Radovan Kraguly: The Milky Way
Fernando García-Dory: A Dairy Museum
22 September 2012–6 January 2013
MOSTYN’s new programme
opens April 2013 with YOU
MOSTYN
12 Vaughan Street
Llandudno
LL30 1AB Wales, UK
Hours: Daily 10:30–5pm
For forty years Radovan Kraguly has sought to examine and depict the estrangement of man from nature. Selecting the use of dairy farm animals in particular, he looks at this loss of identity and vital bond, probing the control and dependence man has on the environment and how a diminished relationship to the fundamental basis of nature is breached by abstraction.
With a practice revolving around socio-rural projects, Fernando García-Dory took a leading role in curating The Milky Way, carefully selecting key pieces that created a dialogue and artistic discourse between two generations, observing the role of the artist as commentator and communicator, activist and archivist, presenter and producer.
García-Dory’s own exhibition at MOSTYN reflects this transition and links his practice to that of Kraguly’s by choosing to re-enact and recover aspects of Kraguly’s work, including building a scale model of a Dairy Museum that Kraguly had wanted to realise in the late 1990s. Recipient of this year’s Leonore Annenberg Prize for Art and Social Change, Fernando García-Dory’s work focuses on the relationship between contemporary culture and the natural world, exploring the physical, psychological and social impact of rural landscapes, including the questions and misconceptions of identity, desire and utopia that they provoke.
A full-colour publication on The Milky Way will be launched on 13 December, edited by García-Dory.
The Milky Way is supported by The Henry Moore Foundation and Cultura Fonds NV. A Dairy Museum is produced in association with Artes Mundi.
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In April 2013, MOSTYN will open its new programme with a major group exhibition titled YOU, curated by Adam Carr. Featuring the work of artists Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Aurélien Froment, Jeppe Hein, Julius Koller and Rivane Neuenschwander, the exhibition responds to, and is a reflection of, the time in which it will take place, a time both significant and defining in the history of MOSTYN as, under the leadership of Alfredo Cramerotti, it will journey in a new direction. YOU aims to make close connections with viewers and to reforge those lost in the past. It will engage audiences in ways that perhaps they are not accustomed to in relation to their experience of artwork and exhibitions to date, where you are entirely central to the exhibition.
This exhibition sets a precedent for MOSTYN’s new programme, which shares an aspiration to form new and unique exhibition experiences. The programme is punctuated by two related and overlapping objectives: One is to examine the history of MOSTYN and its building through a series of exhibitions and projects that will occur between 2014 and 2017; the other is to reconsider traditional genres and typologies of art and exhibition making, as well as how institutions are programmed and the format a programme commonly assumes.
About MOSTYN | Cymru | Wales
MOSTYN was established in 1902 in Llandudno, North Wales (UK). It is the leading publicly funded contemporary art gallery in Wales and serves as a forum for the presentation and discussion of contemporary life through international contemporary art and curatorial practice. Through exhibitions, learning programmes, lectures, symposia and publications, MOSTYN plays an active role in discussing contemporary culture in Wales, the UK and beyond.
To be kept updated about MOSTYN’s exhibitions opening in April 2013, please join our mailing list by emailing lin [at] mostyn.org.
