocating to Santiago, Chile, I immersed myself in Chilean music.  With the help of an article in El Pais that claimed Chile as the “new pop paradise”, I was anxious to experience this music first hand.

Chile, nuevo paraíso del pop | Edición impresa | EL PAÍS

Once my girlfriend and I arrived in Santiago, we quickly made friends and couldn’t pass on invites to any asado (barbecue), event, birthday party, concert or anything else that allowed us to experience the Chilean culture.  These experiences led us to meet a number of interesting people, two of which invited us to the grand opening of their new venue WALKA (stay tuned to learn more about Claudia and Nano in a future BaseNow post).  They hosted a beautiful summer party filled to the brim with good food, good people and good music!  I enjoyed the music so much that I found myself going up to the DJ booth to ask about the songs he was playing time and time again.  Eventually, Sokio and I became friends and he explained that the music he was playing was a mix of Chilean and Latin American bands and artists.  I also learned that Sokio himself was an avid musician, artist, composer, producer, remixer and above all else, music lover.

I thought it would be a great idea to invite Sokio to use BaseNow as an outlet for the new Chilean pop music. Much to our excitement, he gracefully accepted!

So we welcome Sokio to BaseNow as a regular contributor!  Every fifteen days, Sokio will post a Chilean pop song with a description of the artist and song, and even comment on the sleeve (since he is also a graphic designer)!  So please, if you are a music lover too, don’t miss Sokio’s biweekly presentation.  Stay tuned.  Say Chile.  Say pop!