October 21, 2021–February 20, 2022
HacerNoche is honoured to present its second edition, entitled Promised Land, in the shape of an artist-led festival in Oaxaca from October 21, 2021 – February 20, 2022. With over 18 institutions and public spaces throughout the city and territory of Oaxaca, the festival comprises programming, publications, and performances—headlined by 17 new commissions by leading local and international artists. The proposal is envisioned as a project of projects, all entirely free and open to everyone. Promised Land is convened by guest curator-at-large, Elvira Dyangani Ose and associate curators Pablo Arredondo, Joselyne Contreras, and Gabriella Nugent.
Taking its title from American music producer and DJ Joe Smooth’s 1987 eponymous house music anthem calling for a world of unity and freedom, Promised Land is articulated by participants responding to the thematic focus on notions of performativity and how forms of popular culture and ritual converge with the representation of contemporary art. The interpretations and perspectives generated will serve as “speculative fabulations”—a type of narration established by Donna Haraway allowing for blurred interpretations and new opportunities for the possible. These fabulations will help us establish alternative relationships and critical approaches to history, offering new trajectories and presenting random moments, past and present, where the myths of origin, struggles, or experiences took—or will take—place. Promised Land is thus an uncharted territory that is yet to come, visible through artworks where artists are capturing a plural desire in the public space, affecting and activating the public sphere with a collective, participatory agency.
Throughout the duration of the festival, Oaxaca will become an active site for fabulations—a generator-cum-incubator where potential worlds, communities, and individuals can be narrated. Contrary to a closed exhibition model, HacerNoche will invite its artists and audiences alike to embrace an alternative present that we can build together.
Artists include: Michael Armitage, Art Labor & Gabby Miller, Ricardo Basbaum, Wendimagegn Belete, Mariana Botey, Phoebe Boswell, Tobias Bradford, Helen Cammock, Gabo Camnitzer, Phil Collins, Isaac Contreras, Culture Art Society, Shezad Dawood, Em´kal Eyongakpa, Denisse Ferreira da Silva & Arjuna Neuman, Ariel Guzik, Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige, Alfredo Jaar, Bouchra Khalili, Laboratorio de Investigación en Resonancia e Investigación de la Naturaleza, Laura Lima, Goshka Macuga, Nalini Malani, Omar Mismar, Mujeres del Viento Florido, Prabakhar Pachpute, Gala Porras-Kim, Daniela Rossell & Galen Jackson, Jaime Ruiz, SANGREE, Slavs and Tatars, YOPE, and Carla Zaccagnini. Full list to be announced on October 1st, 2021.
HacerNoche is also delighted to partner with local and international ventures to present the first edition of the off-site programme Satélite, including: the first exhibition in Oaxaca of Ana Mendieta’s Silueta filmworks presented by MASA; Orbs, a posthumous exhibition by James hd Brown at the iconic Hotel Monte Alban; the 2021 edition of Index Art Book Fair; and projects by NN Galería, Espacio Lalithos, co.mer, Ruina, CUEN, El Ojo Peludo, SÓLIDA, Kintaro, and Emalin.
Promised Land venues include:
Instituto de Artes Gráficas de Oaxaca/Museo de las Culturas de Oaxaca/Jardín Etnobotánico de Oaxaca/Centro Fotográfico Manuel Álvarez Bravo/Museo Textil/Casa de la Cultura Oaxaqueña/Museo Rufino Tamayo de Arte Prehispánico/Centro de las Artes San Agustín, Etla/Club Creciente/Biblioteca Infantil de Oaxaca/Museo de la Filatelia/Palacio Municipal de Oaxaca/Casa de la Cacica/Museo Regional de Huajuapan.
Open to all, and free of charge.
HacerNoche acknowledges and is grateful for the generous support provided by:
Amigos del IAGO y el CFMAB A.C.; Barjeel Art Foundation; Fundación Cinepolis; Miku Meko; Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute; Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia; Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura; The Showroom, London; and the Municipality of Oaxaca de Juárez.
For press enquiries contact press [at] hacernoche.org.