September 13–November 19, 2011
School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
230 The Fenway, Boston, MA
Hours: Mon–Sat, 10 am–5 pm; Thurs 10 am–8 pm; closed Sundays and holidays
Within Mexico’s urban setting, contemporary art and other experimental and creative practices such as architecture, design and music flourish, forming one of the most original and intriguing art scenes in the global landscape. Taking its name from the empty advertisement billboards across Mexican city skylines, ‘disponible’ means at once available and potentially changeable or disposable. The word also interestingly, and quite accurately, reflects the reality of Mexican society in perpetual transition from post-colonial revolution to its current negotiation with globalization. Disponible: A Kind of Mexican Show brings together eight of Mexico’s most innovative contemporary artists as they critique and explore the challenges and contradictions of their native country. The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (SMFA) is pleased to bring this exhibition to Boston September 13–November 19, 2011.
The Mexican population is in a constant state of actively engaging social and economic progress and modernization. Simultaneously, Mexico is involved in a permanent inquiry into defining its common destiny while wrestling with radically diverse cultural, historical, political, religious, and ethnic contexts formed by complex and hybrid origins. These continually transforming identities have created a dynamic and intense, sometimes violent, social reality.
This exhibition seeks to reflect on two major tendencies in the current creative scene—social critique and witty design solutions—as two mutually entangled and reinforcing strategies developed in response and resistance to the complex reality of life in modern Mexico. Disponible: A Kind of Mexican Show articulates the dimensions of social critique and confrontation with conflicts and violence, while also presenting various active and inventive solutions to the challenges of contemporary life.
ARTISTS
Arturo Hernández Alcázar, Natalia Almada, Edgardo Aragón, Marcela Armas, Manuel Rocha Iturbide, Mauricio Limón, Teresa Margolles and Hector Zamora.
EVENTS
September 13, 5–7 pm (Barbara and Steven Grossman Gallery, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
Opening reception with performances by Manuel Rocha Iturbide and Teresa Margolles with key maker Antonio Hernández Camacho.
September 13, 12:30–2:30 pm (Alfond Auditorium, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
Accidents Waiting To Happen: A Conversation Regarding Some Influence Forces Behind “Disponible, A Kind of Mexican Show” with Arturo Hernández Alcázar, Manuel Rocha Iturbide and Teresa Margolles and co-curator Guillermo Santamarina, independent curator.
September 18, 11 am–4 pm (Education Center of the Druker Family Pavilion-Room 159, Linde Family Wing, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
Performance of Teresa Margolles’ Las Llaves de la Ciudad with key maker Antonio Hernandez Camacho as part of the Linde Family Wing for Contemporary Art Open House.
September 27, 12:30 pm (Alfond Auditorium, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
Lecture by co-curator Hou Hanru, director of exhibitions and public programs and chair of exhibition and museum studies, SFAI. Exhibitions: Making Places explores how curating has become a driving force in the formation of new cultural localities in the age of globalization.
October 18, 12:30 pm (Alfond Auditorium, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
Screening of Natalia Almada’s film, El General.
Disponible: A Kind of Mexican Show was co-curated by Hou Hanru and Guillermo Santamarina for the Walter and McBean Galleries at the San Francisco Art Institute. The exhibition at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston is made possible through the generosity of Susan G. Kohn and Harry Kohn, Jr.
About SMFA
Founded in 1876 and accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (SMFA), is one of only three art schools in the country affiliated with a major museum—the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Our mission is to provide an education in the fine arts—for undergraduate and graduate artists—that is interdisciplinary and self-directed. This education values cultural, artistic and intellectual diversity; it embraces a wide range of media; it stresses the development of individual vision and its relation to culture in general; it values equally the knowledge gained by thinking and doing; it is deeply engaged with the world as a whole. If the mission is constant, its practice is always transforming.
