inSite: Cuatro ensayos de lo público, sobre otro escenario (Four rehearsals on that which is public, on another scenario)
March 29–June 29, 2014
La Tallera
Calle Venus 52
Jardines de Cuernavaca
Cuernavaca, Morelos
México
T +01 777 3 15 11 15
www.saps-latallera.org
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Proyecto Siqueiros La Tallera presents the retrospective inSite: Cuatro ensayos de lo público, sobre otro escenario (inSite: Four rehearsals on that which is public, on another scenario), on view from March 29 to June 29 at its campus in Cuernavaca, and its surroundings.
inSite is a bi-national contemporary art project that from 1992 to 2005 organized five successive exhibitions of public art with commissioned artworks for a specific transnational context—the region of Tijuana, Baja California, and San Diego, California. Like no other exhibition platform in contemporary art, inSite has sustained a long-term exploration of that which is public, inquiring into the conditions of a territory that magnifies the pressures of globalization and its impact on private life, and evidences the entropic forces of late capitalism.
This exhibition investigates the artistic, curatorial and discursive strategies of four editions, offering the possibility of new interpretations of the artworks presented. inSite 1994 was a multi-venue exhibition of site-specific and installation art that served to unmask the temporal makeup of a place through the presentation of political artworks that made visible historical narratives occluded deep within a territory. Three years later, inSite 1997 reflected upon the previous edition and focused fully on the complexities of “public space” as a concept, particularly as this defines individual identity in the hybrid and constantly mutating context of the border. Events, participatory processes, and the exchange between artists and groups in specific communities informed temporal and object-based commissions in the 2000-2001 edition. inSite 2005 inserted itself fully in the fluid and situational negotiations that constitute the social and ideological foundations of a place. By fostering engagement, co-production, participation, and process over object, for twenty years curators and artists infiltrated the political construction of public discourse and create new collective imaginaries.
It is especially difficult to do a retrospective of a project of commissioned artworks that almost without exception looked at the coordinates of a precise location and time for their completion. Selected from more than 200 works created over twenty-two years, the 18 installation, photography, and video works in this exhibition were either originally made for exhibition formats or their paper and video documentation had already been adapted by the authors to that end. In addition, Eduardo Abaroa, Anya Gallaccio, Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, and Marcos Ramírez ERRE have been invited to create new works as reinterpretations of their original site-specific pieces, revisiting them for this stage at La Tallera and the context of a public institution.
La Tallera’s history commits it to the study of public art and to its sociopolitical and cultural context; therefore, this presentation of inSite is particularly relevant at this moment of institutional renewal. By referencing in our title the essayistic quality of each edition, it is possible to be faithful to inSite, while also opening up to new readings, and new enactments by new publics. In this regard, it serves us well to remember the spirit of Augusto Boal, for whom a performance is more than a staging of group catharsis or symbolic ritual; it is rather an invitation to action in real space and time. This exhibition invites audiences to learn about this important project, and to reflect on the social and political questions that conform our public life today.
Guest curator: Lucía Sanromán
Participating artists:
Eduardo Abaroa, Carlos Aguirre, Allora & Calzadilla, Francis Alÿs, Carlos Amorales, Mauricio Dias and Walter Riedweg, Andrea Fraser, Anya Gallaccio, Silvia Gruner, Janet Koenig and Gregory Sholette, Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, Allan McCollum, Marcos Ramírez ERRE, Allan Sekula, Javier Téllez, Althea Thauberger, Judi Werthein, Krzysztof Wodiczko
About La Tallera
La Tallera upholds as its mission the investigation and dissemination of the legacy of David Alfaro Siqueiros, as well as the care and preservation of the artworks and archives inherited to Mexico by the muralist. This project also seeks to generate a dialogue with contemporary artistic production through three key areas in Siqueiros’ thinking and practice: the public realm in artistic creation; the relationship between art and politics; and experimentation with mediums and materials.
La Tallera emphasizes its commitment to the revitalization of the relationship between diverse publics, the artistic legacy left by Siqueiros and current artistic discourse, in this way this space seeks to generate new proposals that will give our society solid means for transformation.
