Hussein Chalayan at the Design Museum in London

Exhibition at the Design Museum in London : 22 January – 17 May

Leading the forefront of contemporary fashion design, the twice named 'British Designer of the Year,' Hussein Chalayan, is renowned for his innovative use of materials, meticulous pattern cutting and progressive attitudes to new technology.

The exhibition at the Design Museum in London is the first comprehensive presentation of Hussein Chalayan’s work in the UK. Spanning fifteen years of experimental projects, the exhibition explores Hussein Chalayan's creative approach, his inspirations and the many themes which influence his work such as cultural identity, displacement and migration.

Exhibits include ‘Afterwords’ which explores the notion of ‘wearable, portable architecture’ in which furniture literally transforms itself into garments; ‘Airborne’ bringing the latest LED technology to fashion design with a spectacular dress consisting of Swarovski crystals and over 15,000 flickering LED lights; ‘Before Minus Now’ a dress made of materials used in aircraft construction which changes shape by remote control and ‘Readings’ a dress comprising of over 200 moving lasers presenting an extraordinary spectacle of light

To learn more: http://www.designmuseum.org/

Pure beauty, pure genius : KYRIE Requiem in D Minor, KV 626: II - Mozart

Let's pay attention to the second of silence at 2:18 minute which reveals the complete genius of Mozart. He manages to integrate silence into his music, this is brilliant !

Prada Foundation new art project will coincide with the Venice Biennale

Fondazione Cini

The Milan-based Prada Foundation will be presenting an exhibition of Pop artist John Wesley to coincide with the 53rd Venice Biennale. The Fondazione Giorgio Cini, a non-profit cultural centre on the island of San Gorgio Maggiore, which was built by the famed Venetian architect Andrea Palladio, will be the space welcoming the show.

The curator Germano Celant describes Wesley's style as "a vocabulary of pop imagery and private emotions that are one of the most mysterious and compelling to define." The exhibition will feature work draw as well as documentary material such as cutouts, photographs and magazine covers.

This is not the first exhibition / project the Prada Foundation has organized. Artists such as Dan Flavin, Steve McQueen or Francesco Vezzoli had already been selected by the Foundation in the past.

To learn more: http://www.fondazioneprada.org/ and http://www.cini.it/

Yves Klein was a genius

Jonathan Meese at Thaddaeus Ropac's Gallery in Salzburg

New sculptures byJonathan Meese are exhibited at Thaddaeus Ropac's Gallery in Salzburg until 17 January. Meese's esthetics of the exuberant characterizing his sculptures, pictures, and stage sceneries can hardly be assigned to one definite style or school. Meese creates his own universe far from the standards. It is populated by Caligula, Stalin, Scarlett Johansson, Marquis de Sade, Richard Wagner, Balthus, and Dr. No, to name just a few.

For this show, Meese mainly devoted himself to the classical fields of painting, drawing, and, in particular, sculpturing. Meese's position as an artist is defined by his striving for the autonomy of art and for general negation of self-reference. His concern is not about the artist's ego realizing itself in art but about the separation of both spheres from each other. The utopian project of a dictatorship of art - a goal often proclaimed in Meese's performances - is in the centre of Meese's work. As Meese puts it: "Art is completely indifferent about how Jonathan Meese feels."

General "HYBRISIS" (Bunter Lolly voll Abenteuer), 2007

To learn more: http://www.ropac.net/

Annie Leibovitz at the National Portrait Gallery in London

Annie Leibovitz, Mikhail Baryshnikov and Rob Besserer, Cumberland Island, Georgia, 1990Photograph © Annie LeibovitzFrom Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer's Life, 1990 – 2005

If you've missed it, better run because the exhibition will be over soon...

"I don't have two lives," Leibovitz says. "This is one life, and the personal pictures and the assignment work are all part of it." The exhibition features many of Leibovitz's best-known portraits of public figures, including actors such as Nicole Kidman, and Brad Pitt.

The show also highlights images of artists and architects such as Richard Avedon, Brice Marden, Philip Johnson, and Cindy Sherman.

At the heart of the exhibition, Leibovitz's personal photography documents scenes from her life, including the birth and childhood of her three daughters, and vacations, reunions, and rites of passage with her parents and extended family.

Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer's Life, 1990–2005 threads together the two sides of Leibovitz's work both chronologically and creatively, projecting a narrative of the artist's private life against the backdrop of her public image as one of the world's best-known portrait photographers.

To learn more: www.npg.org.uk/annieleibovitz/exhib.htm

Google allows you to visit El Prado in 3D

The Web giant has made a virtual museum on its Google Earth software available. Fourteen masterpieces of the famous Madrid Museum can be seen in high definition from any computer.

Admire the details of Three Graces by Rubens, the reflection of the painter in the mirror of Las Meninas by Velasquez or the white light of the convicted Fusillades of Goya, all in front of your screen computer, the latest magic tool by Google.

A principle not new at all, to the contrary to what Google says in their press release. The three dimensions museums that can travel in three dimensions exist since the first CD Roms. But the search engine has made a major innovation: the use of mapping software Google Earth to offer the viewer a selection of works exhibited in the museum. This is absolutely brilliant ! Thanks Google !