Temas Centrales 2. Seminar, talks and encounters.
(Central Subjects 2)
25 April–27 April 2012
Location: Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, San José, Costa Rica
www.temascentrales.org
Live streaming of the seminar: temascentrales.org/es/live-stream
Edificio Metálico (Metallic Building)
23 February–19 May 2012
Location: TEOR/éTica, San Jose, Costa Rica
www.teoretica.org
TEOR/éTica space for art and thinking proudly presents its first season of activities in this year with the seminar Temas Centrales 2 (Central Subjects 2) and the exhibition Edificio Metálico (Metallic Building).
Temas Centrales 2. Seminar, talks and encounters
25 April–27 April 2012
Location: Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MADC), San Jose, Costa Rica
TEOR/éTica and the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MADC) present the second edition of the regional seminar Temas Centrales (Central Subjects) – TC2. Artists, curators, critics and art theoreticians will analyze the current situation of discursive and artistic production in Central America and the Caribbean. TC2 revolves around the complex scenario of the first decade of the 21st century, questioning the concept of “region.”
The seminar will include: a dialogue amongst independent spaces and platforms that propose new institutional models, with presentations by Michy Marxuach (Beta-Local, Puerto Rico), Stefan Benchoam (Proyectos Ultravioleta, Guatemala), Oscar Muñoz (Lugar a Dudas, Colombia), and Pablo José Ramírez (Ciudad de la Imaginación Foundation, Guatemala), moderated by Fiorella Resenterra (Director, MADC, Costa Rica); a discussion between a number of international curators of “tropical biennials” in the region that have changed the standing paradigm of the ‘biennial model’, with presentations by Magali Arriola (8 Bienal de Panama, Panama), Santiago Olmo (18th Bienal Paiz, Guatemala), Pablo León de La Barra (Tropical Biennial, Puerto Rico), and Lisette Lagnado (27 Bienal de Sao Paulo, Brazil), moderated by Inti Guerrero (TEOR/éTica, Costa Rica); a conversation between artists dedicated to art practices related to contemporary indigenous idiosyncrasies in Guatemala, with presentations by Javier Payeras, Benvenuto Chavajay and Angel Poyón; a space for sharing some specific examples in which expanded concepts of performance disrupt discourses on citizenship and the public sphere with presentations by Rosina Cazali (independent curator, Guatemala), María José Chavarría (MADC, Costa Rica) and Tania Bruguera (artist, Immigrant Movement International, Cuba) and Fabricio Estrada (representing Artists-in-Resistance, Honduras), moderated by Miguel López (independent curator, Perú); a platform for theorizing the most prominent artistic practices within the region with presentations by Rosina Cazali (independent curator, Guatemala) and Paulo Herkenhoff (Founding member of TEOR/éTica, and independent curator, Brazil); a panel discussion with artists who have become catalysts for art production an dissemination in their contexts, with presentations by Walterio Iraheta (El Salvador), Ronald Morán (El Salvador), and Adán Vallecillo (Honduras), moderated by Edgar León (Costa Rica); selected papers from an open call for researching critical and artistic practices in the region lacking visibility, with presentations by Kency Cornejo (U.S.A.), Ernesto Calvo (Cuba/Costa Rica), Gustavo Larach (Honduras), Mauricio Esquivel (El Salvador), and Abya Yala Theater (Costa Rica); a series of spoken and visual interventions by artists Donna Conlon (Panamá), Jonathan Harker (Panamá), Ernesto Salmerón (Nicaragua), Alicia Zamora (Nicaragua), and Oscar Figueroa (Costa Rica).
TC2 comprises two exhibitions that will be held at the MADC from 26 April 2012 to 26 May 2012.
Esa Vara. Modernity and emplacement, curated by Tamara Díaz Bringas (Cuba/Spain), is a reading through the collection of Virginia Pérez-Ratton (Founding director of TEOR/éTica). This exhibition includes works by 40 artist from the collection as well as artists’ interventions by San José based artists Errol Barrantes, Sila Chanto, Paz Fábrega, Oscar Figueroa and Edgar León and a series of texts by authors from several fields of work that function as interpellations of the works, the exhibition and the collection itself.
Colores del Centro, a short documentary film series realized by TEOR/éTica, will be launched, featuring twelve Central American women artists: Regina Galindo, Isabel Ruiz and Diana Solares (Guatemala), Mayra Barraza and Cristina Gozzini (El Salvador), Regina Aguilar (Honduras), Patricia Belli and Claudia Gordillo (Nicaragua), Priscilla Monge and Lucía Madriz (Costa Rica), and Donna Conlon and Sandra Eleta (Panama). Both exhibits will be held at the MADC.
With the support of Red Cultura, all discussion, talks and encounters will be broadcast live at: temascentrales.org/es/live-stream and www.redcultura.com/php/RCTV.php
For a complete program and schedule please refer to: www.temascentrales.org
TC2 is curated by Tamara Diaz Bringas, Santiago Olmo and Inti Guerrero, produced by TEOR/éTica and MADC and made possible with the generous support of Hivos | Arts Collaboratory (Netherlands).
Metallic Building
23 February–19 May 2012
Location: TEOR/éTica, San Jose, Costa Rica
Artists: Francesco Bracci (Costa Rica), Neil Beloufa (France), Gilda Mantilla and Raimond Chaves (Perú), La Fania All-Stars (U.S.A.), Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster (France/Brazil), Ossama Mohammed (Syria), The White Stripes (U.S.A.), and Ramon Zafrani (Panama).
The Metallic Building in San Jose, Costa Rica is a prefabricated building, which was designed and constructed in Belgium, later to be shipped and assembled in the Central American city in 1896. The neoclassical style of this building is representative of the global experience of an aesthetic paradigm adopted in the 19th century by the elite of different contexts. In this case, the Metallic Building was part of an urban project lead by the Costa Rican ruling classes who had acquired their wealth through the trade of coffee. The choice of style for this building is the result of a dislocated modernity, representing the façade of a new nation-state that sought to “belong to the world.”
This exhibition does not dwell in a 19th century history surrounding the construction of the Metallic Building and none of the presented works depict the building itself. The art pieces and the selected manifestations of popular culture rather create different narratives confronting the visitor with what is conceived as “local” and even patrimonial—as in the case of the Metallic building—with various realities around the world. Together they make evident that the idealist promise of progress in the project of modernity in the tropics is an uncompleted and everlasting program of contradictions.
Edificio Metálico (Metallic Building) is the inaugural exhibition curated by TEOR/éTica’s new Associate Artistic Director Inti Guerrero.
TEOR/éTica art + thinking
300 m. North from kiosk Parque Morazán,
Calle 7, Avenidas 9 y 11, número 953.
Barrio Amón. San Jose, Costa Rica
T 2233.4881 / 2221.6971
www.teoretica.org
Museo de Arte y Diseño Contemporáneo
Centro Nacional de la Cultura, Antigua Fábrica Nacional de Licores.
Avenida 3, Calle 15. San José, Costa Rica.
T (506) 2257 7202 / 2257 9370
www.madc.cr/joomla151/index.php
For further information, please contact: Lola Malavasi / lola [at] teoretica.org / 2221.1051
