ANOTHER SPACE

ANOTHER SPACE is pleased to announce the performance at its Chelsea, New York location of Marta Minujín’s: Arte agrícola en acción – Toronjas.  First presented in Mexico City in 1977 by Marta Minujín, a pioneering Argentina performance artist, Arte agrícola will be reconstructed by the artist in collaboration with Gallim choreographer Andrea Miller. In conjunction with the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and Gallim Dance, the performance will make its New York City debut with ANOTHER SPACE.

 

The performance will be followed by a visit to ANOTHER SPACE, where the group show, Works from the Collection I will be on display. The exhibition includes Marta Minujín´s Arte agrícola en acción, and works by Abraham Cruzvillegas, Gabriel Kuri, Eugenio Dittborn, Nicolas Guagnini, William Cordova, Oscar Murillo, Lygia Clark and Gego among others. Also on display will be a selection of photographs from the collection that explores concepts of surveillance during periods of political oppression.

 

Founded by art historian and collector Estrellita B. Brodsky, as part of the activities of the Daniel and Estrellita B. Brodsky Family Foundation, ANOTHER SPACE is dedicated to building recognition of modern and contemporary art from Latin America.

 

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. ANOTHER SPACE 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.

 

Toronjas is part of the series of works Arte agrícola en acción (Agricultural Art in Action), dedicated to integrating art with nature, each focusing on a different product: Repolhos (Cabbages) was presented September 29, 1977, at Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo; the Toronjas presentation in Mexico that same year; and Naranjas (Oranges), held in 1979 at the iconic experimental art center, CAYC, Buenos Aires, Argentina. The series signals Minujín’s first use of edible materials in her happenings, installations and monumental sculpture. This would continue in her artistic practice with pieces such as El Obelisco de Pan Dulce (Pastry Obelisk) in Buenos Aires in 1979, and The James Joyce Bread Tower in Dublin in 1980. The Arte agrícola en acción series can be interpreted as an artistic commentary on the role of Latin America as an exporter of commodities, a concept culminated in 1985 with the photo-performance made in collaboration with Andy Warhol El pago de la deuda externa argentina con maíz, “el oro Latinoamericano” (The Payment of the Argentine Foreign Debt with Corn, “Latin America’s Gold.”)

 

Marta Minujín was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1943, where she studied at the Escuela de Bellas Artes Manuel Belgrano and at the Escuela Nacional Prilidiano Pueyrredón. In 1961 she received a scholarship to study in Paris, she carried out her first performance, La destrucción in 1963. Returning to Buenos Aires in 1964 she was awarded the Premio Nacional Instituto Torcuato Di Tella for the work Revuélquese y viva, her first interactive installation. In 1965 at the Di Tella Institute she and artist Rubén Santantonín presented La menesunda. Consisting of sixteen different rooms or environments the visitor was meant to walk through, La menesunda offered a multi-sensorial experience through the use of lights, colors, sounds, smells and textures. In 1966 she received a Guggenheim Fellowship and moved to New York. There she began working on two major projects related to mass media: Simultaneidad en simultaneidad 1966), part of the Three Countries Happening event along with Allan Kaprow in New York and Wolf Vostell in Berlin; and Minuphone (1967). During the 1970s she lived and worked in between the United States and Argentina, exhibiting her work in major institutions and creating performances and happenings such as Interpenning (1972) and Kidnappening, both at The Museum of Modern Art (1973), followed by La academia del fracaso, Centro de Arte y Comunicación, CAYC (1975) and Comunicando con tierra, Centro de Arte y Comunicación, CAYC (1976). Among Minujín most famous works are large scale “monuments” for public participation developed in the late 1970s and early 1980s including El obelisco acostado, Sao Paulo (1978), Carlos Gardel de fuego, Medellin (1981), and El Partenón de libros, Buenos Aires (1983). Her works are featured in international public collections, such as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Art Museum of the Americas, Washington D.C. Olympic Park, Seoul; Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes and MALBA, Buenos Aires; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; and Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. Minujín lives and works in Buenos Aires.

 

Funding for the performance has been provided by ANOTHER SPACE, with major support from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund in collaboration with Gallim Dance  and Henrique Faria, New York & Buenos Aires. With thanks to Alex Garcia Waldman, Mauro Herlitzka, Naroa Lizar, Susana Toro and Aime Iglesias Lukin.