Teresa Hubbard Alexander Birchler

Catalog of an exhibition held at Ballroom Marfa, February 28-October 26, 2014; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, December 5, 2014-May 4, 2015; Blaffer Art Museum, University of Houston, May 31-September 5, 2015.

Published on the occasion of an exhibition held at the McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas, September 28, 2016-January 8, 2017.

During his lifetime, Alberto Giacometti declined numerous requests to display his work at the Swiss Pavilion of the Venice Biennale, which was built by his brother, renowned architect Bruno Giacometti. In 2017, the Swiss Pavilion will recognize the contributions of the enigmatic artist with Women of Venice, an exhibition curated by Philipp Kaiser with new works by Austin-based artistic duo Teresa Hubbard / Alexander Birchler and Geneva-born, Brooklyn-based sculptor Carol Bove. With sixty color illustrations, Women of Venice documents the planning and creation of the ambitious Swiss Pavilion at this year's Biennale, which will explore Giacometti's legacy while also reflecting on the history of Switzerland's past contributions from a contemporary perspective, taking account of concepts like national identity and cultural policy. All three artists have created new works specific to the context, making this book a captivating look at the most recent work by these important artists, as well as a record of this historic event.

The work of one of the towering creative spirits of the century, Alberto Giacometti's visionary sculptures and paintings from a testament to the artist's intriguing life story. From modest beginnings in a Swiss village, Giacometti went on to flourish in the picturesque milieu of prewar Paris and then to achieve international acclaim in the fifties and sixties. Picasso, Balthus, Samuel Beckett, Stravinsky and Sartre have parts in his story, along with flamboyant art dealers, whores, shady drifters, unscrupulous collectors, poets and thieves. Women were a complex yet important element of his life--particularly his wife, Annette, and his last mistress and model, Caroline--as was the intimate relationship he shared with his brother Diego, who was both Alberto's confidant and collaborator. James Lord was personally acquainted with Giacometti and his entourage, and combines firsthand experience with a unique knowledge gathered during many years of observation and research. In this exceptional biography Lord unfolds the personal history of a man who managed to achieve a heroic destiny by remaining utterly true to himself and to his calling. Giacometti: A Biography was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award. James Lord has subsequently published three volumes of memoirs. In recognition of his contribution to French culture he has been made an officer of the Legion of Honour.

In our accelerated era of "faster," "better," "farther," "higher," this comprehensive catalogue of the media art of the world-renowned Goetz Collection in Munich offers not only a survey of much of the most important film and video work to have been made over the last 15 years, but also a vision of how our habit of seeing and experiencing the world--in perpetual fast forward mode--has come out of our own cultural acceleration. The works brought together in this 532-page volume are at once an expression of and a reaction to the hyper-speed of our times. They span from the slow-motion images in David Claerbout's still life-like landscape portrait, Ruurlo, Bocurloscheweg 1910, to the rhythmic-dynamic disco tempo of Wolfgang Tillmans's Lights (Body). This superb collection includes videos, video installations and films by Matthew Barney, Olaf Breuning, Tracey Emin, Fischli & Weiss, Rodney Graham, Mona Hatoum, Pierre Huyghe, Isaac Julien, Mike Kelley, Sharon Lockhart, Sarah Morris, Raymond Pettibon, Pipilotti Rist, Anri Sala, Ann-Sofi Sidén, Diana Thater and others.

Teresa Hubbard and Alexander Birchler invent stories. And they create their photographic sequences as if they were putting together a film in which to tell these stories. Each sequence has a script, specially chosen actors, and purpose-built sets in which even the smallest details are attended to with great care. But each picture also contains a second narrative that asks questions about how a story arises, how it is constructed. The resulting uncertainties in Hubbard and Birchler's videos and photographs is methodical and deliberate, and persistently apparent in the range of works reproduced in Wild Walls, including two complete video works from 2001, "Detached Building" and "Eight."