calendario eventi  :: 

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1/2/2011

Four exhibitions

Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City

From 2 February to 17 April, 2011
REVISITED WORKS
Mark Manders
Obra de referencia/Reference Work

Curator: Ruth Estévez

When years ago I went for a walk… I would find myself in a World that I hadn´t determined myself. I decided to build a building next to that World, or rather in that World. A building that was dominated by a changing arrest, where and throught wich I would be confronted continuosly with my Choice, the Choice of Mark Manders”

1. The achievable is just as important as the imaginary.
Objects and the environment, as information entities, are closely related to our physical existence. This includes all we perceive, as well as everything we imagine or dream. I have always looked at Mark Manders’ work from this point of view, through the hybrid concept —hybrids in the physical world and the result of associations not connected with its meaning and function—; entities that would not exist without the integration of a new order of symbols in the materiality they intend to convey.

When I come near Mark Manders’ work, I'm never quite sure of what I see. Objects stacked or merged together to form a new phrase, one beyond every known use; they are not just static sculptural objects, devoid of function beyond aesthetic incidence.

Mark Manders shuns from design. Once an instrument’s purpose is fulfilled, he allows for certain evolutionary changes, but why keep playing with possible forms until it is deprived from the warm simplicity for which it was created? Manders offers the simplicity of a cup as an example. In the beginning, there were two hands joined together to draw water from a river. The great historic moment was the birth of his its "ear" or handle. However, its role has not changed in recent years except for a long list of unnecessary minutia. Manders always works with simple objects. Associations between them make reading it difficult despite the peaceful complexity of its forms. It is complicated because of our need to understand. It would be best just to let them mutate, let them be.

2. The building
Since 1986, Mark Manders concentrates his objects in a kind of projected building he defines as a self-portrait. Imaginary as it is projected, possible when it is recreated in space. Nobody lives in this space, not even the artist.
Different objects and images reminiscent of the past, relate to each other in this architecture. Since it is the outcome of a creative process, everything has its origins in a personal imagery without being anecdotic. To Manders, the reasons behind each project fall into a second term when they are projected onto the space. Previous models, spoken words, and comparisons with traditional ways wane. They now appear sensible to change. The new building is in the center and it exists on its own.
The speculations one could draw on any notebook make sense in the transfer between the personal world and reality. No one can clearly say where does a Manders sketch come from, not even himself. They are full of words about the central argument, but they can also be references, not explicative ones, sensitivity creates associations without planning reunions. He rereads his notes, rummaging his memory, and dumps the forms on space. Writing comes from reading, one writes because others before us have written, and one reads because others before us have read. This logical thought process, form and change, is the main reference point to understand Manders’ work, or to miss it forever.

Biographical notes:
Born in 1968 in Volkel, The Netherlands. He lives and works in Arnhem, the Netherlands and in Ronse, Belgium.
Solo exhibitions (selection): 2010: ucla Hammer Museum, Los Ángeles; Aspen Art Museum, eua. 2009: Kunsthaus Zürich. 2008: smak, Gante; Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen. 2007: Kunstverrein Hannover, The Absence of Mark Manders. 2006: Baltic, Centre for Contemporary Art, Newcastle, uk, Short Sad Thoughts. 2005: The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublín, Parallel Occurrence. 2003: The Art Institute of Chicago, Isolated Rooms; Pinakothek der Moderne, Munchen, Silent Factory. 2000 The Drawing Center, ny, Room with Several Night Drawings and One Reduced Night Scene.
Group exhibitions (selection): 2010: Guggenheim Museum, ny, Contemplating the Void: Interventions in the Guggenheim Museum; Kunsthalle Bern, Animism. 2009: Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turín, Investigations of a Dog. 2009: The Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Works from the Collection; National Museum of Singapore, A story of the Image;Walker Art Center, The Quick and the Dead. 2007: Kunsthaus Zurich, Shifting Identities; pswar, Amsterdam, Beauty Unrealized. 2006: The Museum of Modern art, ny, Transforming Chronologies; Pinakothek der Moderne, Munchen, New Acquisitions; Redcat, The Disney/Calarts Theater, Los Angeles, An Image Bank for Everyday Revolutionary Life. 2004: Manifesta 5, San Sebastián, España. 2002: Documenta11, Kassel. 2001 Venice Biennale, Venice.
Awards: 2002: Philip Morris Art Prize. 2000: Vordemberge-Gildewart Prijs. 1997: Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo per l'Arte, among others

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From 2 February to 15 May, 2011
REVISITED WORKS
Sofía Táboas
Superficies límite

Curator: Itala Schmelz

Since the early nineties, Sofia Táboas has fashioned her own particular idea of sculpture. She does not overexploit discourse but favors a sensible experience by practicing an almost religious minimalism and focusing on the use of strictly artificial or explicitly organic materials. Her work derives in mystique and spirituality. The vibrating surfaces that expand in the show are outbursts of sensuality, examples of conceptual sanity.

Her works have a nihilistic wink, the gist of a joke or of visual trickery. She works dematerialization in sculpture. Fascinated by the materials that exceed the need and use of its own objectivity, she practically gives us glass beads in exchange for gold: a simulation or "screening" instead of the experience: Is it what it seems to be or does it just look like it? It seems to be and so it is attractive, but is not really so.

Fifteen years of her work are reviewed here for the first time. We have sought to find the production strategies for specific areas in which the artist has worked, without necessarily reproducing the artworks. A metallic wall, algae stain, a mat of fire. Extension, skin, mirror conjecture, shadow, light, brightness. No piece should speak too much; her work remains subtle and discreet but persistent in the perception of the surface as a kind of spell, a wrapping that reflects emotions but which does not enter the depths.

This is a much-needed review of Táboas’ work that will give us an idea, on a larger scale, of the direction of her artistic inquiry. Therefore, we proposed her to intervene the third floor of the macg with her strategies of sculptural seduction, under the assumption that her works would not be in the museum’s space but that they would be it.

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From 2 February to 2 March, 2011
MODO DE EMPLEO 2
By: Ruth Estévez y Sarah Demeuse

2ND VIDEO CYCLE

Basic Ingredients:
1 video room in museum halls, 1 screen and/or projector, 1 recent work in video format, 1 public program, 1 video library to explore. Instructions: Mix carefully. Leave in the room for a month. Change video work and the public program. Repeat the process every month

Que de lejos parecen moscas
Guest curator: Manuela Villa
Artists: Carlos Maciá, Paloma Polo, Fernando García, Momu & NoEs, Antonio de la Rosa, Kristoffer Ardeña

Sin afuera no hay archivo.
Jacques Derrida

This second Modo de Empleo video cycle is based on an artists file exchange between the macg and Centro de Arte Matadero in Madrid.

Under the title Que de lejos parecen moscas, curator Manuela Villa made a selection of videos around two interrelated axes. On the one hand, it goes along the Archivo de Creadores de Madrid presentation at Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil in Mexico City, and, on the other hand, it reflects on one of the issues inherent to an archive, i.e., its logic and how, by subverting it, is possible to write new stories.

The Archivo de Creadores de Madrid emerges not so much as a series of events representing reality, but as a set of events around the always-subjective creation of a fiction. That is why it tries to be a (passive) space for consultation, although its main objective is to propose a series of activities that foster the construction of new realities.

Georges Perec, in his text Think / Classify, reflects on how our thought is conditioned by the different ways we have to sort and classify information. How we order our shelves, the objects we keep in our desk drawers, the schedule in which we prefer to work... All these details are key issues when analyzing ones own thought or others. "How do I think when I think? How do I think when I do not think? At this very moment, how do I think about how I think when I think?" asks Perec. That is, how do I classify my thoughts? How to I order the tools I use to think?, How do I set the preference of issues I am concerned with, according to the context? All of these are key issues when it’s time to think, to create, to analyze, and to look for things on a file.

I myself, for example, write this from a computer in which there are the following folders: Interesting Articles, Juries, Support for contemporary creation, Resumes, Collections, Lectures, Bios, Artists to follow, Scholarships, Data / Reports, Personal, Programming, Loose Ideas, Tasks, Texts. What order does this personal file follow? What does it say about the thoughts reflected here? How would it influence my thinking if it was ordered differently?

Jorge Luis Borges in Other Inquisitions gives us clues on how, by subverting the way one makes a file, —that is, how we organize our thinking— we can subvert reality. "There is no classification of the universe that is not arbitrary and speculative. The reason is very simple: we do not know what the universe is." So, Perec reminds us that the alphabetical order, which we think of as something objective, is actually subjective in nature. Although we take it as given that A goes before B, there is no obvious reason for it.

Thus we conclude that through the different arrangement of the contents in a file, one can generate a parallel universe. Such is the case with the following animal catalogue Borges attributed to a Chinese encyclopedia found by a Dr. Franz Kuhn: a) belonging to the Emperor, b) embalmed, c) tamed, d) suckling pigs, e) sirens, f) fabulous, g) stray dogs, h) included in this classification, i) frantic, j) innumerable, k) drawn with the fine brush of a camel hair, l) etc., m) those who just broke the water pitcher, n) those who at a distance look like flies.

Although we may find this classification peculiar, it is difficult to judge if it is more or less representative of reality than another one using an alphabetical order. Rather than aspiring to reflect reality, this classification creates new realities. The presence of Archivo de Creadores de Madrid in Mexico City aspires to this, to subvert its own logic and to write new stories.

Manuela Villa, cycle curator
(Madrid, 1976) works as head of content in Matadero Madrid, where she is in charge of the site-specific intervention area Abierto x Obras and produces projects such as Archivo de Creadores de Madrid, Encuentro de Comisarios Producir, Exponer, Interpretar o la investigación colectiva El Ranchito. She is author of the book Arte emergente en España (2007) has a B.A. in Sociology by The London School of Economics and a Master in Journalism by El País.

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Gabinete Gráfico
Banquete Gurrola
From February 2 to may 22 2011
Guess curator: Angélica García

Famed as a theatre director, Juan José Gurrola’s artistic vocation makes him a unique case within Mexican art history of the 20th century: architect, actor, theater director, writer, composer, painter, photographer, and film maker. Complex and diverse work waiting for recognition form the scholars of the arts.

Following 3 years since master Gurrola’s demise, the Carrillo Gill Art Museum takes the initiative and presents Banquete Gurrola (Gurrola Banquet), a small showcase of this artist’s graphic works: a series of paper napkins that were drawn on in restaurants and bars, which main motifs are women, seduction and eroticism. Exercises not looking for transcendence, results of a permanent unease before feminine seduction, openly provoking a profound eroticism, the leitmotif across the Gurrolian oeuvre. But don’t be mistaken, Gurrola’s work transcends its erotomania, is absolute; its reflections and concerns feed on situationism, on conceptual art, on chaos theory.

The exhibition Banquete Gurrola (Gurrola Banquet), if based around these graphic works, offers as well a brief overview of the Gurrolan body of work. Three experimental short-films will be shown, produced in 16 mm by UNAM, and shot by Gurrola himself in 1963 and honoring 3 contemporaneous and fellow artists: Alberto Gironella, José Luis Cuevas and Vicente Rojo.

As musical ambiance, the audience will be able to enjoy the album En busca del silencio/Escorpión en ascendente (In search of Silence/Ascending Scorpion), recorded by Gurrola during the 70’s: a musical exploration defined by the author as neuro-atonal music, and described by Manuel Rocha, sound artist an researcher, as “a very unhindered experimental music; a kind of very advanced Free-Jazz that mixes with some pop of unknown origins.”

Included in the activities simultaneous to the exhibition is the showing of the 1974 movie Robarte el Arte (To steal the art from you), shot in Kassel, Germany during the Documenta 5 exhibition in collaboration with artists Geisen Gass and Arnaldo Coen. The filming experiment chronicles the mishaps of these 3 artists during their time at Documenta 5, as well as their reflections, not humorless, on what contemporary art is and the possibility of abducting it.

The inauguration is also an excuse to pay homage to Gurrola starting with five performance artists, all of them linked to Gurrolian thought. !Oh, extraña coincidencia¡ No es a la carta (Oh, strange coincidence! It’s not À la carte) will be a series of actions preformed by Katia Tirado, Rocio Boliver “La congelada de Uva”, Andrea Ferreira, Ma. Eugenia Chellet and Arianne Pellicer.

Image: Mark Manders, Fox / Mouse / Belt, 1993. Medidas: 16.0 x 110.0 x 40.0 cm Bronce. Cortesía del artista y Galería Zeno X, Amberes, Bélgica

Press contact:
Óscar Cigarroa - Press and Media
macg.prensa@correo.inba.gob.mx - prensa.macg@gmail.com Tel. 5550 6260 ext. 108 y 109

Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil
Av.Revolución 1608 San Ángel C.P.01000 Ciudad de México
Tuesday - Sunday 10:00am - 6:00pm
full: $15.00
concession: $9.00
free until years 12
Sunday free entrance

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