DEAD BABIES AND BLOOD

here's a little questionnaire I got from Arlan Londono for the Digital Art Fair, I left the questions in Spanish, I think it looks kinda neat that way.

1- Cual es el objetivo como curador? cual es la visión del grupo u organización?


My objective as a curator is to connect with people, and to bring art to as many people as possible, in as many media as possible, in as many venues as possible, and as often as possible.

My area of interest as a curator, like my area of interest as an artist, is to make lateral connections between seemingly disparate themes and tendencies in art and culture. I like the unconventional and the challenging. I am drawn to eccentricities in art as well as in life.

Although I have been working with Gallery TPW for the last year and a half, I don't really have an official “job” in any institution. Not being with a big institution limits the scale of the projects that I can undertake, but the advantage of this is that I am, as Mick Jagger said, “Free to do what I want, any old time”. The objective of my work with TPW is to exploit the internet (specifically Youtube and Blogspot as well as Stickam, the webcast site) in order to create content for the gallery, in its expanded mandate to broaden its focus to include all forms of screen and lens-based art as well as photography, and to explore the theme of “Darkness” in art. I recently curated a show for TPW entitled Death: It’s Out There, and moderated a panel discussion with artist Jack Burman, Stanley Chung, the owner and operator of Bates and Dodds Funeral Services (the oldest funeral home in Toronto) and Father Larry, the bereavement councilor for Bates and Dodds. The video footage of the discussion can be seen on Youtube. I am currently working on an offsite project for Gallery TPW called Shoot Your Neighborhood, with the youth of St James Town, artist Raffael Antonio Iglesias, and artist Mona Kamal, consisting of a postering project and a webcast panel discussion.

3- Cual es su relacion con el contexto arte contemporaneo
internacional o la corriente principal? Cree que hay una? Cree que es impuesta?


In the 90’s there was a tendency for contemporary art to focus on social issues. In many instances, the message that the work conveyed took precedence over the work itself. In contrast, much of the contemporary art that is happening at this moment in history is about irony and cleverness. What it lacks in theoretical weightiness and political substance, it makes up for in coolness and fresh ideas. This may seem like a bad thing, but at least the art of today doesn’t take itself as seriously as the politically correct art of the 1993 Whitney Biennial. Today’s contemporary artists are not weighed down by the burden of having to create “meaningful” politicized works. But the option is there. David La Chappelle can shoot ostentatious photographs for Paris Vogue, while at the same time making a terrific, socially conscious film like RIZE. I love both. I think we need meaning and superficiality in life.

the ironic stance of artists like the Chapman Brothers, Pipilloti Rizt and Damien Hirst, is contrasted by artists that have embraced Relational Aesthetics: Artists such as Rikrit Tiravanjia, Darren O’Donnell and Gustavo Artigas, who are more interested in creating genuine connections amongst people. These artists could be said to be aligned with the left, which does not appeal to me in the least.

Artists like Matthew Barney and Alexandro Jodorowsky invent complex mythologies around themselves in the tradition of Joseph Buoys, and use the cinema as a form of sculptural device or a time-based art installation to explore these mythologies.

Other tendencies: Photoconceptualists like Rodney Graham and Jeff Wall. The L.A. scene, with artists like John Valdessary, Paul McCarthy and Mike Kelley. And artists who hijack fashion and celebrity, as in the work of Vanessa Beecroft and the lovely Elizabeth Peyton. The list goes on and on… in fact, the above description of the current trends in contemporary art is a gross generalization. Today’s contemporary art is a “mashup” made up of innumerable tendencies. There are as many “currents” in contemporary art as there are MP3s in Napster, and I embrace them all. The name of the game is Formlessness, a concept that dates back to the “Warring Kingdoms” era in ancient China.

4- Cual es su opinion sobre la relacion arte y política? Que piensa
del llamado giro a la izquierda latinoamericano y el arte? lo afecta?
Si lo afecta como lo afecta?

Politics interest me only as a source of raw material in the form of imagery and colorful (or off-color) characters. The relationship of art to politics (especially when politics are enforced by firepower) is utterly laughable. I believe that politicking is best done by politicians. One need only look at the Russian avant-garde under the Bolsheviks to see the fallacy of thinking that politics could look at contemporary art as a valuable asset. The Italian futurists didn’t fare any better. The Nazis labeled the avant-garde Entartete Kunst (“Degenerate Art”). Contemporary art is seen as a frivolous commodity, which is exactly what it is. When all’s said and done, nothing pleases the political sphere more than figurative pictures of smiling babies, wheat fields and happy workers, especially when the regime is totalitarian, whether left or right. Where contemporary art is effective, is in commenting on the current political climate, as in the work of the terrific conceptualist duo of Allora and Calzadilla who hail from Puerto Rico. Or as a service to the community, as in the work of Mel Chin. I am a huge admirer of Antanas Mokus, and I think that he did use art as a potent tool to induce socio-political reform in Bogota, unless, of course, I have been misinformed about him.

5- Que entiende por arte y subversión?

I am a Hispanic who makes art that is not exclusively concerned with political agendas and is not interested in representing a victimized people or culture. And I feel that this is extremely subversive. I want to exist in a world where I am a part of a globalized culture that is fluid and devoid of regional or national attachments. This pisses people off, because they want to hold on to outdated ideas of national or cultural identity. I am a Hispanic -a quick phone conversation and my thick accent will verify that – but being a Hispanic does not define me. I want to curate shows that are interesting and compelling. Whether these shows address a social issue or not isn’t a concern to me. I make and curate art that is meaningful to me, and sometimes that art involves dead babies and blood.