Teresa Burga: Perfil de la mujer peruana (1980–1981) (Profile of the Peruvian Woman [1980–1981])
Fritzia Irizar: Obliteraciones (1939–2014) (Obliterations [1939–2014])
January 16–April 20, 2014
Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros
3 Picos 29, Colonia Polanco
México City
The Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros (SAPS) begins its 2014 exhibitions program with two artists who have committed their work to immediate problems affecting their particular contexts and respective generations. In both cases, their work derives from situations or actions generated by artistic practice–which are non-replicable as experiences but as possibilities for analysis. With these exhibitions, the SAPS joins a series of research projects towards the recuperation of Latin American historic figures as key references to contemporary art practice.
Teresa Burga (born 1935; Iquitos, Peru) is one of the representatives of the renovation of Peruvian art during the sixties and seventies. As part of the Grupo Arte Nuevo (New Art Group) (1966–1968) and subsequently developing her individual practice, she was one of the precursors of the dissolution of the art object incorporating experimental processes and new creative strategies to produce a rigorous body of conceptual work. The project undertaken by the artist for the SAPS is the materialization of a sculptural sketch that was part of the project Perfil de la mujer peruana (Profile of the Peruvian Woman), created in collaboration with Peruvian psychologist Marie-France Cathelat during 1980–1981. The project was originally presented in 1981 during the I Coloquio de Arte No-Objetual y Arte Urbano (1st Symposium of Non-Objectual and Urban Art) at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Medellín, Colombia; months later it was shown in an exhibition at the Banco Continental in Lima, Peru; by the end of that same year, the full investigation came together as a published book. The recovery of this project seeks to revisit the reflective process encouraged by an artistic proposal–one that analyzes the status of women from their political, economic, educational, religious, racial, sexual and legal aspects–that took part of second-wave feminism in Latin America; expanding its analysis up to the present.
Fritzia Irizar (born 1977; Culiacán, Mexico) has developed one of the strongest artistic proposals among new generations in Mexico. In her practice she involves various audiences in order to encourage the exchange of symbolic values that circulate around economics, psychology, and even themes related with superstition and desire. Irizar thus establishes a critical guide to understanding those elusive forces driving our daily existence. Obliteraciones (1939–2014) (Obliterations [1939–2014]) brings together an intervention designed for the Proyecto Fachada (Façade Project) at the SAPS, and a selection of seven pieces to be presented at the first-floor gallery, all linked to mechanisms of obstruction, cancellation or missing information in the artistic practice that allude to various social and political strategies towards consolidation or preservation of power. Both projects encompass bounded dynamics within the period 1939–2014, signaling 1939 as the year when Siqueiros started painting the mural Retrato de la burguesía (Portrait of the Bourgeoisie)–since the façade sets its origins in Siqueiros’ work. The second date marks the production of this project at SAPS. Both exhibitions act out as reflective proposals that evidence the mechanisms of discursive legitimacy both in the art system and in politics, while playing with appropriation and re-elaboration processes as a creative strategy.
About Proyecto Siqueiros (Project Siqueiros)
Integrated by the Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros (SAPS) in Mexico City, and La Tallera in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Proyecto Siqueiros is a platform for national and international contemporary art designed as a space for critical reviewing while preserving and promoting the artworks held by both venues. Launched in 2010, the project seeks to articulate reflective proposals regarding the theoretical and artistic precepts set forth by Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros; attending to the public nature of art and its social and political commitments, alongside his ever present search for experimental languages and materials.
About the artists
Teresa Burga (born 1935; Iquitos, Peru) studied Fine Arts at the Pontificia Universidad Católica of Peru and at the Art Institute of Chicago. Her solo exhibitions include Teresa Burga, Kunstmuseum Trondheim, Norway (2013); Die Chronologie der Teresa Burga. Berichte, Diagramme, Intervalle. 29.09.11, Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart, Germany (2011); Teresa Burga. Esquemas, Informes e Intervalos 17.9.10, Instituto Cultural Peruano Norteamericano, Lima, Peru (2010). She has participated in group exhibitions such as Untitled, 12th Istanbul Biennial (2011); and Subversive Practices. Art under Conditions of Political Repression. 60s–80s/South America/Europe, Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart, Germany (2009).
Fritzia Irizar (born 1977; Culiacán, Sinaloa) studied Fine Arts at the Escuela Nacional de Pintura Escultura y Grabado “La Esmeralda” in Mexico City. She has participated in the 9th Bienal do Mercosul (2013); among other group exhibitions such as Primer acto, Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City (2012); El incesante ciclo entre idea y acción, Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City (2012); and Viewpoint, Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami (2011).
