Interview: Ed Atkins

18/08/14

Ed Atkins: interview

Serpentine Sackler Gallery, London

11 June – 25 August 2014

Since graduating from the Slade School of Art in 2009, artist and film-maker Ed Atkins has been busy. He’s been selected for New Contemporaries and short-listed for the Jarman award. He’s co-curated at the ICA, been commissioned by Frieze Film and Channel 4, and had a solo show at Tate Britain – among other things.

We spoke to him about his current exhibition at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery, where his film Ribbons (2014) is showing alongside related installations of text and image. The entire gallery, previously a 19th-century gunpowder store, reverberates with the film’s soundtrack: music as diverse as Bach’s Erbarme Dich and Randy Newman’s I think It’s Going to Rain Today, along with swearing, shouting and exaggerated sounds of drinks being put down and cigarettes being rolled – noises of everyday life writ large. The exhibition is described by the gallery as “part musical, part horror and part melodrama”. Atkins told us why he finds such categorisations interesting, but limiting. He explained why we should dislike the character (as if we wouldn’t) and why there are recognisable features of him, the artist, in the avatar.

To watch this video interview, please go to: http://www.studiointernational.com/index.php/ed-atkins-ribbons-serpentine-sackler-london

Interview with Marina Abramović at the Serpentine Gallery

Marina Abramović: 512 Hours

Serpentine Gallery, London

In 2010, Marina Abramović took over MOMA in New York for a 736 hour and 30 minute long performance, The Artist is Present, during which time visitors could sit opposite her, meeting her gaze and feeling her energy.

For her new performance at London’s Serpentine Gallery, Abramović is taking things one step further, removing the chairs, and simply wandering around among the 160 capacity audience, sometimes touching, sometimes interacting, for a duration of 512 hours.

We spoke to her ahead of the opening about why, for her, presence is so important, what she expects from this long durational performance, and why it leaves her feeling even more vulnerable than her early 1970s Rhythm works.

Marina Abramović, 512 Hours, will run at the Serpentine Gallery until 25 August 2014. Entry is free, but on a first-come, first-served basis.

To view the interview, as well as further excerpts from the press conference, please go to: http://www.studiointernational.com/index.php/marina-abramovic-interview

Video Review of Fischli/Weiss: Rock on Top of Another Rock outside the Serpentine Gallery

11/05/13
Video Review of Fischli/Weiss: Rock on Top of Another Rock
Serpentine Gallery
8 March 2013 - 6 March 2014

Placing one rock on top of another is a seemingly simple gesture, and, as the Swiss artistic duo, Peter Fischli and David Weiss, themselves said, an archaic means of man making his mark. At the same time, Fischli also makes clear: “We wanted to make something that forces you to stop your car and get out to take a photograph.” At about five and a half metres tall, this towering balancing act, just near the entrance to the Serpentine Gallery in Kensington Gardens, is certainly bound to make people stop and look. Whether you admire it for skill, concept, or purely sheer audacity, these boulders are bound to be a talking point for the duration of their year-long commission.

To view the vodcast, please go to: http://www.studiointernational.com/index.php/rock-on-top