The Autoconstruccion Suites. A presentation of sculptural objects which were characterized by the acts executed during production: the enveloping, tearing, folding, bending and compressing of the materials involved.
With this exhibition, Haus der Kunst stresses its continuing commitment
to pronounced positions of sculpture in contemporary art. This
exploration included "Sculptural Acts" (2011), a presentation of
sculptural objects which were characterized by the acts executed during
production: the enveloping, tearing, folding, bending and compressing of
the materials involved.
The installation by Manfred Pernice, installed in
autumn 2013 in the middle hall (DER ÖFFENTLICHKEIT - VON DEN FREUNDEN
HAUS DER KUNST. Manfred Pernice, Tutti IV) navigates in the ambiguous
zone between stability and instability, combining pieces from earlier
works. The "Autoconstrucción Suites" by Mexican-born artist Abraham
Cruzvillegas presents an intriguing concept of thinking about sculpture
in its urban and social context.
"Rather than simply presenting models of poor people's architecture, my
main purpose is to generate knowledge and understanding of how human
activity produces forms. Buckminster Fuller said that matter should be
organized by sympathy, a concept that I apply to my collections of
objects, images, and sounds as well as my three-dimensional work." -
Abraham Cruzvillegas
Over the past ten years, Abraham Cruzvillegas (born in 1968 in Mexico
City) has developed a compelling body of work that integrates his
interest in form and matter within the physical landscape of Ajusco, a
volcanic landscape just south of Mexico City.
The construction of a settlement there began in the 1960s. The building
was a direct consequence of the migration from country to city caused by
the state's neglect of agricultural issues in favor of industrial
development, which was perceived as a recipe for progress.
The numerous
immigrants from the countryside found themselves in a precarious economic
situation once they arrived in Mexico City. They therefore created their
own dwellings with no funding and no architectural plan. The materials
and techniques people used were almost entirely improvised and based on
whatever was available in the immediate surroundings.
The self-constructed buildings in Ajusco reflected concrete needs in
concrete family situations, like building an extra room, modifying a
roof, improving, changing, or eliminating one space or another. The
extended community of relatives and neighbors was involved in the
building process. Autoconstrucción (self-building) is generally a process
of human warmth and solidarity. Abraham Cruzvillegas lived in the Ajusco
settlement and "for the first 20 years of his life he watched the
construction of the house where his family lived and took part in the
process."
The video "Autoconstrucción: A Dialogue between Ángeles Fuentes and
Rogelio Cruzvillegas" (2009) - the artist's parents - underscores the
importance of securing basic rights like water and education alongside
constructing urban space. Fuentes remembered different moments in these
struggles, such as when the immigrants filled the street with dirty
laundry to demand access to running water, or when they organized
independent public schools. Under the slogan of "No somos machos pero
somos muchas" (We're not men, but we are many), the women of Mexico
City's working-class neighborhoods won basic rights.
The exhibition concentrates on works that follow the principles of
self-construction. The "Autoconstucción Suites" begins with a look at the
house as a whole; its details and improvised techniques born of the
organic need to create a human habitat by any means necessary, a space
that becomes spontaneous, contradictory, and unstable as it progresses.
Instead of emphasizing construction details, Cruzvillegas shows the
dynamics of the building process, closely observing especially unstable
elements like obstacles, debris, constraints, leaps and jumps, tremors
and unevenness, falling materials, ricochets and cracks.
Between 2005 and 2012, the artist embarked on a series of artist
residencies that enabled him to work within different environmental and
ecological contexts in Europe, Asia, and the United States. "Bougie du
Isthmus" (2005), for example, is inspired by an improvised device made by
fishermen in Istanbul that is rigged to a tire, enabling no-hands
fishing.
The wine racks that support the rods refer to wine production in
the Loire Valley where the Atelier Calder is located; while the colorful
fabric flags recall traditional village festivals originating in the
Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Oaxaca, Mexico, where women march in the
streets with colorful scarves attached to sticks and brooms. In Scotland
in 2008, where he spent six months, Cruzvillegas worked with what he
terms "local economic systems," sourcing and scavenging materials - wool,
sheep dung, chicken wire, discarded furniture, cardboard, stones, and
grass - directly from the countryside and city.
In 2010 Cruzvillegas began producing a series of standalone
anthropomorphic self-portrait sculptures. The components are comprised of
his personal belongings (shoes and tote bags appear often in these works)
and carry complex, often humorous titles, like "Autorretrato jacarandoso
con las manos ocupadas" (Merry Self-Portrait, with My Hands Busy),
inferring a specific place and time. In this way, Cruzvillegas proposes
that a true portrait is not the sum of an integrated whole, but is rather
a collection of disparate "experiences, sensations, knowledge, and
language."
Elements of composition are the disparate, cumulative, and affective
search for expressive signs. A distinctive feature of Cruzvillegas's work
is that it always possesses a consciousness of physical presence,
immediacy, and urgency - as a result of an interaction with objects.
Artist Talk: Abraham Cruzvillegas and León Krempel
Friday, January 24, 2014, 6 pm
Film Screening: "Autoconstrucción" by Abraham Cruzvillegas; Werkstattkino, Munich
Saturday, February 8, 4 pm and Saturday, February 15, 4 pm
Opening Reception 23 January 11 am
Haus der Kunst
Prinzregentenstraße 1, Munich
Hours: Monday — Sunday 10 am — 8 pm Thursday 10 am — 10 pm
Admission: All current exhibitions Combined ticket 12 € / reduced 10 €