Art and Culture in the Media #12

1.5 DEGREES: We know how critical this number is! The project initiated by the Kunsthalle Mannheim shows (from the 7th of April) with a diverse approach in its own building and on the grounds of the Federal Garden Show Mannheim how the climate crisis affects all areas of life. Artists such as Ernesto Neto, melanie monajo, Marianna Simnett, Laure Prouvost, Tita Salina and Trevor Paglen point to ecological dangers in their powerful works, as well as their potential for creativity and innovation.

BLACKNESS, WHITE, AND LIGHT is the first major European solo exhibition by Adam Pendleton at mumok Vienna (from the 31st of January). The New York-based artist has been developing his concept under the term Black Dada since 2008. The relationship between blackness, abstraction and avant-garde is continuously examined. Pendleton's painted pictures and drawings draw a simple line between distinctions such as past and present, familiar and foreign, legibility and abstraction.

AND THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE ART?! Who hasn't had such secret thoughts in front of an art object that is impossible to understand and decipher? In her book Why Your Five Year Old Could Not Have Done That, British author Susie Hodge explains that modern art is not and never has been children's game. In an entertaining and thought-provoking way, numerous examples of modern art make it clear that five-year-olds can't be considered as creators.

ART AND CRIME! These podcasts about true crimes in art and culture have it all. Lenore Lötsch and Torben Steenbuck meticulously unravel spectacular cases: Whether master forger Wolfgang Beltracchi, the biggest art heist in the former GDR, a stolen 100-kilo gold coin or the mystery of smuggled Nazi art - as ear witnesses we are directly at the scene of the crime and learn about the revealing facts from witnesses, experts and the police.

ART THRILLER: Pictures and art objects become murderous instruments and lead a scary life of their own, which becomes increasingly disturbing and bloody. In Velvet Buzzsaw (on Netflix), the art market and its protagonists, a cold big gallery owner, a critic snob and art collectors, are quite literally at each other's throats. Fortunately, this exciting art market thriller as a cinematic satire never turns into reality.