Vanity Fair UK - 11.2019

COURTESY OF ACUTE ART AND BJARNE MELGAARD 

STILL FROM MY TRIP, 2019; HÉLÈNE BINET 

TWIST GALLERY; FILIP VAN ROE/EYEVINE 

AI WEIWEI; RUBY CITY 

RUBY CITY EXTERIOR; © JEFF KOONS STUDIO 

NEW HOOVER DELUXE RUG SHAMPOOER, 1979, RUG SHAMPOOER, ACRYLIC AND FLUORESCENT LIGHTS, ACQUIRED IN 1980; © JEFF KOONS STUDIO 

NEW HOOVER CONVERTIBLE, 1980, VACUUM CLEANER, PLEXIGLAS, AND FLORESCENT LIGHTS, ACQUIRED IN 1987

The artist and activist

Ai Weiwei, known for

his searing critiques

of the Chinese

government, is

exchanging the

museum for the opera

house as he directs a

production of

Giacomo Puccini’s

Turandot for the

Teatro dell’Opera in

Rome (March

25-April 5, 2020). He

is also designing the

sets and costumes for

this twisted love tale,

which is set in China

and features the

beloved aria “Nessun

Dorma”. “This

Turandot...will be

immersed in the

contemporary world,

the present cultural

and political

struggles,” the artist

explains.

Ê

Miami property developers Don and Mera Rubell are

moving their contemporary art collection from Wynwood, an

area they helped revitalise with the private museum they

founded there in 1993, to Miami’s Allapattah district. Opening on

December 4, the new gallery will house the couple’s extensive

collection which now numbers 7,200 works by 1,000 artists

including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Jeff Koons (below),

Rashid Johnson, Yoshitomo Nara and Cindy Sherman.

ublic museums have reacted slowly to the rise of

virtual reality (V.R.), but private collectors are

embracing the technology in their own galleries.

A new V.R. exhibition programme is launching at

the Julia Stoschek Collection in Berlin (October 12-December

15) in collaboration with Acute Art, the London-based

producers of virtual reality art. First up is a piece by the

Norwegian artist Bjarne Melgaard (above).

ROUND THE TWIST

CURTAINUP

Power Couple

2019’s most spectacular new

museum building is “The Twist”

at Norway’s Kistefos museum.

Designed by the Bjarke Ingels

Group, the aluminium-clad space

is ostensibly a bridge straddling

the Randselva river to connect an

industrial museum in a former

wood pulp mill with a sculpture

park on the opposite bank. The

bridge also functions as a display

space for contemporary art; the

opening show pairs works by the

late British painter Howard

Hodgkin with the conceptualist

Martin Creed (until November 17).

Reality CHECK

Ê

When she was battling breast

cancer, the late Texan collector

and hot sauce heir Linda Pace

asked the British-Ghanaian

architect David Adjaye to design a

gallery for her contemporary art.

Following her death in 2007, her

foundation has shepherded her

vision forward and her collection

will ”inally open to the public in

San Antonio on October 13 in a red

concrete museum called Ruby

City. The inaugural show, Waking

Dream (until 2022), includes works

by British sculptor Rachel

Whiteread, Korean artist Do Ho

Suh and American artist Glenn

Ligon, among many others.

RUBYRED

Private View Art News

By Cristina Ruiz

VANITY FAIR ON ART NOVEMBER 2019

A MUSEUM BOUCHE

Whet your cultural appetite with this

round-up of international openings

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