ACTIVATING OBJECTS: THE ART OF PLAY - PART I
Curated by Mauricio Marcín
March 15 - June 29, 2017
Extended through July 12
ANOTHER SPACE is pleased to announce the exhibition Activating Objects: The Art of Play, the first segment of a two-part project. Curated by Mauricio Marcin, Activating Objects explores notions of play, games and rituals as they relate to the artistic practices deployed by artists from Latin America. This first part of the project will be on view by appointment from March 15 until June 29.
The exhibition features works by artists from multiple generations, such as Lygia Clark, Hélio Oiticica, Xul Solar, Joaquín Torres-García, Julio Le Parc and Edgardo Antonio Vigo, as well as a selection of films and documentation of the ephemeral practices of artists such as Juan José Gurrola, Alejandro Jodorowsky and members of the feminist collective Polvo de Gallina Negra, Mónica Mayer and Maris Bustamante. Also on view will be works by Augusto de Campos, Melquiades Herrera, Décio Pignatari, and Viveca Vázquez.
Marcin proposes ambivalent interactions between the objects on display. Crossing a span of almost a century of artistic practices, the exhibition presents colliding tendencies in Latin American art ranging from Neo-concrete to ‘non-objectual,’ from concrete poetry to feminist collectives and mystical practices. The works allow one to trace an elaborate form of invention that subverts logic and rules. Challenging traditional concepts of play, ritual and games, the artists present the ludic and the erratic as an alternative to the dominance of reason. Marcin’s approach refuses to impose any cohesive narrative on the multiple artistic practices presented, rather seeking to reframe incertitude as a curatorial practice that avoids any definitive game plan.
Estrellita B. Brodsky, founder of ANOTHER SPACE, commented on the first part of the project, “We are continuing to present works by Latin American artists from different perspectives. Our past exhibitions have focused on specific bodies of works by individual artists and excerpts from my collection. This marks the first group show featuring works loaned from multiple institutions and private collections, and I am thrilled to work with Mauricio Marcin, curator and researcher at the Museo Experimental El Eco in Mexico City. While many of the artists presented have been the subject of recent museum shows in New York, this exhibition aims to question the ways in which avant-garde artists from Latin America, since the beginning of the twentieth century, have sought to consolidate games, play and participation as a fundamental strategy.”
ANOTHER SPACE is a program established by the Daniel and Estrellita Brodsky Family Foundation to broaden international awareness and appreciation of art from Latin America. Founded by art historian and collector Estrellita Brodsky, as part of the activities of the Daniel and Estrellita Brodsky Family Foundation, the program is dedicated to building recognition of modern and contemporary art of the region. ANOTHER SPACE facilitates substantial grants to museums, universities and other institutions to advance research and produce exhibitions and publications in the field of Latin American art and provides a forum for guest-curated exhibitions and educational programs. No part of the activities of ANOTHER SPACE inures to the benefit of any private individual.
Mauricio Marcin Álvarez is a curator and researcher at the Museo Experimental El Eco in Mexico. In 2015 he co-founded Aeromoto, a public library specializing in contemporary art. In 2014 he edited the book Las ideas de Gamboa, which was presented at the opening of the Jumex Museum in Mexico City, and in 2013 he collaborated on the re-presentation of Juan José Gurrola’s Monoblock. In 2011 he participated in the mobile home Capacete in São Paulo, Belo Horizonte and Rio de Janeiro, and did a curatorial residency in Casa M in the 8th Mercosul Biennial (2011). Marcin edited the book Artecorreo (2011) and curated the homonymous exhibition, shown at the Philatelic Museum of Oaxaca (2011) and the Museum of the City of Mexico (2009).
Funding for the exhibition Part I has been provided by ANOTHER SPACE. With thanks to Alejandro Jodorowsky, Julio Le Parc, Yamil Le Parc, Mónica Mayer, Gabriel Orozco, Viveca Vázquez, Associação Cultural “O Mundo de Lygia Clark,” César Oiticica Filho, Cecilia de Torres LTD., CENIDIAP/INBA, Familia Gradowczyk, Fundación Pan Klub - Museo Xul Solar, Fundación Gurrola A.C., House of Gaga, Jorge Prior, Marian Goodman Gallery, Mariana Eppinger and Jorge Helft, Moises Cosío Espinoza, Galeria Nara Roesler, Alexandra Garcia Waldman, as well as Naroa Lizar, Isabela Muci and Daniel Brodsky.
Press inquiries: contact@anotherspace.org
Press
ANOTHER SPACE and Mónica Mayer invite you to send a letter and reactivate the contest Letter to My Mother.
Deadline June 10, 2017 -
The competition is now Closed
Read all entries
Letter to My Mother was originally presented in 1987 by Polvo de Gallina Negra, as part of the project MOTHERS!, the first feminist art group in Mexico established by Maris Bustamante and Mónica Mayer. As in its original version, the sole objective of this piece is that "any person, regardless of their nationality, age, sex, class or occupation, who has something that they would have wanted to tell their mother can do so by means of a letter and with absolute freedom."
The prize for the best letter will be an intervened graphic by Mónica Mayer of the series Maruca, the bad mother (2016). The jury will be composed of 3 artists and curators with extensive experience in motherhood.