PABLO'S COPY CENTRE IN 'PRODUCIENDO REALIDAD' IN LUCCA

An information and copy center by Pablo León de la Barra. A low table serves as a platform for the presentation of a thematic cartography of self-published material by different artists and art groups coming from Latin America and who share a similar state of mind, that of contesting the dominating culture produced and distributed by the transnational publishing and music industries. CD’s are displayed for the visitor to listen and burn while a photocopy machine is available for the visitor to copy the material.

*****
Publications available for photocopy:
Landmark. Alora y Calzadilla. Puerto Rico 2003
Printed Material. Mariana Castillo. Mexico-Netherlands 2002-2004
Celeste Sucks. Artist Fanzines. 2002-2004
Museo Hawai. Rodrigo Quijano/Fernando Bryce. Peru 2002
Rejected Projects. 24/7 Gallery. London 2003
La Promesa. Fotonovela. Jesus [Bubu] Negron. Puerto Rico 2003.
Valdez. Bookzine. Colombia-New York-Paris 2003
Hangueando. Raimond Chavez. Newspaper. Colombia-Peru-Puerto Rico-Spain 2002-2004
Colegiala en Cinta. El Vicio. Magazine. Colombia. 2002
Instant City. Maria Ines Rodriguez and others. Newspaper. Paris 2003
Printed Material. Erick Beltran. Mexico-Netherlands 2002
Galeria Chilena. GCH Catalog. Chile-New York 2003
Capacete Entretenimentos. Capacete journal and Artists catalogues. Brasil 2002-2004
El Chino. Periodical Publication. Guadalajara, Mexico 2001-2004
Espacio La Culpable. Photocopied publication. Peru 2002-2004
Geometría Popular. Julieta Aranda and Anton Vidokle. Mexico-New York 2004.
Pulgar. Ocassional Publication. Venezuela 1999-2004
Velocidad Critica. Publication. Monterrey, Mexico 2000-2004
Terry Painter, L;Artiste. Comicbook. Miguel Calderon y Nick Walpington. Mexico-London 2003.
Juliana Periodista. Photocopied Interviews. Argentina 2003
Las Ilusiones Perdidas. Maria Ines Rodriguez. Colombia-Paris 2003
Resistencia. Book. PAC. Mexico 2004.
Mia. Teresa Serrano. Fotonovela. Mexico 2002
Ediciones Eloisa Cartonera. Argentina 2004
Lima, Peru. Gilda Mantilla. Postcards. 2003
Panama. Jonathan Harker. Postcards 2004.

Cds:
The Electric Mass Begins. Sonido Lasser Drakar. 2004
Menonita Rock. Los Fancy Free. 2004
Yo Fui Una Adolescente Terrosatanica. Ultrasonicas. 2003
Shajato Rock. Intestino Grueso/Miguel Calderon. 2000
Welcome to Chimpancingo. Silverio. 2002
Channelizing Paradise. Los Super Elegantes. 2002
Operacion Sandunga. Regeton. Puerto Rico. 2002
Con el agua por alante y atra. Potranka y Jail-A. 2004
Rapza 2. Mexico City. 2001
Hip Hop con Banda Norteño, Cumbia y Mas. 2004
Depois de Cristo. 509E. Hip Hop. Sao Paulo. 2002
Shanty Sounds. Carolina Caycedo. 2003
Silverio 2. 2004
Miki. 2004
Lasser Moderna. 2004
La China Tropical. B-Lo. 2004
Pau-Latina. Paulina Rubio. Pirate Version. 2004
Ellas. 24-7´s Music for the Oppressed Housewife. 2004.
Antologia. Los Prisioneros.
Infame. Babasonicos.
Quemalo. centrodearte.com. 2002
La musica de las Malas Amistades. 2000
Fortaleza Mix 1 y2. Colectivo Cambalache & Som Sobre Som Sanfrancisco. 2002

*****
Extract from a text by Santiago Garcia Navarro on the destiny of publications in Latin America:

"The picture García Canclini paints (in Latinoamericanos buscando lugar en este siglo (and the writer and literary critic Daniel Link seconds)) is more or less as follows. During the 90s, most of the big Latin American publishing houses were purchased by Spanish companies who had, in turn, been bought by multinational groups. The policy for the production and circulation of books suffered a series of metamorphoses due to the neo-liberal economic policy that was already underway in those years. What had once been local publishing houses that influenced the rest of Spanish-speaking America and the Iberian Penisula, had been turned into local branches of emporiums rooted in Spain. As a consequence of the neo-liberal mentality of rationalization and automatization, the system was broken down into national islands that have to provide books for their respective markets, mostly books by authors from that same country. This gave rise to a flood of products superficial in form and content; that is to say, an effect typical of neo-liberalism which encourages hyperinflation of matter and devaluation of thought. Meanwhile, the old craft of the editor as literary talent scout, dedicated to finding new writers, philosophers, sociologists, critics, etc., was replaced by the figure of the executive who must satisfy at any cost the demands of the publishers-entertainment companies, that generally set a three thousand copy minimum for any printing.

For the same reasons, second printings of publishers' catalogs were also dramatically reduced as was the distribution of these second printings to areas not considered profitable, even if these books had had readers in those areas over the decades. This is why for years it has been impossible to find books and essays as crucial as "Art in the Age of its Mechanical Reproduction" by Benjamin or A Thousand Plateaus by Deleuze and Guattari in Buenos Aires, a city that was, along with Mexico City, the greatest publishing center in the Spanish speaking world until the 70s. (This last book is distributed in Spain but, if brought to Buenos Aires, it would be terribly expensive by local standards due to the exchange rate).

Logically, this series of shifts has led to a new cultural order that is decided on the other side of the Atlantic or, to put it more precisely, in an undefined supraterritoriality. I am not, however, crying over the loss of the influence of the nation-state (a loss that, in one way or another, has taken place all over the globe). I am, instead, trying to give evidence for something deeper, something that predates the State as an institution or, indeed, any other form of social control, and that is the loss of the capacity for self-production. This is the authentic loss, the loss of the possibility for a subject to constitute himself as the protagonist in his or her own development. This capacity has been rapidly diminishing on both the individual and the community level."
Santiago García Navarro, Buenos Aires, 28 March 2003
originally published in http://www.kunstverein-muenchen.de

'LOCALISMOS' AN INTERNATIONAL RESIDENCY AND EXHIBITION ORGANIZED BY PERROS NEGROS IN MEXICO CITY'S CENTRO HISTORICO

outside of the exhibition


exhibition meeting room


Miguel Calderon's gymnasium


Erick Beltran's dice




Aleksandra Mir's 'Yo No Hablo Español' signs


Philipe Hernandez cardboard fake Donald Judd's


Philipe Hernandez 'Tepito Lindo' sign


Nuevos Ricos (Silverio and Carlos Amorales) posters for Rock talent show contest


Julieta Aranda and Anton Vidokle's 'Popular Geometry' newspaper project



24/7 art selling street cart


Pablo Leon de la Barra (with pink Che Guevara Tshirt) and Aleksandra Mir

Perros Negros presents
Localismos: 20 Artists Working In The Center Of Mexico City
A Global Collaboration For A Local Strategy
May 1st - June 30th, 2004
Opening: June 4th, 2004

Localismos, a project by Perros Negros, is a residential workshop in which a group of 20 artists, Mexicans and foreigners, will work for a month in the center of Mexico City. At the end of this month, the artists will produce a series of works, which have as only condition, to be made with materials and craftsmanship available in the historical center so that from its conception, production and exhibition there is a coherent dialogue with the context.

Localismos considers globalization not as an isolated phenomenon, but as a union of localities, in this case observed within Mexico City's Center.

Localismos will compare these perceptions to a global reference. The center is a place that restrains itself from being part of globalization with its idiosyncrasy, its visual richness, its contrasts and its way of functioning.

Through this project, Perros Negros is trying to propose ways to represent social problems in Mexico through art related with processes, art that can be shared and lived. Localismos will be a project focused on the people, how they live, how they work, the existing commerce, the local entertainment and most importantly: how can contemporary artists introduce ourselves into this place, how can the art be accessible to its inhabitants, how can they be involved without feeling intimidated by a language they don't know.

The intention of Localismos is to present the city with a different strategy of social rescue made up of the selected artists.

The importance of Localismos is in the significance it acquires as a record of a historical moment of the transition taking place in Mexico City. It will be a kind of document that will illustrate what it is after the decentralization and before external intervention.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:
Aleksandra Mir
Andrea Crews
Anton Vidolkle/Julieta Aranda
Asier Perez Gonzolez
Carolina Caycedo
Erick Beltran
Mara Verna
Miki Guadamur
Miguel Calderon
Nuevos Ricos
Philipe Hernandez
Santiago Reyes
Tatsuo Inagaki
Tercerunquinto
Xavier Andrade
24/7 (Beatriz Lopez, Sebastian Ramirez, Pablo Leon de la Barra)
bordermates
Diego Berruecos
Ives maes
Sonido Lasser Drakkar

PERROS NEGROS
Izazaga #8, col. Centro
06080, Mexico D.F.
Tel: +52 55 21 60 57
info@localismos.com
perrosnegros@localismos.com
http://perrosnegros.info/

aleksandra mir photographs courtesy of the artist

'VILLA OLIMPICA' IN RINCON, PUERTO RICO A TEMPORARY ART COMMUNITY BY MM PROJECTS AND PABLO LEON DE LA BARRA

floor painting and painting details by Federico Herrero


bicycle parking


Outdoor Cinema screen during the day


dining room and hammocks


running track to the beach


winners podium sculpture






archive of artists work



information center


cinema by night


Abreu's food, food delivery





copy center, books, cds and dvds available to see, hear and copy



24/7 souvenir shop





Tentacity, lodging for artists


hanging coloured lights



meditation greenhouse


Maria Papadimitriou's resting theatre



Pedro Reyes' floating piramid


Olympic Villa
Puerto Rico 04, Puerto Rico
with M&M Proyectos, Puerto Rico

By request of Michy Marxuach, the Artistic Director of Puerto Rico 04, my
curatorial proposal for PR04 was directed towards the construction of what would
become the Olympic Village: a base of operation for artists and curators during
PR04, a place that would not only accommodate the artists but which would host a
series of events and temporary exhibitions. PR 04 parted from the idea of the
collective memory left of the dream to host the Olympic Games of 2004. In 1994,
San Juan Puerto Rico was one of the eleven cities bidding to host the 2004
Olympic Games. Because of the attention given to this possibility by the Olympic
Campaign and the mass media, Puerto Ricans thought the Olympics could actually
happen there. When on September 5, 1997 in Lausanne, Switzerland it was
announced that the Olympics were going to take place in Athens it became a
national disappointment. PR04 focused on the idea of realizing the unrealized
Olympics while rearticulating them with new meanings.

“Puerto Rico 04 was not an event constructed around a series of exhibitions in the
way of a conventional event, but an event in which a series of situations or
activities would happen in much more organic way. In a similar way to the
organisation of the architecture of the Olympic Village where the event happened,
it was much more like a free way of organizing things, and where spaces were
created in order to be appropriated by the different situations that happened
without trying to pre-establish exactly what would happen. It was about opening
up this space and then letting things happen. And in this space different activities
could insert themselves in a much more free way. It was about how in that free
space things start to acquire their own order to create new conditions of dialogue
and creation. So yes, what I learned was about opening up this space and creating
this free structure that lets things happen and because you have these spaces for
experimentation where the users can start creating new experiences and situations
without knowing exactly what the outcome will be, things start to happen. For me
that was the important thing - to open up the space where things could happen.”

It was within this non-structure that I also invited 24/7, Federico Herrero, Maria
Papadimitriou, Marjetica Potrc and Pedro Reyes to create structures,
infrastructures and suprastructures that contested the traditional forms and
expectations coming from the construction of space and place in order to create
new and yet unknown spaces, places and situations. Contrary to the idea of art
tourism under the banner of an art event or biennial , the Olympic Village at
PR04 created a temporary utopian community, a space and place where things
could or could not happen. In doing this, for a moment and unknowingly, it
recreated paradise , a place where for a moment artists and curators could stop
thinking about how to advance their careers, and where they could actually start
relating to themselves and to the other through their work.




Olympic Village master plan, free style urbanism by Pablo Leon de la Barra