Nueva Exhibición en el Painted Bride Art Center Destaca la Importancia de la Documentación en la Sociedad Contemporánea
August 27, 2012 § Leave a Comment
COMUNICADO DE PRENSA: Agosto 24, 2012
Contactar a: Phil Sumpter, Director de Mercadeo y Comunicaciones phil@paintedbride.org 215-925-9914 x15
Nueva Exhibición en el Painted Bride Art Center Destaca la Importancia de la Documentación en la Sociedad Contemporánea
Filadelfia, PA. Agosto 10, 2012— En colaboración con la organización cívica, cultural Acción Colombia, el Painted Bride Art Center será este otoño la sede de una exhibición que invita al cuestionamiento crítico con una docena de experimentos socio-visuales que incluyen dibujo, pintura, instalación, actuación, fotografía y otros medios de comunicación. Papeles: Are we what we sign? expone aspectos culturales, legales, y económicos que se encuentran detrás de las transacciones que procuran la participación y cohesión en la sociedad Americana. La exhibición estará en muestra desde el 7 de septiembre hasta octubre 21, 2012, este proyecto es organizado paralelamente a la Conferencia de la Asociación Nacional de Artes y Cultura Latina (NALAC) que tendrá lugar en Filadelfia.
Papeles incluye un extraordinario e influyente grupo de artistas en Filadelfia—algunos ya conocidos y otros surgiendo. La postura de los artistas parte de sus posiciones como inmigrantes y/o descendientes de inmigrantes de naciones Latinoamericanas. Cada uno de ellos interpreta esta identidad como una cualidad abstracta que puede ser fácilmente dada, tomada, impuesta o distorsionada en una variedad de contextos. Del comentario crítico, la añoranza, la sátira, y la resistencia los artistas exponentes han encontrado fuentes de inspiración. Los exponentes incluyen: Andrea Rincón, Andria Morales, Carlos Nuñez, Doris Nogueira-Rogers, el duo Escobar-Morales, Erika Ristovski, Jonas dos Santos, Jorge Figueroa, Lina Cedeño y Pedro Ospina, Michelle Angela Ortiz, Paula Meninato, and Susana Amundaraín.
Papeles: Are we what we sign? es una exhibición bajo la curaduría de Andreina Castillo, Consultora Independiente en Gestoría de Arte y Programas. “Este proyecto se convirtió en un lugar de encuentro para cada uno de nosotros al organizarlo, desde artistas y directores a líderes comunitarios” así lo expreso Castillo. “Cada uno de nosotros (y/o a través de nuestras familias) hemos estado expuestos a las satisfacciones y altibajos en el proceso de migrar. Nosotros invitamos al público general para que busque sus propias dicotomías cuando presencien las cualidades visuales y conceptuales de esta exhibición.”
PAPELES: Are we what we sign? busca servir como un instrumento visual de exanimación al vinculo social con los documentos como símbolos legales de identidad que modelan nuestra ideología individual, aceptación cultural, igualdad de los sexos, acceso económico, oportunidades laborales y logros académicos. Al final, esta exhibición expone nuestra cultura ciudadana dentro de la sociedad Americana. Los conceptos entretejidos en esta exhibición se enlazan con las corrientes en los Estados Unidos, y el proceso global en busca del consenso en reformas, leyes, votos, resoluciones y otras formas contractuales que afectan la formación social como individuo y nuestra vida en comunidad.
La recepción de apertura será durante “El Primer Viernes”, septiembre 7 de 5pm – 7:30pm en el Painted Bride Art Center en el 230 Vine Street, Filadelfia, PA. En este evento, tendra la oportunidad de compartir con los artistas participantes, disfrutar de obras extraordinarias y de música Hispanoamericana en vivo. Ademas de deleitar de unos aperitivos especiales, amablemente ofrecidos por Positano Restaurant, Crudo & Wine Bar. Para mayor información por favor comuniquese con el Painted Bride Art Center al 215.925.9914.
Acción Colombia es una organización sin ánimo de lucro establecida para desarrollar el liderazgo en la comunidad Colombiana y Latinoamericana a través de las artes, cultura y participación ciudadana en el área tri-estatal de Pensilvania, Delaware y Nueva Jersey. Esta exhibición refuerza el compromiso con las artes y las iniciativas ciudadanas relacionadas con la inmigración, temas con los que la organización ha estado trabajando desde su inicio en el 2004.
Painted Bride Art Center es uno de los centros culturales más importantes en Filadelfia, y en el país. Su misión es atraer artistas, audiencias y comunidades rompiendo las barreras de como creamos y experimentamos el arte. Esta institutición cultiva un ambiente de dialogo critico y un intercambio perseverante para transformar vidas y comunidades.
Nosotros le damos la bienvenida a la Asociación Nacional de Arte y Cultura Latina (National Association of Latino Arts and Culture (NALAC) a Filadelfia que tendrá lugar de octubre 17 al 21. La conferencia nacional es una oportunidad para presentar la infraestructura artística de Filadelfia a una audiencia nacional de artistas, trabajadores culturales, curadores, y administradores del arte que de todos los rincones del país estarán participando en la conferencia.
Univision 65 apoya esta exhibición como el medio de comunicación oficial. Por favor visite www.accioncolombia.org/papeles o www.paintedbride.org para conocer mas sobre este proyecto.
Escobar-Morales: Excerpts from the Ressurection of Hun-Nal-Ye
July 26, 2012 § Leave a Comment
Performance artists Escobar-Morales perform a funerary ritual, referencing the mythical Mayan tale of the Hero Twins reviving their dead father, the Maize God. In their contemporary interpretation of this ancient story, Escobar-Morales simultaneously represent the body and the soul; the God/ Goddess and twin offspring, in both physical and technological forms using live performance and web based video projection. Performed at Jolie-Laide gallery in Philadelphia.
OffLine Photos
June 25, 2010 § Leave a Comment
OffLine Video Art Exhibition in Valparaiso, Chile. Photos and videos by Menru Silva
Jaime Silva, Jessica Bruna, Juvenal Barría, Cynthia Jackson, Maya Escobar, Señorita Ugarte, Paulo Fernandez, and Kenru La Hermana Gemela Altiplánica
el es frida kahlo
Be Wife
Solberg/Cruzen at the Craig Elmer Modern
February 19, 2010 § Leave a Comment
The Boys at Mi Ranchito, 2010
Jacob Cruzen and Dan Solberg are taking Saint Louis by storm with their exhibition Solberg/Cruzen, opening tomorrow night at the Craig Elmer Modern. Solberg/Cruzen promises to be filled with positivity, mysticism, and finely crafted objects.
Solberg/Cruzen Exhibition of New Work
February 20th – March 20th
Craig Elmer Modern
3194 South Grand
St Louis, MO 63116
el es frida kahlo at the gallery
February 5, 2010 § Leave a Comment
el es frida kahlo is currently on view in the New Media Room at the Bruno David Gallery in St. Louis, MO.
el es frida kahlo, 2007-present
Frida Kahlo played with the identity that she wanted to project and the identity that was placed on her by others. Kahlo used her clothing, political affiliations, sexual escapades, and personal traumas, to create a character that informed her body of work. She inscribed her identity, painting her image over and over, constructing a mythology around her persona.
In el es frida kahlo I confront the ambivalence I experience as a result of my simultaneous obsession with Frida Kahlo and weariness towards her commodification. Viewed from a tiny pinhole, dressed as Kahlo, I stand before a reproduction of one of her self portraits. With a mixture of rage, anxiety, and complete fear, I chant “el es Frida Kahlo, ella es Frida Kahlo, el es Frida Kahlo, yo soy, yo soy, yo soy Frida Kahlo,” he is Frida Kahlo, she is Frida Kahlo, I am, I am, I am Frida Kahlo. As I yell, the painting behind me begins to fall. I violently tear down my braids and smudge off my makeup while continuing to scream “I am Frida Kahlo, I am Frida Kahlo, yo soy Frida Kahlo!”
el es frida kahlo at the Bruno David Gallery (video filmed and edited by Felicia Chen)
el es frida kahlo YouTube video
FREE el es frida kahlo animated gif avaliable on MayaEscobar.com
link to translation of recent review by David Sperber in Ma’arav Israeli Arts and Culture Magazine:
Frida Kahlo at the synagogue: Maya Escobar and the young Jewish-American Creation
Just For Jewish Girls
February 2, 2010 § Leave a Comment
excerpt from article in The Jewish Chronicle by Justin Jacobs
Walk into the Saint Vincent College art gallery in Latrobe and the first thing you’ll see is a wall covered in brightly colored women’s panties.
Not the most common item on display at this small, staunchly Catholic institution, but peek a little closer — each pair is adorned with Hebrew text: shomer negia (don’t touch). Or, as artist and designer Maya Escobar explained, many interpret her panties as, “If you’ve gotten this far, you’re too far.”
The underwear is part of Tzit Tzit: Fiber Art and Jewish Identity, Saint Vincent’s new exhibition as assembled by guest curator and associate art professor Ben Schachter. The pieces included interpret the exhibition’s title both literally and metaphorically — tzit tzit as art, certainly, but also as a symbol of how Jews are bound together by material through tradition and practice.
“I wanted to make something like a ‘What Would Jesus Do’ bracelet but for young, Jewish girls,” said Escobar of her popular creation (they sell online at her Web site). “But why do people automatically assume it has to be a sexual message for men? It should be a halachic thing for women. Ideally, these aid in being shomer negia because they’re a reminder. They’re about individual sexuality for women.”
“They’re provocative and also ‘keep your hands off’ at the moment of greatest vulnerability. It’s really post-modern and funny,” said Schachter. “I mean, it’s underwear.”
click here for full article
SHOMER NEGIAH PANTIES are avaliable on ShomerNegiahPanties.com
free el es frida kahlo animated gif
January 16, 2010 § Leave a Comment
el es frida kahlo will be on view at the Bruno David Gallery in St. Louis, MO from 1/22-3/6. In conjunction with the exhibition, I am offering a FREE embeddable animated el es frida kahlo gif on mayaescobar.com.
CHAP OPENING 12/6
December 2, 2009 § Leave a Comment
Show opens 12/6. If you haven’t seen it, check out guest post I did on MyJewishLearing.com about my father’s and my piece in the show.
Orchard Street Artist Cultural Heritage Project
October 13, 2009 § 1 Comment
My father and I participated in the Orchard Street Artist Cultural Heritage Project.
During the months of December 2009 and January 2010, The John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art in New Haven, Connecticut will come alive with memories, recollections, and recreations of an important community heritage site, in an innovative group installation designed to both stimulate reflection on the legacies of past generations and engage the public in dreams for the future.
The Orchard Street Shul Cultural Heritage Artists Project is an art exhibition, a history lesson, a point of cultural exchange, and meeting place for dreamers, both nostalgic and visionary. Artists, researchers, and scholars have joined together to celebrate an important historic New Haven landmark which was once central to the life of a large Jewish immigrant population in the Oak Street neighborhood.
Urban changes in the last 50 years have all but erased evidence illustrating the importance of the Oak Street neighborhood in the lives of the newly arrived immigrants and migrants who populated much of the area now known as the “Oak Street Connector”, Route 34. Where some see open space, or a new hospital, or a school, or a parking lot, others with longer memories see shops bustling with activity, voices shouting in Yiddish and Italian, sprinkled with a variety of accents from elsewhere, including near and distant regions within the USA.
Contributions to the installation offer a range of approaches. Some artists researched the history of the Orchard Street Shul and its neighborhood, uncovering multiple stories of this community: stories of women working together to aid refugees, stories of hard-working fathers and mothers who dedicated themselves to making a better life for their children, and stories of teenagers who giggled and mingled on the steps of the Shul. Others built on their own experiences, reaching into their hearts to create depictions of the Shul that are evocative of deeper connections with history and community. Still others focused on the issues of urban renewal, making real the shifts in our urban landscape that are difficult to imagine as we visit the site today.
Included in the Project are presentations by researchers from Yale University who developed innovative ways to document the building, including virtual reconstructions exploring new digital methods, ground-breaking research by computer scientists that promises to change the ways that cultural heritage sites will be documented in the future. Some contributing artists used this digital data in their creative work.
The Orchard Street Shul Cultural Heritage Project is organized by Cynthia Beth Rubin, a New Haven based artist, in collaboration with participating artists and researchers: Nancy Austin, Meg Bloom, DonnaMaria Bruton, Jeanne Criscola, Roslyn Z. Croog, Linda Drazen, Paul Duda, Gonzalo Escobar, Maya Escobar, Alan Falk, Greg Garvey, Shalom Gorewitz, Jaime Kriksciun, Leslie J. Klein, Beth Krensky, Seth Lamberton, Mary Lesser, Lisa Link, David Ottenstein, Bruce Oren, Robert Rattner, Cynthia Beth Rubin, Holly Rushmeier, Janet Shafner, Frank Shifreen, Suzan Shutan, Sharon Siskin, Christina Spiesel, Yona Verwer, Julian Voloj, Laurie Wohl, Chen Xu, and Howard el-Yasin. The group includes artists from California, Florida, Utah, Missouri, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New York, who traveled to New Haven to contribute to the project alongside artists from the region.
A Project Book is being published in conjunction with the exhibition, including essays by Haisia Diner, the eminent scholar of Jewish immigration history, Walter Cahn, renowned historian of art and and architecture, and Hana Iverson, known for her remarkable multi-media installation “View from the Balcony” that was instrumental in helping attract attention to the renovation project of the Eldridge Street Shul. The book will also feature photographs of the works in the exhibition and memories of the Orchard Street Shul, with commentary by Karen Schiff. The innovative book design is by Criscola Design.
The Public is Invited to the Opening Reception for the Participating Artists, on Sunday, December 6, from 12:00 Noon to 5:00 pm. To set the mood for the launch of “The Orchard Street Shul Artists Cultural Heritage Project”, the Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale for Jewish Life at Yale will host a Jazz jam session on December 5 at 7:30, celebrating the swing dance music of 1924 and beyond, when the cornerstone of this Synagogue was put in place in a ceremony attended by Mayor Fitzgerald and much of the entire New Haven community.
The John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art is open W-F, 11:00 am to 4:00 pm, and weekends 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm. Schools and other organizations who would like to arrange a group visit outside of regular hours may do so by sending an email to: arts@orchardstreetshul-artistsproject.org.
Berlin’s Eruv Video
May 2, 2009 § Leave a Comment
caminante no hay camino
April 29, 2008 § 1 Comment
There is one specific image that I have never been able to remove from my mind: an image of a Guatemalan solider pointing a gun at the belly of a young pregnant woman. Ironically, I have no recollection as to the source of that specific image. Part of me wonders if that image even existed, or if it was a confabulation of my youth, created in response to the countless stories of political massacre in Guatemala that my father described to me on a regular basis.
The Power of Image
Recently I attended a symposium on Architecture, Art and the Experience of Blackness, where I was greatly moved by the words of Hamza Walker, who serves as the Director of Education and Associate Curator for the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago.
In an effort to outline “blackness” or the “black experience”, Walker alluded to the profound impact of the publication of the casket-side Emmett Till photos in JET magazine.
The Till incident began with the brutal beating and murder of an 11yr old boy, whose only crime was whistling at a white woman. In a surprisingly high profile trial the two men accused were almost immediately acquitted by an all white jury. The boy’s grieving mother insisted on an open casket funeral so that the world could see what had happened to her beloved son.
Walker said, that the media transmission of these transgressions confirmed the collective understanding shared by African Americans that this treatment was the reality of the judicial system. If they were to ever “compromise the integrity of a white woman” what happened to Till would happen to them.
Is exposure to explicit images of human brutality the proper way to insure that these incidents do not repeat themselves?
How many times have we seen the same iconographic holocaust pictures?
But do we know who is in these images and what is taking place?
Has seeing the same images a million times done anything the stop the Iraq war or prevent genocide in Darfur?
Perhaps the issue comes down to the dissemination of information to young people. Without providing a proper context for the interpretation and dialogue surrounding these explicit images, the depicted incidents become far removed from our lives, and we become numb to their reality.
Why a Coloring Book?
Coloring Books, emerged in the United States a part of the movement towards the “democratization of education”. They are commonly utilized in popular education models as, accessible teaching tools for often illiterate audiences.
This coloring book provides the platform for the introduction and the critical re-evaluation of social movements the context in which they occurred, and the individuals who have preserved and made a major impacts upon the world.
ARTE ≠ VIDA: ACTIONS BY ARTISTS OF THE AMERICAS
March 19, 2008 § 5 Comments
Last weekend Carianne and I went to NY for the 2008 Whitney Biennial. As we expected from a survey of Contemporary American Art, not everything in the exhibition appealed to us. However neither of us was disappointed because we were not expecting to be unilaterally wowed. Upon leaving the Whitney, we got into an in-depth discussion about individuals’ preconceived expectations, and the role they play in the determining interaction/interpretation/enjoyment, with actual works of art. Soon after this conversation, I was put to the test.
As any young MFA student (traveling to New York) who has any hopes of some day having a career, Carianne and I were preparing to leave our hotel, to visit the elusive Chelsea Galleries, when I came upon an announcement for a show at El Museo Del Barrio, ARTE ≠ VIDA: ACTIONS BY ARTISTS OF THE AMERICAS
“Arte no es vida” surveys, for the first time ever, the vast array of performative actions created over the last half century by Latino artists in the United States and by artists working in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Mexico, Central and South America.
Many of the works included in Arte ≠ Vida have subtle or overt political contexts and content: military dictatorships, civil wars, disappearances, invasions, brutality, censorship, civil rights struggles, immigration issues, discrimination, and economic woes have troubled the artists’ homelands continuously over the past four decades and therefore have infiltrated their consciousness. According to curator Deborah Cullen, “the exhibition title challenges the commonplace idea that art is equivalent to life, and life is art. What is proposed through these many works is that while art affirms and celebrates life with a regenerative force, and sharpens and provokes our critical senses, artistic actions which address inequalities and conflict are not equivalent to real life endured under actual repression.”
Over 75 artists and collectives are represented in Arte ≠ Vida, including ASCO, Tania Bruguera, CADA, Lygia Clark, Papo Colo, Juan Downey, Rafael Ferrer, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Alberto Greco, Alfredo Jaar, Tony Labat, Ana Mendieta, Marta Minujin, Raphael Montañez-Ortiz, Hélio Oiticica, Tunga and contemporary practitioners including Francis Alÿs, Coco Fusco, Regina José Galindo, Teresa Margolles and Santiago Sierra. The exhibition is arranged in four major sections, in which each decade is represented by several specific themes that often cross national boundaries. 1960-1970 looks at select precursors, signaling, destructivism and neoconcretismo; 1970-1980 considers political protest, class struggle, happenings, land/body relationships and border crossing; 1980-1990 focuses upon anti-dictatorship protest and dreamscapes; and 1990-2000 references the Quincentenary, multiculturalism, postmodernism and endurance. An additional section highlights interventions that artists have carried out on television over the past 20 years. In these chronological, thematic groupings, viewers will be able to explore the interconnections among various artists’ actions as well as the surges of activities triggered by specific events in certain countries.
I didn’t know what to do. This sounded to good to be true, but we also knew we were supposed to visit the Chelsea Galleries. I considered just buying the catalogue to the exhibition and skipping the show. I don’t know if it was faith or instinct that got us there, but I can say with out any doubt in my mind that this was single handedly the best exhibition I have ever attended.
“¿Quién puede olvidar las huellas?,” Regina Galindo. 2003.
Galindo walking through the streets of downtown Guatemala City, wetting her feet in a blood-filled bucket, and leaving a path of footprints from the Constitutional Court building to the Presidential Palace, where she was welcomed by a police battalion. The Court had just validated former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt, the country’s foremost author of genocide, as a presidential candidate.
Oscar Bony (1941-2002) hired a working-class family at twice their going wage to pose in a Buenos Aires gallery as a living work of art
“Arte Reembolso/Art Rebate” by Elizabeth Sisco, Louis Hock and David Avalos. 1993.

[...] “The current economic recession has been debilitating for many artists regardless of the content of their work. Since this climate is characterized by a particular hostility toward controversial art, it is especially significant that Elizabeth Sisco. Louis Hock. and David Avalos have maintained a reputation for causing trouble in San Diego. Their collaborative public art projects receive scandalous reports in local and national news media and are often used as examples of the National Endowment for the Art’ inadequate standards of quality. Their most current collaborative project Art Rebate (1993) refunded $10 bills to 450 undocumented workers along the San Diego, California/Mexico border. It was commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego and Centro Cultural de la Raza as part of the “La Frontera/The Border” exhibition. In response to recent attention to border relations due to NAFTA and other government policies, the artists wished to refute the popular misconception that undocumented Mexican workers do not pay taxes as well as demonstrate. albeit with a small symbolic gesture, their appreciation of the undocumented as valued members of Western states, communities. Furthermore, I believe their work has significant implications for undocumented workers from other nations, residing in other regions of the United States – Caribbean workers in Florida and New York City, for example. If the communities in which the undocumented workers from these areas work and reside could also acknowledge their common contributions, in the form of taxes among other things, then perhaps we as a society could also begin to address the crimes inflicted upon these groups and apply our democratic notions of human rights to those within our national borders. [...]
“The projects are clearly controversial. That’s not an accident. It’s not as if someone latches onto the projects and holds them up as problematic. We intend to create something that is provocative and engenders a public discussion. It is public art, not art in the public. The work is defined by its performance in the community. The public discussion is crucial to the project. In order to begin a discussion we initiate an action – for example, a bus poster or a $10 rebate – that starts the ball rolling. We definitely aim to draw in the broadest spectrum of people, including those in power for the discussion. Obviously the media is not a neutral mechanism for communicating the events that unfold during the projects: it has an agenda that shapes its participation in the discussion. For example, much of the language used to describe Art Rebate in the press was the same inflammatory rhetoric promoted and laid out by the politicians who had given a profile of blame to the undocumented. Similarly, the press had a hard time imagining, and therefore was unable to fairly convey, the undocumented as taxpayers. The press was invited to experience the act of rebating these signed $10 bills. They were encouraged to ask the opinion of undocumented workers concerning their status as taxpayers, but the responses failed to appear prominently in the news media. The media coverage was not a means of evaluating the project but rather a component of the project. Their viewpoints describe a conceptual social space in which they situate the taxpayer and the undocumented in different realms.”
“The Parthenon of Books/Homage to Democracy, Buenos Aires,” Marta Minujín. 1983.
In December 1983 the Argentine Conceptual artist Marta Minujin and a group of helpers spent 17 days building a full-scale model of the Parthenon in a public park in Buenos Aires, Roberta Smith writes. Except for a metal scaffolding, it was made almost entirely of books wrapped in plastic. All the books had been banned by one of the most oppressive juntas in the country’s history, which was just being dismantled after Argentina’s first democratic election in a decade. “The Parthenon of Books/Homage to Democracy,” as Ms. Minujin’s work was titled, stood for about three weeks. Then the public was allowed to disassemble the piece and keep the books.
partenon de libros marta minujin
Avenida 9 deJulio y Avenida Santa Fe. Buenos Aires. Argentina. Concebida como un monumento a la democracia y a la educación por el arte, Partenón constaba una estructura metálica, réplica del partenón, recubierta con prohibidos durante la dictadura militar.


[...]In a similar fashion to the live human spectacles of the past, Fusco and Gomez-Peña performed the role of cultural “other” for their museum audiences. While on display the artists’ “traditional” daily rituals ranged from sewing voodoo dolls, to lifting weights to watching television to working on laptop computers. During feeding time museum guards passed bananas to the artists and when the couple needed to use the bathroom they were escorted from their cage on leashes. For a small donation, Fusco could be persuaded to dance (to rap music) or both performers would pose for Polaroids. Signs assured the visitors that the Guatinauis “were a jovial and playful race, with a genuine affection for the debris of Western industrialized popular culture . . . Both of the Guatinauis are quite affectionate in the cage, seemingly uninhibited in their physical and sexual habits despite the presence of an audience.” Two museum guards from local institutions stood by the cage and supplied the inquisitive visitor with additional (equally fictitious) information about the couple. An encyclopedic-looking map of the Gulf of Mexico, for instance, showed the supposed geographic location of their island. Using maps, guides, and the ambiguous museum jargon, Fusco and Gomez-Peña employed the common vocabulary of the museum world to stage their own display[...]
“Construction of a Traditional Rural Oven,” Víctor Grippo y Jorge Gamarra. 1972.
CONSTRUCCION DE UN HORNO POPULAR PARA HACER PAN
Intención: Trasladar un objeto conocido en un determinado entorno y por determinada gente, a otro entorno transitado por otro tipo de personas.
Objeto: Revalorizar un elemento de uso cotidiano, lo que implica, además del aspecto constructivo escultórico, una actitud.
Acción:
a) Construcción del Horno
b) Fabricación del Pan
c) Partición del Pan.Resultante pedagógica: Describir el proceso de construcción del Horno y de la fabricación del Pan. Distribuir una hoja. Será posible la participación del público mediante un intercambio de información.
“Untitled (Body Tracks),” Ana Mendieta. 1974.

abidin travels
February 21, 2008 § 2 Comments

(above)
Willie Cole, The Difference between Black and White,
2005-6. Shoes, wood, metal, screws, and staples, 85 x 16″.
ST. LOUIS, MO – War and disaster have profoundly shaped the opening years of the 21st century. In the United States and abroad, acts of violence and terrorism as well as natural catastrophes have resulted in large-scale destruction and displacement affecting the lives of millions. In February, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis will present On the Margins, an exhibition exploring the impact of war and disaster through the work of a diverse range of contemporary artists. Curated by Carmon Colangelo — a nationally known printmaker as well as dean of the university’s Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts — the exhibition will showcase more than a dozen works, ranging from prints and photographs to video and large-scale installations, by ten artists from around the world.
Several installations play against traditional approaches to war memorial. For example, Fallen (2004-ongoing), by the American artist Jane Hammond, comprises a large field of brightly colored leaves, each bearing the name of a soldier killed in Iraq. Similarly elegiac is Metal Jacket (1992/2001), by South Korea’s Do-Ho Suh, which consists of 3000 dog tags stitched to the liner of a U.S. military jacket. Abidin Travels: Welcome to Baghdad (2006), an interactive video installation by the Iraqi expatriate Adel Abidin, allows viewers to become virtual tourists amidst the wreckage of his native Baghdad.
In conjunction with the exhibition MFA candidates Carianne Noga, Dan Solberg, Erica Millspaugh and I assumed the role of travel agents assisting museum visitors in arranging their virtual flight Baghdad aboard a B52.
Producto? Inc
March 28, 2007 § 1 Comment
UPDATE
Braulio was featured on artnet.com

Artist Alfi Rolón performing as part of Braulio Espinosa Castillo’s “Artistas de Hoy”
Circa ’07 also featured a row of smaller booths housing individual projects by invited artists. One of the most popular was “Artistas de Hoy,” a project stage-managed by Braulio Espinosa Castillo of Producto? Inc., for which he somehow convinced 40 artists to pose in a glass display case alongside a video of their artwork. The combination was a perfect gambit. Not only were the videos illuminating, but fair visitors clearly were enchanted by the opportunity to stare at real artists standing in a booth.
Producto? Inc. es una propuesta que nace de la reflexión en torno a la condición “natural” del individuo como producto mercantil. Con la dirección de Braulio Espinosa Castillo y la colaboración incondicional de familiares, amigos, colegas artistas y auspiciadores.

El proceso de cosificación que produce la sociedad de consumo a la que nos enfrentamos a diario no se limita solo a la materia no viviente y no pensante, sino también a los seres humanos: mercaderes y consumidores. Siempre el hombre ha puesto algún tipo de valor sobre la materia, sea viva o no. Un producto mercantil es una cosa producida con la finalidad de la venta. En el contexto actual de vida somos un producto mercantil, primero por que somos una cosa producida. Producida por el hogar, la iglesia, las escuelas, la universidad, los trabajos. Segundo, mientras no exista otro sistema económico, todos cambiaremos dinero por nuestro servicio; trabajo y conocimiento. El salario mide el precio del trabajo, que a fin de cuenta, define el valor material del trabajador, el producto. En algunos países el acto es aún más literal, cuando se venden esclavos, niños y órganos humanos.
En CIRCA 07 estarán participando 40 colegas artistas, cada uno con su propuesta individual de ellos mismos como producto mercantil. Durante 25 minutos estarán en exhibición, en instalación-performace.
How does it feel to be called a JAP?
March 11, 2007 § 13 Comments
Please take this as an opportunity to let your voice be heard.
I welcome anyone who would like to offer a response online, either written or in the form of a video blog. Remember that the acciones plásticas videos are not the stereotypes themselves, they are women who have be affected by their presence.
I will continuously update this post with videos as they are submitted. “How does it feel to be called a _____?” Feel free, (but not limited) to respond to the stereotypes I have presented. Use this as an opportunity to share your own experiences.
If you are an educator takes this as an opportunity to discuss these issues with your students. I am in the process of developing curriculum for presenting acciones plásticas in the classroom.





while the “youtube” video blogs are played on a reel.
The public will be invited to respond, by altering the text accompanying each doll. Over the course of the exhibition the original cards displaying the stereotype will be replaced by the new cards with altered text.
Your video responses will be incorporated into the reel.
From the show
Now I am asking you to participate. Hopefully viewing these images has caused you to question if and when similar stereotypes have been applied to you or those around you. Please take the time to share your experiences by clicking on any of the dolls to submit your response.
I have included a section with guiding questions. If you have more you would like to submit post them here
Please feel free but not limited to answering the following questions regarding each doll:
Is there any truth to this description?
Are all of these things negative?
What is the origin of this stereotype?
What is a _________ really like?
What does this stereotype leave unsaid?



































