We Make the Treasure
A participatory project by Paul Ramírez Jonas
June 19, 2014–January 5, 2015
Exploratorium
Pier 15
San Francisco, California
Paul Ramírez Jonas’s We Make the Treasure, the second installment in the Exploratorium’s Over the Water series of large-scale commissioned artworks for public space, explores the value of objects lost and recovered, above and below the water line. By traversing layers of present-day experience and forgotten history, the work invites you to investigate the visible and invisible forces that make something a treasure.
On February 17, 1863, the schooner Beeswing sank with her cargo and crew as she was returning to San Francisco from Monterey. We Make the Treasure invites you to imagine that the Beeswing has been found, that her likely cargo has finally made it to port, and that we can trade her treasure.
Ephemeral, pulsing lines of air emerge from the bottom of the bay, tracing the ghostly outline of the Beeswing. Facing it on shore, a rowboat loaded with recovered cargo—both historically accurate and entirely imagined—becomes a site of exchange where visitors interact with and trade the haul of the discovered wreck. A nearby, interactive crane draws seawater from the bay and deposits it on the rowboat, flooding the cargo and yielding unknown treasures.
We Make the Treasure is curated by the Exploratorium’s Center for Art & Inquiry in collaboration with its Studio for Public Space. Nato Thompson, chief curator of Creative Time in New York, served as advising curator.
Fujiko Nakaya’s Fog Bridge #73494 inaugurated the Exploratorium’s Over the Water series in 2013 and has been acquired as a permanent installation.
About the Exploratorium
A global leader in informal learning, the Exploratorium has developed creative exhibits, tools, programs, and experiences that ignite curiosity since 1969. Viewing the arts as a fundamental method of discovery, the Exploratorium engages artists in every facet of its work to further an interdisciplinary approach to seeing and understanding the world. From creating long-lasting exhibits on the museum floor to developing unforgettable performances in public spaces, the Exploratorium has presented the work of hundreds of artists working at the intersection of art, science, and learning. The museum’s groundbreaking Artist-in-Residence program, which has hosted Ruth Asawa, Tauba Auerbach, Brian Eno, and Harrell Fletcher, among others, was launched in 1974.
About Paul Ramírez Jonas
Paul Ramírez Jonas’s work explores the potential between artist and audience, artwork and public. His work is currently being exhibited in the group show Under the Same Sun at the Guggenheim. His selected solo exhibitions include Pinacoteca do Estado, Sao Paulo, Brazil; The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut; The Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas; a survey at Ikon Gallery (UK) and Cornerhouse (UK); Solo gallery exhibitions at Koenig & Clinton (New York), Nara Roesler Gallery (Brazil), Alexander Gray (New York), Roger Björkholmen (Sweden), and Postmasters Gallery (New York). He has been included in group exhibitions at the Gallery for Contemporary Art Leipzig (Germany); MoMA PS1 (New York); The Whitechapel Gallery (UK); Irish Museum of Modern Art (Ireland); Künstlerhaus (Austria); The New Museum (New York); and Kunsthaus Zurich (Switzerland). He participated in the 1st Johannesburg Biennale; the 1st Seoul Biennial; the 6th Shanghai Biennial; the 28th Sao Paulo Biennial; the 53rd Venice Biennial and the 7th Bienal do Mercosul, Porto Alegre, Brazil. In 2010 his Key to the City project was presented by Creative Time in cooperation with the City of New York. His work has been profiled in ArtForum, Zing, ARTnews, The New York Times, Art in America and others. Ramirez Jonas is currently in collaboration with the Education Department at MoMA in New York.
