Film still from Mika Rottenberg's "Squeeze"
• The New Work summer series at the SFMOMA this year will focus on the “immersive video installations” of Argentinean-born artist Mika Rottenberg. A recent work entitled Squeeze forces visitors through a maze construction before encountering the video, which comments on both feminine exploitation and the difference between art and commercial objects. Read the full review here.
• Chinese artist Wu Yuren has been beaten and detained by police in Beijing, according to his wife Karen Patterson, a Canadian citizen. Wu has been involved in the past months in land disputes between real estate developers and artists’ communities, and has lead protests near the politically charged Tiananmen Square. More information at the New York Times website.
• Forty-four year old Julian Cox has been appointed to the position of Chief Curator for San Francisco’s de Young Museum. Cox has been curator of photography at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta for the past five years, and also spent twelve years in the photography department at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Check out ArtForum for more.
• The wreckage of a commuter train forms the centerpiece for Zhang Huan’s Hope Tunnel, a curated social project on view at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, a non-profit in Beijing. The installation is meant to be a reflection on the devastation of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, engendering both remembrance and hope. Go to e-flux to read more. 