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From the M-KOS archives: Marcel Dzama interview

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Marcel Dzama, The Queen’s Ghost Vanish’d From Our Sight, 2013. Ink, gouache, and graphite on piano paper (2 scrolls) Courtesy of the artist and David Zwirner Gallery, NY/London

To underline Marcel Dzama’s current exhibition “Puppets, Pawns, and Prophets“ at David Zwirner in London until 11 May, M-KOS is posting once more its interview recorded with Dzama in 2011, when he visited Montreal for the screenings of his “A Game of Chess” (2011) and “Death Disco Dance” (2011) videos at POP festival. For this latest exhibition at Zwirner, Dzama shows new drawings, sculptures and videos that include “Death Disco Dance” as well as the more recent “Sister Squares” (2012), considered the sequel to his “A Game of Chess” video. In the following interview, although already one and a half years old, Dzama talks about how the making of Death Disco Dance, and the influence of Marcel Duchamp that is undoubtedly manifested in many of his work.
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Review: Builders, Canadian Biennial 2012 at National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa


Myfanwy MacLeod, Everything Seems Empty Without You, 2009 & Hex (I–VII), 2010. Exhibition view. Courtesy National Gallery of Canada. Photo by M-KOS

With a second edition entitled “Builders“, the Canadian Biennial staged in Ottawa’s National Gallery an exhibition that perhaps went against the grain of mega international extravaganzas, and the usually vast array of ensuing curatorial ideas and ideals. This Biennale voluntarily took a hermetic and back-to-basics approach to its program, to exclusively centre on contemporary Canadian artists selected from the Gallery’s recent acquisitions over the past two years.

Curator Jonathan Shaughnessy cites in his catalogue essay that “Artists are builders in a rudimentary sense. They combine creative ideas, materials and technology with the aim to shape an original way of seeing and interpreting the world”. In an attempt to further canonize Canadiana, Shaughnessy’s title took inspirations from Toronto’s Hockey Hall of Fame, where Builders herein point to former players that go on to become coaches, managers or executives. Just as the hockey Builders were this way inducted for their contribution to the development of the nation’s most popular sport, Shaughnessy concludes that “In art, builders and players often prove to be one and the same.”

Fresh from the vaults of the National Gallery of Canada, a string works from emerging artists such as Melanie Authier and David Ross Harper mingle with others like Marcel Dzama and Ron Terada as well as veteran figures like Lynne Cohen and Michael Snow. This cross-generational survey of the nation’s talents comprises over 100 individual pieces by 45 artists, to embrace a multitude of disciplinary practices from all geographical backgrounds. Builders constitutes such a wide-encompassing show, that it at times risks a flattening of issues and subject matters. On the other hand, the works are so respectably themed from personal narrative to urbanization, the environment, identity politics, utopia and so on, that these read as a thorough cross-examination of Canada’s cultural material.
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Builders: Canadian Biennial 2012 at National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa


Sarah Ann Johnson, Black Box, 2010. (from the Arctic Wonderland series) chromogenic print, photo retouching dyes, acrylic ink, gouache and india ink, incised lines. Collection: National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa © Sarah Anne Johnson / Courtesy Julie Saul Gallery & Stephen Bulger Gallery

Builders: Canadian Biennial 2012
2 November 2012 – 20 January 2013
at National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

Artists: Vikky Alexander, David Altmejd, Benoît Aquin, Melanie Authier, Jim Breukelman, Michel De Broin, Edward Burtynsky, Lynne Cohen, Chris Cran, Max Dean, Susan Dobson, Marcel Dzama, Brendan Fernandes, Robert Fones, Will Gorlitz, Terence Gower, David Ross Harper, Faye HeavyShield, Dil Hildebrand, David Hoffos, Simon Hughes, Elisapee Ishulutaq, Sarah Anne Johnson, Brian Jungen, Myfawny Macleod, Qavavau Manumie, Lynne Marsh, Scott McFarland, Jason McLean, Michael Merrill, David Merritt, Evan Penny, Sandy Plotnikoff, Jon Pylypchuk, Leslie Reid, David K. Ross, Mark Ruwedel, Michael Snow, Mark Soo, Derek Sullivan, Ron Terada, Joanne Tod, Steven Waddell, Daniel Young & Christian Giroux. Curated by Jonathan Shaughnessy

Artists are “builders.” Making things is at the core of what they do. Visual artists are those individuals who combine ideas, materials and technologies with the view to modelling an original way of seeing and interpreting the world. Curators working with the art of today are tasked with discovering, following, understanding and processing a varied range of production.
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The Art of Horror [Slide Show]

Richard_Prince_Nurse_of_Greenmeadow
Barbara_Kruger_You_Have_Serached_and_destroyed_1982
chapman brothers_
Peter Doig
KUB_Maurizio Cattelan 895
cindy_sherman_Untitled 153
Ed_Kienholz_Five Car Stud
innocent_FB_564
Marcel Dzama_
Valerie Blass
Makoto_Aida_Blender
Douglas_Gordon,_'Monster',_1996-7
JS_Jabberwocky
Barbara_Kruger_2

Richard Prince, Nurse of Greenmeadow, 2002

Barbara Kruger, Untitled (You have searched and destroyed), 1982

Jake and Dinos Chapman, detail from Explaining Christians to Dinosaurs, 2003. Installation view at Kunsthaus Bregenz. Photo by Wurzeltod

Maurizio Cattelan All, 2007. Marble. Installation view Kunsthaus Bregenz. Photo: Markus Tretter © Maurizio Cattelan, Kunsthaus Bregenz

Cindy Sherman, Untitled #153, 1985. Chromogenic color print. MoMa Collection. Joel and Anne Ehrenkranz Fund. © 2012 Cindy Sherman

Ed Kienholz, Five Car Stud, 1969. Installation view at LACMA, San Francisco, 2011. Photo by Tom Vinetz

Francis Bacon, Study after Velázquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X, 1953

Marcel Dzama, Last Winter Here, 2004. Courtesy the artist and Richard Heller Gallery, CA; David Zwirner Gallery, NY

Valérie Blass, Ce nonobstant, 2011. Courtesy the artist and Parisian Laundry, Montreal. Photo by Guy L’Heureux

Makoto Aida, Blender, 2001. Acrylic on canvas. Courtesy the artist and Mizuma Art Gallery, Tokyo.

Douglas Gordon, Monster, 1996-7. Colour photo in a painted wood frame. Private collection. Courtesy Gagosian Gallery, NY

Jan Švankmajer, Jabberwockey, 1971. Film still. © Jan Švankmajer

Barbara Kruger, Untitled (You substantiate our horror), 1983. Courtesy the artist and Skarstedt Gallery, NY.

Richard_Prince_Nurse_of_Greenmeadow thumbnailBarbara_Kruger_You_Have_Serached_and_destroyed_1982 thumbnailchapman brothers_ thumbnailPeter Doig thumbnailKUB_Maurizio Cattelan 895 thumbnail
cindy_sherman_Untitled 153 thumbnailEd_Kienholz_Five Car Stud thumbnailinnocent_FB_564 thumbnailMarcel Dzama_ thumbnailValerie Blass thumbnail
Makoto_Aida_Blender thumbnailDouglas_Gordon,_'Monster',_1996-7 thumbnailJS_Jabberwocky thumbnailBarbara_Kruger_2 thumbnail
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It’s Halloween. M-KOS selected some images of contemporary art of horror.

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Interview: Marcel Dzama

Marcel Dzama “A Game of Chess” (2011) official trailer. Courtesy of David Zwirner, NY. © 2011 Marcel Dzama

Last week’s 2011 edition of ArtPop – the visual arts wing of the annual music festival Pop Montreal – showcased Marcel Dzama’s recent films “A Game of Chess” (2011) and “Death Disco Dance” (2011). The former was premiered in his solo exhibition “Behind Every Curtain” at David Zwirner Gallery in New York earlier this year. This black and white film reveals Dzama’s inspiration and nostalgia of Bauhaus, Duchamp and yet retains a strong story telling sense, in a very personal aesthetic that resonates with contemporary life. An offshoot of “A Game of Chess”, the four-minutes colour film “Death Disco Dance” is more spontaneous and upbeat, and found a world premier at ArtPop. M-KOS interviewed Dzama during his Montreal pop-over.

M-KOS: Is this your first time back in Montreal since your retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Montreal in 2010?

Marcel Dzama: Yes. This is the first time since then. It is very nice to be here in fall instead of winter.

MK: Yes, less snow…

Dzama: Well, it’s beautiful in winter as well but it’s much nicer now.

MK: You are here for POP Festival?

Dzama: Yes. I’m showing two films – one is a short film called “Death Disco Dance”, almost like a little music video or an art film, with a Post punk soundtrack which I played with the special guest band with a live sound system.

The other one is called “A Game of Chess”. It’s a 15 minutes film that was shot in Guadalajara, in Mexico. I had a friend who had a ceramic foundry there. I was making ceramic sculptures. Originally I had the idea of shooting film at my studio in New York but my friend at the foundry said “shoot it here, I have all the connections of people here!”. So I had the ballet company of Guadalajara perform in the film and I made these papier maché costumes there which was a lot of fun to be in Mexico instead of being in my studio making them. And a lot of people were helping me as well in making them.
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