One we missed: McGonagle to be next Director of NCAD / dying for art? (Tuesday 13 May 2008)
It'll be a sort of 'return in triumph' to Dublin for Declan McGonagle, former Director of the Irish Museum of Modern Art. If you remember, he was turfed uncerimoniously, unexpectedly, controversially and ultimately very expensively out of the IMMA post almost eight years ago (see news items starting here). He went on then to head the City Arts Centre [1] and then Interface in Belfast. McGonagle will take up the appointment on the retirement of Colm Ó Briain this autumn.
The full bio on the NCAD website reads:
Declan McGonagle, worked and exhibited as an artist for a period after graduating from Belfast College of Art before being appointed the first Organiser of the Orchard Gallery in Derry in 1978.
His practice as a curator has included the Orchard Gallery, the ICA in London and as first Director of the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin. He has also directed independent projects such as the first Tyne International, [A New Necessity], and has initiated innovative Public Art and Community and Education Programmes.
He was short-listed for the Turner Prize and has also served on the Turner Prize and other national and international Award Juries and has been External Examiner in a number of UK third level Institutions. He speaks and writes regularly on the relationships between art, the artist, the institution and communities and is a contributing Editor of Artforum [New York] and a member of the editorial Panel of Engage [UK].
Prof McGonagle was Irish Commissioner for the 1993 Venice and 1994 Sao Paulo Biennales, has served on many Boards and Irish Government cultural bodies and, in 2004, completed the City Arts Centre’s Civil Arts Inquiry in Dublin. He is Chair of the Board of the Liverpool Biennial.
He is currently the first Director of Interface, a new practice based research centre in the School of Art and Design at the University of Ulster in Belfast which deals with issues of art, design and context.
Call for volunteers: artist seeks person to die on display
compiled by Amanda Dyson
Continuing the theme of ones we missed, did you hear about the 39-year-old German artist Gregor Schneider, who is calling for a volunteer to take his or her last breath while on display? The artist is known for his work dealing with the subjects of death, fear and isolation.
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| German Artist Gregor Schneider; image held here. |
Schneider has found a willing doctor from Düsseldorf to assist in finding such a volunteer. The volunteer would have a say in arrangements that would be made beforehand in agreement with friends and family members. The installation will be a private space with controlled visitors. Schneider wants the space to be “a humane place for death.”
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| Gregor Schneider: Death House ur at the Venice Biennale, Photo available here. |
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| Gregor Schneider: White torture, Photo available here. |
Schneider has formulated his idea for a death on display since 1996. His biography is filled with other controversial works that place viewers in uncomfortable situations. The award-winning Venice Biennale Dead house ur recreates the artist’s childhood living space with added mystery and White torture is built to resemble the isolation of a maximum-security prison. Both spaces are created in ways that force visitors to take twists and hallway turns.
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| Gregor Schneider: Hannelore Reuen, Photo available here. |
Hannelore Reuen, a sculpture of a dead woman and the Man with cock sculpture, found in the Saatchi Gallery, are signature pieces of the artist.
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| Gregor Schneider: Man with cock from The Saatchi Gallery, Photo available here. |
Schneider is no stranger to controvery over his work. Eugen Brysch, head of a German hospice foundaton for the terminally ill, refers to a death on display as “pure voyeurism” that “makes a mockery of those who are dying.” In agreement, the Conservative Christian Democratic Union released a statement that “at the end of his or her life, a human being should not be debased as a mere object to look at.”
Public comments have compared the installation to watching death-row executions in the United States. Other comments are less harsh and equate such an act with donating the body to science.
In 2000, he feigned his own death at the Haus Esters Museum but now he is looking for a display of the real thing. “My aim is to show the beauty of death,” says Gregor. Though he has received death threats, he pushes forward to free the topic of death from its taboo.
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| Gregor Schneider: La Maison Rouge, Photo available here. |
La Maison Rouge is Schneider’s current work and will be in Paris until 18 May. Much like White torture, visitors must find their way through spaces, sometimes small, uncomfortable and dark, in order to find the exit. There is no doubt that Gregor Schneider will continue to create works that offer unique experiences for curious visitors.
Most recent news items:
• Venice: be NI Commissioner / Troubles art / new ACNI Board member / real junk art (Thursday 1 May 2008)
• Corrigan to pilot Republic to Venice / warm North-South feelings (Wednesday 30 April 2008)
• Social and personal: images from two openings yesterday (Friday 18 April 2008)
• Eiffel Tower with a hat on / Tate with paint on (Friday 11 April 2008)
For a full list of news items, click here.
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