How can we rebuild the world?

How can we rebuild the world? A global pandemic, wide-spread racial injustices at boiling point and unfair cultural systems that need urgently addressing. How can the arts contribute to rebuilding the world, pulling us out of the times we are living through and give hope for a better future? How can we embrace this moment to improve those unfair cultural systems which pre-existed the pandemic, such as its carbon impact; the financial precariousness of the artist and the inequitable landscape of the art world? 'The Artist as Consultant', our series of digital discussions was born out of these questions. E-WERK Luckenwalde Director and Curator Helen Turner reflects.

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Kiasma, Mannerheiminaukio 2, 00100 Helsinki, Finland

Liisa Lounila: Shadow Zone

There’s a stillness in Liisa Lounila’s moving image works that inspires an urge to slow-down, to sit-down and to stay put, for a while. ‘Shadow Zone’, a collection of Lounila’s works from 2008 to 2020, challenges the viewer to observe the slight nuances in a seemingly repetitive world. Though spanning over a decade, the pieces selected remain relevant today; reflecting on broad themes such as the environment and consumerism, while providing a space in which to reinvigorate our relationship with the screen and digital media. Review by Selina Oakes

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Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Ely House, 37 Dover Street, London W1S 4NJ

Hito Steyerl and Harun Farocki: Life Captured Still

For those who might ask why her work resonated so thoroughly with the generation just before her, the 'Life Captured Still' exhibition at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac may offer some answers. A selection of Hito Steyerl’s work was shown alongside a major influence on her life and work; the late filmmaker and video artist Harun Farocki. This exploration of the connections between these two prominent German filmmakers and visual artists was the first major posthumous exhibition of Harun Farocki’s work in the UK and, remarkably, the first exhibition to put their work in conversation together. Review by Chris Hayes

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Interview with Cooking Sections

Cooking Sections is a collaboration between London-based Daniel Fernández Pascual and Alon Schwabe, who started working together in 2012 while studying at the Centre for Research Architecture at Goldsmiths, University of London. The duo describe themselves as ‘spatial practitioners,’ and use a combination of art, architecture and landscape design to comment on the systems that organise the world. Interview by Kirsty White

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Intersticio London, 469 Bethnal Green Road, E2 9QH London

Adrenaline Querubín featured in Where Water Rumbles, Metalloids

Intersticio London and its inaugural exhibition, ‘Where Water Rumbles, Metalloids’ allowed curator Cristina Herráiz and artist Esther Gatón to “deform the inherited ways of working and showing”. Speaking with Emma O'Brien, their discussion ranged from an analysis of societal discourse in the context of Covid-19, the notion of an altered normality and the role artists play in rethinking strategies in order to drive forward the changes we need to see in the world at large.

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Holt/Smithson Foundation (online)

Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson: Friday Film Programme

Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson are two key figures in earth, land, and conceptual art, pioneering some of the most influential site-specific installations and video work in the 20th century. As many galleries and museums are continuing to find new digital means of presenting their programme, the Holt/Smithson Foundation launched a weekly film programme of both artists’ most iconic films alongside lesser known works with each available for just 24 hours. Throughout the series we see each artist in a new light, framed around the early experimental energy of video art as they explore artistic collaboration and themes of presence and absence against the backdrop of their monumental earthworks. Review by Aileen Dowling

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Schinkel Pavillon, Oberwallstraße 1, 10117 Berlin, Germany

John Miller: An Elixir of Immortality

The first retrospective of John Miller’s work in Germany, ‘An Elixir of Immortality’ provides a comprehensive overview spanning from the 1980s to the present. Exhibited at Schinkel Pavillon is a divergent and at times incongruous body of work, including sculpture, video and painting. Miller refuses to be pigeonholed or swiftly pinned down, punctuating his work with a beat of wry humour along the way. Review by Eva Szwarc

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Cole Projects, London and online

Ritual For A New Regime

During the silence of lockdown, questions about how the pandemic would affect the development of cities began to circle frantically. While established models threatened to crumble, in the property world, planning restrictions were relaxed to encourage building and accelerate development. In an ex-military site in north London, curator Camilla Cole has made use of this transitional period for a new project that reflects upon the current, peculiar moment in history. Review by Gabriella Sonabend

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Cammie Staros: Becoming Whilst Dissolving

For Los Angeles-based Cammie Staros, Greek antiquities are an anchor and a point of departure from which to deconstruct visual language and forge alternative systems of representation. Staros uses the pot to talk about the way we relate to Western art history, to the context of the modern museum and to the departure from restrictive historical narratives. Text by Gabriella Sonabend

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Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, 6 Heddon Street, London W1B 4BT

Painting with Light: The Photography of Ming Smith

Smith's photographic style is candid street photography, expressive rather than direct documentation. Embedded within her photographs is emotion, feeling, and life enhanced by the precise colour and light that forms each composition. Review by Sheena Carrington

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Black Lives Matter: A Statement of Support

Black Lives Matter. A Statement of Support. ‘this is tomorrow’ stands in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. We are saddened by the pain and anger we have seen erupt since the killing of George Floyd, and numerous other black people, by police and other state forces. Part of this frustration comes from the continuing refusal of power structures to create lasting change and represent the society that we would all like to live in: one that is fair, respectful, equal, kind and places no person above the law. When thinking about our editorial approach we are committed to continuing to cover as wide a range of voices of possible but to also build on that by working even harder to cover work that highlights the ongoing fight that marginalised people and groups face. Lastly we would like to more concretely state that we reject racism, fascism in any form, as well as condemning all police and state brutality.

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Nothing gentle will remain: Interviews with Paul Maheke and Naïmé Perrette

'Nothing gentle will remain' is an online publication that invites artists and audiences to speculate on how we gather together, both now and in the future. The projects’ curators discuss what it means to make work about collective gathering during these unprecedented times with contributing artists Paul Maheke and Naïmé Perrette. Interviewed by Titus Nouwens, Nora Kovacs and William Rees

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Josh Lilley, 40 - 46 Riding House Street, London W1W 7EX

Tom Anholt: Notes on Everything

Anholt is as much a raconteur as a painter. There are not many contemporary artists, or writers for that matter, who can set a scene better. Figures plucked from his reverie traipse across the canvas in technicolour pyjamas like lost sleepwalkers in scenery that resembles a psychedelic underworld. Review by Ted Targett

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