Momentarium : : by Markuz Wernli Saitô

Curators Without Gallery in SHIFT
The Insider Guide section of SHIFT magazine features a story on my work and experiences in the design and art scene of Kyoto.

"Special Mention" at iD+consonni call for Public Art.

With Eva Petric and Zoran Poposki I recently established the Z+E+M Public Art Collective. This spring our proposal "Recipe Benches, Culinary Connections for Sondika" received special mention (top 5 entry out of 203) at the ID+consonni call in Sondika.

What happens when 30 plant-loving people become foster parents of your radish seeds?

On May 10, we offered 200 radish seeds for adoption to interested citizens in Kyoto to produce a foody installation and a network of connections.

Each adopter received five radish seeds and lets me visit the plant babies once a week

Lacking the appopriate space for planting veggies at his own home, Markuz Wernli Saito sought adopters for his radish seeds. He promised to share all rewards and to assist with gardening tasks as needed during weekly visits of the plant children. In return participants were asked to provide a caring home with sufficient water, sunlight and love. Learn more...

Exhibition report: Towards a Culture of Peace
In late August 2008, a group of international photographers explored visual languages of peace that are neither antitodes of war, nor sugar-sweet utopia. Markuz Wernli Saito looks at how artists expand from inner peace, scrutinize meaning in conflict, seek ways of provoking peace, or touch on empathy and oneness. No matter what creative strategy is taken, peace is created only in relationship.

badatsports: Episode 136, Ampersand International
Brian Anders and Marc Deblanc talk at Ampersand gallery in San Francisco with Lori Gordon, Hope Hilton, Markuz Wernli Saito and Bruno Mauro about Lying to Curators and strange Effects of Silence.

CASAzine issue 4: Drawing the Line (between art and activism)
In the most recent issue I am discussing with curators Milena Placentile and Monika Vykoukal the public action series At Your Service where we look closer at activist implications and combined efforts towards social transformation.

ASPECT The Chronicle of New Media Art, Vol. 10: Rural Educator and environmental journalist Deborah Mantle didn't shy from getting up early and wet feet. She joined me to a City Canal Tour and realized a commented video-feature for this DVD magazine. Read the experience report on wilderness in the urban.

DIALOG IN COMMON

Brett Bloom [Temporay Services] reflects on the Service Paradigm in art: "It is the social spaces that artists produce. This can produce a sociological analysis if we are talking of art as providing a service."

Jane Trowell [Platform London] talks about artful collaboration and public learning: "Basically it's about making a subject dynamic, which before was made accessible to a very specific audience through restricted language."

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Momentarium pays particular attention to what happens when our very presence becomes the catalyst for a “work of art” — situations which lead to an experience we can possibly integrate into our lives by fusing reality with carefully calculated artifice.