Some events, like the Sculpture Project in Munster and Documenta, have a history of attracting projects from artists that are too difficult or costly to realise, like Gabriel Orozco's Munster proposal in '97 to build a ferris wheel, half of which would be below ground level. Some may even be designed to fail, like Alina Szapocznikow”s plan to make a double-sized Rolls Royce out of marble for the 1972 edition of Documenta, which she termed “completely useless and a reflection of the god of supreme luxury.” Her correspondence about this project has since been exhibited in various exhibitions.

Art Agenda reports that this year's Documenta has at least two ambitious failed projects. One is represented by two walls of correspondence from official organisations that once more address the Artistic Director, this time to answer her proposal of nominating the earth's atmosphere for UNESCO's World Heritage List, a project by American artist Amy Balkin. The epic, yet failed attempt to transport El Chaco meteorite to Kassel, undertaken by Argentinian duo Guillermo Faivovich and Nicholas Golberg, is also widely documented by various exchanges.

They are projects that may also find their way into another edition of Hans Ulrich Obrist's compendium of unrealised projects.
Image: Cover Unbuilt Roads, edited by Hans Ulrich Obrist

CIRCUIT Artist Film and Video was launched in Auckland last night at a function hosted by Artspace and The Film Archive. CIRCUIT is a new arts agency designed to support artists working with the moving image through distribution, critical review and research. It includes an online resource with over 300 streaming videos by New Zealand artists. The launch was accompanied by a screening of works from the CIRCUIT collection, including Phil Dadson's Between Worlds.
Image: video still from Phil Dadson's Between Worlds

Legendary Swiss art collector Uli Sigg has donated $170 million worth of contemporary Chinese art to the M+ museum in Hong Kong, which is scheduled to open in 2017. A former ambassador to China, Sigg started collecting works by artists such as Ai Weiwei, Zhang Xiaogang and Fang Lijun in the 1970s and has built one of the world's great collections of Chinese art. Under the agreement, he will gift 1,463 works and M+ will pay around $23 million for an additional 47 works from the 70s and 80s. M+ director Lars Nittve said this is common practice among museums when receiving major collections from donors.

“By joining forces with M+, the artworks will ultimately come full circle back to China as I have always hoped they would,” Sigg said in a statement. “My intention is to return something to China for what it has allowed me to experience over the past 33 years: an incredible journey whose most intense core has been formed by so many encounters with Chinese artists. This is my contribution: to enable these artists to have a space within M+ where they will communicate with an international audience, and where they will meet with a Chinese public.”
Image: Uli Sigg with Ai Weiwei's Uli Sigg

The full programme of international commissions, exhibitions and special events has been announced for the 2012 Liverpool Biennale. Titled The Unexpected Guest, the Biennale will show work by over 60 artists from across the world in locations around the city, including Auckland/Berlin-based artist Dane Mitchell who has been commissioned to make a new work for the programme. You can see the full list of artists here.
Image: Dane Mitchell, Spectral Readings, Liverpool, 2012

Art Basel is moving quickly to set to rest any fears that ART HK will lose its Asian edge as it evolves into Art Basel in Hong Kong. Magnus Renfrew will continue to direct the fair in his new capacity as Art Basel's Director Asia and the region is well represented on the selection committee. The jury for the inaugural edition of Art Basel in Hong Kong is:
Emi Eu, Singapore Tyler Print Institute, Singapore
Shireen Gandhy, Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai, India
Suzie Kim, Kukje Gallery, Seoul, Korea
Maho Kubota, SCAI THE BATHHOUSE, Tokyo, Japan
David Maupin, Lehman Maupin, New York, USA
Urs Meile, Galerie Urs Meile, Bejing, China and Lucerne, Switzerland
Massimo De Carlo, Massimo De Carlo, Milan, Italy
Zhang Wei, Vitamin Creative Space, Gungzhou and Beijing, China
They have also brought on Atsuko Ninagawa of Tokyo's Take Ninagawa and Finola Jones of Dublin's mother's tankstation to assist with the selection of emerging galleries.
Image: Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, venue for the inaugural edition of Art Basel in Hong Kong

Layla Rudneva-Mackay's exhibition Pointing at trees continues this week at Starkwhite.
Image: Layla Rudneva-Mackay, Black vase and white flowers, 2011, C-type print, 380 x 380 mm

The New York Public Art Fund has launched its summer exhibition programme starting with Common Ground a group exhibition featuring sculpture, installation and performance. Curated by Nicholas Baume, the exhibition looks at how different works of art approach the idea of public sculpture and civic engagement. Read more…
Image: Paul McCarthy's inflatable ketchup bottle in Common Ground, a Public Art Fund exhibition curated by Nicholas Baume

Hye Rim Lee is represented in The Art on Your Wall, an exhibition of wallpaper works commissioned by artclub1536, a non-profit exhibition space in Seoul. Following the exhibition the wallpaper created by the commissioned artists will be donated to and installed at the Kangnam Orphanage in Gaepo-dong.
Image: one of two wall papers created by Hye Rim for The Art on Your Wall

Commissioned by the Dia Foundation and completed in 1977, Walter De Maria's The Lightning Field in the remote desert of western New Mexico is showing signs of age and is in need of restoration. $400,000 required to complete the work and Larry Gagosian (who represents De Maria) and Miucca Prada, the fashion designer and collector have teamed up to lead the restoration fundraising effort. “It's like a 21st-century Mount Rushmore”, Gagosian said. “Mt Rushmore is like some kind of church but The Lightening Field is more ecumenical, more global.” Restoration work is expected to get underway early next year and be completed by June.
Image: Walter De Maria's The Lightning Field

Since 2008 the Chateau de Versailles has been opened up for contemporary art beginning with Jeff Koons and followed by Xavier Veilhan (2009), Takashi Murakami (2010) and Bernar Venet (2011). This year, the Portugese artist Joana Vasconcelos has installed works in the Chateau, some produced specifically for the exhibition. Read more…
Image: Joana Vasconcelos, Coracao, Mary Poppins, 2011

Fours years after collaborating on the 'Bird's Nest' Olympic stadium in Beijing, the Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei reunited to design the 2012 Serpentine pavilion. It is the 12th in the series which began with Zaha Hadid in 2000 and has included giants such as Oscar Niemeyer, Alvaro Siza, Rem Koolhaas and Frank Gehry. You can see more images of the pavilion here.
Image: 12th Serpentine pavilion by Ai Weiwei and Herzog & de Meuron

Commissioned by the Arts Council for the Cultural Olympiad, an arts and culture project running alongside the London 2012 Olympic Games, Anthony McCall's Column has finally been given a green light. The spinning pillar of steam will rise 2km into the air above the Wirral waterfront on Mersey. As it will be on the flight path to John Lennon airport, the plans had to be given the go ahead by the civil aviation authority. Column is one of 12 artworks across the UK commissioned to celebrate the Games of the XXX Olympiad.
Image: rendering of Anthony McCall's Column

Layla Rudneva-Mackay's exhibition Pointing at trees continues at Starkwhite this week.
Image: Layla Rudneva-Mackay, Blue on grey, 2011, C-type print, 380 x 380, edition of 1 plus 1 artist's print

The lawyer for three members of the all-female, anti-Putin punk group known as Pussy Riot who are currently awaiting trial for an allegedly blasphemous protest in Moscow's Christ the Saviour Cathedral shortly before the election that saw Vladimir Putin returned for a third term as Russian president, says only appeals from Western celebrities and high-profile cultural figures can save them from further criminal charges and long jail sentences.

Pussy Riot's unsanctioned punk prayer service at the Cathedral, entreating the Virgin Mary to liberate Russia from Putin, stirred up a storm about the role of the church, art and women in Russian society. Read more…
Image: Pussy Riot performing at Red Square in Moscow

To launch their new exhibition Ends of the Earth: Land Art to 1974, the first exhibition to explore a body of work that can only truly be experienced in person, in some of the more remote places on the planet, LA MoCA has created an online directory for the Land Art movement. The online component makes it possible for viewers to get a sense of the works and the landscape that gave them their context and power. Read more…
Image: James Turrell's Roden Crater

Museums are springing up amongst the shopping malls and residential high rises that are the most visible hallmarks of Asia's economic boom. It's a phenomenon driven by a new generation of wealthy collectors eager to show off their wealth and fill a gap in a region where publicly funded museums are relatively scarce. Read more…
Image: Yinchuan Art Museum, architectural rendering

Recently the VIP art fair announced a new initiative to launch graduating artists in the art market. A panel of six internationally recognised jurors was appointed to select 200 artists from a pool of nominations and open call applications from renowned MFA and equivalent progammes.

The jurors have trawled through the MFA talent pool and selected three artists who will receive the prizes. Susana Perrottet, a Peruvian video artist studying at Schule Fur Gestaltung in Zurich, wins the top honour and a prize of $15,000. In second place is Chris Hood of the San Francisco Art Institute, who will receive $10,000. Third place went to Emanuel Straessle, also studying at the Schule fur Gestaltung. Each of the prizes is to be shared evenly with the students' schools.

“The work was wildly inconsistent ” said White Column's Matthew Higgs, one of the six judges. “And I thought it was quite interesting. It didn't seem to subscribe to any kind of hierarchical structure that exists within certain high-profile MFA programmes.”

The other jurors were artist Diana Al-Hadid and O Zhang, Kate Fowles (ICI), Jens Hoffman (Wattis Institute) and Joachim Pissaro (Hunter College).

Layla Rudneva-Mackay's exhibition Pointing at trees, opens at Starkwhite tonight at 6pm alongside the launch of GREEN WITH ENVY, a new volume on the artist's work published jointly with Clouds. The publication launch will include a reading by contributor Sean O'Reilly.

Speculation is on the rise regarding the much-anticipated work of Tino Sehgal due to launch in the Tate Modern on 14 July. The artist involves visitors through “constructed situations” acted out by performers and the curator of international art at the Tate Modern, Jessica Morgan, has hinted that this time his piece will reflect the Olympics.
Image: Tate Modern's Turbine Hall

The latest issue of Artforum includes a review of Alicia Frankovich's exhibition Bodies and Situations presented at Starkwhite earlier this year.
Image: Alicia Frankovich, Bodies and Situations, installation view, Starkwhite 10 February 10 – March 2012

With the assistance of John Kaldor, the Art Gallery of New South Wales has commissioned Gregor Schneider to install a room from his Totes Haus ur project in the Kaldor Family Gallery at the AGNSW. Known for his uncanny architectural environments, cavernous depths and labyrinths that evoke a dark individual or collective psyche, Schneider has created an eleven-by-four-metre room that has been shipped from Europe and inserted into the architectural fabric of the gallery. Read more…
Image: Gregor Schneider TOTES HAUS ur, 24 rooms from developed and doubled rooms of the House u r, Rheydt 1985-2001.

Last year, Tacita Dean received some bad news – Soho Film Laboratory (the last professional lab in the UK that printed 16mm film) had been taken over by an American conglomerate and was under orders to stop handling such film. The news came as she was planning her installation in the Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern.

She managed to find another lab in Amsterdam that was willing to print her future work, but continues to attack the film industry for abandoning analog prints in favour of digital. In a recent editorial in The Wrap website she makes the case that because of industry leaders' obsession with promoting digital technologies, companies and the labs dealing with analog film are on the way out, and that she may soon have great difficulty making and screening her film work.

In an earlier article published in the Guardian she wrote: “My relationship to film begins at the moment of shooting, and ends in the moment of projection. Along the way there are several stages of magical transformation that imbue the work with varying layers of intensity. This is why the film image is different from the digital image: it is not only emulsion versus pixels, or light versus electronics, but something deeper – something to do with poetry.”
Image: Tacita Dean's installation in the Tate Modern's Turbine Hall, October 2011-March 2012. Photograph from the Guardian

Based in Pittsburg Pennsylvania, Conflict Kitchen is a take-out restaurant that only serves cuisine from countries with which the United States is in conflict. The food rotates every six months to highlight another country and each project is augmented by events, performances and discussions that seek to expand the engagement of the public with the culture, politics and issues at stake within the focus country. Read more…
Image: The Conflict Kitchen's Iranian version staged during a time of increased calls for military intervention by the US

Titled The Best of Times the Worst of Times, the first Kiev Biennale opened this week with curator David Elliott apologising to participating artists and visitors for the organisation's failure to complete the exhibition installation on time. While the first floor was mostly complete, on the upper level of the newly renovated Arsenale about 25% of the works were not complete or not there at all.

“It's not the way I usually handle things,” Elliott said. “But there are things you can't plan for: like having to install for 36 hours with minimal electricity and no light.” Another factor said to be contributing to the chaotic set-up is the Ukranian government has not yet provided its half of the Biennale's funding.
Image: the entrance to the second floor at the opening of the Kiev Biennale

Layla Rudneva-Mackay's exhibition Pointing at trees, opens at Starkwhite on Thursday 31 May (from 6pm) alongside the launch of GREEN WITH ENVY, a new volume on the artist's work published jointly with Clouds. The publication launch will include a reading by contributor Sean O'Reilly.

Jae Hoon Lee is amongst the artists represented in the exhibition In spite of Ourselves: Approaching Documentary at AUT's St Paul St. Curated by Fiona Amundsen, Dienko Jansen and Vera May, the exhibition runs to 29 June.
Image: Pressure Ridge, 2012 from a suite of works created by Jae Hoon Lee following a visit to Antarctica in January 2012

Douglas Gordon is making his first ever film in England, albeit within sight of his native Scotland. The End of Civilisation centres on shots of a grand piano burning in a dip in the fellside. “A piano started to represent for me the ultimate symbol of western civilisation. Not only is it an instrument, it's a beautiful object that works as a sculpture but it has another function entirely”, he says. “I wanted to do something with a piano in a landscape of some significance and I suppose as a Scotsman, there's nothing more significant than the border.” Read more…
Image: Douglas Gordon's burning piano at Talkin Head

The New York Times reports on ART HK. Read more…
Image: Choi Jeong Hwa's Breathing Flower – Red Lotus, one of the pieces selected by Yuko Hasegawa for ART HK's project series

PORT / STARBOARD, a project by Billy Apple and Inhouse, continues in our downstairs gallery alongside The Immortalisation of Billy Apple® (stage 2). The exhibitions close on Saturday 26 May.
Image: Billy Apple, Motion picture meets the Apple, 1963

After nearly a decade of lawsuits and bitter debate, the $20 billion art collection of French impressionist, post-impressionist and modern art amassed by physician Dr Alfred C Barnes has moved to a new architect-designed building near the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

When he died in in 1951, Barnes' will stipulated that the collection never be broken up or leave the two-story villa that housed it in suburban Merion where the display reflected his unconventional theories on art and penchant for buying in quantity (181 Renoirs, 69 Cezannes and almost four dozen early Picassos). However, for 60 years the city's power brokers manoeuvered to assert their vision to relocate the collection downtown to be positioned as a major tourist destination – a power struggle recorded in the documentary The Art of the Steal and one that ended with civic profit as the winner. Read more…
Images: the new Barnes Foundation designed by the Manhattan firm Tod Williams Billie Tsien and the old Barnes Foundation in Lower Merion Township, Philadelphia

ARTINFO looks at the way websites can give institutions a brand boost, selecting their top 10 sites that “succeed online by embracing the open nature of the Internet, presenting information in a clear context, and emphasising powerful images.”
Image: from the Aspen Art Museum web site

Yin Xiuzhen's Black Hole is one of the ten pieces selected by Yuko Hasegawa and located throughout ART HK. The piece was first exhibited on New Plymouth's waterfront walkway as an extension to the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery exhibition China in Four Seasons: Song Dong + Yin Xiuzhen in 2010. Image: Yin Xiuzhen, Black Hole (2010), installed at New Plymouth's waterfront walkway with Len Lye's Wind Wand in the background; and installed at ART HK 2010

You can read a review of our current exhibitions The Immortalisation of Billy Apple® (stage 2) and PORT / STARBOARD here. The exhibitions close on Thursday 24 May.
Image: The Immortalisation of Billy Apple® (stage 2), installation view, Starkwhite, Auckland. Photograph: Jennifer French

Images: Jin Jiangbo's interactive projection Rules of Nature and works from his Dialogue with Nature series, Starkwhite booth 3C17, ART HK. Read our press release here.

The New York Times reports on ART HK 12 and developments under the new Art Basel ownership of the fair, including a suite of installations in 10 locations at the fair, selected by Yuko Hasegawa, chief curator at Tokyo's Museum of Contemporary Art. Read more…
Image: Hong Kong Exhibition and Convention centre, venue for ART HK 12

Hye Rim Lee is represented in Future Pass at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts. Curated by Victoria Lu, the exhibition focuses on the theme of Animamix, illustrating the influence of anime and other forms of popular culture on contemporary art practice in Asia.
Image: masthead for Future Pass which runs at the National Taipei Museum of Fine Arts to 15 July 2012

This week we are at ART HK presenting a solo show by Shanghai-based artist Jin Jiangbo. You can read our press release here.
Image: from Jin Jiangbo's Dialogue with Nature series, Starkwhite at ART HK, Booth 3C17, 17-20 May 2012

Anish Kapoor is downplaying the controversy surrounding the tower sculpture for the London Olympics, which he created with structural designer Cecil Balmond, saying he has researched initial negative reactions of Parisians to the iconic Eiffel Tower, recalling the horror of observers such as author Victor Hugo. Read more…
Image: Balmond and Kapoor's ArcelorMittal Orbit (detail), Olympic Park, London