Festival of Britain, Southbank, 1951. Photo by Peter Benton
Get a bitesize overview of the week’s headlines and events with Icon’s new round-up
SCENE
BREXITFEST
The Festival of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, first proposed by Theresa May to showcase the country’s ‘unique strengths in creativity and innovation’, is still planned to go ahead in 2020, in spite of governmental changes. The £120 million bash was initially criticized for coming across as a ‘Festival of Brexit’ when it was unveiled in 2018. Now, fresh worries have emerged since an unnamed stakeholder from the museum sector suggested to The Guardian that cultural institutions are reluctant to cooperate because they don’t want to risk alienating their audiences.
Lineage III, Lineage VI, and Lineage IV by Indira Allegra. Photo by Jenna Bascom
CRAFTY WINNER
Indira Allegra has been announced as the winner of the Museum of Arts and Design’s Burke Prize for contemporary craft worth $50,000. Detroit-born and Oakland-based, Allegra is a sculptor and performance artist who works with weaving looms and other tools to explore past memories and traumas. Last year, the New York institution’s inaugural Burke Prize was awarded to Native American performance and installation artist Cannupa Hanska Luger.
Take a look at Icon 198 for more news and features about craft and maker culture.
ABSOLUTE ZERO
Not one of the 200,000 affordable starter homes, announced by the UK’s coalition government in 2014, has actually been built, according to the National Audit Office. More than £2 billion was set aside for the first 60,000 units, but initially, only £174 million was spent on acquiring and preparing the sites across the country intended for these homes. The policy was eventually dropped as the government and private sector were unable to come to an agreement on the details of further financial arrangement surrounding the starter homes.
DIARY
The Relevance of Crafts, Stedelijk, Amsterdam
A day-long symposium exploring the resurgence of craft, the function of materials and the relevance and cultural role of the maker. 10 November 2019.
stedelijk.nl
Installation view, Re-Use, Re-Think, Re-Imagine, 2019. Photo by Emma Lewis
Re.Use, Re.Think, Re.Imagine, Make, Somerset
A new exhibition at Hauser & Wirth’s craft gallery in Somerset showcasing works by seven experimental makers who challenge the conventional narratives around reuse and recycling. Until 1 January 2020.
hauserwirth.com
Tapio Wirkkala: An Icon of Finnish Design, Museum of Decorative Arts, Prague
A retrospective of the Finnish designer highlighting his ideocratic oeuvre in glass, silverware and ceramics. Until 23 January 2020.
upm.cz
Reconstruction of Heinrichhof, Oswald Haerdtl, 1951-1953. Courtesy of Architekturzentrum Wien
Cold War Architecture: Contributions to Austria’s Democratization after 1945, Architekturzentrum Wien, Vienna
Charting a decade of Austria’s post-war occupation by the four Allied powers and beyond, this exhibition explores competing ideologies and architectural idioms, as well as Austria’s later architectural exports to Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Until 24 February 2020.
azw.at
