Chile: 7 days in Santiago, 1 day in Valparaíso
Posted May 16th, 2015 by dawire
Categories: Cities, Essays
Tags: Chile, Contemporary Art, Santiago
View from the top. Lo Barnechea, a bourgeois neighborhood in Santiago.
During the month of March I was invited by R.I.C. (Residencias de Investigación Curatorial, a project initiated by curator Alexia Tala and collector Pedro Montes) to visit Santiago, Chile for one week to research the city’s cultural scene, including artists, alternative spaces, and museums. I have always been suspicious of the brief curatorial research trip and its subsequent text -a format now common among the transnational curatorial elite- fearing its inevitable becoming into a travelogue of superficial accounts and glib first impressions. Although well aware of the perils of the flash visit and the impressions that this kind of format can produce, I nonetheless felt compelled to write a brief account (albeit limited in scope) of my experience in Santiago (and Valparaíso) and the conversations that ensued there. Read the rest of this post »
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Del campo socio-urbano al visual: La periferia como espacio simbólico-cultural
Posted January 28th, 2015 by dawire
Categories: Exhibitions, Urban, Video
Tags: Espectacular, Guatemala, Mexico, Periferico, Video
Eder Castillo: Mecánica Nacional (vista exterior)
Artistas/Videos: Jason Mena: Fault Line (línea de falla), Eder Castillo: Mecanica Nacional, Karmelo Bermejo: -X, Guillermo Vargas “Habacuc”: Persona sin educación formal caminando con zancos hechos de libros apilados, Nadia Granados “la Fulminante”: La Fulminante Detonando Montreal / Cabaret Callejero, Victor Hugo Rodriguez “Crack”: Planas, Andrea Mármol: Otros Paramos / Julia, Jorge Linares: Trafico Aéreo
Las proyecciones que comprenden el proyecto Periférico Espectacular son registros de acciones documentadas en vídeo y vídeos que utilizan la metáfora como mecanismo expresivo para problemáticas sociales, educativas, políticas, y económicas. El proyecto se manifiesta en tres diferentes espacios: un espectacular (soporte publicitario) en una de las vías de mayor circulación en la Ciudad de México, el periférico que va de norte a sur, una pared en el casco antiguo de la Ciudad de Guatemala, y la página de internet La Embajada, un proyecto multidisciplinario en la web que aborda el tema de la crisis de representación y el pensamiento fronterizo.(1) Existen varios temas predominantes en la estructura y contenido de Periférico Espectacular, entre ellos, las posibilidades del espacio público (ya sea urbano o web) como ideal democrático, la periferia como espacio físico y simbólico-cultural -inevitablemente arraigado en el sistema mundial capitalista y las contradicciones del arte contemporáneo que aspira más allá de la experiencia estética, intentando subvertir el poder y visibilizar lo marginado, al mismo tiempo que participa de las estructuras que intenta subvertir. Read the rest of this post »
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Rio de Janeiro: ATREVIDA – Revisão crítica da exposição artevida
Posted October 31st, 2014 by dawire
Categories: Reviews
Tags:
Detalhe, Seven Twists (1979), Dora Mauer
A irresponsabilidade política!
A irresponsabilidade política!
A irresponsabilidade política!
Grita Aldo do topo do palacete do Parque Lage, em 1967.
Organizada em quatro seções – corpo, política, arquivo, parque – a exposição artevida, com curadoria de Adriano Pedrosa e Rodrigo Moura, incluiu uma grande quantidade e qualidade de trabalhos vindos dos recônditos do globo, com a ambição de “desenvolver conexões e leituras a partir de certas práticas artísticas do período [final dos anos 50 ao início dos anos 80], mediante diferentes conceitos, referências e enquadramentos além dos eurocêntricos”, resume o folheto da exposição. Read the rest of this post »
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Tim Bergstrom, Melissa Brown y Summer Wheat en TTP y Roberto Paradise
Posted November 26th, 2012 by dawire
Categories: Exhibitions
Tags: Melissa Brown, Summer Wheat, Tim Bergstrom
Melissa Brown
La importación de talentos fue exitosa en dosis triple con la iniciativa de Alexis Figueroa y su proyecto Trailer Park Proyects, quien en colaboración con Galería Roberto Paradise, presentaron el pasado jueves, 27 de septiembre de 2012 tres aperturas simultáneas: “Purple Buff” de Summer Wheat, “King’s Park” de Melissa Brown, y el solo show del primer artista residente de Trailer Park Proyects de Tim Bergstrom. Read the rest of this post »
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Clara T. López on Zoe Leonard at Murray Guy
Posted November 11th, 2012 by dawire
Categories: Reviews
Tags: Clara T. López, Murray Guy, Zoe Leonard
My first encounter with Zoe Leonard’s work was, paradoxically, with her writing. I say paradoxically because Leonard is mostly known for her photographs and not for her writings. However, I met her work reading her 1992 piece, published for the first time in LTTR No. 5, 2006, “I want a president…”, a passionate, thoughtful and direct claim for civil disobedience and political responsibility. A commitment to humans and cities and our right over our political existence. Read the rest of this post »
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On the cusp by Nicole Rodríguez
Posted October 21st, 2012 by dawire
Categories: Reviews
Tags: Agency of Unrealized Projects, Anton Vidokle, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Julia Peyton-James, Julieta Aranda, Nicole Rodríguez
Chaveli Sifre. No.1125, PerFumes series, digital collage
While there exists endless research, and countless indexes and catalogs surrounding an artist’s quantifiable completed work, unrealized or half-baked utopian ideas abandoned at the worktable rarely make the cut or wander into discourse. But it’s these overtly utopian ideas—the unattainables—that would seemingly contextualize that oeuvre that comes to define the names attached to them. Read the rest of this post »
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Making sure the exchange is made: Bianca Ortiz Declet on Trailer Park Proyects
Posted September 18th, 2012 by dawire
Categories: Exhibitions
Tags: Bianca Ortiz Declet, Ivan Girona, Maja Ruznic, Trailer Park Proyects
Maja Ruznic
This past August 9th as part of its monthly activities Trailer Park Proyects opened two new individual exhibitions: “Conglomeraciones Cínicas” by Ivan Girona and “Messengers” by Maja Ruznic. Both exhibitions were presented in individual trailers so as to provide each artist an individual and separate space. Read the rest of this post »
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On Art, Politics and Athletics: Javier Bosques & Norma Vila Rivero at METRO
Posted August 18th, 2012 by dawire
Categories: Reviews
Tags: Javier Bosques, Jose Hernandez Castrodad, METRO, Norma Vila Rivero
Javier Bosques. Nueve Policías, 48” x 56”, 35mm photo in digitial C-Print
What is gained by the aesthetization of crime, politics and/or activism? In Puerto Rico, just as in many other countries around the world, many visual artists are preoccupied with the political issues at hand; not in an utopic attempt to find solutions to the problems, but rather to use art as a mirror in which, hopefully, we can see ourselves, each other and our surroundings. For Puerto Ricans, crime and politics are without a doubt an inescapable reality of everyday life. In his seminal essay on the continuous conundrum of Puerto Rican identity published in 1934 titled Insularismo, Antonio S. Pedreira states that “since we breathe politics and live politics… we have developed an electoral attitude to measure things”[1] More than 75 years later not much has changed. Read the rest of this post »
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Alter Ego, Roberto Paradise by Nicole Rodríguez
Posted August 4th, 2012 by dawire
Categories: Reviews
Tags: Francisco "Tito" Rovira Rullán, Josh Lilley, Nicole Rodríguez, Roberto Paradise
Roberto Paradise at Josh Lilley
“I’m certain they all thought I was a moron,” says Francisco “Tito” Rovira Rullán as we sit in his office on the second story of his San Juan gallery Roberto Paradise; his gallery manager chit-chats away loudly on the phone downstairs with her Hungarian assistant slouching behind the front desk in the heat of the unbearably sunny early afternoon. Situated in a historic wooden colonial house in Santurce, Puerto Rico, all the windows are open and a warm breeze permeates everything. The gallery director’s cigarette smoke drifts slowly towards the window and briskly cuts away down the alley towards the street. Read the rest of this post »
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Havana Part 1: Some Shows and a Studio Visit
Posted July 8th, 2012 by dawire
Categories: Essays
Tags: Circo Triste, Espacio Tercer Piso, Humberto Diaz, Wilfredo Prieto
View of Havana from the roof of Espacio Tercer Piso.
It’s so easy to fall into a cliché when trying to describe a city such as Havana, but one cannot help but feel as if in a time warp; a time where technology had yet to replace physical interaction and where all the luxuries of our contemporary world are suddenly elusive and distant. As a writer I was enchanted by the city, as many usually are, its buildings, streets and vintage cars, but I wasn’t particularly wooed by these things; I was moved by the energetic intellect of contemporary artists, their drive and professionalism, and of course their incredible talent and honesty. Among the many of my discoveries, I realized that I had found a long-lost brother or sister, who for reasons which I would much rather not discuss at this time (but mostly political and foreign to us), had remained hidden in plain sight. And I wanted to get to know him/her with all their complexities and contradictions. Read the rest of this post »
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