AMIGOS/AS, HAPPY 2011, AND THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT IN 2010!

Mies Cruising Pavilion Montjuic, an unauthorised exhibition at the Mies van der Rohe Barcelona Pavilion
October 2010


Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, Yucatan and Elsewhere... at CCE, Guatemala
May 2010


Cerith Wyn Evans at Casa Barragan, Mexico City
April 2010


The Next Documenta Should be in Brasilia
ongoing


Tristes Tropiques at The Barber Shop in Lisboa
March 2010


Novo Museo Tropical in Madrid
February 2010

Somewhere Over the Rainbow, CircaLabs, San Juan, Puerto Rico
February 2010


Selfportraits at Airports
2003-ongoing

'NOVO MUSEO TROPICAL' AT JUST MADRID

Novo Museo Tropical no budget presentation at Just Madrid.
Somewhere better than this Place (after Felix Gonzalez Torres)
No Sea Marginal, No Sea Heroe (after Alexandre da Cunha (after Helio Oiticica))


invitation to get out of the fair and instead visit the green house next door


novo museo tropical office


novo museo tropical curators, Adriano Pedrosa and Maria Ines Rodriguez


novo museo amigas, Katy Hernandez, Agustina Ferreyra and Carolina Caycedo




Novo Museo Tropical temporary space without art at the Invernadero in Madrid

Novo Museo Tropical (Museu without walls)

when museums and cultural centres outside of the hegemonic centres remain empty because they don't have budget for a programme or curators...
when artists living in the semiperipheries produce specifically for the international market, art fairs and biennales, while ignoring their local public and contexts, or while abusing of their local public and context...
when art produced elsewhere is bought legally (without looting as in the past) by international patrons and museums...
shouldn't we rethink the kind of 'art' we do?
shouldn't we rethink the kind of exhibitions we produce?
shouldn't we rethink the kind of museums we aspire to have?

Novo Museo Tropical
a museum without walls...
an invitation to rethink the museum outside the centre...
do we need new museums and mausoleums?
can we think a different kind of collection?
do we need art bought in galleries, biennales and art fairs?
how to protect the collection from the climate without resorting to air condition?
can we think a museum that exists beyond the conventions of the XX century contemporary art world and its structures?

how can cultural production and memory survive humanity after humans disappear from the earth?

novo museo tropical...
soon somewhere near you...

PABLO JOGGING TOUR MEXICO CITY

Pablo's Jogging Tour (short version for youtube)
produced by Perros Negros for Localismos
Historic Center, Mexico City
May-June 2004

Mexico City's Historic Centre (known as El Centro) was once the centre of urban, social and economical life of the city and the site where the Spanish conquerors founded their capital over the Aztec city of México-Tenochtitlan. The Centre had been suffering continuous deterioration since the early XX century. Today, the Fundación del Centro Historico, is determined to change El Centro's fate. With an initial investment in 2004 of over $300 million U.S. dollars and a long-term regeneration plan, the Fundación has bought 70 buildings in El Centro converting them into housing units in order to start the centre's gentrification. In turn, the City's government has also invested in urban infrastructure, introduced a new police force, installed high security closed circuit cameras, and been displacing and relocating the street sellers. Fundación del Centro Historico was also one of the main sponsors of Localismos, a residential workshop in which a group of 20 artists, worked for a month in the centre of Mexico City producing works in dialogue with the context. The presence of the artists within Localismos was seen as an asset by the Fundacion, who understood that contemporary art is one of the determinant factors that ensure an areas gentrification. Pablos Jogging Tour visits moments of resistance to Mexico Citys Historic Centres gentrification, including street sellers occupying the streets as a way of economic survival, families in the risk of eviction and buildings appropriated by those who lost their houses during the earthquake of 1985 (and whose housing situation still hadn't been solved). The parcourse of Jogging Tour is the location for the battle for the use of private and public space in the City's centre. It is in El Centro where historical identity is imposed by the elite and where this identity is challenged by the occupation of space by those in less privileged positions. While the elite sees and defends the Centre as a place where it can access its past history, for the lower classes the Centre is the place that provides immediate access to the commodities, lifestyle and information of late capitalist modernity in the form of pirate Cds, DVDs of recent Hollywood hits, and clothing and accessories of fake brands like Armani, Tommy Hilfiger, Gap and Louis Vuitton.

PABLO INVITES LOCAL WRESTLERS TO GIVE A DEMONSTRATION OF 'LUCHA CANARIA' IN GRAN CANARIAS

Canary Islands Wrestling
Wrestling Deomonstration
a situation by Pablo Leon de la Barra
curated by Antonio Zaya
Bienal de Canarias
December 2006

Canary Island wrestling has Guanche indigenous origins and is popular in all the
Canary Islands. Traditionally, this type of wrestling was used to settle disputes
over domestic issues and Land. The Luchadores would roll their trousers up to the
thigh so that they could both get a grip of the other and the bout - or "brega"
would begin. Almost every borough has its own sand "terrero" or circular
wrestling ring. Each "brega" is between two contestants who try to unbalance each
other with spectacular trips and throws called "mañas". The two wrestlers have to
remain on their feet, as, if any other part of the body touches the ground, that
wrestler is eliminated. Canary Island wrestling is also practiced in Venezuela and
Cuba; a legacy of Canary Island migration.

'GLORY HOLE' AN EXHIBITION BY PABLO INTERNACIONAL MAGAZINE

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

'LUCHA LEONESA' WRESTLING DEMONSTRATION ORGANIZED BY PABLO LEON DE LA BARRA AT MUSAC AS PART OF THE EXHIBITION 'GLOBOS SONDA'

Antonio Zaya, Pablo Leon de la Barra and Octavio Zaya wearing 'I Love Leon' tshirts by Funky Projects

Lucha Leonesa
Demonstration of Leones Wrestling
MUSAC, León
May 2006
Leones Wrestling is an original sport of the province of León, Spain. It is fought
by two wrestlers, in similar form to the Canaries wrestling or the Japanese. The
wrestling takes place within a circle of about 15 meters of diameter. The fighters
must dress with short trousers and a t-shirt, they cannot use footwear.
Characteristically, they wear a leather belt of about 3 cm wide; this belt is placed
in the waist, over the hip, so that it can easily be taken hold by the adversary. The
objective is, by means of certain techniques denominated mañas, to make the
opponent touch the ground with any part of their back, with which the winner
obtains two points. If it touches the ground with the stomach or the arms, a point is
obtained. The first to obtain 4 points wins.
Lucha Leonesa is one of the oldest native sports that still persists in Spain. Its
origin is thought to be pre-Roman. It conserves a certain rural and primitive
flavour, which reminds of its origin. In the XIV century Leones Wrestling was
used in the Leones Mountains to solve border conflicts due to cattle grazing.
There is no cause that by itself can explain the conservation of the tradition of
Leones Wrestling. This might be due to topography and deficient communication
routes that prevented the relation of the area with the exterior; this social and
cultural isolation allowed that the ancestral customs and traditions remained virgin
during a long time. This united to the particular Leones way of life and the defense
of its roots and customs. The Leones character has always stayed very resistant to
external influences.