Rastros y Vestigios: Indagaciones sobre el presente
(Traces and Vestiges: Inquires about the present)
July 25–October 19, 2015
Museo Amparo
2 Sur 708
Centro Histórico
Puebla, Pue.
México
Museo Amparo is pleased to present the exhibition Rastros y Vestigios: Indagaciones sobre el presente (Traces and Vestiges: Inquires about the present), produced by the Isabel and Agustín Coppel Collection (CIAC) and curated by Tatiana Cuevas.
Rastros y Vestigios proposes a reflection on art objects as tools for the study of contemporary history, taking as viewpoint an observer that is alien to our culture and time. How would this spectator read, through the traces that human beings from the 20th and 21st centuries have left behind, the signs that manifest in our culture?
Through this exhibition, which gathers 60 artists and presents 114 works in such formats as painting, sculpture, installation, photography, and video, CIAC seeks to reach a broader audience, inviting viewers to learn about the work of several of the national and international figures of contemporary art represented in their collection.
The curatorial premise of the exhibition raises the possibility of using archaeology to read a corpus of contemporary artworks. That is, instead of looking at the past in the search of fragments that set the guideline to build a story, one might look into the present, taking the works as cultural signs or metaphorically fossilized fragments of contemporaneity.
The show gathers a corpus of contemporary artworks as signs that depict our civilization. These artworks have been selected based on their ability to evoke uninhabited sceneries or settling as traces subjected to interpretation.
Archaeology is the model of this inquiry, due to its ability to alter the original condition of an artifact, transforming it from a mute object into a witness of a social and cultural ambiance, explains curator Tatiana Cuevas.
Shaped as an inventory of cultural fragments of the 20th and 21st centuries, these pieces are considered as witnesses of a wide network of economic, political, social, cultural, and ideological meanings that determine an artwork. The exhibition serves as a speculative exercise to an observer that is alien to our culture and time, a possible archaeologist of the future that intends to explain the problems and contradictions of our days.
Rastros y Vestigios: Indagaciones sobre el presente comes altogether with a catalogue that includes essays by Néstor García Canclini, Eduardo Abaroa, the artist Susan Hiller, and curator Tatiana Cuevas. It is available in the Museum Store.
There is also a free downloadable App that includes exclusive material of numerous artists in the exhibition. This tool fosters a closer approach to the different languages of contemporary art. The App will be available for IOS systems and Android in Google Play and the App Store. Moreover, the exhibition comes with an audio guide, available in the Museum Ticket Office.
Rastros y Vestigios will open on Saturday July 25 at noon with a conference by Tatiana Cuevas, curator of the exhibition. It runs through October 19, 2015. Free entrance.
About the Isabel and Agustín Coppel Collection (CIAC)
The collection began in the ’90s with the purpose of sustaining and supporting the artistic expression that depicts in a solid manner, the ideas, scenarios or situations of humanity in the last century and the present. CIAC seeks to generate projects and collaborations that stablish connections between the audience and contemporary art, involving artists, theorists and cultural institutions. Therefore, CIAC hopes to become one of the bridges that allows the interaction with new audiences with the art work and fortunately, recover part of the history of our present time. For further information, visit www.coppelcollection.com.
