Video Mundi Program 2
NI AQUi NI ALLA ... (NEITHER HERE NOR THERE...)
Curated by Bonanza Projects: Priamo Lozada & Taiyana Pimentel

Tuesday, April 20 8:00pm at the Chicago Cultural Center
Thursday, April 22 7:00pm at the Mexican Fine Arts Center
Saturday, April 24 3:00pm at Heaven Gallery

Approaching the discourses that video images have been generating within the practice of contemporary Mexican art, "Neither Here Nor There" includes works that explore the possibilities of video as a medium, and concepts that are representative of artistic practice in the country.

In response to curatorial mega-narratives that have been constructed in the last few years regarding Mexico, and its capital Mexico City, "Neither Here Nor There" reroutes our attention to micro-narratives. These micro-narratives question artistic activity and its relation to the institutional circuit while considering the role the artist has sought within the field. This focus directs our gaze at the subtle treatment of objects, space and time that these works poetically construct.

Also addressing other urban perspectives, "Neither Here Nor There" explores the possible links that are woven between the different regions of the country while also considering the significant production that Mexican artists are creating abroad, outside of the geographic context and with an acuteness influenced by the problematic cultures of Mexico, especially in relation to global culture and institutions.

Jonathan Hernandez
Autorretrato Turistico, 2002, 1 min. 45 sec.
In collaboration with Alberto Baraya Provoking a forced dialogue, Hernandez explores the perception others have of a foreigner. Courtesy of Kurimanzutto, Mexico City

Ruben Gutierrez
Untitled Channel 1, 2003, 3 min.
Courtesy of Galeria Enrique Guerrero, Mexico City An appropriation and metatextual reflection on the art world.

Fernando Ortega
Para Xo, 2002, Video, 4 min. 7 sec.
Two parallel situations‹musical and visual‹make up the narrative of Para Xo, a musical title that Ortega has appropriated in order to make sense both of a temporality marked by chance and the confluence of a found/revelatory image in relation to the sound event. Courtesy of Kurimanzutto, Mexico City

Jonathan Hernandez
Vaiven, 2003, 57 sec.
Destruction as a constructive device: time and space fold and unfold in this precise meditation on the creative process. Courtesy of Kurimanzutto, Mexico City

Torolab Ruido
Blanco, 2001, 17 min. 30 sec. (extract)
Taking an urban ride through the city of Tijuana, the collective Torolab focus on objects that characterize the socioeconomic life of this city as well as define Tijuana's relation with the U.S. economic system. Courtesy of Torolab, Tijuana

Teresa Margolles
Sonidos de la morgue, 2003, 2 min. (extract)
Sounds of corpses captured at a morgue. Courtesy of the artist and Galeria Enrique Guerrero

Claudia Fernandez
De la serie La dama de las situaciones, 2003, 1 min. 45 sec.
Through an unusual and absurd relationship, Fernandez addresses a range of aesthetic, poetic and erotic issues. Courtesy of the artist and Galeria Nina Menocal, Mexico City

Damian Ortega
Liquid Center, 1997, 7 min. (extract)
A lifeless object, a golf ball, is dissected until an unexpected interior life emerges. Courtesy of Kurimanzutto, Mexico City

Miguel Angel
Rios Return, 2004, 3 min. 22 sec.
This video, part of a trilogy ("A Morir", " A matar" and "Return") proposes a metaphor on renewal. On this occasion, the "tops" wake up from death and return to their battlefield. The work uses ambient sounds and is mixed with a soundtrack created expressly for the work by the artist. Courtesy of the artist .

Ivan Edeza
...de negocios y placer, 2000, 1 min. 30 sec.
Using found footage, this work re-presents scenes of a human hunting spree which the artist has manipulated in order to question the documentary intentions of the original material. Courtesy of the artist

Francis Alys
The Thief, 1998, 12 sec.
In collaboration with Rafael Ortega y Luis Felipe Ortega In this work, produced originally as a screensaver for Dia Center for the Arts' website, "Alys investigates the parallels between contemporary interface design and "Alberti's Window," a method of linear perspective drawing encoded and canonized during the early Renaissance". Courtesy of the artist

Thanks to:
Kurimanzutto, Galeria Enrique Guerrero, Galeria Nina Menocal, Ximena Cuevas, Fabiola Torres, Aaron Cook, Teresa Ordoqui and the artists.

ABOUT THE CURATORS:

Priamo Lozada (b. Dominican Republic, 1962) is a curator specializing in media art. As curator at the Laboratorio Arte Alameda in Mexico City, he has organized expositions of various artists including Mona Hatoum, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Melanie Smith, Thomas Glassford, Claudia Fernandez and Gerardo Suter. He has curated programs at international media arts festivales such as Videobrasil (Sao Paulo), Mediaterra (Athens), and Videoformes (France).

Taiyana Pimentel (Mexican, b. Havana, 1967) is an independent curator of contemporary art. Her latest projects include: "Espectacular", 2003, (parallel to the Feria de Arte Contemporaneo de Mexico) and "Mexico: Sensitive Negotiations" (parallel to Art Basel Miami 2002). As curator of the Museo Rufino Tamayo between 1999 and 2001 she organized "Sala 7. Proyectos Contemporaneos" which exhibited the works of artists such as Minerva Cuevas, Miguel Calderon, Santiago Sierra, Javier Tellez, Rozana Palazyan, Quisqueya Enriquez y Ernesto Pujol.