DANIEL JOSEPH MARTINEZ
THE FULLY ENLIGHTENED EARTH RADIATES DISASTER TRIUMPHANT
10th Cairo International Biennale
United States Pavilion
Gilbert Vicario, United States Commissioner
December 12-January 31. 2007
Houston, Texas Daniel Joseph Martinez is representing the United States among dozens of participating nations at the 10th Cairo International Biennale, opening on December 12, 2006 and running through January 31, 2007. Gilbert Vicario, assistant curator of Latin American Art and coordinator, International Center for the Arts of the Americas at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, is the United States Commissioner. Mr. Vicarios proposal was recommended for support by the Federal Advisory Committee on International Exhibitions (FACIE), a U.S. government sponsored committee.
The Cairo International Biennale Commission
Daniel Joseph. Martinezs project for the 2006 Cairo International Biennale continues the artists creative and iconoclastic investigation into the philosophical dimensions of art and social consciousness in contemporary American culture. The installation consists of an isolated, life-sized figure directed by a computer to flail continuously on the floor of a predetermined space. The installation which is partly inspired by the imagery of director Ridley Scotts 1982 film Blade Runner, itself based on the science-fiction classic, Philip K. Dicks 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? uses the animatronic sculpture as a metaphor for epistemological and social dysfunction. By alluding to the transfer of cognitive structures from humans to machines in the late twentieth century, as articulated by the Mexican philosopher Manuel de Landa, Martinez seeks to broach an analysis of intelligence and self-determination in the age of information technology.
About the Cairo International Biennale
Established in 1989, the Cairo International Biennale is the largest international visual-arts exhibition in the Arab world. The Biennale attracts major international participation along with the leading artists of the Arab and Muslim world.
The 2006 members of the Federal Advisory Committee on International Exhibitions (FACIE) that recommended this proposal for support were Jane Farver, Director of the List Visual Arts Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Paul Ha, Director of the Contemporary Art Museum, Saint Louis; Marti Mayo, Director of the Contemporary Art Museum, Houston; Francesco Bonami, Manilow Senior Curator at Large, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Catherine Rose, Dallas, Texas; and artist Fred Wilson.
The official U.S. participation at the 2006 Cairo International Biennale is supported by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State.
Exhibition Catalog
The Fully Enlightened Earth Radiates Disaster Triumphant is accompanied by a fully-illustrated catalogue in English and Arabic documenting Martinezs projects over the last five years, with an essay by Gilbert Vicario, an artist interview by Moukhtar Kocache, Ford Foundation program officer for the Middle East and North Africa. The publication was designed by Tracey Shiffman of Shiffman Design and will be distributed by D.A.P. Inc.
About the Artist
Daniel Joseph Martinez has created image- and text-based work dealing with power relationships in contemporary society for over 30 years. A Los Angeles native, Martinez is best known for his1993 Biennial Exhibition entry at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. For the project, Martinez altered the normal museum admission tags from saying WMAA to I cant imagine ever wanting to be white. Recent exhibitions include the MFAH exhibition Indelible Images (trafficking between Life and Death), and the inaugural solo exhibition Flesh Eating Prosthetic (opium des volks) How I Fell in Love with My Dirty Bomb (phagocitage des prothesis), at LAXART in Los Angeles. Martinez is Professor of Theory, Practice, and Meditation of Contemporary Art at the University of California, Irvine, where he teaches in the Graduate Studies Program and New Genres Department.
Latin American Art Department and the International Center for the Arts of the Americas at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
The mission of the Latin American Art Department and the International Center for the Arts of the Americas (ICAA) is to collect, exhibit, research, and educate audiences on the diverse artistic production of Latin Americans and Latinos, which includes artists from Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, as well as from the United States.
Media Information
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Frances Carter Stephens, Lynn Feuerbach
Dana Mattice, Megan Whitenton
713-639-7540; mfahpr@mfah.org
Resnicow Schroeder Associates
Mary Haus
860-679-9204
mhaus@resnicowschroeder.com