Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation
cifo 2006 Grants Programs Recipients
cifo 2006 Grants Programs Recipients
The Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (cifo) announces the
inaugural Grants Program exhibition entitled 10 Defining Experiments: cifo 2006
Grants Program Recipients, slated for this October 5 - November 12, 2006 at the cifo
Art Space located at 1018 North Miami Avenue in downtown Miami. The exhibition will
feature the 10 artists awarded a grant for 2006: Emilia Azcarate (Venezuela),
Alessandro Balteo (Venezuela), Mariana Castillo Deball (Mexico), Regina Jose
Galindo (Guatemala), Josefina Guilisasti (Chile), Ruben Gutierrez
(Mexico), Jacqueline Lacasa (Uruguay), Rubens Mano (Brazil), Carlos Motta (Colombia)
and Carla Zaccagnini (Argentina).
10 Defining Experiments is the culmination of the inaugural 2006 Grants Program.
The selected artists are creating new, unique projects specifically for this
exhibition in diverse media: photography, painting, video, performance and
installation. The subjects and issues addressed by the artists are varied and range
from a formal discussion on the nature of the still life in painting, to poignant
statements about violence in Latin America, to investigations on the nature of
language, knowledge and history. A shared element found in the projects is an
experimental, investigative, praxis: a discursive process whereby each artist
attempts to arrive at definitions to question, but not necessarily to fully answer,
complex layers of meaning found in everyday life.
One of cifo’s initiatives is its’ Grants and Commissions Programs that offer
opportunities for contemporary artists from Latin America to develop new work.
Currently, there are two programs in place: the Grants Program targeted at emerging
artists and the Commissions Program geared at mid-career artists. “Both programs
are committed to broadening the global understanding of work by contemporary artists
from Latin America and moving beyond the traditional paradigms and stereotypes
associated with art from Latin America," explained cifo’s Director Cecilia
Fajardo-Hill. Through its Grants and Commissions Programs, cifohas set forth the
goals of assisting artists produce work that may lie outside commercial viability
and providing artists with a unique platform to present projects that engage local
and international audiences alike.
cifo, the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, is a non-profit organization,
established in 2002 by Ella Fontanals-Cisneros and her family to foster cultural and
educational exchange within the visual arts. cifohas three primary initiatives: cifo
Art Space - a permanent venue for the presentation of engaging and provocative
contemporary art exhibitions highlighting works from the Ella Fontanals-Cisneros
Collection, works by it’s grantees and commissioned artists and experimental,
challenging art programs; the Grants and Commissions Programs supporting emerging
and mid-career contemporary multi-disciplinary artists from Latin America; and
offering support to other cultural endeavors including Miami Art Central.
Emilia Azcarate creates a large-scale sculptural installation by weaving and
interconnecting black hairpins. In this piece, a mundane object—a black hairpin—is
transformed, alluding to circular structures such as mandalas and women’s hair, both
subjects which fascinate the artist. Seen from up close, the sculpture (Untitled)
possesses a delicate quality. When beheld from a distance the piece achieves the
opposite effect, becoming imposing and fence-like.
Alessandro Balteo’s UNstabile-Mobile interconnects the histories of art, power, and
politics in an installation that comprises a visual component of texts and images
appropriated from varied sources, and the construction of a sculptural piece. Balteo
translates the organic formation of oilfields by constructing an unstable sculpture.
The sculpture, influenced by the work of Alexander Calder, becomes a visual metaphor
for the instability of the region.
In the project, Estas Ruinas que ves, Mariana Castillo Deball examines Mexico’s
complex relationship with its past through her documentary investigation of
contemporary archeological practices. Estas Ruinas que ves examines the context of
archaeology and the life of archeological artifacts, exploring how they are
presented and animated in varied contexts, and how they are interpreted and defined.
Her installation consists of three components: an archive displaying her
photography, a museum setting devoid of objects, and a publication that ties all
these elements together.
Regina Jose Galindo’s Plomo (Clases para aprender a manejar armas) is a
performance, documented by video, of the artist receiving intensive, professional
arms training, Plomo addresses the rampant violence and constant sense of fear
prevalent in the daily lives of Latin Americans. The word Plomo translates into
English as “lead," but it is also short for an urban idiomatic phrase echar un
plomo, meaning “to pop a cap," or, in other words, “to shoot."
Josefina Guilisasti’s project Fragmento II consists of eight paintings installed at
the viewer’s eye level, each depicting a fragment of a classic still life transposed
from its pictorial context and made the protagonist—the single element—of a
composition on canvas. Fragmento II is a continuation of Guilisasti’s investigation
into the genre of still life painting and how, in her opinion, mundane objects have
been relegated to a mere supporting role and are forgotten in the history of art.
Ruben
Gutierrez’s project Skeptical Definitions (Nasca phase) consists of “hybrid"
documentation (video, drawings, and Web-based art) of Nazca and its outlying areas.
Gutierrez conducts an investigation to determine a location for a future land
intervention in the suburbs of Lima. With this project, the artist provides the
spectator with various readings on Perú’s contemporary reality, and
consequently Latin America, through multiple references and skeptical definitions.
Jacqueline Lacasa interprets the formation and structure of
knowledge and how it relates to artistic production. The Triptico de
Alejandria (Triptych of Alexandria), as an installation, becomes a space—a
metaphorical representation of the library of Alexandria based on the teachings of
Torres-Garcia, a legendary Uruguayan artist and theorist. This triptych
comprises a palimpsest (works by Torres-Garcia, altered by the artist), a
library setting, and a video documentation of her visit to the current library of
Alexandria.
Rubens Mano’s work addresses the urban-metropolis landscape and the rapid changes to
which it is subjected, depicting a sense of instability and impermanence. In
Untitled (From the Series Súbitas paisagens), he chooses to reflect on an
area near the outskirts of Sao Paulo. The edifices photographed exist in a
space—which the artist describes as an “interval"—left to decay, a disappearance
from the landscape different from the one to which edifices are subjected in the
metropolis.
Carlos Motta rediscovers a city that finds itself constantly in flux and the subject
of musings and mixed interpretations. Leningrad, Petrograd, Petersburg consists of a
video and photographic installation that presents three distinct journeys across St.
Petersburg. The first follows a historical avenue as Motta revisits sites
highlighted in a revolutionary publication 52 years ago. The second pursues a
sociological avenue with a video piece where the artist interviews inhabitants of
the city about their relationships with public monuments. The final journey takes a
personal perspective through a video montage, with readings of two important Soviet
poems.
Consisting of two separate publications: one in English and the other in Spanish,
Translated Catalogue and / y Catalogo traducido examines the intricacies of
art and the subject of translation. The artist Carla Zaccagnini creates publications
that are works of art in-and-of themselves—blurring the line between visual arts and
literature—as they contain images of artwork and essays relating to the images
themselves. These catalogues are distributed to the audience in order to establish a
more intimate, prolonged experience with the work.
Conversations with the artists: Thursday, October 5 and Friday, October 6 at 7 pm
cifo Art Space
1018 North Miami Avenue - Miami
Hours: Thursday-Sunday, 10:00 am - 4:00 pm and by appointment only