20 Million Mexicans...
dal 20/1/2003 al 1/3/2003
Segnalato da
20/1/2003
20 Million Mexicans...
John Hansard Gallery, Southampton
...Can't be Wrong. New and recent works by some of a growing community of Mexican and international artists who operate with relatively scarce commercial or institutional support within Mexico City today.
...Can't Be Wrong
20 Million Mexicans Can't Be Wrong presents new and recent works by some of a growing community of Mexican and international artists who operate with relatively scarce commercial or institutional support within Mexico City today. By investigating the social and political tensions present in the city, the wide range of works on display both illuminate the uneven spatial and social fabric of Mexico City and situate a gaze upon the multi-layered, and sometimes conflicting, aesthetic of this Third World megalopolis.
In emphasising the structures that belie artistic practice, this exhibition also urges us to consider the conditions under which art exists and is produced within the Mexico context. In so doing, 20 Million Mexicans Can't be Wrong stimulates critical reflection upon the risks associated with artistic or cultural exportation and asks us to think about the relationship of culture, art, production and consumption to space. Do the works and all that they represent remain intact despite their displacement to the UK? Or is our appreciation of them constrained by our First World positioning? And what relationships are invoked between practitioner and viewer when much of the work is produced and consumed in such different cultural, political, social and geographical contexts?
A great deal of the work on display engages the viewer in a participatory way, and several pieces oblige the gallery visitor to both reinforce the concepts behind the work, and simultaneously produce and consume its aesthetic. Nowhere is this dual process more apparent than in Carlos Amorales' piece, Flames Maquiladora, 2001-2002. Reflecting the numerous manufacturing sweatshops established along the Mexico/U.S. border during the 1990s in order to take advantage of cheap Mexican labour, Amorales' work invites the visitor to take part in the production of wrestlers' trainers x{2014} products which will later be exhibited and sold as art objects. By involving the visitor in the production process, the artist exploits our labour and turns the gallery into a workshop where First World visitors are compelled to work for the profit of a Third World artist.
Organised by South London Gallery and curated by the writer, art historian, critic and curator, Cuauhtémoc Medina, the exhibition is funded by the Arts Council of England's National Touring Programme, The Jumex Collection, the Mexican Ministry for Foreign Affairs and The Felix Trust for Art.
A limited edition boxed set of multiples by each artist and a text by the curator has been produced by way of a catalogue to accompany the exhibition. These will be available from the Gallery Bookshop for a special exhibition price of £30.
Whilst some of the artists, such as Frances Alys, are well known in Britain, others, including Carlos Amorales and Vicente Razo, have never shown in Britain, despite their established reputations overseas.
John Hansard Gallery
University of Southampton
Highfield
Southampton
SO17 1BJ
Tel: +44 (0)23 8059 2158
Fax: +44 (0)23 8059 4192