6/2/2015
The Lulennial
Lulu, Mexico City
A Slight Gestuary. The theme of the exhibition is: small gestures, big impact. It proposes a radical modesty, examining its many implications and celebrating its overall economy. A performance program will run throughout the duration of the show.
Curated by Fabiola Iza and Chris Sharp
Loaded with double and even triple entendres, the title literally says it all. A Slight Gestuary seeks to function as a kind of reliquary of slight gestures, which is also in and of itself, inevitably slight (mindful of the mathematical impossibility of any kind of exhaustive or encyclopedic presentation of the “slight gesture,” the exhibition can but adumbrate the vast multitudes to which the title alludes). In other words, the theme of the exhibition is: small gestures, big impact. These gestures could be either quite humble, in so far as the physical art work they produce is characterized by a marked material economy, or they could be slight in so far as the gesture, also slight and local, accrues a historical significance which ultimately wields a much larger, and even international impact. Perhaps no historical artist better embodies, or better yet, defines these parameters than the Czech artist Jiří Kovanda. His actions from the 1970s are a case in point. Enacted for the camera or a very small audience in the streets of Prague, Kovanda carried out a series of works, which ranged from hiding from passersby to turning around on an escalator and staring at people, to executing a series of choreographed gestures which were indistinguishable from everyday gestures. Since being popularized in the West, these minor works of poetic protest have accumulated a broad international appreciation, while also retrospectively nuancing the oppressive context from which they issue. For all their initial simplicity, they are incredibly complex pieces whose depth and complexity have only deepened, matured, ramifying outward, over time.
A Slight Gestuary pairs living, established and emerging artists with historical artists and instances. Given the size of Lulu (nine square meters) and the ambition of the exhibition to be comprehensive, rather than exhaustive, it will necessarily take place in three successive installations. Each iteration in the space will be accompanied by the online publication of a historical archive, featuring work which consists of documentation (of the original gesture), as opposed to the work itself.
Thus, contrary to the expansionism that currently dominates almost every aspect of contemporary art, A Slight Gestuary proposes a radical modesty, examining its many implications and celebrating its overall economy.
Artists and dates:
Part 1: February 7–March 8
Zarouhie Abdalian, Fernanda Gomes, Jiří Kovanda, Jenine Marsh, Gabriel Orozco, Chantal Peñalosa, Tania Pérez Córdova, Goran Trbuljak, Karin Sander
Part 2: March 14–April 14
Paola de Anda, Francis Alÿs, Darren Bader, Jiří Kovanda, Kirsten Pieroth, Wilfredo Prieto, Martín Soto Climent, B. Wurtz, Lin Yilin
Part 3: April 18–May 17
Robert Barry, Isaac Contreras, Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Simon Gabriel Greenberg, Matt Hinkley, Roman Ondak, Yoko Ono, Goran Petercol, Ana Roldán, Ana Santos
Archive:
Billy Apple, Graciela Carnevale, Ulises Carrión, Lygia Clark, Eduardo Costa, Christopher D’Arcangelo, Marcel Duchamp, Koji Enokura, Lucio Fontana, Alberto Greco, Hi Red Center, Tehching Hsieh, Stephen Kaltenbach, Jiří Kovanda, Lee Lozano, Isidoro Valcárcel Medina, Cildo Meireles, Lotty Rosenfeld, Seth Siegelaub (Carl Andre, Robert Barry, Douglas Huebler, Joseph Kosuth, Sol LeWitt, Robert Morris, and Lawrence Weiner), Mladen Stilinovic, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, La Monte Young
A performance program, curated by Sophie Goltz, will run throughout the duration of the exhibition.
Artists: Mariechen Danz, Christian Falsnaes, Adam Linder, Johannes Paul Raether, Susanne M. Winterling
Additionally, a catalog, featuring textual contributions by Sophie Goltz, Fabiola Iza and Chris Sharp, will be published and internationally distributed by Mousse publishing.
Image: Tania Pérez Córdova, Holy drunk 1. este país 2. esta gente 3. este gobierno, 2014. Bronze mixed with melted beer cans. Courtesy the artist and Proyectos Monclova, Mexico City.
Contact
Martin Soto Climent: T +52 5533349715
Chris Sharp: T +52 5519650344
Daniel Aguilar Ruvalcaba: T +52 5548188511
Opening: February 7, noon–6 pm
Lulu
Bajío 231
Mexico City, 06760 Mexico
By appointment only