Sunday 30 November 2008

'POSESION', CURATED BY MONTSERRAT ALBORES AND PABLO SIGG AT PETRA, MEXICO CITY



exhibition view, Jose Davila 'Untitled', Adriana Lara 'Shoe Box (with catsand)', and Vito Acconci, 'Room Piece'


Vito Acconci, 'Room Piece', 1970


Adriana Lara 'Shoe Box (with cat sand)', 2008


Miguel Calderon, 'Walk the Walk', 2004


Lawrence Weiner, 'Water in Milk Exists', 2008



POSESION
A project by Montserrat Albores and Pablo Sigg

In order to articulate a trilogy that started with the problem of the evil in “Fire walk with me…” and continued with the idea of the double in “Cool Ridicule: ensayos y escenarios para un autorretrato”; Petra inaugurates “Posesión”, a group show that includes work of Vito Acconci, Miguel Calderón, Jose Davila, Jonathan Hernández, Adriana Lara, Pablo Sigg y Lawrence Weiner. The show deals with the problem of possession as a possible building mechanism of the artistic work.

The opening is on Thursday November 27 from 7:00-10:00pm and the event will be open to the public the two following days (November 28 y 29 from 11:00am – 5:00pm).

Petra
Tornel # 28, San Miguel Chapultepec
Mexico City, Mexico
proyectopetra@gmail.com

Saturday 29 November 2008

Tuesday 25 November 2008

LOS SUPERELEGANTES ARE IVO MESQUITA AND GISELE BUNDCHEN AT THE SAO PAULO BIENAL!













Los Super Elegantes in conversation with Luisa Duarte regarding their participation at the Sao Paulo Bienal

Luisa Duarte: What will you be presenting to the audience at the 28th Bienal de São Paulo?

Martiniano: It will have elements of theater, musicals and film. The main characters are Ivo Mesquita, Gisele Bündchen and the flip- flop manufacturing company Havaianas. We decided on the plot of the play after reading about the controversy behind the curatorial approach for this year’s Bienal and after reading a comment at frieze.com about the fiscal problems the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo is going through. I took bits and pieces of information from various interviews with Ivo and articles written about the curatorial approach and believed that, despite of what real link existed between the financial situation and the absence of physical artworks, two main ideas became really appealing to me: one was the allegation of a major financial crisis and an artist’s suggestion that a major audit be done on the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo. The other idea, which is what we based the plot of our performance on, was that precisely because of this financial crisis the Bienal was forced to draft a manifesto that would act as a justification for “the void” and clear all suspicions of bankruptcy. We used these two facts as the basis for creating our work. The project is still in progress.

Luisa Duarte: The description of the work planned for the 28th Bienal involves at the same time critical content and humor, irreverence of an entertainment nature. In your work, is there this concern about joining these spheres – a live, eloquent, pop communication – without losing sight of a critical, I would say, almost ironic voltage?

Milena: Our idea for the Bienal is to use the situation the institution finds itself in as a landscape for a theme in our play. It is concept specific. We are planning on performing it in Portuguese, which we will have to learn before the end of November; this will be a way to really integrate and become our characters, which are Brazilian. Method acting. Although people tend to jump to irony as a constant in our work we feel that we are simply translating a moment connecting to the things that surround us, there is always a possibility that through our misinterpretations or translated imitations we end up in some sort of comedy, but this is a comment about how we (in general, people) receive information, and finally create strict judgments and defined beliefs, even sometimes inventing realities that are reflective only of ourselves instead of the critical situation we intend to comment on. We are open to all possibilities.

Martiniano: We’ve never been interested in irony as an artistic trope. But we can certainly appreciate the absurdity and humor that often exist as the result of very serious endeavors. I grew up watching sexy comedy skits on Argentinean TV. They were at the same time crass, political and irreverent. The comedians often used the tension created by the disruption that happens when the actor forgets his / her lines, tries to patch up an unintended mishap or is essentially too drunk to act. I like to think of our performances as a whole made out of layers like gestures, moments, a dance step and usually some sort of script: not as pure critique, but more like painting. In terms of criticality, which is an element of our performance, the color of a panel hanging over the stage is no less important than any other aspect of the work.

http://lossuperelegantes.com/
http://www.28bienalsaopaulo.org.br/

*****

Bienal recebe deboche do Los Super Elegantes
by SILAS MARTÍ
at Folha de S.Paulo

Ela devora uma goiaba, anda pelo quarto e elogia a nova sunga do amigo Martiniano Lopez-Crozet, parceiro dela na dupla Los Super Elegantes. Milena Muzquiz, antes de receber a reportagem num hotel em São Paulo, confessou que escrevera um lembrete para o compromisso no espelho do banheiro, porque a gravidez de quatro meses prejudica sua memória.

E não, eles não são um casal, nem é dele o filho. Lopez-Crozet é gay assumido; lembra até que um missionário loiro e esbelto o fez perder o sono no vôo de Los Angeles para cá.

Sem romance, e juntos há 13 anos na dupla que faz performances hoje e quinta na Bienal de São Paulo, formam um duo debochado e explosivo, emblemas do que se convencionou chamar estética terceiro-mundista na arte contemporânea.

Ela é mexicana --garota de Tijuana acostumada a cruzar a fronteira ao norte rumo a San Diego três vezes por semana--, ele, argentino. Agora radicados nos Estados Unidos, fazem um esforço colorido para misturar Primeiro e Terceiro mundos. E vão além.

Misturam também artes plásticas e música.

Foi como banda de pop latino que surgiu Los Super Elegantes, abrindo para o American Music Club, de Mark Eitzel, em San Francisco. "Ele era meu ídolo e, para chegar perto dele, disse que tinha uma banda. Antes de subir ao palco, inventamos esse nome, Los Super Elegantes", conta Lopez-Crozet.

Da mesma forma dispersa que vão elencando assuntos na conversa, de Sartre e Fassbinder a lojas da grife H&M, construíram o roteiro até agora mantido sob segredo para a peça teatral que mostram nesta Bienal. É uma paródia que desfila, de salto alto, do existencialismo às mazelas do mundo fashion e das artes plásticas. Na trama, Lopez-Crozet é Ivo Mesquita, o curador desta edição da Bienal. Muzquiz encarna Gisele Bündchen. São amigos "fartos da realidade", que buscam se isolar no próprio vazio existencial. "Estamos usando o conceito de vazio desta Bienal para fazer um site-specific, uma escultura de idéias", descreve Muzquiz.

Como não ficaram prontas as Havaianas gigantescas que pensaram como cenário, o encontro de Ivo e Gisele acontece num restaurante com paredes de acrílico coloridas. Tudo vai bem, até que ela tropeça e despenca do alto de seus saltos, e os dois acabam morrendo, ou algo parecido. Mas isso não importa, porque aí vem um número musical funk com danças exóticas e tribais. "A narrativa não é o mais importante."

"A gente ama o absurdo das situações", diz Lopez-Crozet. "É como se uma criança fizesse uma colagem sobre o Brasil, com coisas como Havaianas, Gisele", emenda Muzquiz.

Eles confessam que não tinham idéia do que fazer até junho, quando foram confirmados para a mostra. "Aí comecei a ler as notícias sobre o vazio, o caos da Bienal, e tudo me pareceu genial", diz Lopez-Crozet. "Sempre acabamos metidos nas situações mais insólitas."

Tanto que, adiantam, são fictícias as versões performáticas de Ivo e Gisele. "Não pesquisamos a biografia deles, podia ser qualquer um, até Elizabeth Taylor no lugar da Gisele", afirma Muzquiz. É uma ressalva, no entanto, dispensável: sua versão de Bündchen, longe das origens gaúchas, vem da Amazônia e tinha algum tipo de relação com ex-escravos. Nenhum dos dois quis revelar como termina a história de Ivo e Gisele, mas Muzquiz dá uma pista, lembrando "Um Convidado Bem Trapalhão", comédia de Blake Edwards: "De repente, sem saber como terminar o filme, ele faz um elefante roxo entrar na sala, as paredes despencam, é o caos".

http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/ilustrada/ult90u471299.shtml

Monday 24 November 2008

¡URGENTE! SALON NACIONAL IN CALI, SELECTED WORKS


Antonio Caro, Aqui No Cabe el Arte, 1972


Luis Camnitzer, Lección sobre la historia del arte, 2000-2001


Delcy Morelos, Painting, 2008


Giovanni Vargas y Juan Mejía, Monte de Piedad, 2007-2008


Ana María Millán y Eduardo Carvajal, Ensayo, 2008


Giovanni Vargas, La oscuridad no miente, 2008


Colectivo El Camion, 2008

http://www.urgentecali.org

Saturday 22 November 2008

E-FLUX VIDEO RENTAL OPENS IN CALI, COLOMBIA








e-flux video rental (EVR) is a project by Anton Vidokle and Julieta Aranda, comprising a free video rental, a public screening room, and a film and video archive that is constantly growing. This collection of over 750 works of film and video art has been assembled in collaboration with more than 100 international artists, curators and critics.

In the 1960s and 70s, artists were drawn to working with video in part because it was cheap to use and easily reproduced and distributed. But video art has become increasingly assimilated to the precious-object economy of the art market. EVR is a poetic exploration of alternative processes of circulation and distribution of video art, and it is structured to function like a video rental store, except that it operates for free. VHS tapes can be watched in the space, or, once a viewer fills out a membership form and contract, they can be checked out and taken home.

Orignally presented at a storefront in New York, in 2004, EVR has traveled to venues in Amsterdam, Berlin, Frankfurt, Seoul, Paris, Istanbul, Canary Islands, Austin, Budapest, Boston, Antwerp, Miami and Lyon and Lisbon. The project will then travel to Brazil and Argentina. After these final venues, having outlived the technology that made it possible (VHS video tape players), the project will be permanently archived with the Arab Image Foundation in Beirut and Moderna Galerija in Ljubljana, in 2009.

Every time EVR is installed in a new city, local artists, curators and writers are invited to serve as selectors, choosing artists whose work is added to the collection.

works selected by: miguel amado, fernanda arruda, marilyn arsem, defne ayas, gabriel pérez barreiro, rene barilleaux, regine basha, thomas bayrle, katrin becker, ariane beyn, cis bierinckx, daniel birnbaum, jürgen bock, osman bozkurt, adam budak, cac tv, annette dimeo carlozzi, luca cerizza, binna choi, mariana david, catherine david, marie denkens & wim peeters, nikola dietrich, power ekroth, mai abu eldahab, esra ersen, jose luis falconi, hedwig fijen, elena filipovic, lauri firstenberg, susanne gaensheimer, gabrielle giattino, massimiliano gionni, julieta gonzález, francesca grassi, andrea grover, cao guimaraes, alfred guzzetti, jörg heiser, arne hendriks, sofia hernandez, maria hlavajova, jens hoffmann, teresa hubbard & alexander birchler, anthony huberman, pierre huyghe, eungie joo, yu hyun jung, christoph keller, sung won kim, adam klimczak, anders kreuger, carrie lambert-beatty, pablo león de la barra, fernando llanos, omar lópez-chahoud, jaroslaw lubiak, bill lundberg, christine macel, ives maes, karen mahaffy, raimundas malasauskas, franco marinotti, vincent meessen, viktor misiano, stéphanie moisdon, edit molnár, kassandra nakas, molly nesbit, hans ulrich obrist, lívia páldi, november paynter, wim peeters & marie denkens, zsolt petrányi, natasa petresin, stephen prina, risa puleo, alia rayyan, joão ribas, karyn riegel, michel ritter, maria inés rodríguez, david rych, hyun jun ryu, esra sarigedik, nermin saybasili, itala schmeltz, stefanie schulte strathaus, basak senova, henk slager, hajnalka somogy, ali subotnik, ana teixeira pinto, christine tohme, nicolas trembley, ricardo valentim, regina vater, gilbert vicario, florian waldvogel, franciska zólyom, nathalie zonnenberg

artists: 24/7 tv, a-clip, gabriel acevedo velarde, vahram aghasyan, doug aitken, lucas ajemian, nevin aladag, kamal aljafari, jennifer allora & guillermo calzadilla, paulo almeida, can altay, carlos amorales, andré amparo, j tobias anderson, ziad antar, alexander apóstol, vasco araújo, john armleder, assume vivid astro focus, michel auder, sven augustijnen, alexandra bachzetsis, miriam bäckström, zanny bagg & oliver ressler, lucas bambozzi, alberto baraya, edson barrus, pedro barateiro, judith barry, yael bartana, taysir batniji, thomas bayrle, sarah beddington, patricia belli, elisabetta benassi, kazimierz bendkowski, guy benfield, roberto berliner, janet biggs, colectivo bijari, marc bijl, johanna billing, julien jonas bismuth, alberto bitar e leonardo bitar, john bock, manon de boer, zoulikha bouabdellah, mike bouchet, frank boue, andrea bowers, osman bozkurt, ulla von brandenburg, pavel braila, candice breitz, wojciech bruszewski, christoph büchel, francois bucher, martin butler, chris caccamise, rui calçada bastos, yane calovski & FOS, mircea cantor, domenico cappello, ana cardoso, carolina caycedo, alex cecchetti & christian frosi, nuno cera, filipa césar, alejandro cesarco, juan céspedes, paul chan, terry chatkupt, marcos chaves, mina cheon, loulou cherinet, olga chernysheva, ali cherri, sunah choi, heman chong & isabel cornaro, kerstin cmelka, cecilia condit, joost conijn, marie cool & fabio balducci, alexander costello, alfredo b. crevenna, carlo crovato, roberto cuoghi, federico curiel, keren cytter, hubert czerepok, marilá dardot, brice dellsperger, simona denicolai & ivo provoost, marta deskur, angela detanico y rafael lain, stefaan dheedene, wilson díaz, christoph draeger, christoph draeger & gary breslin, melissa dubbin & aaron s. davidson, ivan edeza, effi & amir, james elaine/william basinski, fouad elkoury, hala elkoussy, shahram entekhabi & mieke bal, annika eriksson, espacio la culpable, patricia esquivias, marcell esterházy, extrastruggle, héctor falcón, matias faldbakken, harun farocki, jeanne faust/jorn zehe, rochelle feinstein, jakup ferri, dirk fleischmann, oriana fox, alicia framis, jonah freeman, gabrielle fridriksdottir, anna friedel, peter friedl, yang fudong, bodil furu (in collaboration with beate peterson), rene gabri, rubén galindo, nikolas gambaroff, andrea geyer, gilbert & george, jérémie gindre, christoph girardet, piero golia, emilio gómez muriel, francis gomila, dominique gonzales-foerster, rogelio a. gonzáles, rogelio a. gonzáles jr., jacqueline goss, laurent grasso, loris gréaud, renée green, johan grimonprez, sagi groner, christian grou & tapio snellman, eva grubinger, cao guimaraes, dmitry gutov & radek group, joanna hadjithomas & khalil joreige, driton hajredini, yang-ah ham, jan hammer, adad hannah, sharon hayes, daniel herskowitz, shere hite, karl holmqvist, christian holstad, judith hopf & stephan geene, vlatka horvat, laszlo hudak & imre lenart, jane hudson, oliver husain, kristina inciurait, las indestables, matthew day jackson, christian jankowski, evaldas jansas, tom johnson, ilya kabakov, gülsün karamustafa, franka kaßner, christoph keller, leopold kessler, hassan khan, nesrine khodr, laleh khorramian, heidi kilpelainen, changkyum kim, se-jin kim, shin il kim, tae-eun kim, szabolcs kisspál, leszek knaflewski, seung wook koh, jeroen kooijmans, korpys/löffler, katarzyna kozyra, elke krystufek, pawel kwiek, tim lee, cristobal lehyt, dominik lejman, joão leonardo, jesse lerner, xavier le roy, erik van lieshout, deborah ligorio, khoór lilla & will potter, minouk lim & frederic michon, lana lin, lin + lam, sebastián díaz morales, daniel lima, petra lindholm, fernando llanos, dora longo bahia, polonca lovsin, cecilia lundqvist, mary lucier, maria lusitano, jorge macchi, cynthia madansky, gintaras makarevicius, joanna malinowska, marcellvs l., marepe, teresa margolles, gilberto martínez solares, trish maud, marssares, eileen maxson, mc messiah, mc liezuvis, vincent meessen, jonas mekas, bjørn melhus & yves netzjammer, john menick, ohad meromi, wieslaw michalak, simone michelin, christopher miner, lim minouk & frederic michon, sarah minter, aleksandra mir, mixrice , viatcheslav (slava) mizin / alexander (sasha) shaburov, avi mograbi, naeem mohaiemen, lutz mommartz, frédéric moser & philippe schwinger, olivier mosset, melvin moti, tova mozard, rabih mroue, felipe mujica, matthias müller, takeshi murata, juan nascimento&daniela lovera, deimantas narkevicius, argentino neto, sergio & rivane neuenschwader, tuan andrew nguyen, jesper nordahl, love nordberg, filip noterdaeme (homu), sophie nys, yoshua okon, antónio olaio, bjargey ólafsdóttir, anneè olofsson, yoko ono, els opsomer, anna orlikowska, tanja ostojic & david rych, the otolith group, miguel palma, chan-kyong park, philippe parreno, sean paul & david dempewolf, jenny perlin, diego perrone, alessandro pessoli, walter pfeiffer, michael pfrommer, pablo pijnappel, john pilson, steven pippin, michelangelo pistoletto, shannon plumb, elodie pong, rafael portillo & manuel san fernando, linda post, liza may post, dean proctor & michael laub, oda projesi, the atlas group/walid raad, judy radul, orit raff, anne-britt rage, arturas raila, khaled d. ramadan, tere recarens, reynold reynolds & patrick jolley, mandla reuter, jae oon rho, robin rhode, józef robakowski, camila rocha, d. n. rodowick, tracey rose, douglas ross, karl ingar røys, julika rudelius, daniel rumiancew, david rych, natascha sadr haghigian, anri sala, samir, fernando sánchez castillo, beatriz santiago muñoz, julião sarmento, julia scher, markus schinwald, andrea schneemeier, karin schneider & nicolás guagnini & jeff preiss, meggie schneider & bin-chuen choi, corinna schnitt, noé sendas, solmaz shahbazi, wael shawky, matt sheridan smith, taro shinoda, santiago sierra, silverio, guy richards smit, gregg smith, michael smith, sean snyder, rita sobral campos, aaron steffes, a.l. steiner, hito steyerl, deborah stratman, jános sugar, özlem sulak, superflex, pál szacsva y, joão tabarra, josé carlos teixeira, mathilde ter heijne, tetine, kika thorne, rirkrit tiravanija, maciej toporowicz, ana torfs, cecilia torquato & andré amparo, mario garcia torres, kerry tribe, caecilia tripp, stefanos tsivopoulos, nasan tur, alexander ugay, johanna unzueta, utopia station, michael van den abeele, mona vatamanu & florin tudor, mark verabioff, katleen vermeir & ronny heiremans, dmitry vilensky, joe villablanca, gitte villesen, barbara visser, jenny vogel, sharif waked, marek wasilewski, ryszard wasko, douglas weathersby, clemens von wedemeyer, lawrence weiner, suara welitoff, aleksandra went & alicja karska, klaus weber, adrian williams, marten winters jordan wolfson, tin tin wulia, erwin wurm, cerith wyn evans, sislej xhafa, haegue yang, adnan yildiz, carey young, akram zaatari, olivier zabat, florian zeyfang, igor zupe and others.

http://www.e-flux.com

Friday 21 November 2008

PHIL COLINS PREMIERS IN CALI, COLOMBIA 'THE WORLD WON'T LISTEN' THE SMITHS KARAOKE FILMED IN BOGOTA AT ESPACIO LA REBECA IN 2004





The World Won’t Listen is a karaoke project produced for Smiths fans in Colombia. Whilst karaoke has a fundamentally democratic function, its musical content is conventionally the deplorable, lack-lustre chirp of the mainstream. For ‘The World Won’t Listen’ we have re-recorded the eponymous compilation in its entirety, note for note, in an insane attempt to construct a platform to give voice to the otherwise largely ignored.

As the song says “Now Is Your Chance To Shine.”

(from the original November 2004 La Rebeca press release)

*****

Collins’ practice often elicits a convocation of individuals, and is process-, or better still, event-oriented. el mundo no escuchará is a karaoke project produced in 2004 for fans of The Smiths in Bogotá, Colombia. While karaoke is perceived to have a fundamentally democratic function—offering an opportunity to briefly take the place of your idol—its musical content is conventionally the deplorable, lack-luster chirp of the mainstream. Collins chose to work with The Smiths partly because of the artist’s own generational and geographical proximity to the band—but more importantly because, despite all of the localisms that tie The Smiths to a particular place and a specific historical moment, they have managed to gain a widely international fan base that defies so many of the ways we have come to think about identity politics and cannot be simply dismissed as another incidence of the homogenizing effects of a bland, global pop culture.

Over the course of two and a half months Collins worked with local musicians in Bogotá to re-record, note for note, the 1986 compilation “The World Won’t Listen” in its entirety, while at the same time launching a citywide campaign carried out in bars, universities, music venues and on the radio, soliciting “the shy, the dissatisfied, narcissists, and anyone who’s ever wished they could be someone else for a night” to be filmed singing their favorite Smiths songs and to be treated like a star. Over 60 fans turned out and the three-day filming was concluded with a live music and karaoke event that drew hundreds of people only to be abruptly interrupted (but not halted altogether) by the explosion of one of Bogotá’s main electrical towers that left the city in darkness for over twelve hours.

Two later versions were produced in Istanbul and Indonesia.

Thursday 20 November 2008

LA CENTRAL (BEATRIZ AND KATY) AND PABLO DE LA BARRA THROW A PARTY AT HOTEL ARISTI TO CELEBRATE THE 7th FESTIVAL DE PERFORMANCE DE CALI






Adriana Arenas

Beatriz Lopez and Helmut Batista

Humberto Junca and Wilson Diaz

Mario Garcia Torres and Erick Beltran

Phil Collins

Michele Faguet

Beatriz Lopez 'B-Lo'

Silverio





Katy Hernandez