17 a 20 noviembre 2011 | English |
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Studio XX. Canadá, Black Duck .UK, DIVERSITY ART FORUM, UK
On the other hand, the selection of works by Mexican artists mobilizes the notion of appropriation. Some of the works are single-channel videos, direct recordings of public actions and circumstantial events, while others are adaptations of video-installations and documentaries. Together, they explore places, dynamics, and characters which reconfigure both, space and social practices in Mexico City. Persistently, they investigate diverse forms or appropriation and occupation by artists, street vendors, and parking lot guys called the “viene-viene,” as they create subjective narratives and dynamics that are neither official not underground, but forms of coexistence that are central to revert social and economic inequalities.
Parallel Visions thus
suggests a multiplicity of perspectives which run side by side, without
necessary crossing. The two programs put forward conceptual and
aesthetic connections and disconnections that coincide in spatial
terms―after all the artists are based in Montreal, and Mexico City,
respectively―and yet respond to an inquiry on the notion of
intervention that emerged after the selection of video works by
Canadian artists was completed. When this same concept was formulated
in relation to the work of Mexican artists, the strategies and
aesthetics changed, thus activating other meanings and forms of
intervention and appropriation. |
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ANOXI | La synthèse Robin Dupuis Theorists of digital art have discussed the similarity of precinematic and postcinematic practices (such as early chronophotograhy and Quicktime video clips). The abstractions created by Robin Dupuis, such as Anoxi, can be understood as examining this connection in an aesthetic manner, but following and creating new forms and rhythms with the possibilities of the digital instrument. In Anoxi the elements in the picture are melting into new forms, separating and coming together in continuous transformation and variation. Mika Taanila, Avanto, Helsinki |
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BABAYAN Frédérick A. Belzile At dusk, a camera pans and shuffles on a ridge between two valleys. The sounds in the valley is an envelope standing between this horizon and us. |
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HAIL THE FAILURE OF URBAN PLANNING
Kim KielhofnerHail the failure of urban is a possibility of creation and constraint through a visual movement as an urban dweller. Accompanying the visual movement is a text of tenets of urban practice, both sincere and ironic. |
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HIÉMAL Aurélie Pedron Hiémal is a series of three short dance videos. Audrée Juteau and Carla Soto constructed the latter from improvisations. The camera is like a part of the dancer´s bodies. They don´t see what they are filming. |
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LINK Nelly-Ève Rajotte Passage,
crosses, line and a fixed plan. Link is around the themes of the
linearity and time that this video registers. Sound space is built
while crossing the image via the line. |
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STASIS Pavitra Wickramasinghe The process of creation and mastery of the medium are crucial to Pavitra Wickramasinghe. Accordingly, the technology used in her work is never neutral; it explores and reflects the process of making and the act of viewing. Stasis was made by taping a single long shot of a distant mountain; the camera started in tight and over 2:37 minutes it pulled back until the mountain was a tiny indistinguishable smudge in the middle of the image. After, the artist edited every single frame back to the original composition of the mountain, thus, blowing the image up as much as necessary to fill the screen. Hence, the crisp, clear image slowly dematerialize into pixels. |
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N´ACRE Myriam Bessette N’acre explores crackles and sparkles in a kind of chromatic sputter that suggests a pause in our viewing. For the video image evokes a contemplative dimension, even a form of stasis in our reception of it. As filmmaker Anthony McCall pointed out, “when we look and listen to a video or movie, we enter into the elsewhere of the animated image, and we leave our physical body behind us, rooted in the place.” Which is to say that every image is a ubiquitous device: to look at it is in some sense to be not entirely there. |
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OCCUPATION Marcela Armas http://marcelaarmas.blogspot.com/ Ocupación is an action arising from the occupation of space for vehicular traffic, using the body, understood as a carrier and noise generator. The main idea is to walk instead of taking a car, taking into advantage of traffic congestion in cities. To perform the action was developed a portable kit with a choice of 7 different car horns. A control on the arm is used to activate of the devices. On an area of heavy congestion such as downtown Mexico, the artist’s action creates tension among car drivers, who are forced to slow down as she occupies a vital space that can get them a few meters closer to their destinies. |
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LA RAZA [From the series 3 Line]
Bruno Varela Zapata and La Raza are two works from the series Three Line, a DVD exploring the subway line running through Mexico City’s north (Indios Verdes station) to south (Universidad station). As most of the Three Line stations are named after key events of Mexican History, Bruno Varela uses it to reflect on its fractures and unofficial histories. La Raza station is located at the intersection of Vallejo avenue and Insurgents avenue, and it is named after a monument devoted to the Aztec race (Monumento a la Raza). Varela’s video, however, refers to “la raza” in its popular meaning, which refers to the Mexican people, as supported by film footage of Mexico de mi corazon (1963), on a scene where the main characters interpret popular song “Soy puro mexicano.” Zapata, on the other hand, mixes found images and film footage of the 1952 movie Viva Zapata!, starring Marlon Brando as the Mexican revolutionary who led a rebellion against dictator Porfirio Diaz, Emiliano Zapata. Central to these works is the notion of appropriation, as all material is downloaded from the internet: movies, documentaries, amateur videos, and recordings are recycled and re-used to critically explore the current meaning of national symbols, and its appropriation in the production of an alien cultural product. |
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This
work involves a street characters commonly known as “viene-viene” [a
squeegee] who cleans car windows at red lights to earn a living, and
also arbitrarily appropriates parking places on the street, charging
drivers for parking on “their” places. From an idle and childish
dynamic [like smacking a friend with a cleaning rag], this video goes
deeper into an ominous scenario that poses questions about our
existence, particularly inside the complex, violent and confusing
relationships existing between the different social structures of
Mexican culture. To mention a few: What is it behind the apparent
simulation of leisure and debauchery? Where are the limits between
joking and excess? It is important to point out the implicit
relationship that exists among these characters, and the artist as a
participant on this dynamic, revealing a complicity between the lines
that cannot be stated but that inevitably gives way to desire.
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TYPOGRAPHY (Tipografía) Iván Edeza Typography offers a journey through marginalized neighbourhoods, in which “sonideros” and popular bands (most commonly cumbia, norteño, and rock) have taken over empty walls to promote their events. On white walls painted with lime, the colourful fonts mix with graffiti and messages of the community have become the landmark of Mexico City's frontiers. |
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YELLOW CAPITALISM
Abel Carranza [Capitalismo Amarillo - Abel Carranza] Jota Izquierdo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNq23WlkUws The production of certain goods and devices in Mexico City, render ideals regarding democratic and empowering access to technology as the very means of challenging dominant narratives coming from technologically-driven societies. This documentary focuses on Abel Carranza, member of the “Fantastic Twins,” a team devoted to the production of speakers-backpacks used by subway vendors. This work is part of Izquierdo’s project Yellow capitalism (Capitalismo amarillo), which critically addresses capitalists conditions of production and consumption, along its failures and contradictions. An important part of this project has been devoted to researching the Mexican |
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EL PAÍS DEL MIEDO A. Salomón http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kkiEVq3GLA Two children begging in the street while praying for a Mexico filled with blessings. As the artists cover their faces and the lyrics of their song appear on the screen as a karaoke-style, this work points out to what the artist calls “the national caricature of a country convulsed between panic and despair.” |
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