Work by Inge Mahn is now on view in a group exhibition celebrating what would have marked the 101st birthday of Richard Hamilton. Honouring the artist, who died in 2011, Edition Block presents a selection of Hamilton’s early prints alongside work by several contemporary artists.

A new public installation by Jeff Koons has been unveiled at Al Masrah Park in Doha’s Corniche. Made of polychromed mirror-polished stainless-steel, and stretching over 32-meters longand 24-meters heigh, the monumental sculpture depicts a dugong propped up on an ocean wave. The marine mammal has inhabited the waters surrounding Qatar’s peninsula for thousands of years. 

Dugong, 2022, is the latest addition to a series of major art projects commissioned by Qatar Museums in the lead up to the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, including Ernesto Neto’s Slug Turtle, TemplEarth, 2022.

The DESTE Foundation is pleased to present Jeff Koons: Apollo, a solo exhibition on view at DESTE’s Project Space at the old Slaughterhouse in Hydra from 21 June to 31 October 2022. The exhibition is an installation presenting new sculptures by Jeff Koons along with readymade objects selected by the artist to engage the viewer in a metaphysical dialogue between the contemporary and ancient. The show marks over twenty years since Jeff Koons’s last solo exhibition in Greece.

At the center of the installation, within the Slaughterhouse, is the sculpture Apollo Kithara (2019–2022). The Apollo is playing a kithara, which is considered the origin of today’s guitar. The polychromed animatronic sculpture stands over 2.3 meters tall. The walls within the Slaughterhouse have been transformed by using as the base the ancient frescoes from Boscoreale, near Pompeii. The exhibition includes several other new works including a pair of bronze Nike sneakers, Gazing Ball Tripod (2020–2022), and Plato’s Solid Forms Wind Spinners (2020–2022). There are other elements that are corresponding to this installation, ranging from burning candles to a Duchampian reference of a urinal. Above the Slaughterhouse is Apollo Wind Spinner (2020–2022), a 9.1 meter (30-foot) wide reflective wind spinner that greets people entering the port of Hydra on one side and, on the other, welcomes people walking to the building housing the installation. The face of the wind spinner is that of Apollo.

The exhibition activates the senses through music, sage burning, and baked offerings reminiscent of ancient times. With the sounds of the ancient kithara playing alongside contemporary songs, the two musical formats are at times disjointed and at other moments find sublime beauty. The overall exhibition is metaphysical and celebrates human history and aspiration.

DESTE Foundation

A Christmas tree is also affected by the lockdown in Brandenburg. It is located on Lake Wolziger near Funkenmühle and will remain there for the foreseeable future. This socially distant Christmas tree by Inge Mahn and Vlado Velkov floats, lonely, on a raft on top of cold water. Without family and friends, he turns on his axis again and again and dances with his reflection. For the small community on the shore that helped with the production, the tree evolved into a social project that brings people back together, brings joy and instills hope. The work, titled Stand und Verfassung (Status and Constitution), is on view until the end of the lockdown, from the shore in Funkenmühle.

Watch the video here.