Initiated by Koenraad Dedobbeleer and Kris Kimpe in 2006, UP is an architecture fanzine featuring image spreads of architecture icons photographed by Kimpe and Dedobbeleer. Each edition highlights one of their favorite spaces, such as Achille Castiglioni’s former studio in Milan or Edward Krasinski’s in Warsaw. Strongly relating to the given space in which they are installed and exhibited, the works by Belgian artist Koenraad Dedobbeleer attest to his interest in architecture and design. The artist’s traveling solo exhibition, jointly organized by three host institutions yet individually titled, debuted at the Kunstmuseum St Gallen last fall. It now opens at Centre d’art contemporain d’Ivry — le Crédac, Ivry-sur-Seine in January 2013 with a final stop scheduled at De Vleeshal, Middelburg in mid-April 2013. Published on this occasion, Oeuvre sculpté, travaux pour amateurs, Dedobbeleer’s artist book gives further insights into his practice. In “Workmanship of Certainty” at le Crédac, Dedobbeleer’s objects are stripped off their functionality, playfully assembled into poised compositions. Here, in the former industrial building of the Manufacture des Œillets (grommet manufacturer) built after the model of an American daylight factory with large windows, Dedobbeleer is interested in reading the space through his work, stressing the interplay between inside and outside in his ongoing interrogation of objecthood and sculpture. (Anja Isabel Schneider)

In 2010 Peep-Hole, a non-profit organization based in Milan, paid tribute to Corrado Levi with the exhibition “Quasi, autoamori di Johnny e Una Poesia,” curated by directors Vincenzo de Bellis and Bruna Roccasalva. The show may also be seen as a clin d’œil to Milan’s history of alternative spaces, with Levi as a forefather: some decades earlier, his studio was to become the city’s first project room in support of young artists. Since its inception in 2009, Peep-Hole has been establishing itself with a not-to-be-missed programme, including solo shows by Renata Lucas, Rosalind Nashashibi, Francesco Arena and Mario Garcia Torres. At the same time, its team has carried on a remarkable editorial activity with a quarterly, Peep-Hole Sheet, dedicated to artist’s writing, with monographic issues devoted to the likes of John Miller, Jonathan Horowitz, Jimmie Durham and, most recently, Nick Mauss. Collaborations with other institutions — both within Italy and internationally — played a key role in Peep-Hole’s success, resulting in a list of steadily expanding partnerships (among them Museion Bolzano, CAC-Vilnius, and recently CAC Bretigny). January/February 2013 promises a programme of workshops, talks and conferences at Museo del Novecento in Milan and Museo di Villa Croce in Genoa. Yet there is still more news to come: Peep-Hole is soon moving to a new and larger venue. (Anja Isabel Schneider)

Although its domain may be misleading, grouphab.it is both the name and the website of a new art space founded and run in Berlin- Pankow by Simon Denny and Yngve Holen, the artists responsible for the celebrated Body Xerox parties initiated two years ago that turned photocopiers into disco lights. A photo album on grouphab.it’s facebook page documents their first event in June 2012, the publication launch of the “THE SMART FRRRIDGE READER.” Originally a downloadable PDF, it now comes as a print-on-demand publication in multifarious formats. The reader accompanies an exhibition project co-curated by Yngve Holen in late 2010 at Kunstverein Medienturm, Graz. The show featured work by Nicolas Ceccaldi, Ilja Karilampi, Morag Keil, AIDS-3D (Keller/Kosmas) and Marlie Mul, with whom Holen has also created XYM, an online publishing project dedicated to artist publications in PDF-format temporarily available to download, like Aude Pariset’s PDF-edition “No One Would Confuse a Utensil with a Mock” (2011). Follow grouphab.it’s programme, which includes a Berlin specific project by Lucky PDF. With its social network steadily expanding, it is the habitual being there that counts. (Anja Isabel Schneider)

In his essay “Painting Beside Itself,” published in October magazine (Fall 2009), David Joselit defined “transitive painting” as a “capacity to hold in suspension the passages internal to a canvas, and those external to it”—a quality clearly present in Jonathan Binet’s works. Binet (b. 1984), a recent ENSBA graduate based in Paris, has developed a working method in which painting is closely linked to performative practices and installation. In his recent solo show at Gaudel de Stampa, “Les mains dans les poches, pleines,” the gallery acts as a surrogate studio. The artist’s gestures and movement —a clin d ’oeil to action painting— are re-inscribed into the given architecture and become traceable. Embracing chance in the process of creation, Binet creates indexical yet open frames and networks in response to the context in which his work is shown. He delineates space: a spray-painted line moves from walls to ceiling. Here and there, an abstract canvas leans casually against the wall, as if to stress its material presence. With two upcoming solo shows this fall, at CAPC, Musée d’Art Contemporain de Bordeaux, and Palais de Tokyo, Paris, Jonathan Binet keeps us in suspense. (Anja Isabel Schneider)

After years of construction and renovation, Stedelijk Museum re-opened its doors to the public on September 23, 2012. Founded in 1874, the museum has been described by Hein Stünke as the “first modern museum in the world.”. If the museum’s visionary director, Willem Sandberg, imagined it to be a laboratory, turning scaffold- ing structures into viewing platforms, the notion of “temporary” as a testing ground for ideas became all the more pertinent during the museum’s eight-year closure. The re-opening was preceded by “Temporary Stedelijk,” a dynamic three-part program of exhibitions and events curated by Ann Goldstein, who was appointed director three years ago. The now fully renovated historical building invites us to rediscover works by Lee Bontecou, René Daniels and Lucio Fontana, alongside new acquisitions from Dan Flavin, Simone Forti and Danh Vo. Two group shows mark the inauguration of the new building: “Beyond Imagination,” featuring commissions from artists based in The Netherlands, and a temporary exhibition comprising works from the museum’s collection in the perfectly suited immense open-plan gallery space. Boldly hovering over the old architecture, Stedelijk’s innovative extension is signed Mels Crouwel, from Benthem Crouwel Architects. In homage to the museum’s famous director, it is painted in “Sandberg white.” (Anja Isabel Schneider)