FRUITS, FLOWERS, AND CLOUDS
An art fair presented by spike art quarterly
MAK – Austrian Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary Art
Exhibition Hall
Weiskirchnerstraße 3
1010 Vienna
Austria
Admission is free
OPENING HOURS
Fair
May 12 and 13, 1 pm–9 pm
May 14, noon–7 pm
Bar
May 12 and 13, 7 pm–2 am
Party
May 14, starting at 10 pm
post [at] fruitsflowersandclouds.at
www.fruitsflowersandclouds.at
PERFORMANCES
Thu, May 12
7 pm: Michael Dean, “Our Daily Permanence”
9:30 pm: Tav Falco & Via Kali, “Flores del Tango”
Fri, May 13
10 pm: Nico Vascellari, “Untitled (Jesus)”
Sat, May 14
11 pm: Vinnie Who, Live
Additional program highlights tba
Fruits, Flowers and Clouds ventures into the “Next Generation” of art fair. The team behind the international art magazine spike challenges art industry conventions. 26 galleries with 26 artists will be showing solo presentations in the framework of a group exhibition. In the evening, performances and parties are planned in the fair bar. From May 12th to 14th in Vienna’s Museum of Applied Arts (MAK).
“A painter can say all he wants to with fruit, flowers or even clouds.” Edouard Manet’s famous quotation was a plea for still life painting, which he used to rebuff the overcharged and ostentatiously heroic history paintings of his time. The initiators of the new Vienna Fair for Contemporary Art have taken these words, which Manet used to promote the freedom of artistic means, as the title of their fair, and they want them to be understood as a call to concentrate on what matters: the artwork as a direct means of artistic expression.
For Fruits, Flowers, and Clouds this can only mean a radical re-interpretation of current ideas about the format of an art fair. It is not a matter of adding yet another forum to an increasingly diffuse global art market. The initiators of Fruits, Flowers, and Clouds claim to play their own part as a new generation in the development of contemporary and durable ideas for promoting art and culture. In doing so they are taking the initiative to liberate themselves from the straitjacket of meaningless standards.
Presented as a fair, Fruits, Flowers, and Clouds can nevertheless be treated by the viewer as an expansive group exhibition. Art is uncompromisingly placed in the foreground. The curators have selected artists rarely or never seen in Austria and are inviting their dealers to take part in the fair with them. There will be a unique presentation on display in the lower exhibition hall of MAK: a concentrated fair, which also succeeds in being an annual overview with carefully orchestrated projects by 26 artists and their associated galleries.
Rather than filling long corridors and labyrinthine glacial fair-booth caves, the works of art will be shown in an open-plan, flowing architectural setting, opening up many surprising associations between the individual artistic positions. Anything that seems unnecessary will simply be excluded. Fruits, Flowers, and Clouds is trim, managing to do without the ritualistic add-ons of conventional fairs, which often give the impression that they want to legitimise something: trivial panel discussions between people randomly thrown together, endless series of lectures on arbitrary topics, inconsequential but voluminous catalogues or VIP receptions sorted into absurd hierarchies. Instead there will be performances, concerts and parties.
Fruits, Flowers, and Clouds is trying out its own approach to the commercial aspect of art. It will bring together people from all over the world who share a passion for the latest in art, and will create, if only for a short time, an exciting, informal but real site for direct interaction. (Andreas Schlaegel, Berlin 2011; Translated by Nelson Wattie)
Including
Martin Erik Andersen – Croy Nielsen, Carina Brandes – BQ, Liudvikas Buklys – Tulips & Roses, Ernst Caramelle – Galerie nächst St. Stephan, Lucy Coggle – Chert, Tim Davies .– Neue Alte Brücke, Michael Dean – Supportico Lopez, Marius Engh – Galerie Emanuel Layr, Dani Gal – Freymond-Guth Fine Arts Ltd., Lina Viste Grønli – Gaudel de Stampa, David Hominal – Karma International, Annette Kelm – Johann König Berlin, Lazar Lyutakov – Winiarzyk, Pierre Leguillon – Motive Gallery, Lorna Macintyre – Galerie Kamm, Ari Marcopoulos – Galerie Frank Elbaz, Helen Marten – T293, Chris Martin – KOW Berlin, Christian Mayer – Galerie Mezzanin, Alek O. – Gallery Vela, Reto Pulfer – Balice Hertling, Lili Reynaud-Dewar – Galerie Kamel Mennour, Michael Riedel – Gabriele Senn Galerie, Andreas Slominski – Galerie Neu, Javier Téllez – Peter Kilchmann, Nico Vascellari – Monitor
Artists’ Books
2nd Cannons Publications
The Fair Magazine, “The long spoon” is set for release on May 14.
Press Inquiries:
Ruediger Andorfer
ra [at] fruitsflowersandclouds.at
T. +43 699 13 03 27 89
Magazine Partners
Camera Austria, Cura, Du, Dummy, Frieze, Kultur & Gespenster, Monopol, Mousse, Piktogram, Schau, Texte zur Kunst
Fruits, Flowers, and Clouds is supported by bm:ukk and departure.
