News
Exhibition | Carlos Motta: Deus Pobre: Modern Sermons of Communal Lament, Y Gallery, NY
November 24, 2011
November 22-December 23
Y Gallery
165 Orchard Street
Tue-Sun: 12-6pm
DEUS POBRE: Modern Sermons of Communal Lament is a video installation based on a series of performative interventions in Catholic churches in Porto, Portugal. Six ordained priests —all of whom share an interest in the theology movement known as Liberation theology— read excerpts of key sermons and texts delivered by theologians and priests since the 17th Century.
Liberation theology emerged in the 1970s in Latin America —with developments in other parts of the world— where oppression, marginalization and vulnerability have determined the social landscape since the times of the Conquest. The movement focuses on the “dialogue between the Christian tradition, social theory, and the insight of the poor into their own situation, leading to action for change.”(1) Liberation theology underlines the political potential of the church’s mission and denounces instances when the church has been complicit with regimes of imperial and oppressive power.
Set in Portugal, DEUS POBRE, which translates as Impoverished God, revisits this particular history by asking contemporary priests to deliver, during their daily mass or for a public audience, theological-political sermons originally written byBartolomé de las Casas (1542), António Vieira (1653-57), Gustavo Gutiérrez(1971), Óscar Romero (1977-80),and Leonardo Boff (1996). Thus the priests engage with Portugal’s colonial history and the past role of the church in missionary evangelization, as well as with its current institutional role in a globalized and socially unequal world where the majority of its population lives in abject poverty.
More info here
Exhibition and Book Launch | The Future Lasts Forever, Gävle Konstcentrum, Sweden
November 24, 2011
November 19, 2011— March 4, 2012
Opening reception: November 19, 3 pm
Presentation of the project by Carlos Motta and Runo Lagomarsino
Lecture by Miguel López, Red Conceptualismos del Sur
Moderator: Lisa Rosendahl, Director, Iaspis
The Future Lasts Forever is a book and exhibition project initiated by artists Runo Lagomarsino and Carlos Motta featuring contributions by 21 artists, collectives, and writers who reflect about “the future of Latin America.”
What is the future of Latin America?
When thinking about the making of a future, of an idea of futurity, we must think of what kind of historical lenses we shall employ. The future is inevitably tied to the past and it is defined by the present. The past has been created by ghosts that have determined the present; as specters they manifest in the present as agents of influence. Is there a productive mechanism to free ourselves from this kind of historical determination? What is the role of memory and history in this process? What is the role of artists in imagining a society of the future?
The Book
The Future Lasts Forever compiles newly commissioned essays and projects by a group of Latin American artists and thinkers, who have been assigned the task to reflect about “the future of Latin America.” Ideas conceived to challenge traditional expectations about what the future will bring. The texts and projects in this publication also attempt to transcend stereotypical representations of Latin America, to reflect about our relationship to historical narratives, and to recognize the importance of the actions carried through in the present
With contributions by: Alexander Apóstol, Beta-Local with Juan López Bauza and Luis Pérez, Giuseppe Campuzano, Carlos Capelán, Isabel García Pérez de Arce, Marianna Garín and Roberto Jacoby, Inti Guerrero, Runo Lagomarsino, Walter Mignolo, Carlos Motta, Mujeres Creando, Juan Velentini and Carla Zaccagnini.
Download a free PDF of the book here
www.gavlekonstcentrum.se/content/view/37/176/lang,en
The Exhibition
The Future Lasts Foreveris also an exhibition presented at Gävle Konstcentrum in Sweden (November 19, 2011– March 4, 2012), featuring works by Allora & Calzadilla, Francis Alÿs, Carlos Bunga, Mariana Castillo Deball, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Carlos Garaicoa, Antoni Muntadas, Adriana Lara and Wilfredo Prieto.
The Future Lasts Forever is published in collaboration between Iaspis and Gävle Konstcentrum. A series of lectures and workshops will take place during the winter 2011–2012.
More info here
Group Exhibition | The Walls That Divide Us, apexart, New York
November 1, 2011
November 9 — December 22, 2011
Opening reception: Wed., November 9, 6-8 pm
Featuring work by: Gisele Amantea, Kader Attia, Carolina Caycedo, Chen Chieh-jen, Sam Durant, Leor Grady, Ivan Grubanov, Shilpa Gupta, Alfredo Jaar, Emily Jacir, Runo Lagomarsino, Teresa Margolles, Locky Morris, Carlos Motta, Ahmet Ögüt, Anna Ostoya, Amalia Pica, Rigo 23. Curated by Miguel Amado.
In the early 1990s, Western-style liberal democracies appeared as the archetypal form of government from which a peacekeeping transnational power would emerge. Following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the end of the Cold War inaugurated what one hoped was an era without conflict. However, on the fiftieth anniversary of that fortification, strife is spreading worldwide. From the U.S.-Mexico frontier to Jerusalem, more and more barbed wired fences and checkpoints are being assembled, splitting communities and creating areas of exclusion. The construction of the Berlin Wall, rather than its demise, is the historical moment that encapsulates the current state of affairs. The organizing principle of present times is not the free circulation of individuals but the walls that divide them.
The Walls That Divide Us addresses the proliferation of state and city separation barriers across the globe as symbols of dissent in contemporary politics. Featured artists examine the ideology of wall building as a means of segregating populations to establish sovereignty in uneven geographies. The works in the show draw attention to the material, normative, and cultural function of barricading in zones of conflict today and the social injustice that it generates. They comment on the establishment of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Iron Curtain, the Israeli-Palestinian question, the violence in Ciudad Juárez, and the migration crisis in the Mediterranean region. They also explore phenomena such as imperialistic enterprises and contested territories, security policies and border control, revolutionary movement and mass protest.
More info here
Group Exhibition and Book Launch | The Air We Breathe at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
October 15, 2011
November 5 -February 20, 2011
Over the last decade, equal rights for same-sex couples — including the right to legally wed — has proven one of the country’s most pressing civil rights issues. In the belief that art can lead to new ways of thinking and open up dialogue, The Air We Breathe brings together thirty visual artists and eight poets who offer their commitment and creativity to the cause of marriage equality. The show and its accompanying book — both titled after a phrase from a Langston Hughes poem, “Equality is in the air we breathe” — aim to prompt public discussion and foster ever broader understanding of a crucial issue of our time.
Visual artists in the exhibition include Laylah Ali, D-L Alvarez, Doug Ashford, Nayland Blake, Jennifer Bornstein, Andrea Bowers, Robert Buck, Johanna Calle, Martha Colburn, Sam Durant, Shannon Ebner, Nicole Eisenman, Simon Fujiwara, Liam Gillick, Robert Gober, Ann Hamilton, Sharon Hayes, Christian Holstad, Elliott Hundley, Colter Jacobsen, Matt Keegan, Carlos Motta, Catherine Opie, Nicolás Paris, Dan Perjovschi, Raymond Pettibon, Amy Sillman, Allison Smith, Lily van der Stokker, and Erika Vogt. Poets include George Albon, Will Alexander, John Ashbery, Dodie Bellamy, kari edwards (poem selected by Frances Blau and Rob Halpern), Kevin Killian, Ariana Reines, and Anne Waldman.
New York City book launch
Saturday, November 5, 6-7:30pm
White Columns
320 West 13th Street
More info here
Performa Project | “Broken English” in collaboration with Julieta Aranda for Performa 11, New York
October 14, 2011
November 1-21, 2011
For Performa 11, Julieta Aranda and Carlos Motta (b. 1975, Mexico City, Mexico; b. 1978 Bogota, Colombia) have invited a group of international contributors to reflect on New York City as a cross-cultural terrain and as a public space for constant cultural translations and negotiations, in a publication/supplement titled Broken English. Working with the curatorial threads of Performa 11, the supplement will act as a witness of New York’s cultural history and will present writings by artists and cultural producers that have been active in different capacities for the past 30 years, including:
Julieta Aranda, Joey Arias/Carlos Motta, Defne Ayas, Michael Baers, Sarnath Banerjee, Andy Bichlbaum, Julio Camba, Asli Çavuşoğlu, Carolina Caycedo, Samuel R. Delany, Jimmie Durham, Liam Gillick, Ashley Hunt, Adam Kleinman, Runo Lagomarsino, Yates McKee, Naeem Mohaiemen/Visible Collective, Shirin Neshat/RoseLee Goldberg, OWS Architecture Committee, Raqs Media Collective, Martha Rosler, Kim Turcot DiFruscia/Elizabeth Povinelli, Anton Vidokle/Andrei Monastyrski, Jeff Weintraub, and Carla Zaccagnini.
Treating New York City as site for all sorts of personal and collective encounters/misses/near-misses, the supplement promises to be a fertile ground for a discussion of issues of urbanism, architecture, cultural policy, art production, the role of underground etc. (The publication will focus on the suspension of individual and group ideologies, cultural behaviors, moral attitudes, lifestyles, and beliefs when faced with other people and communities in the urban environment). For the design of the supplement, Aranda and Motta will draw from Constructivist and propaganda aesthetics, featuring both new commissioned texts as well as reprints of historical texts. A public launch is scheduled for November 12. A Performa Project. Curated by Defne Ayas.
Aranda and Motta’s collaboration started with Arts & Leisure, a one-time tabloid newspaper commissioned by Art in General and co-published with e-flux in 2005. The tabloid drew its title from the New York Time’s cultural section making emphasis on its equivalence of arts and/to leisure. Using a journalistic style to inquire about the crisis pertaining art criticism and complacency with commercial structures of art discussion, the project presented poignant texts, articles, texts and humorous contributions (cross word puzzles, horoscope, letters to the editor, etc.) by over 20 international cultural producers.
Screening and Talk | A New Discovery: Queer Immigration in Perspective at Museum of Art and Design, New York
October 13, 2011
Saturday, October 22, 2011. 5 pm
To highlight the issues faced by queer immigrants in the United States, the grassroots organization QUEEROCRACY in collaboration with artist Carlos Motta present A New Discovery: Queer Immigration in Perspective. The event will feature presentations by leading queer immigration activists, a public conversation, and a video screening of a social intervention-based performance held by QUEEROCRACY and its allies on Columbus Day at Columbus Circle.
A New Discovery: Queer Immigration in Perspective attempts to bring attention to the way immigrant and queer politics intersect in the public sphere in ways that both confront, challenge and transform the state mechanisms that police borders and bodies in the United States. This dialogue strives to generate new ideas on how to better make a difference in the lives of queer people around the world.
Presentations and a public conversation by Felipe Baeza, New York State Youth Leadership Council; Ivan Espinoza-Madrigal, Staff Attorney, Lambda Legal; Camilo Godoy, QUEEROCRACY; Jackie Vimo, activist and PhD Candidate in Politics The New School for Social Research; and a video address by Tania Bruguera, Immigrant Movement International. Moderated by Carlos Motta, artist.
More info here
Group Exhibition | The Unseen Eye: Photographs from the W.M Hunt Collection at George Eastman House, Rochester, NY
October 1, 2011
October 1- February 19, 2011
Earlier this year The New Yorker referred to the collector as “the legendary W.M. Hunt.” He is a renowned curator and dealer who has been collecting photographs for 40 years. A self-described “champion of photography,” he is well-known for his “eye” and sense of humor. Hunt describes the collection as “magical, heart-stopping images of people in which the eyes cannot be seen.”
The photographs of The Unseen Eye have a common theme — the gaze of the subject is averted, the face obscured, or the eyes firmly closed. The images evoke a wide range of emotions and are characterized, by what, at first glance, the subject conceals rather than what the camera reveals.
More info here
Panel Discussion | The Gay Generation Gap, Dixon Place, New York
September 30, 2011
Sunday, October 2, 2011, 5 pm
Featuring Ira Sachs and Carlos Motta
To accompany his new show thirtynothing (running throughout October), performance artist Dan Fishback curates a month-long series of events about the legacy of AIDS on queer art and culture. Topics include the gay generation gap, the intersection of gentrification and AIDS, and the films of gay photographer Mark Morrisroe. Fishback will also create an art installation made of ephemera from the lives and careers of gay artists, writers, and performers who died of AIDS.
More info here
Book Launch | LAXART, September 29, 7:30pm, Los Angeles
September 12, 2011
LA><ART is pleased to host a reception for artist Carlos Motta, whose two new collaborative book projects address the social, political, and sexual dynamics of queer affection. Motta will discuss these projects, followed by short readings from the texts by Motta, Alex Segade, Wu Tsang and others special guests. The two books, We Who Feel Differently and Petite Mort: Recollections of a Queer Public, which both include contributions from leading artists and thinkers, will be made available at LA><ART.
LA><ART is located at 2640 S. La Cienega Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90034
Artist Talk | Carlos Motta: We Who Feel Differently at Pomona Museum of Art, Los Angeles
September 7, 2011
September 26, 7-9pm
Carlos Motta will discuss his most recent project We Who Feel Differently, a database documentary that addresses the politics of sexual difference and other critical issues of contemporary queer culture. We Who Feel Differently attempts to reclaim a queer “We” that values difference over sameness, a “We” that resists assimilation, and a “We” that embraces difference as a critical opportunity to construct a socially just world.
More info here
