Wilfredo Prieto
Leaving Something to Chance
October 4–November 11, 2012
Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros – La Tallera
Tres Picos 29, Colonia Polanco
Delegación Miguel Hidalgo, Distrito Federal
México, 11560
T 55 55313394 / 55 52035888
www.saps-latallera.org
Facebook / Twitter
Leaving Something to Chance (2012), a project by artist Wilfredo Prieto (b. 1978, Cuba), explores the possibilities of an accelerated creative process. The project is an exercise in which the traditional roles of the museum are challenged to alter the politics of production. Prieto moved his workshop to one of the galleries of the Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros (SAPS) but works without the direct intervention of a “curator” to make art works daily. At the museum, all professionals can become an active participant of the artist´s work, while in another gallery, a new piece is exhibited every day of the week. Others are openly involved in the artist’s practice, suggesting how the construction of art requires a collective negotiation.
By exhibiting different projects daily, Leaving Something to Chance pushes artistic and museological discourses to their limits. The institutional apparatus also accelerates its processes to produce multiple art works and respond to the demands of public relations and reception. Testing the critical and entrepreneurial aspects of the curatorial practice, the artworks are exhibited daily at 6pm within the formalities of a museum reception. Furthermore, Prieto’s project provokes a refreshing dialogue with David Alfaro Siqueiros’s concept of “controlled accident.” Once an active studio-home, the museum was a factory where Siqueiros tested his pictorial concepts constantly.
In order to question the ontological character of art, in Leaving Something to Chance ,an error can lead to an aesthetic accident that produces more than one conceptual interpretation. Still Life with a Half Ton of Cold, Eighteen Song by Barbra Streisand, Eight-hundred Grams of Blackberries, Two Perfume Bottles and a View of the Garden of the Austrian Embassy (2012), presented on October 18th, studies the composition of a contemporary still life. The piece is made of what is stated in its title. The house of the Austrian ambassador is located right next to the SAPS. With a nostalgic tone, the allegorical symbolism relating to the scents of the perfumes and the romantic songs intertwine with a possible political signification regarding to the cold gallery space and a view to “Austrian soil,” creating a satire of the attempt towards realism. Presented on October 19th, Illuminated Stone and Unlit Stone (2012) takes advantage of the subtlety of light to provide a sculptural narrative through two solid stones, one illuminated by museum lighting, the other kept in the dark. From a distance, the viewer can appreciate how the darkened and lit areas of the gallery also become part of the sculptural gesture. Prieto has managed to resignify how a formally aesthetic analysis can result in a deeply political proposition that provides the audience with a reflection of reality.
Internationally, Prieto’s work is critically acclaimed for maintaining a rigorous, thoughtful and provocative dialog on the formal and conceptual aspects of artistic production. His gesture is subtle, cynical and straightforward, but lacks bias towards materials and meanings. The artist´s methodology illustrates a critical and refreshing point of view, which partakes from everyday life, to take advantage of some of the strategies of Postminimalism and Conceptualism.
Leaving Something to Chance is also on view on www.saps-latallera.org/wilfredo.
