LARmagazine 006

Year 1, Num. 6 agost, september and october/2011

magazine

LARmagazine

Director Catalina Restrepo Leongómez catalina@livingartroom.com Editor Daniel Vega serapiu@hotmail.com Design Photography: Catalina Restrepo Leongómez Cortesy of the artists catalina@livingartroom.com Design Advisor Illustration Rebeca Durán Carlos Pérez Bucio http://reckss.blogspot.com Acknowledgements: Contributors Eugenio Echeverría Marisol Argüelles Gonzalo Ortega Sibila Mejía Maria Fernanda Currea Daniel Vega Cover CheeseWiz Day, 2010

www.livingartroom.com 0

EDITORIAL

EDITORIAL

Education, Mediation y Language A few months upon arriving on Mexico City I attended a round table in the Carrillo Gil Art Museum, where the entire museum’s history was discussed. Among the lecturers were Cuauhtémoc Medina and Osvaldo Sánchez. At some point in the conversation they focused on the absence of audience.

give the impression of wanting to show off how intelligent they are. More than really putting forward and debating a certain point of view, they rely on an arrogant, elaborate and absolutely inaccessible way of expressing themselves.

Today’s audience is not the same as it was ten or fifteen years ago. It is, in fact, radically different from the one that existed before 2007, when Facebook had already achieved great popularity. People are much more informed, much more critic of things, and communicate in a different way. Thanks to social networking, thousands of people can comment on an exhibition, either positively or negatively, and instantly have an influence on millions. As the Mexican proverb goes, “the sleeping shrimp gets dragged by the tide”. It is more and more common for

While Osvaldo expressed himself with amazing clarity, Cuauhtémoc used a very complicated language, making it hard for most of us to understand. I never questioned his intelligence and I recognize the importance and recognition he has legitimately won in the international art world, but I was surprised he didn´t acknowledge society’s enormous participation in present day’s cultural events, and that one of the most important problems is the way experts enunciate their speeches. Many times, they 1

EDITORIAL

people who manage art to rethink the language they use, without sacrificing, of course, the intellectual level of the contents, and thus providing new understanding tools for the public who assists to the events, so they can actually take valuable experiences from those visits. That is why the education department in a museum has become a very serious and important matter for mediators (a figure we’ll talk about later), who have also become more resourceful and generate activities to promote visits to the museum as gratifying experiences that, beyond being only fun, motivate learning and generate knowledge.

Link Commisioner for the Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC), for a talk on mediation and different strategies for reaching new audiences.

Also, our editor in chief Daniel Vega, who besides of being a great writer, translator and copyeditor is an insatiable music lover, gives us a Brief Encyclopedia of Noise, a review about a great British underground band called Jesu that exist since 2004

This issue features three new portfolios from Mexican artists Jimena Rincón, Orlando Díaz and Omar Arcega. Plus, we update portfolios from Adriana Salazar For all of these reasons, the present issue (Colombia), Miho Hagino (Japan), Rodrigo of LARmagazine focuses on education, Imaz and Raúl Cerrillo (Mexico), and mediation and language. I’m sure you’ll curator Sayako Mizuta (Japan). enjoy Marisol Argüelles’ –researcher for Mexico’s Modern Art Museum (MAM)- We are pleased to introduce our special article, where she shares with us the excess- guest Adrián de la Garza, best known as es and vanities of those who write about art, Galamot Shaku, who proposes a graphic and shows us this is not the only field suffer- digital work based on early videogame ing from such malaise. In another section, nostalgia, founded in the concept and cha our international contributor Sibila Mejía racteristics of pixels. We also take this sits down with Muna Cann, Mediation and chance to share some images of Argentinian

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EDITORIAL

artist Javier Gutiérrez’s exhibition in Caja de Arte de Burgos (CAB) in Spain, which opened last May and will be presented through September 11th.

of the world. For now, you can see ORBE, a very successful exhibit in MUCA Roma, the opening for Colombian artist Doris Salcedo’s Plegaria Muda in Museo Universitario de Ciencias y Artes (MUAC), Marcos Ramírez ERRE’s retrospective in Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, and the Arsenale and Giardini pavilions of the current Venice Biennale, among other things.

Lastly, we present a project that has been developing for a few months: LARtv, a space where visitors can find video walkthroughs of current exhibitions we consider interesting, so audiences can have an idea of events they’re not able to attend. This new section of Living Art Room will gradually We hope you enjoy this sixth issue of make up a visual archive of contemporary LARmagazine. As usual, we welcome all art events in Mexico City and other cities of your comments.

Catalina Restrepo Director Living Art Room www.livingartroom.com

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CONTRIBUTORS

CONTRIBUTORS Marisol Argüelles

Marisol Argüelles (Mexico, 1973).

She has studies in Art History in the Universidad Iberoamericana, in Mexico City. From 2002 to 2007, she worked in Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, where she developed several curatorial projects, focused on reviewing contemporary art proposals.

She has curated individual exhibitions of such artists as Jeff Burton, Mark Wallinger, Iran do Spírito Santo and Kara Walker. She worked as Research and Exhibition Commisioner in the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes’ National Coordination of Plastic Arts.

She currently works in Mexico City’s Museo de Arte Moderno.

Sibila Mejía

(Colombia, 1982) Sibila Mejía was born in Bogotá, Colombia. She has studies in Visual Arts from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, in Bogotá. In 2006 she worked as an assistant for North American artist Malcolm Smith. She has been part of education programs in the Museo Nacional de Colombia. Since 2007 she teaches in Marymount College’s Art Department, in Bogotá.

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Daniel Vega

Daniel Vega (Mexico, 1984) studies English Literature in UNAM. He has contributed to publications from the Fondo de Cultura Económica as a proofreader, and made official translations in different proffesional areas, including contemporary art.

He works as an educational link in Mexico’s Centro de la Imagen. Since May 2011, he is editor of the english and spanish versions of LARmagazine/ LARrevista.

CONTENT

CONTENT Opinion P:6 THE EMPEROR’S NEW SUIT by Marisol Argüelles New artist Portfolios P:14 Omar Arcega HUMAN NATURE P:28 Orlando Díaz FANTASTIC REALISM P:042 Jimena Rincón TOYS AND MEMORY Interview P:58 MUNA CANN by Sibila Mejía Artist Portfolios Updates P:70 Adriana Salazar P:82 Miho Hagino P:94 Rodrigo Imaz P:106 Raúl Cerrillo New Curator Portfolio P:119 SAYAKO MIZUTA Recommended P:128 Javier Gutierrez at CAB Special Guest P:144 GALAMOT SHAKU P:158 Music BRIEF ENCYCLOPEDIA OF NOISE by Daniel Vega Project P:162 LARtv

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Ilustraciones de Carlos PĂŠrez Bucio

THE E NEW S

EMPEROR’S SUIT

Excesses and vanities in art writing

by Marisol Argüelles

One of the true challenges of cultural institutions in Mexico is to be able to attract a non-tourist audience. It is true that many of them have the habit of visiting museums, but the attendance numbers are in no way the desired ones, much less if compared to the amount of inhabitants in urban areas. I have heard many excuses for not visiting a museum: they are costly, they are boring –few say it, but many think so-, people never know what is showing, or they simply think it’s not for them.

Some excuses are true, some not so much (today visiting a museum costs you around $15 to $45 pesos), but there is everything, good, bad, and so-so exhibitions. But I think the problem is bigger. It is a distance issue between art and the audience, where each one has taken a different side of the court.

But it is also true that responsibility relies not only in exhibition spaces. The chain is much larger and begins with basic education, the 7

us who take part in production –not necessarily of art pieces, but of the projects related to them, in any part of the chain- sometimes aim more to the artistic community, instead of looking for a broader audience.

Although it’s true that our function is not precisely to be mediators between artist and audience –specially after getting over the idea that art is a mere matter of perception and taste-, we are part of a machine that makes decisions about what the audience will read and consider as part of the dominant view.

Here is where I consider vital to stop and reflect the role of language in transmitting ideas and interests, born out of artistic production.

... It is a distance issue between art and the audience, where each one has taken a different side of the court.

family circle, and initiative itself. Public and private institutions, magazine editors, authors and art promoters, they all play a pivotal part in determining the way the audiences get The relationship we establish between involved in what is produced and exhibited. world and language is so important that it And here is where I suspect something happens, determines, in good measure, the way we something that gives little stimulation to visitors structure or thoughts. But maybe that idea has and readers to return to the museums, or keep an made us think that saying things in a cominterest in what happens: the self-consuming of plicated way is a mirror of superior intelliart. In other words, it would seem that those of gence, of advanced thought, and a capacity to 8

... that idea has made us think that saying things in a complicated way is a mirror of superior intelligence...

develop and understand great ideas. I don’t think that is necessarily true; in fact, I think a true sample of that intelligence can be seen in those who are able to make what is But these same specialists who –in all right- write complicated, simple. more for their colleagues and for an educated audience, also take part in It is true that art can exhibits and publications propose very comaimed for a much broadplex ideas, not transer audience, and here is latable to verbal where the breach opens. language because of their nature. If they When a visitor walks could be expressed into a museum and finds that way, their exisa basically incompretence would be pointhensible introduction less. However, what text, the experience beis written about art, gins badly, because he what is reflected, assumes himself incapadoesn’t always need ble of understanding the those complicated approach to the subject. forms that often seem He then looks around to hide the lack of the room, only to find content. that the abyss deepens: nothing will ever make There are some texts him return. The visit to that are not for masthe museum has made sive spreading, deshim fell three things: tined to specialized that “art” is completely readers with the purincomprehensible; that he is not lucky enough pose of improving the discussions and reflec- to be an initiated; that visiting museums is a tions among specialists. waste of time.

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With this I don’t mean that a text should not stimulate the reader’s effort, or his/her correct use of language, but sometimes the case is too extreme. When a text uses complex language because it needs to, ideas are understood with a dose of effort, revealing true content in it. But sometimes it would seem that form is content.

Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity” and basically suggested, through famous mathematicians’ and physics’ quotes, that gravity was a subject matter, a social construction. On the second text, Sokal confessed it was all a joke, a parody to expose the abuses frequently made by prestigious scientists.

But the art world is not the only one to limp from that foot. Remember the renowned As expected, Sokal was accused of being Sokal scandal, an event that became famous arrogant and was severely attacked, alongside his colleague and accomplice, Jean When a visitor walks into a museum and Bricmont. According to Robert Maggiori of the French journal finds a basically incomprehensible Libération, “they area pedantic introduction text, the experience begins scientists without a sense of humor, devoted to correcting badly grammatical errors in love letters” (1). in the science world in 1996 when scientist Alan Sokal published a text in the journal Sokal and Bricmont wrote the book Impostures Social Text, plagued with complex but empty Intellectuelles(2), where they examined “the phrases, using the typical pompous language cultural circumstances that allowed these of post-modern thinkers. The text’s content speeches to reach such a high fame”, without no completely lacked sense, but went on to be one, up to this date, evidencing those speech’s published, gaining the applause of many of his nonsense. colleagues. Simultaneously, the author published a text in another magazine where he The case of art has a peculiarity, since its contents destroyed the first one, exposing the arrogant relate much more to the subjectivity of stands of those used to abuse language when science –it can be demonstrated that gravity lacking of relevant contents. The article in exists regardless of our ideas, or even of our Social Text was titled “Transgressing the own existence. The matter here is not about 10

questioning the author’s ethical, epistemic or aesthetic affirmations, but to point out that, truly, there are certain excesses that seem to stimulate the perception that art, and the language used to talk about it, require such intelligence that could ultimately sentence it not enjoyable to everyone, let alone understandable.

exercise of criticism –literature and theater were his areas-, promoted a culture that proclaimed the vanity of its ends and the limits of its power. Anyway, I find it necessary to distinguish between writing about any artistic discipline and their works with the idea of spreading them, and writing for a reduced group, let’s call it initiated. Maybe this way we could help reconcile the audience with Some time ago, Roland Barthes, author and today’s artistic production, which has semiologist, severely criticized those who, nothing to do –regardless of what some may in order to preserve certain power in their think- with the emperor’s new suit.

1. Sokal, Alan y Bricmont, Jean, Imposturas intelectuales, Paidós, Barcelona, 1999.

2. Barthes, Roland, Mitologías, Siglo veintiuno editores, México, 1980. (Primera edición, Francia, 1957) 11

NEW ARTIST PORTFOLIOS

NUEVOS PORTAFOLIOS

Omar Arcega (México) (México) Jimena Rincón Orlando Díaz (México)

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OMAR ARCEGA

OMAR ARCEGA Human Nature

Omar Arcega (Mexico, 1981) is an artist whose work is based on drawing and collage. The images he produces usually touch the subjects of war history and its relationship with animals, and the predatory instincts they share with human beings.

series feature several models of airplanes combined with different species of sharks. Another segment shows skulls of several types of monkeys, overlapped to various kinds of guns, images that immediately suggest a reflection of human beings and their evolution.

One of his most interesting projects is a series of collages named Animal Weapons (2009), where he created images made by different types of military weapons and animals, intervened in a way to look like x-rays showing the similarity between these destruction machines and other beings of nature. We know that many technological inventions have been inspired by the anatomy of different animals; one of the clearest examples is the airplane, inspired by birds.

Omar shows, with his drawings, the relationship between nature and what humans create to destroy it. A section of this

Omar’s interest in history, evolution, nature, and wars, can also be seen in Aggressive Hunting Pictures (2010), a series of collages in which he intervenes images related to these concepts, taken from history books and newspapers, and gives them new meaning through drawing interventions. One of the highlights is a piece that depicts a shark jaw, whose teeth are made up of members of the Ku Klux Klan. Another example is an image that shows Adolf Hitler with a spider over his head, one not being able to tell if it is possesing him or trying to escape.

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serie d, 2009

animales armas,2011

OMAR ARCEGA

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OMAR ARCEGA

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aggressive hunting pictures, 2010

OMAR ARCEGA

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OMAR ARCEGA

aggressive hunting pictures, 2010

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OMAR ARCEGA

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OMAR ARCEGA

aggressive hunting pictures, 2010

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OMAR ARCEGA

aggressive hunting pictures, 2010

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OMAR ARCEGA

www.livingartroom.com/omar _arcega

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JardĂ­n - estructura vertical, 2010

ORLANDO DĂ?AZ

ORLANDO DĂ?AZ Fantastic Realism

The work of Mexican artist Orlando Diaz (Mexico, 1978) could be described as a reflection on the parallel worlds that inhabit the human mind. Is an approximation, if you want a bit naive or childish, but honest into fantasy and imagination. In his paintings there is always a duality, a harmless image that has a dark ingredient that cannot be identified. His paintings sometimes resemble illustrations of fairy tales, and sometimes apocalyptic scenes.

sees things, for example a tree. His gaze becomes aware of each root, vein in the trunk, branches and leaves, the way the foliage creates irregular shapes when viewed against the light, and so on. This process of observation led him to link concepts such as chaotic and calm, two traits that perfectly describe the aesthetic that he works with. Simultaneous ideas run parallel in his mind (such as: going to eat, a later appointment or the route to his way home) and give shape to a train of thought To understand the work of Orlando should that he consciously incorporates to the logic be noted the great care with which he of his paintings.

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ORLANDO DÍAZ

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Jardín - estructura vertical, 2010

ORLANDO DÍAZ

Fragilidad, 2010

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ORLANDO DÍAZ

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ORLANDO DÍAZ

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todas las cosas que imagina un conejo, 2010

ORLANDO DÍAZ

explosión de cerdos, 2010

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ORLANDO DĂ?AZ

constructo porcino, 2010

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ORLANDO DÍAZ

desplome 2010

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ORLANDO DĂ?AZ

www.livingartroom.com/orlando_diaz

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JIMENA RINCĂ“N

JIMENA RINCĂ“N Toys and Memory

Jimena Rincon (Mexico, 1979) is an artist whose work is primarily pictorial.

She is currently developing projects that deal with installation and intervention materials, such as wood. Her work includes images related to memories, like toys in the midst of lonely landscapes.

Through her work, Jimena reflects on the feelings that some people experience during childhood, referring to the sense of security and tranquility that she remembers feeling through this stage, and the nostalgia it produces to remember

that emotions as an adult. She mostly uses large formats, creating stunning paintings with what seem like tiny items in the middle of them. One of her paintings, Hellcat (2007), features a great cloudy sky above, with a small, almost imperceptible antique plane flying in the lower right.

Arctic (2009) and Polar (2009) are vast, detailed, landscapes where the floor is covered with ice, a polar sky in the distance, and a small trail of footprints at the bottom of it.

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JIMENA RINCÓN

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Storm II, 2010

JIMENA RINCÓN

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Spitfire, 2007

JIMENA RINCÓN

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Requiem, 2009 Hellcat, 2007

Leap of faith, 2011

JIMENA RINCÓN

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Swimmer, 2007

JIMENA RINCÓN

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N-4, 2008

Winged swimmer, 2008

JIMENA RINCÓN

N-2, 2008

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JIMENA RINCĂ“N

www.livingartroom.com/jimena_ricon

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What is mediation?

Interview with Muna Cann, Head department of education, learning and mediation of the MUAC

by Sibila Mejia According to Matilde Remy, mediation is not an exact science; it is an amalgam between creation, investigation, and commitment with the audience in order to understand their wishes, delights and knowledge. Its vocation is to allow these encounters to happen, either fortunate or hostiles.

“Mediation” comes from a political term that means “to generate an agreement between two parties that don’t understand each other”. Now, cultural mediation is a triangle composed by work of art, public and mediators.

If one of the three is absent, the other two cannot function. The links are young people from different careers, undergraduates usually. Mediators are always in the exhibition rooms talking about works, contemporary art, and the museum’s offerings. They function as catalysts for experiences.

Bordo Póniente, fotografías cortesía RESIUDAL 58

Sibila: Where did you study, and where else can somebody study mediation?

Muna: Bigotski, a Russian who worked all the matters of social mediation, about how the child learns while working with the adult. It is more related to pedagogy, which was not included in my career in Sorbonne. Mediation in the French school is not only based on a theory, but in practice; something hard to understand for some people, who usually seek for a theoretical justification of things.

Muna: I studied in the University of Paris 1, Pantheon-Sorbonne. The Sorbonne´s program is one of the most distinguished; it is the only one that exists as Cultural Mediation. It is more contoured.

You can also study it in Spain, although the career there is known as Cultural Management, and in England, where it is known as Cultural Communication. There is an option in Mexico, in the Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana, but it’s aimed towards cultural management.

There is also John Dowie, a multitasker: philosopher, psychologist, critic and pedagogue, who worked with the concept of the active school, which investigates how to build knowledge. It is not only about the teaching someone does, but about what one knows, the other can learn.

Sibila: What are the most important references for you in mediation?

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Another reference may be Jean Piaget, who is more attached to constructivism.

George Heim, a more recent educator who directly studies the concept of education in museums. But in mediation as such, the clearest reference is my teacher, Regis Labourdette. He taught me what mediation is, even if he doesn’t have a book called “Theory of Mediation”.

mediators come from different careers –chemical science, economy, architectureand make their social service in the museum.

I would prefer to extend the induction; three weeks is a very limited time, but social service is only six months long.

Mediation in the Louvre, when I made it, included a three month period of preparation.

There are others, like the French, Bernard Lamiset, who has some books on mediation, but works on a much more practical level.

Then comes the work in the showrooms.

You explain mediation to the links and tell them what you expect of their work. When they are not yet ready to be in the rooms, we practice with different audience simuSibila: What kind of tasks does a media- lations and teach them group management tor assume? How is the before, during, strategies. and after process?

After that, they go on to mediation as Muna: I’ll talk to you about what I’m such: the apprentice is in front of an artdoing now. work in the exhibition and the elements to be highlighted are defined, as well as how Before, when I do the recruitment of the he will guide the audience with questions guys who will be the mediators, it is three so they can find the answers by themweeks of intensive training. During this selves. And most importantly the closing: time they don’t visit the showrooms, to see what people really take from the because they are receiving information experience. and starting to work in teams. The first talk includes an introduction to mediation, a Sibila: In any specific exhibition, do you description of the MUAC, and an introgive all the basic concepts to the mediaduction to contemporary art, since the tors, or do they interpret them? Is it a 60

work between you, the group, the curator and the artist?

Cildo Meireles. He is one of the most impressive artists that I have worked with; he is very open in educational matters. His pieces are so personal and leave you with a sense of mystery. Many of the strategies he uses are about living the piece now and talking later.

Muna: As a curator I do a previous research. For example, when the museum presented the work of Doris Salcedo, we studied everything related to her and investigated Colombian history, to have a context of everything that’s been made, past and present. Artists and curators almost always come from abroad and arrive a few weeks before the opening. I have little time to work with them, so I try to make the most of it.

Mediation usually has to be made in front of the artwork. With Cildo’s support, we made a workshop related to the bottle of Coke piece, called “Insertions in ideological circuits”. We drew a bottle and people could leave a message to anyone. You found things like “mom, I didn’t like when you screamed to me in the morning”, or “Mr. President, we are through with everything that’s going on in Mexico”.

I do not teach the links what the exhibit is about. First we see the context. Then, if the exhibit is already set up, we go to the showrooms. If not, we work with images and ask questions about the pieces and the artists. In Doris Salcedo’s case, her curator gave them a lecture, and after that we worked with the interpretation of the pieces.

A space of interpretation of the piece was created through everyone’s personal experiences. It was very gratifying. The artist participated in mediation: he used to go to the office himself and read what people wrote.

Sibila: Can you tell us about a successful Sibila: What tools does the museum strategy or project you completed? have to listen to the audience? Because it is not necessarily about the mediator Muna: The best experience I’ve ever had, giving his opinion, but about how does personally and professionally, was with he listens and gets an answer.

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the mediation, for the talk, I understood everything”. Mediation is about taking out what people have inside.

Muna: : In the museum we have, apart from the comments notebooks in different spaces, a book where people don’t need to directly answer certain questions: they do it through the links. There are specific questions that help us see if the mediation worked. Instead of asking “did you like the meditation?” we ask “do you think that, through this activity, you were able to understand the piece better?”. We have to be very direct.

Sibila: Do you think it’s justified that some curators use a complicated language, not always completely understood by the audience?

Muna: : I don’t know if it’s justified. I think everyone has a method, but I also think the educational curator is the figure that helps clarifying the processes. It’s not about simplifying the discourse for the public, but to give them tools and basis for them to read it and understand it.

There is a new career: educational curators. They are curators who can be formed in mediation, pedagogy or museums. Luis K. Mitezer, for example, is a Uruguayan artist that got involved in pedagogical curatorship. It is important for him to work from the beginning with the curator, who is asked to be as clear as possible. But sometimes that concept, “clarity”, is not the same for everybody.

Plus, we are now developing multimedia tools, like kiosks where you can record a comment about your experience.

Sibila:At the same time, how can you know if the work was successful?

Muna: Evaluating the mediation is a difficult thing. In Sorbonne, I had a qualitative public evaluation class, based on interviews. It is very difficult to make the visitor give you their time, but you have to find a way to do it. In person to person mediation, you can tell its effectiveness by their attitude; if they understand contemporary art or not, if they like it or not. In the end you find out they did understand, and sometimes they tell you “thanks for

Working with the curator, you can take the discourse to where he wants to, what gives you a lot of tools to make a good meditation. Sometimes the curator gives you 62

Sibila: Does MUAC have, or promote, meetings with teachers? In what measure does the museum trespasses its own walls and reaches the classrooms, or vice versa?

something he’s been researching for years and you have to interpret it in two weeks.

I think working with them from the beginning of the exhibition should help creating a much clearer text. But I don’t think that education in museums should be about that: lowering the discourse’s level. Artists have a way of expressing themselves, which is totally valid.

Muna: There are many programs like that. Through agreements with different institutions, such as the Circuit of Southern Museums and the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria (National High School), educational links go to high schools to work with students and teachers, or they come to the museum for classes.

Sibila: An ideal situation for you would be working in team with artists and curators when they get involved?

Muna: Of course. Working with artists is way more enlightening. Right now I am coursing a Teacher’s degree in Curatorial Studies. I find it very important to understand the curator figure so I can, from an educational point of view, make something with both of them: artist and curator.

We have seen that many times, students do not understand because of the teacher’s misinformation, since they don’t know the cultural offer. That is why, to us, is so important that teachers know what the MUAC is about, what our offers are.

The teachers’ educational level in Mexico Some of them already have an educational is regrettable, but there are some groups interested. We just had one with modelchip. Richard Flood, curator of the New Museum in New York, was the first to imple- ing, drawing and sculpture teachers in ment the Ipod as an educational tool in a mu- high schools, where we told the students about contemporary art; now they want seum. Alongside the education department, an induction course. We have four courses he created short and concise interviews, a year for teachers, where we give them which allowed you to walk through exhibimediation tools. tions listening to specific comments that gave you clues about what you were seeing.

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Sibila: What do you do when a Project is not completely interesting for you?

How do you motivate yourself to carry the mediation projects forward? Has that ever happened to you?

Muna: One of the most important things in training is, precisely, to show them up to where they can go. I have different kinds of personalities with the links in my group, from the chatterboxes to the ones that make up stories for whatever Muna: Before summer vacation, the muthey don’t know. Yes, we are very strict in seum was preparing four exhibitions. I our training week. We have to be there at have to train the links in four subjects; all times, monitoring the links when they they give me the guideline. They tell me are doing their mediations, but we cannot “we are more interested in a talk with Sol interfere. We talk to them later, privately, Henaro, curator of Antes de la Resaca, that and encourage them to be humble if at with the curator that came from Thailand, some point they do not know the answer because Sol is more pedagogy oriented”. to something. They should ask for the They were more interested in the subject person’s contact information and tell him of Mexico so, in order to get them motithey will investigate and send and answer vated them for the other exhibits, I set up by mail. They cannot tell lies because they a lecture with Enrique Jezik and the artists don’t know if the person is the artist’s that came from Asia. Links love to speak mother, cousin or close relative, or if the with artists person simply knows more than them.

Sibila: One last question. What happens when a link overacts? How do you handle a situation like that? It must be really uncomfortable, since surely there is a personal motivation, and there are some who start to ramble on with things that have nothing to do with the works.

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ARTIST PORTFOLIOS UPDATES

ARTIST PORTFOLIOS UPDATES

Adriana Salazar (Colombia) (Mexico) Rodrigo Imaz Miho Hagino(Japan) (Mexico) RaĂşl Cerrillo

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ADRIANA SALAZAR

ADRIANA SALAZAR www.livingartroom.com/adriana_salazar

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Samba, 2010 White paintings 2010

Moving Plants #1, 2011

ADRIANA SALAZAR

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ADRIANA SALAZAR

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Moving Plants #5, 2011 Múltiplos, 2011

ADRIANA SALAZAR

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ADRIANA SALAZAR

Self-portrait, 2009 77

ADRIANA SALAZAR

Erased Coins, 2010

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ADRIANA SALAZAR

Erased Coins, 2010

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ADRIANA SALAZAR

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ADRIANA SALAZAR

Fifty thousand, 2010

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MIHO HAGINO

MIHO HAGINO

www.livingartroom.com/miho_hagino

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Untitled, 2011

MIHO HAGINO

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MIHO HAGINO

Series: Tokio 2, 2008

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Series: Tokio 2, 2008

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MIHO HAGINO

Series: Tokio 1, 2008

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MIHO HAGINO

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MIHO HAGINO

Series: Tokio 1, 2008

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RODRIGO IMAZ

RODRIGO IMAZ

www.livingartroom.com/rodrigo_imaz

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Chango, 2010

“T.V. Guy”, 2010

The memory project, 2011

RODRIGO IMAZ

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RODRIGO IMAZ

US air, 2010 101

RODRIGO IMAZ

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RODRIGO IMAZ

Serie Diluvios, 2008-2010

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RAÚL CERRILLO

RAÚL CERRILLO www.livingartroom.com/raul_cerrillo

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Untitled, 2010

RAÚL CERRILLO

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Untitled, 2010

RAÚL CERRILLO

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Luna de Miel, 2009

RAÚL CERRILLO

From the series “Mis ex novias” (Sacerdotizas Salvajes), 2011 110

RAÚL CERRILLO

From the series “Mis ex novias” (Sacerdotizas Salvajes), 2011 111

RAĂšL CERRILLO

vida amorosa, 2010

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RAÚL CERRILLO

Un día a la vez, 2010

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RAÚL CERRILLO

Vuelo Negro, 2009

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RAÚL CERRILLO

Rio Verde, 2011 115

RAÚL CERRILLO

Las mañanitas, 2009

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RAÚL CERRILLO

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NEW CURATOR PORTFOLIO

SAYAKO MIZUTA

SAYAKO MIZUTA

www.livingartroom.com/sayako_mizuta

Sayako Mizuta (Tokio, Japan, 1981) received a master’s degree in Arts Policy and Management in 2006 from Musashino Art University in Japan.

Her areas of concentration included art management, contemporary art theory and Japanese modern art history. From 2006 through 2008, she served as a chief assistant curator at Tokyo Wonder Site, an art center ran by the Tokyo metropolitan government that is dedicated to the generation and promotion of new art and culture. She was in charge of supporting emerging artists, preparing exhibitions and managing artists-in-residence affairs.

After working at Tokyo Wonder Site (http://www.tokyo-ws.org/), she has been organizing exhibitions and art events on a freelance basis. Her aim has been to introduce emerging artists from her generation. Her curated exhibitions: “Skin & Map”(2010, 2011) http://skinandmap.blogspot.com/, “Flexible containers”(2009) http://yawarakanautsuwa.blogspot.com/.

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SAYAKO MIZUTA

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SAYAKO MIZUTA

Skin & Map, 2011

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Skin & Map: the study of body and sense by four artists, 2010

SAYAKO MIZUTA

Skin & Map: the study of body and sense by four artists, 2010

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SAYAKO MIZUTA

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Skin & Map: beyond the body and perception, 2010

Flexible Containers: six artists crossing the boundaries of senses, 2009

RECOMMENDED Javier GutiĂŠrrez at La Caja de Arte de Burgos CAB - Spain

13.05.2011- 11.09.2011 livingartroom.com/javier_gutierrez

Read the interview at

http://livingartroom.wordpress.com/

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GALAMOT SHAKU http://galamot.tumblr.com/

GALAMOT

SHAKU

Pixels are the fundamental unit of a digital image. The better the resolution of a screen is, the more they fade away. In the beginning, these types of images answered to technical limitations in computer monitors, then to videogame consoles and arcades. The images were created by programmers -probably without an artistic background-that progressively developed a style, known as Pixel Art. Pixel graphics, mainly those used in videogames, were displaced when the technological breach was broken to reach new resources, such as 3D polygons and vectors. However, this artistic discipline has been picked up in recent years, reevaluating its aesthetic properties.

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>>> I have always liked pixels. Since my childhood I’ve been surrounded with videogames, one of my main influences. I like to explore their aesthetic properties and think of pixels as the memory of other techniques as pointillism, traditional crafts or cross point embroidery

>>> As all techniques, pixels have a language of their own. They were created in a computer and designed to be appreciated on a screen.

Anyone who has been aroused by pornography on the internet was excited by a digital image, in the end just a series of aligned pixels. In my work I play with semiotics: taking the images from a synthesis point where it becomes figurative –but abstract enough to give room to interpretations.>>> 149

One of the features that I like the most about this technique is the power to evoke nostalgia, especially for generation X, since we were raised during a technological breach and adopted the new media as part of our culture..>>>

GALAMOT

SHAKU

>>> In my themes I use different types of iconography, for example, some public characters, controversial religious icons that are part of our Mexican imaginarium such as the Santa Muerte (Holy Death) or the Malverde, detailed isometric landscapes, portraits of people closely related to me, or just everyday objects.>>> 152

GALAMOT

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GALAMOT

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BRIEF ENCYCLOPEDIA O (JESU) by Daniel Vega Someone prepared the ingredients, pressed a button in the bender and, after a few spins, it was impossible to tell the difference.

underground scene in England and head of projects as diverse as the industrial duo Godflesh, the noise-minimal lab Final, and the semi-drone ambient (to label them in some ridiculous way) Council Estate But every certain time, new bands and Electronics, as well as his brief tenure as artists emerge who refuse to copy the same guitarist in legendary extreme metal band old tried recipes and choose to experiment, Napalm Death. revealing new territories, leading everyone else into new sonic frontiers.

Broadrick could pass as Brian Eno’s punk son, since just as him, he lives obsessed Mixing the unmixable, trying the with the studio as a musical instrument, ridiculous, or simply ripping the speakers has an infinite output in numerous musical with a knife to take them beyond the ventures, and has declared his passion for original idea. Sonic disaster as a watershed sonic landscapes in hundreds of recordings. for expressing new ideas and feelings.

Jesu formed in 2004, two years after JESU Broadrick plugged his former band, Godflesh, pioneer of the industrial scene for Jesu (Birmingham, 2004) is the main band more than a decade, on artificial life. He of Justin K. Broadrick, urban legend of the took the title from a track on their final 158

OF NOISE record, Hymns (2001), to name his new band where, in a couple of years, he would capture his influences in a definite and final way. Jesu is anger and depression, agony and hope. It´s like the band formed by a post-apocalyptic gang after finding some Eno tapes among the remains of a shattered building.

Jesu (2004), the debut album, is a monument to feedback. It shows the recordings and compulsions of someone going through a deep depression who, nevertheless, after scratching the bottom end with his fingers, has seen a dot of light in the distance. These are the tales of a survivor who has withstanded all the trials just to share the view with himself, a morning walk under the sun’s rays among the ruins and remains.

Infinite walls of over-distorted guitars next to tiny, synthetic lines that find a way through the final mix, over which, as a winter fog, Broadrick’s voice wanders, repeating dark and ambiguous phrases with complete detachment, some kind of hypnotic mantra. Broadrick uses the recording studio as a sort of botanical garden, leaving each instrument free to grow and develop under its own genetic code.

Jesu’s music brings to mind different bands from different places of the spectrum: the guitars, heavy as concrete walls, remind us of Isis’s post rock experiments or Electric Wizard’s drone trips; the overwhelming, steaming distortion has a clear shoegaze influence, bands such as My Bloody Valentine and The Jesus and Mary Chain; the subtleness, those calming landscapes in the midst of the thunder, remind us of the ambient scene, from Eno himself to Future Sound of London and Aphex Twin (in its minimal version); the marked pop sensibility, the soft and sweet melodies that often recall the Smashing Pumpkins and New Order.

Jesu’s evolution has been a varied one.

Conqueror (2007) is the definitive record, 159

the point of entry, the one you would have to choose if given an only option. It’s the “mature” record, where the artist’s sound seems to have finally fused with the influences and the goals set in the beginning.

Eight tracks that form a complete circle.

Melody has found its way among the fields of distortion, drawing forms full of harmony over them.

Sometimes finding a more clear path, getting unsuspectedly close to the main road as in their 2011 record Ascension, that somewhat reminds us of the “alternative” rock scene of the early 90’s; other times completely branching off, getting lost in some strange field, as in the stupidly beautiful Infinity (2009), a sole 49 minute piece whose movements start in ambient house and divert near death metal. Curious, also, is Pale Sketcher, name under which Broderick released a mini-project, Jesu: Pale Sketches Demixed (2010), consisting of remixes of Jesu’s b-sides and unreleased songs compilation, Pale Sketches (2007). Here, he disintegrated those same heavy melodies into soft electric tinkers, an experiment inside an experiment.

lapsing of a factory in the middle of a cold morning, the fog merging with the dust from the wreckage, burying a small piece of damped grass with some small flowers in it; the flowing of numbing substances through the vein tunnels on their way to the heart and back to the brain, moving to the unstoppable rhythm of worries; an industrial hammering accented by the singing birds.

Sounds that evoke gray scenes: the col-

Jesu: Pale Sketches Demixed (2010) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpNwgssvylw

Amongst all the depression and abandon suggested by the music, what makes it stand out and distinguish itself is the conviction to go on. The tone, although majorly crushing, carries an undeniable uplifting sensation. Jesu is an hymn to pain, and at the same time, to the force of will.

LINKS

Jesu (2004) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VvH9_2KCEE Conqueror (2007) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyvivohzmus Ascension (2011) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Bwn71khdT4

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del 21- 24 de octubre

NEW SECTION AT LIVING ART ROOM

www.livingartroom.com/LARtv

LARtv is a new Living Art Room section, designed so that more people around the world can stay in touch with the artists and curators who are part of this exclusive community.

LARtv is divided in two parts: the first one, named LAR live, which consists of a screen where visitors can watch livestream events, studio tours, talks, programs, and content generated by LAR members themselves; the second one is called LARexpos, an accumulating video archive of exhibitions and

events that can be viewed at any time. For instance, you can see the documentation of Plegaria Muda, an exhibition by renowned Colombian artist Doris Salcedo currently showing at the MUAC; Enrique Jezik’s individual show, an Argentinian artist that lives in Mexico; the amazing group show called ORBE at the MUCA Roma; the Arsenale and Giardini pavilions of the 54th Venice Biennale; Marcos Ramírez ERRE’s exhibit at the Carrillo Gil Museum of Art; the project rooms of the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico, among many others.

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ORBE MUCA Roma

Giardini Bienal de Venecia 164

Arsenale Bienal de Venecia

Plegaria Muda MUAC 165

www.livingartroom.com