Arts & travel

Looking forward…live art in 2021

As museums struggle through difficulties of closures and a lack of tourists, the highly acclaimed Guggenheim in Bilbao reminded us of how much we have missed and are missing visiting galleries and museums. Like many other museums around the world, the closure of the Guggenheim for almost three months, and the subsequent mobility restrictions, reduced the number of visitors to the Museum (to 315.908 people)  despite massive support of their digital initiatives.

In 2020, as in other arts organisations across the world, the digital presence of the Museum increased considerably in order to alleviate to some extent the impossibility of enjoying live art, and the results they say were very satisfactory. During the Spring quarantine when the Museum was required to close to the public, the digital initiative #GuggenheimBilbaoLive was launched, through which a total of 55 videos were made about the exhibitions and lesser-known aspects of the Museum activity, along with storytellers and artist workshops for children. In total, these videos achieved 2.3 million views on the Museum’s social media and generated a total of 90,000 very positive user interactions! Above: Guggenheim Museum Bilbao

Meanwhile, the Museum has maintained the highest quality in its Art Program and today the doors are open for Lee Krasner: Living Color (to 10th January 2021) and the retrospective dedicated to Kandinsky – running until 23rd May 2021. Drawn primarily from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, this is a comprehensive exhibition which traces along four geographic sections the aesthetic evolution of one of the foremost artistic innovators of the early 20th century.

If you’d like to find out more or review what’s happening online at the Guggenheim Bilbao in the next months, visit their website at www.guggenheim-bilbao.eus and lend your support! Follow the Guggenheim on Instagram @museoguggenheim. We look forward to bringing you more updates in our Arts & Travel column just as soon as the pandemic is under control.

Image above (full details): Vasily Kandinsky – Several Circles (Einige Kreise) January-February 1926 Oil on canvas – 55 1/4 x 55 3/8 inches (140.3 x 140.7 cm) Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection, By gift © [current year] Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris Painting Bauhaus

An Eyestylist update on trade fairs – 2021 looks set to welcome some new formats for the eyewear business’ trade events. Hall of Frames has joined with the You & Eye Weekend organisers to trial their new format in Lucerne in Switzerland based across venues as opposed to being held in one single place.

With the ongoing disruption to European eyewear events, the Swiss fair organisers, Hall of Frames GmbH has come up with a new opportunity for independent eyewear brands and opticians, designed for safety and wellbeing in the current climate, as well as enjoyment. Their new concept, in partnership with You & Eye Weekend (fair organisers from Sweden who arranged an eyewear event in Gothenburg in September 2020) will take place in the stunning cosmopolitan city of Lucerne in Switzerland in May. The exhibitors will be dispersed across unique venues within easy walking distance of one another so that the visiting and viewing of collections can be made both pleasurable and safe. The organisers have suggested that as well as exhibiting in hotel suites or stores, there will also be opportunities for brands to show in special private venues which are not normally open to the public.

The heart of the new event will be an electronic platform through which all registrations will be processed, and all information exchanged between the organisers, exhibitors and visitors. This platform will be activated at the beginning of January 2021 and will be regularly updated.

Hall of Frames Weekend will take place in Lucerne, Switzerland at multiple locations from 8th to 10th May 2021. The event is designed for store owners and opticians who wish to view and purchase collections for their stores. (trade only). Also taking place in 2021, the Zurich Hall of Frames (also trade only) is planned for 12-13th September in the newly renovated Zurich Convention Centre. www.hallofframes.ch

“Playfulness is a serious matter”

Award-winning textile designer Tania Grace Knuckey created her first scarf collection in 2015 as a one-off – mainly with friends and family in mind, and now she can’t stop! Fantastical creatures, exciting graphic colour mixes, and nature-inspired motifs are the focal elements of her playful creative world of silky scarves that are as much heirloom pieces of art as they are wearable accessories, with a contemporary and truly uplifting spirit. Above: Dinosaurs: Dino – 2020 – silk twill, made in France – limited edition

In the most recent series of collections, dinosaurs, serpents, ‘soft’ beasts, dogs and lobsters are among the friendly-faced creatures portrayed against colourful asymmetrical abstract backgrounds with “naive” handwritten messages – all conceived through exciting colour mixes on the silk and a strong attention to detail and hand finishing.

About : Tania Grace Knuckey is a textile designer and multi-media artist living and working in Geneva, Switzerland. She graduated from Design Academy Eindhoven in 2009 with a Cum Laude BA in Design and from The Royal College of Art London in 2012 with an MA in mixed media textiles. Her artistic practice is playful with an unapologetic bold use of colour, and yet behind this aesthetic, more often than not, is a level of seriousness borne out of steady research. She seeks to surprise at times, to titillate perhaps, but always to unsettle the norm, questioning conventional notions of form and function. In 2015 Tania launched her limited edition silk scarves; unique, vibrant and playful. The manner in which colour folds, falls, intermingles, and intertwine when worn is particularly important as she spends a great deal of care designing and combining each motif to ensure it is authentic. Inspired from nature, animals and fantastical creatures, Tania’s scarf are a reminder that playfulness is a serious matter, that mark- making possibilities are endless, colours have power and prints can take on a life of their own. Knuckey’s work is available at Paradigme in Geneva, the Cloister in Milan and from her website at https://taniagraceknuckey.com

HOF Fair goes ahead in Zurich, Switzerland

Despite continuing travel disruptions and quarantine requirements with Coronavirus spikes in Europe, some small annual trade events which take special care to present independent labels – have managed to meet in their usual locations with strict safety measures and compulsory mask wearing. Hall of Frames, Zurich, an annual fair which takes place in a former paper factory in Zurich’s Sihlcity, went ahead on 14th and 15th September 2020 with over 40 brands exhibiting, a higher number than ever due to cancellations of other established larger shows.

The HOF organisers said that while visitor numbers were lower than usual, given the circumstances of the pandemic and new legislation brought in just before the fair making mask wearing mandatory, the fair was extremely well received by those who could be present as a means of orientation for the latest design trends, new collections and innovations to come. The team told us they look forward to welcoming friends, brands and visitors to the event in 2021 in a new venue called The Garden Rooms (new Zurich Convention Center), on 12 and 13th September 2021. Independent labels who exhibited at the fair included Lunettes ALF, Covrt Project, Falvin Eyewear from Denmark, YOUMAWO, Nirvan Javan, Didier Voirol, MYKITA, Feb31st and Parafina Eco-friendly Eyewear. For more information: www.hallofframes.ch