Wellington's Dominion Post says "No place for women-only exhibit"

Wellington's Dominion Post has slammed the Dowse Art Museum for showing a film that only women are allowed to see. In an editorial titled "No place for women-only exhibit" the paper says the Human Rights Commission is investigating complaints that the ban amounts to gender discrimination, including one from local resident Paul Young. Whether his complaint is sustained is not that straightforward as he will first need to establish that he has suffered "more than trivial" detriment as a result of the difference in treatment, leaving the Commission to determine whether the discrimination was justified.

It's likely to be an academic exercise because by the time it is resolved the exhibition will be over. But the editorial says, as a ratepayer-funded organisation, the Dowse should not be using the public purse to stage exhibits from which some ratepayers are excluded and that Sophia Al-Maria should present her film Cinderazahd: For Your Eyes Only at a private gallery.

In an earlier news report on the Museum's decision to make the film off-limits to men, Islamic Women's Council of New Zealand spokesperson Rehanna Ali said: "We hope it promotes some interesting discussion, rather than reactive controversy. I think that as a country we are quite mature now in the recognition of the diversity of the community we have here." Her comment highlights the role of the museum as a forum - a place where opposing ideas can be explored in ways that lead to better outcomes than the reactive controversy the Dominion Post appears to be set on fueling.
Image: Dowse Art Museum director Cam McCracken who says, in line with the artist's wishes, men will not be able to view Sophia Al-Maria's film Cinderazahad: For Your Eyes Only, which features female family members and friends getting ready for a cousin's wedding, without wearing hijabs.

TEMP: an incubator for young artists and curators

What is on the minds of young artists and curators today? According to the debut exhibition of a new gallery space in Tribeca, the answer won't exactly surprise you: parties in Brooklyn, the Internet, and, of course, the artists and curators themselves. Youth is at the heart of TEMP, a 4,500-square-foot gallery opening on 8 September under the auspices of NYU graduates Alex Ahn and Ari Lipkis. "The idea is to be almost like a tech start-up, and be an incubator for young artists and curators," Ahn told ARTINFO. Read more...
Image: EunSun Choi's Shelter Device, 2012 from TEMP's upcoming show Working On It

Gagosian's $130 million game plan for ArtRio

The second edition of ArtRio runs from 12 -16 September in four warehouses in Rio de Janeiro's Guanabara Bay. It will feature 120 galleries including heavy-hitters David Zwirner, White Cube and Gagosian Gallery, reflecting a growing interest in the world's sixth-largest economy where the ranks of Brazil's high net-worth individuals - those with at least $1 million in financial assets - grew by 6.2% between 2010 and 2011. ArtRio's organisers have also persuaded local authorities to exempt the art sold during the fair from an 18% sales tax to promote sales at the event.

Gagosian is going for broke at the fair with a $130 million selection of 80 pieces by 30 artists including Gursky, Hirst, Koons, Picasso, Serra and Warhol, with prices ranging from $10,000 to $15 million. "The group is bigger than we'd bring to a typical art fair," said Victoria Gelfand-Magalhaes, a New York-based Gagosian director. "We are trying to make a great first impression."

Cultural sensitivity v. sexual discrimination at the Dowse Art Museum

Following a complaint to the Human Rights Commission by local resident Paul Young, a senior associate at the law firm Chen Palmer has told the AAP that banning men from screenings of Sophia Al-Maria's film Cinderazahd: For Your Eyes Only at the Dowse Art Museum would be unlawful under the Human Rights Act and the Bill of Rights Act.

The Director of the Dowse Art Museum, Cam McCracken, is holding his ground saying the film will be screened in the exhibition In Spite of Ourselves: Approaching Documentary, in a space not normally open to the public. He will find a lot of support from those in the community who believe this is less about sexual discrimination and more about cultural sensitivity.

It's not the first time cultural considerations have had a bearing on the Dowse Art Museum's exhibition programming. Earlier this year the museum cancelled an exhibition by Mexican artist Teresa Margolles that would have filled a space with bubbles containing trace elements of water from a Mexican morgue after a trust acting for the local Maori iwi expressed concerns about it being shown alongside the sacred pataka Nuku Tewhataewha, which is housed in the museum. An iwi spokesperson said "using fluids from people who have died and blowing them onto the bodies of living people was culturally unsafe and if the exhibition had gone ahead the pataka would have had to have been closed to the public to prevent cultural contamination."

At the time, McCracken said the decision to withdraw the Margolles exhibition had been made out of respect for the sacred house and with the understanding and support of the artist.
Image: Qatar-based filmmaker Sophia Al-Maria

Pussy Riot on the run

Two members of Pussy Riot have fled Russia to avoid prosecution for the protest against Vladimir Putin that sent three of their members to prison.

Five of the feminist group took part in the provocative performance inside Moscow's main cathedral to protest the Russian leader's rule and relationship with the Orthodox Church. The women wore their trademark coloured balaclavas, which made it difficult for the police to identify them and only three were arrested. Moscow police say they are searching for the other band members, an apparent warning to the group to stop its anti-Putin protests.

Pussy Riot tweeted that two activists had fled Russia and are "recruiting foreign feminists to prepare new protest actions." Another message said at least 12 other members of the group remain at large in Russia.
Image: Pussy Riot performing in Moscow

Gallery says artist's film will be off-limits to men, despite advice from the Human Rights Commission that it could be seen as sexual discrimination

The Dowse Art Museum is preparing to screen Qatari writer and filmmaker Sophia Al-Maria's film Cinderazahad: For Your Eyes Only in the exhibition In Spite of Ourselves: Approaching Documentary. In line with the artist's wishes, men will not be able to view the film, which features female family members and friends getting ready for a cousin's wedding, without wearing hijabs.

In a statement, Al-Maria said images from the film were from exclusively female zones inside a home. "They, like this work, should be treated as privileged and private, for women's eyes only."

Dowse director Cam McCracken has confirmed that the film will be off limits to men, in the face of advice that the museum's decision may be subject to a complaint to the Human Right Commission for preventing access to a sector of the public based on gender. "We respect the artist and the privacy of the women who are portrayed," he said."I haven't seen the work, and I won't."

And Islamic Women's Council of New Zealand spokesperson Rehanna Ali says: "We hope it promotes some interesting discussion, rather than reactive controversy. I think that as a country we are quite mature now in the recognition of the diversity of the community we have here."

A billboard highlighting the act of looking at the High Line

Los Angeles-based conceptual photographer Elad Lassry has created the latest billboard for New York's High Line, the fifth in the series that began last December with John Baldessari's The First $100,000 I Ever Made. Lassry's billboard features two women peering out at passing walkers on the High Line through porthole-like windows.
Image: Billboard by Elad Lassry at the High Line

Billy Apple's New Zealand flag auctioned to raise money for Tame Iti's appeal against his Urewera Raids conviction

Recently Billy Apple produced a study for a flag based on Statistic New Zealand's 2006 Census data. The flag's composition is determined by the representation of Maori/Other population data using the golden ratio and tones of 100% black.

Apple's Study for a New Zealand flag was made for an art auction to raise money for Maori activist Tame Iti's appeal against his Urewera Raids conviction. Iti was accused of running military-style training camps in the Urewera Ranges in 2007 and is currently serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence on convictions including firearm charges and possessing Molotov cocktails.

The auction raised $80,000 - enough for Iti to lodge his appeal.
Image: Billy Apple®, Study for a New Zealand flag, 2012, UV impregnated ink on primed canvas, 382 x 618 mm, collection of the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki

Reading Room: The Space of Reading

Reading Room is a peer-reviewed journal of contemporary art and culture published annually by the E H McCormick Research Library at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki. Edited by Christina Barton, Natasha Conland and Wystan Curnow, each issue is themed and features essays from local and international writers, artists' commissions and an archive section.

Titled The Space of Reading, the latest issue responds to questions like: What are we reading and why? How do we read? And how do we know what to read? What makes for a great reading experience and what makes a great reader? What are the relations between reading and viewing?
Image: Cover of Reading Room 5, The Space of Reading, published by the E H McCormick Research Library at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki

Jean Nouvel beats out a cluster of starchitects for the design of the new National Art Museum of China

According to a report in Architectural Record, Jean Nouvel has headed off a cluster of high-profile starchitects, including Zaha Hadid and Frank Gehry, for the design of a mega-sized new building for the National Art Museum of China in Beijing. It is the most prominent of a trio of three buildings (the others are a museum devoted to arts and crafts and a sinology museum) being planned for the site next to the Herzog & de Meuron-designed Bird's Nest. The competing architects were reportedly told to aim for a building "so iconic that one day people will say the Birds Nest is next to it."
Image: Jean Nouvel's Louvre, Abu Dhabi

Can Frank Gehry deliver the Bilbao effect in Panama?

Fifteen years after the completion of the Guggenheim Bilbao, Frank Gehry is close to finishing his first project in Latin America where officials have high hopes that his Museum of Biodiversity (or Biomuseo) will emerge as a new icon for Panama and become a cultural destination, like the small shipbuilding town of Bilbao.

Responding to the current biodiversity crisis - a crisis ushered in by the loss of habitat, the extinction of thousands of plant and animal species and the rapid dwindling of the last frontiers on earth - the Biomuseo aims to play a role in preserving the world's natural heritage for the future by telling stories about nature's wonders "with the most alluring, educational and conscience-building impact."

Gehry's building shows no trace of its ecological agenda - rather he has applied his signature formal fragmentations to create an eclectic structure that collages shape and colour, designed to deliver the Bilbao effect.
Image: Frank Gehry's Biomuseo in Panama City.

No takers for Saatchi's offer to gift a £30m collection to the nation

According to the Guardian, Charles Saatchi's proposal to gift a collection of art worth £30 million to the nation is still without a taker. A proposed deal with the Arts Council has proved elusive and the Tate galleries appear to have rejected the offer as well.

Amongst the works on offer are a collection of Grayson Perry ceramics, the Chapman brothers' Tragic Anatomies, Tracey Emin's My Bed and Richard Wilson's tank of glittering black sump oil, 20:50. Read more...
Image: Tracey Emin, My Bed, 1988, Saatchi Collection

Hans Ulrich Obrist on fly-in, fly-out curating

In an article in the Financial Times, Hans Ulrich Obrist urges curators "to shape exhibitions as long-duration projects" and dismisses "fly-in, fly-out curating" which he says nearly always produces superficial results. "It's a practice that goes hand in hand with the fashion of applying the word 'curating' to everything that involves simply making a choice - radio playlists, hotel decor, even the food stalls in New York's High Line Park," he says. "Making art is not the matter of the moment, and nor is making an exhibition: curating follows art.". Read more...
Image: Hans Ulrich Obrist in India

Putin starts the fire of revolution

This link takes you to Putin starts the fire of revolution, the new single by Pussy Riot released on the last day of the trial.
Image: Tolokno/Virgin Mary (author unknown)

Taipei Biennale explores the aesthetics of monstrosity

Titled Modern Monsters / Death and the Life of Fiction and drawing on a recent study The Monster that is History by Taiwanese literature historian David Der Wei Wang, the 20102 Taipei Biennial engages with the aesthetics of monstrosity.

Curated by Berlin-based independent curator and freelance writer Anslem Franke and featuring 40 projects, many conceived specifically for the exhibition, the biennial runs from 29 September 2012 to 13 January 2013.

Franke has worked as a curator for KW Institute for Contemporary Art and director of Extra City Kunsthal Antwerp, and co-curated Manifesta 7 and the 1st Brussels Biennial.

This week at Starkwhite

Gavin Hipkins' photographic installation Second Pavilion continues at Starkwhite this week alongside Der Tiefenglanz II, his collaborative project with jeweller Karl Fritsch.
Image: Gavin Hipkins, Second Pavilion 2012 (detail)

Pussy Riot: using art to advance social change

ARTINFO charts the founding and growth of Pussy Riot alongside the provocative political actions that landed them in both in jail and in the international spotlight. Read more...
Image: Pussy Riot performing in Moscow's Red Square

Billy Apple's Frieze at the Old South British Building

Billy Apple has installed a new work in the Old South British Building foyer. The 'Frieze', which is made up of a repeat of his art brand logo, is part of an ongoing series of temporary installations organised by the Old South British Building's Body Corporate.
Image: Billy Apple's Frieze at the Old South British Building, Shortland Street, Auckland

Pussy Riot receive two-year jail sentence

Three members of Pussy Riot have been found guilty of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred and sentenced to two years in a Russian prison colony. Judge Marina Syrova said they had "crudely undermined social order" and "their correction can only be achieved by an actual punishment." Read more...
Image: Pussy Riot in the Russian courtroom

Winner of Waikato's National Contemporary Art Award announced

This year's National Contemporary Art Award has gone to Michael Parr and Blaine Western for their cantilvered bus shelter titled Parallel of Life. The award was judged by Artspace director Caterina Riva who said: "The winners have managed to address successfully local content and been brave enough to make and position their work outside the museum, and in doing that, engaging a wider conversation within the city."

The Award exhibition continues at the Waikato Museum to 18 November.
Image: Michael Parr and Blaine Western's winning entry to the National Contemporary Art Award art at Hamilton's Waikato Museum

Q+A with Massimiliano Gioni on his approach to curating and debt to curators past

In 2002 Massimiliano Gioni founded the Wrong Gallery, a three-foot-square space in New York's Chelsea district, where as he said "nothing was for sale." This led to prominent curatorial positions including the 2008 Berlin Biennale and 2010 Gwangju Biennale. He is currently the associate director and head of exhibitions and director of New York's New Museum and director of the 2013 Venice Biennale.

Gioni's latest exhibition, Ghosts in the Machine, is currently showing at the New Museum. Art in America caught up with him to talk about his unorthodox approach to curating the show and his debt to curators past. Read more...

Para/Site takes on its first permanent curator

Singapore-born Qinyi Lim has been appointed as curator of Hong Kong's Para/Site. It's the first time the not-for profit space has taken on a permanent curator. Qinyi Lim is a graduate of the Curatorial Programme of the de Appel arts centre and was formerly a curator at the Singapore Art Museum.
Image: Para/Site, Hong Kong

How the Russian system set out punish Pussy Riot and ended up playing into their hands

On Friday, Judge Marina Syrova will deliver her verdict in the trial of three members of Pussy Riot who were charged with hooliganism and incitement of religious hatred after performing their anthem "Mother of God, Cast Putin Out" on the alter of Moscow's Cathedral of Christ our Saviour.

A guilty verdict is said to be a foregone conclusion since acquittals by Russian courts are virtually unheard of. The question is whether they will receive a suspended sentence or a jail term. But in an article in The Telegraph, John Lough says the women opposed to the Putin system have scored a stunning victory over it. Read more...
Image: Pussy Riot performing in Moscow

The role of art criticism in mainstream media

Frieze has asked art critics and editors of cultural publications around the world to tell them how they see the role of art criticism in mainstream media today, and how they view the impact of their writing on their audience. This link takes you to the final installment of Who Do You Write For?

Second Pavilion opens tonight at Starkwhite

Gavin Hipkins' photographic installation Second Pavilion opens tonight at 6.00pm.
Image: Gavin Hipkins, Second Pavilion, 2012 (detail)

America takes guerilla-style DIY to Venice's architecture biennale

For their presentation in the American pavilion at this year's International Venice Architecture Biennale, the Institute of Urban Design has created Spontaneous Interventions : Design Actions for the Common Good, a survey of a kind of DIY urbanism ranging from urban farms to guerilla bicycle lanes, temporary architecture to poster campaigns, urban navigation apps to crowd-sourced city planning. You can read an ARTINFO interview with curator Cathy Lang Ho here.

13th International Architecture Biennale in Venice focuses on shared ideas over individual authorship

When Kazuyo Sejima was appointed director of the last edition of the International Architecture Exhibition in Venice, the central show at the Venice Architecture Biennale, Paolo Baratta, the president of the Biennale de Venezia, announced the move had "brought the exhibition back into the hands of an architect."

This year's event has also been entrusted to a practitioner - the British born architect David Chipperfield who plans to look at architecture "from a societal point of view rather than from the self."

His theme for the show is Common Ground. "Architecture is the most collaborative process," he says, "and this show will focus on the notion of shared ideas over individual authorship".

In order to present an array of generationally, culturally and geographically diverse exhibits, Chipperfield recruited 104 participants, including newcomers from five countries making their first appearance at the Biennale (Angola, Kosovo, Kuwait, Peru and Turkey), to present 58 different projects. He admits that some of the architects he invited had difficulties coming up with a concept because they were used to presenting an individual project, rather than working as a team, but he says they solved their problems as he hoped they would through dialogue, brainstorming and reaching out to others to contribute ideas.

The 13th International Architecture Biennale runs from 29 August to 25 November 2012.
Image: David Chipperfield

Coming up at Starkwhite

Tomorrow we open two new exhibitions - Second Pavilion, a photographic installation by Gavin Hipkins, and Der Tiefenglanz II, a collaborative project by Hipkins and jeweller Karl Fritsch. You can read our press releases here.
Image: Gavin Hipkins, Second Pavilion, 2102 (detail)

Alicia Frankovich performance today at the Auckland Art Gallery

You can see a live performance of Alicia Frankovich's Floor Resistance at the Auckland Art Gallery today. The performance takes place at 11.30 in the artist's space in the Walters Prize exhibition.
Image: Alicia Frankovich, Floor Resistance, shown at Hebbel Am Ufer, HAU3, Berlin (25 June 2011)

Live performance of Alicia Frankovich's Floor Resistance at the AAG tomorrow

You can catch a live performance of Alicia Frankovich's Floor Resistance at 11.30am tomorrow at the Auckland Art Gallery. And At 1.00pm Natasha Conland, AAG Curator of Contemporary Art, gives an overview of the artworks in this year's Walters Prize exhibition and discusses topics raised by the artists.

First China-based curator hired by an American art museum

The Eli And Edyth Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University has hired Beijing-based critic and curator Wang Chunchen as an adjunct curator, making him the first China-based curator hired at an American art museum. While other Chinese curators and scholars have held prominent positions in the US - for example, Hou Hanru was formerly director of exhibitions and chair of museum studies at the San Francisco Art Institute - Wang Chunchen's continuing residence in China sets him apart.
Image: Wang Chunchen is the department head of the curatorial research department, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing and author of Art Intervenes - A New Artistic Relationship

Video footage of Pussy Riot performing in Christ the Saviour Cathedral

In Moscow the presiding judge has wrapped up the Pussy Riot case and says she will issue a verdict next week. In the meantime you can see a video of their anti-Putin punk prayer service here.
Image: Pussy Riot performing in Moscow's Christ the Saviour Cathedral

An unconventional icon amongst art dealers

Recently White Columns' Matthew Higgs interviewed Paula Cooper for Interview magazine. "At age 74, she is in many ways an unconventional icon amongst art dealers," he says. "Her holistic approach suggests that a gallery might be more than merely a commercial enterprise, that it might play a larger role in the community. Read more...
Image : Paula Cooper

The Observer on "Deitch-quake in Los Angeles"

In an editorial published in The New York Observer, Adam Lindemann says Jeffrey Deitch has become a lightning rod for criticism of MOCA, but asks whether he is really to blame. Read more...
Image: MOCA's Jeffrey Deitch

Public performance of Alicia Frankovich's Floor Resistance

Performances of Alicia Frankovich's Floor Resistance will be staged within the artist's space in the Walters Prize exhibition at the Auckland Art Gallery through to 11 November. The next performance takes place on Sunday 12 August at 11.30am.
Image: Alicia Frankovich, Floor Resistance, shown at Hebbel Am Ufer, HAU3, Berlin (25 June 2011)

Dasha Zhukova picks up the 2012 Leo Award

Independent Curators International has given the 2012 Leo Award to Dasha Zhukova. Named after the pioneering art dealer Leo Castelli, the Award honours the achievements of ground-breaking figures in the field of contemporary art. Zhukova, who has been busy turning Moscow into an epicentre for contemporary art, has been recognised for her "pioneering and forward thinking approach" to conceiving of and building new institutions and creating opportunities artists and curators.

Putin says Pussy Riot should not be judged too harshly

The fate of Pussy Riot will be decided soon and after Putin said they "should not be judged too harshly" for performing an anti-Putin punk service in Moscow's Christ the Saviour Church. The group's lawyer said the judge will probably hand down a lighter punishment as a result of Putin's decision to speak, but notes that it comes as international pressure over the trial escalates. "He is maneuvering in front of the West with his words," he said. Read more...
Image: A member of Pussy Riot being escorted into court

Jeffrey Deitch predicts the future of LA museum audiences

As his so-called celebrity-driven, populist programme at MOCA continues to divide the LA artworld Jeffrey Deitch has come out on the front foot saying he has seen the future of museum audiences and they will look a lot different from the old guard at MOCA. "They're not people who make a living as artists, art critics or professional collectors, which is the traditional MOCA audience. These are people who hear about a great new film they want to go to. They hear there's a terrific fashion store that's very cool - they want to go there. They don't differentiate between these cultural forms." Read more...
Image: Jeffrey Deitch and Naomi Campbell

Yayoi Kusama to stage a 120-foot version of Yellow Trees near the High Line

Yayoi Kusama is set to create a 120-foot version of her Yellow Trees in New York's meatpacking district. The artwork, which doubles as netting for a condo construction site, will be visible from New York's High Line, making it the latest in a number of artworks that galleries, developers and artists have staged in sight of the elevated park, hoping to cash in on the crowds that use it every day.
Image: A rendering of Yayoi Kusama's Yellow Trees, commissioned by DDG partners

Greetings from Los Angeles - final day

Our current show, Greetings from Los Angeles, closes today at 6pm.

Alison Klayman talks about her Ai Weiwei documentary

Recently the Observer caught up with Alison Klayman, the filmmaker whose first documentary, Ai Weiwei:Never Sorry, is screening in festivals around the world. Read more...
Image: Filmmaker Alison Klayman with Ai Weiwei

Alicia Frankovich and Caterina Riva in conversation at the Auckland Art Gallery

Alicia Frankovich discusses her work with ARTSPACE director and curator Caterina Riva at the Auckland Art Gallery today at 1pm. And tomorrow at 11.30am she presents the first public performance of Floor Resistance, the work shortlisted for this year's Walters Prize.
Image: Alicia Frankovich, Floor Resistance, shown at Hebbel Am Ufer, HAU3, Berlin (25 June 2011)

Uli Sigg's multi-million dollar gift to Hong Kong's M+ draws flak from mainland China

Recently legendary Swiss art collector Uli Sigg donated $170 million worth of contemporary Chinese art to the M+ museum in Hong Kong, which is scheduled to open in 2017. A former ambassador to China, Sigg started collecting works by artists such as Ai Weiwei, Zhang Xiaogang and Fang Lijun in the 1970s and has built one of the world's great collections of Chinese art. Under the agreement, he will gift 1,463 works and M+ will pay around $23 million for an additional 47 works from the 70s and 80s. M+ director Lars Nittve said this is common practice among museums when receiving major collections from donors.

The decision to send the collection to Hong Kong rather than mainland China, and the part gift/part purchase has drawn some flak from the mainland. Sigg answers his critics in a recent interview with ARTINFO. Read more...
Image: Uli Sigg with Ai Weiwei's Uli Sigg

Extended gallery hours for the final days of Greetings from Los Angeles

We are extending our gallery hours on Saturday [9am to 5pm] and Monday [9am to 6pm] to cater for out-of-town visitors arriving for the opening of the 2012 Walters Prize exhibition at the Auckland Art Gallery.
Image: Ann Veronica Janssens, Untitled (Light Painting), 2004, installation view, Greetings From Los Angeles, Starkwhite

Russian artist installs a soviet-style laundrette in Venetian palazzo

Visitors to Casa dei Tre Oci, a grand 20th century palazzo on the Guidecca can see a fully operational soviet-style laundrette installed by artist Arsenly Zhilyaev. The project is part of the exhibition The Way of Enthusiasts organised by the not-for-profit, Moscow-based V-A-C Foundation as a collateral event at Venice's Architecture Biennale.

"Public laundries were part of the utopian urban planning that traces back to the constructivist commune houses where all aspects of private life had to be shared. This intention revealed itself in the architecture of the houses of the new type that were built in starting from the late 1920s; there were no kitchen or laundry facilities in the apartments because these types of private activities were supposed to be performed publicly," say the curators Katerina Chuchalina and Silvia Franceschini. "Thus appeared the famous soviet canteens or laundries that lasted in Russian cities until the fall of the Soviet Union... Zhilyae's project is an attempt to re-enact this long disappeared practice into a new and unusual context."
Image: Arsenly Zhilyaev's Laundry, 2012

Venice in Peril Fund in troubled waters

The Chair of the Venice in Peril Fund, Anna Somers Cocks, has resigned along with four other trustees, paving the way for a return to its restoration roots when rising waters remains the biggest threat to the city.

Founded after the great flood of 1966, Venice in Peril focused initially on restoration, but under Somers Cocks it also financed research into the city's ecological problems and proposed solutions, such as the need for mobile barriers at the openings between the Adriatic and lagoon. But she says there is a widespread and dangerous misconception that the barriers being built are the solution to the problem of rising water levels when they are, at best, a short-term measure to buy time. Read more...

Pussy Riot trial begins in Moscow

Three members of the feminist punk band Pussy Riot went on trial this week for their protest in Moscow's Christ the Saviour Cathedral in February. They could face seven-year sentences if found guilty of "hooliganism motivated by hatred" for performing an anti-Putin punk prayer service in the cathedral.
Image: Pussy Riot performing in Moscow's Christ the Saviour Cathedral

Live art at the Tate Modern

Live art is under the spotlight at the Tate Modern with Tino Sehgal's work in the Turbine Hall that consists of encounters between around 70 story tellers and visitors to the gallery, and the recent opening of the Tanks, the vast underground oil tanks that have been converted to showcase live art and the moving image. The opening programme for the Tanks addresses ways in which artists have increasingly engaged with areas such as performance and the relationship between artist and audience.
Image: The Tate Moderns's Tanks