Blocked gallery doors and windows by Giancarlo Scaglia
photo by Andres Marroquin and blocked window by Giancarlo Scaglia
photographs of cemeteries by Andres Marroquin
Jose Carlos Martinat: glass sculpture made with grafittied windows from a soon to be demolished building
photocollages of rocks by Elena Damiani
Philippe Gruenberg: camera obscura photograph of the park outside the gallery
drawing by Matias Duville
light installation by Miguel Andrade
video of Lima fog, made of one shot a day during a year by Gilda Mantilla and Raimond Chaves
Renzo Gianella from Revolver, legend Beatriz Lopez with Lola and Giancarlo Scaglia from Revolver
the building in Circuito Interior and Leibinitz in Mexico City, from where Jose Carlos Martinat took the grafittied windows, it used to be one of my favourite 'anonymous' modern buildings, soon to be demolished or transformed...
removing the windows from the building...
Difraccion
Revolver Galeria from Peru at Arroniz Gallery, Mexico City
Plaza Rio de Janeiro No. 53 Colonia Roma
from June 21 to August 19, 2011
with works by Miguel Andrade Valdez, Elena Damiani, Matias Duville, Philippe Gruenberg, Andrés Marroquin Winkelmann, José Carlos Martinat, Gilda Mantilla, Giancarlo Scaglia y José Vera Matos.
'Difraccion' presents the work of 9 artists that are working on the perceptual experience from the possibilities offered by light. Physical diffraction is a phenomenon of light waves based on the bending and spreading of these when they encounter a limitation or pass through a slot. In this case it refers to the light waves that pass through different gaps and into the gallery. The exhibition brings together a variety of artists, techniques, resources and materials within the same subject, where the object complements the work that appeals to different connotations, generating a speech. Indeed, the art show is an act of self-consciousness and a break with a previous art production. Most of all the emergence of a new sensitivity to the present. The intervention leads to a specific experience in the viewer, without a precise objective to understand this representation of light from the elements that when are placed in the gallery have the possibility to reconfigure the vision of who enters into the exhibition space. www.arroniz-arte.com www.revolvergaleria.com
THE WOLD TRAPPED IN THE SELF (MIRRORS FOR WINDOWS)
Stefan Brüggemann at the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion,
Curators: Laurent Fiévet and Silvia Guerra.
May 25 - 29, 2011
*****
Sunglasses
The World is a prisoner of its own making as if it has been abruptly locked behind a partition of mirrors.
Artist Stefan Brüggemann at Mies van der Rohe Pavilion follows the maxims Less is more and Gott steckt im Detail (God is in the detail). In order to extol the virtues of the architecture, he has chosen an approach as minimalist as it is radical: replacing the three windows of the principle facade with reflective surfaces. With this choice, the artist revisits the relationship between darkness and transparency in architecture by simultaneously shattering the structure of the façade and rendering it more concrete. The artist accomplishes this separation by blocking light inside the building and rejecting the outdoor light. He enacts a new spatial experiment that turns upside down the free circulation and the aesthetic and philosophical principles at the heart of this architecture. By inviting him to explore the recesses of his mind and question what informs his vision of the world (and therefore recreating his gaze and allowing us to better enter his artistic universe), Stefan Brüggemann includes everything, including the visitor, in his view of his world. This takes physical shape with the projection of his image on the pavilion’s facade through the simple use of reflection, which he in turn violently rejects by blocking his own gaze. We can see this as a way to distinguish the uniqueness of his approach and to use humor to underline his ability to turn something inside out. Just as the visitor finds himself confronted with the projected personification of Morning (as imagined by Georg Kolbe) who suddenly stretches out in front of the fountain’s liquid surface, he is also confronted by himself, face to face with his critical analysis of this artistic creation, whether it be iconoclast or respectful: this location helps the visitor come to terms with his own train of thought and to articulate his concerns. Deeply ambivalent, Stefan Brüggemann’s approach to this intervention brings us back to the image of the mirror which the artist, at times, so enjoys hanging the backwards: the perception generated by his intervention swallows everything up and risks being stifling, much like a posited claim that is still susceptible to doubt and wonder. It resembles a mirror reflecting light, which can both blind and dazzle the eyes.
text by Laurent Fiévet
*****
THE WORLD TRAPPED IN THE SELF
(MIRRORS FOR WINDOWS)
When the World looks in the mirror does it see perfection?
It may not be blind to its perfection, but perfection is boring.
The World’s perfection is its final delusion: man has designed another world richer and more complete than this world and this new one, like the first, is already burning up under the sun.
The Sun’s reflection in the mirror causes it to go up in flames.
Through Stefan Brüggemann’s simple material alterations to Barcelona’s Mies van der Rohe Pavilion, our gaze is held, captivated, by its own image – like a metaphor for this contemporary world.
Duality is a theme in the Pavilion: the marble veining and travertine grain repeat. Stefan Brüggemann’s intervention transforms the transparencies into mirrors through a slight of the hand that allows the spectator to see multiples of himself.
Since its renovation in 1986, art and architecture come together in this timeless work by Mies van der Rohe. Stefan Brüggemann’s ephemeral intervention terminates this dream of eternal life.
The sociologist Bruno Latour deemed that we were never modern, but Brüggemann pushes us to be hypermodern. We must march to the rhythm of our time.
Jarbas Lopes, 'Deegraca', 1998, penetrable made of sewn raffia banners used to advertise the 'Bailes Funk'
labyrinthic entrance to Jarbas Lopes' penetrable
window cuts in Jarbas' penetrable allow exterior and interior to connect
and raffia strips hang from the ceiling...
Runo Lagomarsino, 'Contratiempos', 2000/10, slideshow of pavement cracks photographed at Oscar Niemeyer's Marquise at Ibirapuera Park in Sao Paulo, the form of the cracks resembles the shape of Brazil or of the South American continent. http://www.runolagomarsino.com
Paulo Nenflidio, 'Berimbaue Eletrico', 2010, sound sculpture
Cinthia Marcelle and Tiago Maia Machado, 'Buracao Negro', video projection on the floor where air exhalations blow white dust through the surface creating patterns and drawings.
See the video on Vimeo here.
empty room between exhibition rooms, giving pauses and rhythm to the exhibition
Jarbas Lopes, 'Cinema Parado', 2001-2011, two slide projections of drawings made on slides
Tamar Guimaraes, 'Canoas' film, 2010, on the relationship between architecture, power, class, ethnicity, desire and segregation in Brasil
Chelpa Ferro, '100 metros rasos', 2003, 6 video projections of different sound situations, their simultaneous projection creating a concert http://www.chelpaferro.com.br
non work: peeled painting on the stairs of the exhibition space
Pablo Leon de la Barra, 'Diagrama Bananeiro Tropical', 2010, poster pinned anonymously on bulletin board in the lobby of the exhibition building
I was invited to the 'Tudo E' event/exhibition to give a talk. I decided to invite a tropical palm I found in the lobby of the motel where we were staying to participate within the talk. In order to arrive to the exhibition, I took the palm for a walk from the motel to the exhibition place. The walk, which was not documented, was an homage to Steve McQueen's film 'Exodus', 1992-97 where McQueen follows two Caribbean men carrying two palms in London; and to Wilfredo Prieto's 'Walk', 2000 where Prieto in his first trip outside Cuba takes a plant on a wheelbarrow for a 5 kms walk.
During the talk, I presented the ideas behind the 'Diagrama Bananeiro Tropical' and the 'Novo Museo Tropical'. I like the idea that I was invited as the only non-brazilian to participate in a Brazilian event, maybe the idea of Brazilianess goes beyond national identity and representation, as an expanded idea of belonging....
As part of the talk I screened a fragment of 'Burden of Dreams' from youtube where Werner Herzog talks about the obscenity of the jungle in the documentary shot by Les Blank during the filming of Fitzcarraldo in the Peruvian Amazons in the early seventies.
As this was a 10pm talk, which was going to be followed by a documentary on funk carioca and then by a performance by Tetine, I thought it would be a good idea to introduce also some music videos between the talk, in order to make the talk less boring for the people that were waiting for the concert, and as a way of pausing between thoughts and ideas, in what curator of the event Andrea Lissoni called a Disco Conference. Here I showed Carmen Miranda's banana fantasia 'The Lady In The Tutti Frutti Hat'.
'Tudo E' curators Alberto Salvadori and Dr. Andrea Lissoni. The 'Tudo E' name of the event/exhibition comes from the song composed by Arto Lindsay for the parade he did in the Venice Biennale 2009 which was organized by Lissoni.
Chelpa Ferro giving a sounds concert
Tetine's Eliete Mejorado, a diva possessed by tropical funk
Tetine's Bruno Mejorado inside Jarbas penetrable where they played live, the performance a recreation of a collaborative work that Tetine and Jarbas had done together at Gasworks, in London in 2003 within the exhibition Gambiarra. You can see documentation of that performance here and here. That time in 2003 was the first time I saw Tetine perform, since then we have collaborated in different occasions, like the time I invited them to perform at Palais de Tokyo for the launch of an issue of Pablo Magazine, where they first played the song Lick my Favela which was inspired by conversations we had at the time. http://www.chelpaferro.com.br
curator Francesco Bonami after entering Jarbas penetrable
Tetine played inside Jarbas penetrable, which was transformed into a breathing cube that sings, a penetrable that becomes alive, a malleable giant speaker...
the boys from Chelpa Ferro taking the palm for a dance...
and then bringing the palm inside the penetrable!
Tetine and Jarbas playing live inside the penetrable
Press Release:
Guest Nation Brazil…Tudo è
Chelpa Ferro, Tamar Guimaraes, Jarbas Lopes, Runo Lagomarsino, Cinthia Marcelle & Tiago Mata Machado, Paulo Nenflidio, Distruktur, Maga Bo, Siri, Tetine & Jarbas Lopes, Nado Leal, Pablo Leon de la Barra, Wesley Pentz aka Diplo & Leandro HBL, Clarissa Campolina, Guto Parente, Thiago Rocha Pitta, Amilcar Packar
curated by Alberto Salvadori and Andrea Lissoni
From Tuesday 14 to Thursday 16 June the former Esattoria della Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze, will host the contemporary art project curated by Alberto Salvadori and Andrea Lissoni and produced by Fondazione Pitti Discovery together with the Osservatorio per le Arti Contemporanee dell’Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze. Tudo è based on the visual arts, music, film and performances will present an ideal vision of a country—Brazil—that embodies the continuity of tradition and the roots of South American modernism, and the most contemporary forms of esthetic expression, and is capable of combining today’s new creativity. “It will be like a prè-sal (the sub-salt layer beneath the ocean that contains the huge oil and natural gas deposits that have been the symbol of Brazil’s growth over the past two years)”, say the curators Alberto Salvadori and Andrea Lissoni, “a place where there are multitudes of multiple talents; the wealth of a country which with speed, an awareness of its resources and faith in the present, is aiming towards a truly better future—a fantastic place that Italy still has to get to know fully.”
For four days, artists such as Runo Lagomarsino, Jarbas, Pablo Nenflidio, Cinthia Marcelle, the “unclassifiable” visual artists and musicians like Chelpa Ferro, musicians such as Siri and also DJs and producers like Nado Leal and the famous duo Tetine will unveil a growing world of thoughts and desires bringing Florence and Brazil together and generating an original mixture where freedom of thought, of expression, of imagination will be the fulcrum of the Guest Nation Brazil project.
Guest Nation Brazil…Tudo è
14–16 June 2011
every day from 7.00pm to 2.00am
Via del Castellaccio 12 – Firenze
www.pittimmagine.com
"At the end of the fifteenth of his 'Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Mankind' Schiller states a paradox and makes a promise. He declares that ‘Man is only completely human when he plays’, and assures us that this paradox is capable ‘of bearing the whole edifice of the art of the beautiful and of the still more difficult art of living’. We could reformulate this thought as follows: there exists a specific sensory experience—the aesthetic—that holds the promise of both a new world of Art and a new life for individuals and the community. There are different ways of coming to terms with this statement and this promise. You can say that they virtually define the ‘aesthetic illusion’ as a device which merely serves to mask the reality that aesthetic judgement is structured by class domination. In my view that is not the most productive approach..." from
Jacques Rancier, 'The Aesthetic Revolution and its Outcomes', New Left Review 14, April-March 2002
Pablo León de la Barra is an exhibition maker, independent curator and researcher. He was born in Mexico City in 1972. León de la Barra has a PhD in History and Theories from the Architectural Association, London. He has curated among other exhibitions ‘To Be Political it Has to Look Nice’ (2003) at apexart and Art in General in New York; ‘PR04 Biennale’ (2004, co-curator) in Puerto Rico; ‘George and Dragon at ICA’ (2005) at the ICA-London; ‘Glory Hole’ (2006) at the Architecture Foundation-London; ‘Sueño de Casa Propia’(2007-2008, in collaboration with Maria Ines Rodriguez) at Centre de Art Contemporaine-Geneve, Casa Encendida-Madrid, Casa del Lago-Mexico City, and Cordoba, Spain; ‘This Is Not America’ at Beta Local in San Juan, Puerto Rico (2009); ‘Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, Yucatan and Elsewhere’, at the CCE in Guatemala (2010); ‘To Know Him Is To Love Him’, Cerith Wyn Evans at Casa Barragan, Mexico City (2010); ‘Incidents of Mirror Travel in Yucatan and Elsewhere’, at Museo Tamayo, Mexico City (2011); 'Bananas is my Business: the Southamerican Way' at Museu Carmen Miranda, Rio de Janeiro (co-curated with Julieta Gonzalez, 2011); 'MicroclimaS' at Kunsthalle Zurich (2012); 'Esquemas para una Oda Tropical', Rio de Janeiro, 2012; 'Marta 'Che' Traba' at Museo La Ene, Buenos Aires (2012); Novo Museo Tropical at Teoretica, San Jose, Costa Rica (2012); Museu Labirinto / Museum of Unlimited Growth, ArtRio, Rio de Janeiro (2012); The Camino Real Arcades, Lima, Peru (2012). PLB has acted as advisor and/or art curator for the following art fairs: Pinta/London (2010-12), Maco/Mexico (2009-1012), Circa/Puerto Rico (2010), La Otra/Bogota (2009), ArteBA/ Buenos Aires (2012), ArtRio/Rio de Janeiro (2011-2013). León de la Barra has written amongst other publications for: Frog/Paris, PinUp/New York, Purple/Paris, Spike/Austria, Tar/Italy, Wallpaper/London, Celeste/Mexico, Tomo/Mexico, Rufino/Mexico, Ramona/Buenos Aires, Metropolis M/Amsterdam, Numero Cero/Puerto Rico. PLB has also written texts for many artists and exhibition catalogues, lectured internationally and participated in many international symposiums where relevant topics to arts, culture and society have been discussed. PLB was co-director of ‘24-7’ an artists-curatorial collective in London from 2002-2005 and artistic director of ‘Blow de la Barra’ in London from 2005-2008. From 2005 to 2012 he was curator of the White Cubicle Gallery in London, a community art space which he also founded. He is also founder of the Novo Museo Tropical, a museum yet to physically exist somewhere in the tropics and curated the First Bienal Tropical in San Juan Puerto Rico (2011). He is also the publisher of Pablo Internacional Editions and editor of his own blog the Centre for the Aesthetic Revolution. He lives and works between London, Mexico City, Los Angeles, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, San Juan, Bogota, Lima, Athens, Beirut...
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