The Serpentine will stage the 89plus Marathon, the 8th Festival of Ideas on 18/19 October. Conceived of by Hans Ulrich Obrist, the Marathon brings together a diverse array of world-leading figures to investigate a topic from a variety of angles and over a two-day period. Past Marathons have covered subjects ranging from Manifestos (2008) and Maps (2010) to Memory (2012).

This year's Marathon takes its name from the multi-platform research project 89plus, co-founded by Obrist and Simon Castets, which investigates innovative work by the generation born in or after 1989. The event will look to the future considering how the internet and new social and economic networks are changing the world as we know it. Some of the brightest lights of this generation will consider what he future will look like and, more crucially, who will determine that future.

For the first time, an online 89plus Clubhouse, hosted by HP Cloud, will enable remote participation from around the world.

Billy Apple®: NewYork 1970-75 is showing at The Mayor Gallery, London to 28 October. It is Apple's second show at the gallery and follows Billy Apple®: British and American Works 1960-1969.
Image: invitation image for Billy Apple®: New York 1970-75

The US budget standoff continues this week with both sides trading blame for the shutdown that has brought much of the government to a standstill, raising fears about the possibility of a US default. Republican House Speaker John Boehner vowed on Sunday not to raise the debt ceiling without addressing what is driving the debt, while Democrats said it was irresponsible and reckless to raise the possibility of a US default. Asked if his comments meant the United States was headed towards a default if President Obama did not negotiate ahead of a October 17 deadline to raise the debt ceiling, Boehner said: “That's the path we are on.” Read more…

Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad Al Thani, the driving force behind the plan to turn her country into a cultural destination, has launched a new website covering arts, style, living and sport in Qatar. You can visit the site here.
Image: Museum of Islamic Art, Qatar

Li Xiaofei's exhibition Assembly Line – Entrance continues at Starkwhite to 29 October.
Image: Li Xaiofei, Assembly Line – Entrance, video still, Starkwhite

A Chinese billionaire plans to build a replica of Joseph Paxton's Crystal Palace on the site it occupied in South London in 1854. The Palace was relocated from Hyde Park to Sydenham in 1854, but burned down in 1936. With the backing of Mayor Boris Johnson, Ni Zhaoxing, chairman of property development firm ZhongRong Group, is investing £500m in the project, which is described as a “culture-led exhibition space” that will include a hotel and conference facilities, studios, galleries and other commercial units.
Image: Crystal Palace after it was built in 1851

The troubled art fund industry is still in the doldrums says The Art Newspaper. Further closures, a slow fundraising environment and lower-than-expected returns are compounding the effects of the credit crunch, which had already claimed several victims.

Of the 36 funds that Noah Horowitz, now director of The Armory Show, lists in the apendix to his 2011 book Art of the Deal, ten had closed by the time his book was published and a fruther seven have since been abandoned.

Managers of funds that have survided say they have learned from their mistakes. Philip Hoffman who runs Fine Art Fund Group, ostensibly the most successful art investment group, says that he has to realisitic about the net returns of his first fund (launched in 2004), which is expected to be around 6%, despite gross returns of nearly 19%. He says that administrative costs and currency fluctuations had a bigger impact than expected and that “my mistake was investing long term in old masters, which have done nothing.” Read more…

Washington and international officials have raised the alarm on a potentially disastrous clash over the US debt limit as Democrats and Republicans remain no closer to reolving the budget feud that has shut down much of government. If Congress fails to raise the borrowing cap by mid October, the US could default on its obligations for the first time and send shock waves across the world.

International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde says: “The government shutdown is bad enough, but failure to raise the debt ceiling would be far worse, and could very seriously damage not only the US economy, but the entire global economy.” And the US Treasury has also warned that failure to raise the debt ceiling could spark a new recession even worse than the one Americans are still recovering from.

So why are Republicans set on taking the US to the brink of financial catastrophe again? Paul Krugman says the party's delusional wing either don't understand what is at stake, or don't care. Read more…

Li Xiaofei's exhibition Assembly Line – Entrance opens at Starkwhite today with a reception at 6pm.
Image: Li Xaiofei, Assembly Line – Entrance, installation view, Starkwhite

The world's first inflatable concert hall was launched in Japan this week. Designed by Anish Kapoor and architect Arata Isozaki, Ark Nova seats 500 and includes a multistage format which can accommodate various events from orchestra to chamber music, jazz , performing arts or art exhibitions. The membrane can be folded up and loaded onto a lorry, allowing it to be used as a pop up venue in Northern Japan, the area devastated by the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and massive tsunami in March 2011.
Image: Art Nova designed by Anish Kapoor and Arata Isozaki

Our next exhibition, Assembly Line – Entrance by Shanghai-based artist Li Xiaofei, opens on Thursday 3 October at 6pm.
Image: Projection still from Li Xiaofei's Assembly Line – Entrance

The next Kaldor Public Art Project is Measuring the Universe by Slovakian artist Roman Ondak. The artwork begins as a plain white space and every visitor has their height measured and marked directly onto the wall in black marker, alongside their name, eventually creating a dense black band of names around the space.

“I think the beauty is in the simplicity and how he takes an idea that's been around for centuries and turns it into an artwork,” says Kaldor, who admits to measuring the heights of his own children growing up.

The work, which has previously been staged at MOMA, will be staged in Parramatta Town Hall during next year's Sydney Festival.
Image: installation view of Roman Ondak's Measuring the Universe

You get one chance to make a good first impression and Sydney Contemporary nailed it with the first edition of Australia's newest art fair. Staged at Sydney's historic Carriageworks, it was launched last week with a vernissage attracting over 12,000 guests and a final attendance figure of just under 30,000. Galleries reported better-than-expected sales over the three-day event and gallerists were saying they would be back for the second edition in 2015.

Sydney Contemporary will be staged every two years, alternating with the Melbourne Art Fair, but Melbourne will now be under pressure to lift its game as many of the gallerists at Sydney Contemporary said the fair at Carriageworks should be an annual event.
Image: Seung Yul Oh's Huggong (Variation 1), Installation Contemporary, curated by Aaron Seeto for Sydney Contemporary

Our next exhibition, Assembly Line – Entrance by Shanghai-based artist Li Xiaofei, runs from 2 – 28 October.
Image: Projection still from Li Xiaofei's Assembly Line – Entrance

Our current show,Vagabond by John Reynolds, closes tomorrow at 3pm.
Image: Installation view of John Reynolds' Vagabond exhibition at Starkwhite

ART+OBJECT has launched the second issue of CONTENT, a magazine published “to celebrate the vital contribution New Zealand's visual artists make to our cultural identity and increasingly to the global discourse.” The current issue traces the journey of whare Hinemihi from the desolation of the Mt Tarawera eruption to the grounds of a Palladian manor house in an English country. It also includes interviews with Justin Paton, head of international art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and Simon Denny who will represent New Zealand at the 56th Venice Biennale. Tobias Berger discusses the Asia Pacific focus of Hong Kong's M+, Brian Butler and Isha Welsh comment on the US West Coast art scene and Richard Maloy and Roberta Thornley talk about a seminal photograph that has influenced their practices.  

CONTENT is a must-read magazine, avaialble free of charge from ART+OBJECT.

frieze has posted a piece by freelance writer Joe Turnball (one of the cluster of reviewers axed by the Independent) on critics as an endangered species, adrift in sea of self-promoting press releases. Read more…
Image:Bernard Berenson in teh Borghese Gallery, Rome 1955

Creative New Zealand has provided further information on the selection process for New Zealand's presentation at the 2015 Venice Biennale.

Twenty expressions of interest were received from artists/curators of which nineteen have been asked to submit full proposals. The proposals will be assessed by a selection panel chaired by Arts Council Chairman Dick Grant and including: Heather Galbraith (2015 Commissioner), Alistair Carruthers (Patron), Anne Rush (Arts Council), Blair French (Assistant Director, Curatorial & Digital, MCA, Sydney), Brett Graham, Artist), Caterina Riva (Director, Artspace), Dayle Mace (Patron), Helen Kedgely (Arts Council), and Judy Millar (Artist).

The panel will meet in late September with the aim of announcing the successful artist(s)/curator team in early October.

The 2014 Wallace Art Trust Awards were announced in Auckland last night by the Governor General, Sir Jerry Mateparae. The Paramount Award – a six month residency at the International Studio and Curatorial Programme in New York – went to Korean-born, New Zealand-based artist Jae Hoon Lee.
Image: Jae Hoon Lee's winning entry, Dry Valley (2012), duratrans on lightbox

Alexi Glass-Kantor is the new director of Sydney's Artspace. Since 2006 she has been the director and senior curator of Gertrude Contemporary, one of Australia's longest-running independent art spaces. In 2012 she co-curated Parallel Collisions the 12th Adelaide Biennale of Australian Art with Natasha Bullock and she has worked at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image as well as other independent spaces and festivals.

John Reynolds exhibition Vagabondage runs at Starkwhite to 21 September. Beginning with a mini survey of maxi works, the show presents a changing parade of moments in a practice that ranges across painting, drawing, performance and installation.

Clinton Watkins' Frequency Colour closes on Saturday at 3pm. You can read an exhibition review here.
Image: Clinton Watkins, Frequency Colour (2013), installations view, Starkwhite

Tim Etchells, founder of ART HK (now Art Basel Hong Kong), will launch Sydney Contemporary in September. Unlike the Melbourne Art Fair, which has struggled to realise its international aspirations, Sydney Contemporary opens with a mix of 40% international and 60% Australian-based galleries. The new fair also includes two sections developed in partnership with Artspace and 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art – Contemporary Video curated by  Mark Feary and Installation Contemporary curated by Aaron Seeto. The fair runs at Sydney's historic Carriageworks from 19 – 22 September.
Image: Carriageworks, venue for the inaugural edition of Sydney Contemporary

We are at the Auckland Art Fair this week (Booth 32), which runs at The Cloud on Auckland's waterfront to Sunday 11th. Clinton Watkins' Frequency Colour continues at the gallery from 11am  – 6pm during the week and 11am – 3pm on Saturday. You can read an exhibition review here.

Clinton Watkins' Frequency Colour runs at Starkwhite to 17 August. You can read an exhibition review here.
Image: Clinton Watkins, Frequency Colour (2013), installations view, Starkwhite

Charles Saatchi is planning an auction of 50 of his largest sculptures and installations with Christie's – works so large they will be exhibited in a disused London postal depot instead of Christie's HQ. And it will be an auction with a difference from any conducted by Christie's since the 1970s: no lot will have a reserve price or estimate, an idea reported to have come from Saatchi. Read more…
Image: Charles Saatchi

Australia has launched a new award recognising artists and arts organisations engaging with Aisa and strengthening the cultural links between Australia and Asia. 4A Centre for Contemporary Art was in the lineup of award winners for The Floating Eye, the Sydney Pavilion project curated by Aaron Seeto, for the 2013 Shanghai Biennale.

Hou Hanru, curator of the current Auckland Triennial, is the new artistic director of Rome's Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI, Italy's first national museum of contemporary art. He will be responsible for the museum's programming, ranging from architecture and design to contemporary and performance art. Hou takes up his new position in September.

Rafael Lozano-Hemer is turning the Park Avenue tunnel in New York into a reverberating sound and light installation celebrating free speech. Visitors will find a silver intercom to speak into and their comments will pulse through the tunnel in waves of sound and light. However, the NYPD has voiced concerns about content and has asked the artist to install a time delay so comments can be regulated. Lozano-Hemmer has refused to play ball saying “This is the place for people to express their views…I've never in my life censored a work, and I won't do it.”
Image: Rafael Lozano-Hemmer's voice tunnel, Park Avenue tunnel NYC, 3-18 August 2013

The director of Sydney's Museum of Contemporary Art, Elizabeth Ann Macgregor, has put a new management team in place to support a move toward digital technology and e-publications. The old management structure had not changed since she took up the reins 13 years ago and she now feels that rapid developments in digital technology require a rethink of how things are done. She cites the recent MCA e-publication, Anish Kapoor's living catalogue as a strong application of digital technology. As well as containing essays and photographs, the publication also included videos, curator and artist interviews, and allowed for audience interaction which was incorporated into a final edition. Read more…
Image: MCA director Elizabeth Ann Macgregor 

Clinton Watkins' Frequency Colour runs at Starkwhite to 17 August.
Image: Clinton Watkins, Frequency Colour (2013), installations view, Starkwhite

Katharina Fritsch talks to the Guardian about her Fourth Plinth cockerel sculpture located near Nelson's column in Trafalgar square. Like previous pieces in the series, Hahn/Cock is ruffling feathers, but controversy is an anticipated outcome of the project: the plinth programme is keen to inspire a healthy debate about what constitutes public art. Read more…
Image: Katharina Fritsch's Hahn/Cock, Fourth Plinth project, Trafalgar Square, London

Jeffrey Deitch has finally announced he will be stepping down after three years as director of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art. The official news release says he will be stay on for an unspecified time to ensure a smooth transition and the successful completion of MOCA's $100 million dollar endowment campaign, expected to close this fall. Now attention turns to the search for his successor.
Image: Jeffrey Deitch, outgoing director of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art 

Clinton Watkins' Frequency Colour opens tonight at 6pm. You can read the exhibition release here.

Creative New Zealand has announced a new selection process for New Zealand's representation at the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015.

The approach adopted for the current biennale, which bypassed proposals in favour of informal sector consultation and a hands-on, behind-the-scenes selection process, has been replaced with a two-stage process beginning with preliminary expressions of interest from artists and curators. Eligible applicants will then be invited to submit proposals to be assessed by a panel including a CNZ representative, the 2015 Commissioner (Heather Galbraith), visual arts sector experts and representatives of the Venice Biennale patrons' group.

As the city of Detroit enters bankruptcy, the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts may be under threat. Unlike most art museums in the US, which are owned by non-profit entities holding art collections in trust for citizens, the Institute is owned by Detroit, as is much of its collection and many of the city's creditors have said that the artworks must be considered a saleable asset.

A spokesperson for the state-appointed emergency managers appointed to deal with Detroit's debts, which could amount to more than $18 billion, says”we haven't proposed selling any asset, but we haven't taken any asset off the table. We can't.”

Michigan's Attorney-General responded with an opinion saying the artworks – under the state's trust law – “were held in trust for the public” and could be sold only for the purpose of acquiring additional art, not for paying municipal debt. However, under federal bankruptcy proceedings it is unclear what force his opinion would have, all of which appears to point to a lengthy dispute between the city and its army of creditors.
Image: Detroit Institute Arts 

Following a trip to New Zealand Carol Yinghua Lu has written piece for Frieze on the making and presentation of art in the quake-devastated city of Christchurch. Read more…
Image: Chill Spree, installation view, Dog Park Art Project Space, Christchurch

Our next exhibition is Frequency Colour, a multi-channel video and sound installation by Clinton Watkins consisting of a twenty-minute piece generated using custom-made analog video manipulation hardware. Read more…