Sunday 19 December 2004

'TROPICAL TABLE PARTY' A TRANSIT SALON IN BARCELONA BY MARIA INES RODRIGUEZ AND PABLO LEON DE LA BARRA






Transit Salon, views



Work Station


Audio Station



Video Station


Hanging publications, including Raimond Chaves' 'Hangueando'


Posters by Luis Romero/Tipos Mobiles


take away Points de Ironie


Leonardo Herrera, 'The Leftists have not Died'



Transit Salon design drawings by PLB


Tropical Table Party/Transit Salon
Centre D´Art Santa Mónica, Barcelona
December 18 de 2004 - March 6 de 2005
(a project by Maria Ines Rodriguez and Pablo Leon de la Barra)

Transit Salon documents the publishing strategies developed by artists (mainly from Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela) in order to gain visibility through self published fanzines, magazines, posters, stickers, flyers, CDs etc.

Transit Salon is intended as a documentary/informative space of transition presenting a collection of works that address the disjunctions in the socio-political context of these regions as well as the instability of identity under the effects of globalization, and the dissatisfaction with the current state of global economics in a context where one survives between hope and frustration.

Transit Salon is a space of reflection within transition that can appear and disappear in different spaces, places and contexts...

*****
Tropical Table Party
por Maria Ines Rodriguez

"... las dos últimas horas de la tarde (geografía e historia) me las pasaba pensando en el puesto de revistas. Era uno situado en la primera ceiba a la derecha del Paseo Bolívar, al que había llegado buscando los cuentos de Santo El Enmascarado de Plata (que en mi casa me tenían prohibidos, junto a los de Edgar Allan Poe, porque eran cuentos de la plebe) y terminé descubriendo las revistas de mujeres; cuando ya llevaba mis tiempos de ser cliente, me las mostró con disimulo el dueño del puesto (...) cuando ya no había un solo cuento de Santo que yo no hubiera visto, incluso los lomos, entonces me dijo:
-Vení, acércate, te muestro una cosa.
Yo me le acerqué con cuidado. Debajo de muchos "Domingos Alegres" me dejó ver la primera revista..."
Andrés Caicedo, Angelitos Empantanados o historias para jovencitos.

Así aparecen "las revistas" en la vida del narrador de Angelitos Empantanados, allá en Cali, enigmática ciudad situada en el occidente colombiano. "Con una vegetación semitropical de bambúes, bananeros y papayas, Cali es una ciudad relativamente agradable, con un buen clima. Aquí no se siente la tensión. Cali tiene una tasa elevada de crímenes auténticos; no políticos. Hasta violación de cajas de caudales...", según la descripción que hiciera William Burroughs en sus Cartas del Yagé, en 1953

Hoy todavía quedan rastros de la época, y el clima es más agradable que nunca; el crimen sigue siendo auténtico, pero también político y en escala ascendente, condicionado por el agitado contexto que vive el país y que Cali ha resentido con una fuerza aplastante.

Por sus calles sigue rodando todo tipo de "angelitos empantanados", que intentan recrear una ciudad imaginaria, impregnando de sentido los lugares para sobrevivir.

En esa ciudad, fantasma tropical de luces de colores que obliga a redefinir constantemente el terror y el escape para no perecer, circulan los personajes de Andrés Caicedo.

Cali, al igual que muchas otras metrópolis del planeta, vive una realidad marcada por una situación compleja y convulsionada. Las contradicciones sociales y el abismo que separa los diferentes grupos de la población se han acrecentado a pasos agigantados, convirtiéndola en un verdadero laboratorio urbano contemporáneo.

El universo juvenil descrito en esta refrescante novela de los años setenta nos hace partícipes de un viaje iniciático hacia lugares aún desconocidos. Es un dramático salto del mundo heroico e ingenuo de Santo el Enmascarado de Plata, el de los cómics, al mundo de los adultos, hacia una sexualidad deseada pero prohibida, representada a través de las revistas porno. Sí, se trata también de las revistas, que sirven aquí de ventana para ver el otro lado, que muestran "eso" que se desea, pero a lo que no se tiene acceso inmediato.

La idea de crear una estructura que permitiera hacer circular y dar visibilidad a revistas, publicaciones y otros impresos surgió allí mismo, en Cali, en la avenida Colombia (para que todo quedara en familia), después de una larga entrevista a Miguel González, comisario del Museo La Tertulia, acerca del Caliwood*, movimiento del que el propio Caicedo formó parte. Tal vez la conexión entre una cosa y otra sea bastante frágil, pero las ideas a veces llegan así: tomando un refresco bajo una ceiba y escuchando historias caleñas sobre cine y vampiros.

La relación podría encontrarse buscando del lado de las prácticas artísticas colectivas, ya que, como recuerda Miguel González, "En 1970 se fundó una casa cultural en el centro de la ciudad que se llamó Ciudad Solar. Allí se gestó una revista de cine, se hicieron algunos cortometrajes y Andrés Caicedo empezó su película. Las sábados se presentaba el cineclub de Caicedo; en el patio, en el teatro San Fernando y en la galería se exhibieron artistas contemporáneos".

Hasta aquí entonces es cuestión de práctica artística, espacio, visibilidad de proyectos artísticos. Analizándolas de cerca, las publicaciones (soporte de papel) aparecen como una estrategia perfecta que permite interactuar con los tres a la vez, además de ofrecer mayor movilidad, ya que se trata de espacios ambulantes. La cuestión que surge después es cómo asegurar la circulación de estas publicaciones, ya que no estamos hablando aquí de grandes casas editoriales con sus propias redes de distribución, sino de sistemas artesanales de producción y distribución que en ocasiones van de mano en mano y que con gran esfuerzo logran sobrevivir al número cero.

La idea de crear un espacio que contenga una serie de publicaciones y ediciones independientes ha tomado diversas formas y ha permitido iniciar una reflexión sobre la producción, la independencia editorial, las redes de distribución, los contenidos, el diseño, etc. El espacio como lugar físico y mental también ha adquirido gran importancia; no bastaba con transportar las revistas y colocarlas sobre una mesa, era necesario crear un dispositivo flexible que se adaptara tanto a los impresos como al espacio real que acoge. En este sentido, desarrollamos una primera colaboración con Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, un kiosco ambulante de revistas en kit que "podría llevar por el mundo las revistas culturales" que todos quisiéramos leer. La aventura no logró pasar del estadio del diseño del kiosco.

Algún tiempo después, iniciamos una larga y productiva colaboración con Pablo León de la Barra, urbanista y arquitecto, en torno al espacio. Poco a poco hemos ido encontrando de qué forma articular nuestras ideas y el dispositivo nos sirve de campo de experimentación y negociación. Las publicaciones se han ido convirtiendo en una buena estrategia para construir dispositivos que den visibilidad a las construcciones culturales de unos y otros.

* En palabras de Miguel González, el Caliwood "surgió en los setenta y agrupaba, entre otros, al mismo Caicedo, Carlos Mayolo y Luis Ospina, directores de cine. Una generación marcada por la fascinación de la literatura de Edgar Allan Poe y los libros como El almuerzo desnudo. La marihuana, los hongos silvestres, el ácido y el alcohol como privilegiados medios de un esparcimiento especial. La división del gusto musical entre el rock y la salsa, y la adicción al cine norteamericano, pero también al japonés y al europeo de Bergman, Godard, Truffaut, Passolini, Antonioni y Don Luis Buñuel".

Thursday 14 October 2004

LOS SUPER ELEGANTES AND AVAF 'SLOW DANCE CLUB' AT FRIEZE ART FAIR










Slow Dance CluB
Los Super Elegantes & assume vivid astro focus

'Last February we were driving through the streets of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and passed by a MacDonald's. All of a sudden we saw a group of people dancing like crazy towards the back of the fast food joint which indeed seemed natural. People were on top of the tables wearing bikinis and feathers on their heads. We realized that it was a kid's birthday party but all the parents were going wild along with the kids. Even though the setting wasn't conducive to dancing, people's will to have fun changed the space that they were in and a new experience was allowed to happen...

The Slow Dance Club will consist of a room for people to get together and dance to romantic music. Los Super Elegantes will DJ sets throughout the day and will be looking for potential partners to dance with: to create momentary intimacy between strangers. The club will facilitate a release of emotions similar to those happening at the fair: desperation, falling in lust, obsession with the object, flirting, and you can imagine the rest. People can leave asking each other: Did you get lucky at the fair?'

Slow Dance Club performance schedule
Thursday 14 October
12-8pm DJs Los Super Elegantes plus
12-1pm Sarah Mcrory
3-4.30pm Sam Tidman
8-9pm Grand Opening Performance by Los Super Elegantes
Friday 15 October
11-7pm DJs Los Super Elegantes plus
11-1pm & 3-4.30pm Tommy Smoov
Saturday 16 October
11-7pm DJs Los Super Elegantes plus
11-1pm Errol Perkins
3-4.30pm Nick Waplington
Sunday 17 October
11-7pm DJs Los Super Elegantes plus
11-1pm Oscar McHamish
3-4pm Vern Donegan
5-6pm Grand Finale Performance by Los Super Elegantes
Monday 18 October
11-5pm DJs Los Super Elegantes plus
11-1pm Tommy Smoov
3-4.30pm Nathan Parker

Los Super Elegantes is the collaborative team of Milena Muzquiz and Martiniano Lopez-Crozet. Born in Mexico and Argentina respectively, they both now live and work in Los Angeles. Working as musicians, playwrights and visual artists they exhibited at the Whitney Biennial 2004, New York, Peres Projects, Los Angeles, 2003, and Deitch Projects, New York, 2003.
assume vivid astro focus aka Eli Sudbrack was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and currently lives and works in New York. Solo exhibitions at Galeria Triângulo, São Paulo, Brazil, Dietch Projects, New York and Peres Projects, Los Angeles and will be exhibiting at art:concept, Paris, later this year. Group exhibitions include the Whitney Biennial 2004, New York, 'Such Things I do Just to Make Myself More Attractive to You', Peres Projects, Los Angeles, 2004, 'Cave Canem', John Connelly Presents, New York, 2004 'Popstraction', Deitch Projects, 2003 and 'GNS: Global Navigation System', Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2003.

Saturday 10 July 2004

'PUBLIC LIBRARY' DESIGNED BY PABLO LEON DE LA BARRA AT CUBITT AS PART OF PUBLISH AND BE DAMNED











Publish and be Damned
Thursday 8 July to Sunday 1 August 2004
Curated by Emily Pethick and Kit Hammonds
Public Library designed by Pablo Leon de la Barra

Cubitt presents Publish and be Damned, a two-part project exploring current experimental editorial directions through an eclectic selection of self-published magazines, comics and journals.

On Sunday 4 July over 30 publishers from the UK will gather in the crypt of St James Church, Clerkenwell, for the Publish and be Damned fair, offering an opportunity to peruse a variety of publications and to meet the editors. Special projects will take place throughout the day, including Paula Rousch's 'Copylaws of the Kitchen', a free participatory event that mutates the printing press into 'biscuit cutting anarchy'; Jabba the Hut and Cousin IT demonstrating the uses of Audio Theory for dyslexics; and Berlin-based magazine Starship launching their bilingual issue on the subject of 'Darkening'.

From the 8 July to 1 August the second part of Publish and be Damned will be held at Cubitt gallery, with some 150 publications presented in a Public Library designed by Pablo Léon de la Barra. Arranged in an offbeat taxonomy and discovered through the informal networks that make up the self-publishing scene, the material ranges from DIY fanzines to glossy periodicals, video compendiums to critical journals. Surveying a gamut of independent publications, Public Library demonstrates individual approaches to making and distributing the work of artists, writers and musicians outside of the commercial mainstream.

Publish and be Damned is organised by Emily Pethick and Chris Hammonds. It is accompanied by a black and white catalogue available at the fair and gallery for £2.
Opening hours: Wednesday - Sunday, 12-6pm

SELF-PUBLISHING FAIR
24/7, åbäke, Arty, Audio Arts, Audio Theory, Black Diamond, Borbonesa, Pablo Bronstein, Control, Copenhagen Free University, CRASH!, Dark Star, Disinfotainment, DOT DOT DOT, Edinburgh's One O'Clock Gun Periodical, Babak Ghazi, Guestroom, The Happy Hypocrite, Hardcore Is More Than Music, Emma Hedditch, Infopool, International Necronautical Society, Implicasphere, Inventory, Junior Asprin, The Laburnum Pilot, Le Gun, The Masterpiece, Millimetre, Mind of We, Mum and Dad, Mark Pawson, Harry Pye, Radical Vans and Carriages, Realisations (Book of Triggers), Paula Rousch (MSDM), Shadazz, Shaver's Weekly, Sick Happy Idle, Starship, Stellar, Stop Stop, Taytopographies, Timber Maniacs and Terra Form, Tollcross, Donald Urquhart, Vargas Organisation London, The Vacuum, Wayward Canon.

PUBLIC LIBRARY
designed by Pablo Léon de la Barra.
Includes material from the self-publishing fair, and: All the King's Horses, American Homebody, An Architektur, Bovine Liberation, Boys Keep Swinging, British Mythic, Butt, Butter, Cahier d-Activité, Cakewalk, Chicago, Adam Chodzko, Shawn Chung, Continuous Project, deFILE, Jeremy Deller, DIN, Sara Edward Corbett, Finger, The Fire, Flaca, Flaps, Fluffers, Freier, Frozen Tears, Fucking Good Art, FUJI, Happy Pappy, Helvetica, High Dessert Test Sites, Kathrin Höhne and Bjarte Gismarvik, Karl Holmqvist, IDEA Art + Society, Incepem Fanzine, Jutta Koether, Journal of Aesthetics and Protest, Anja Kirschner, LTTR, Made in the USA, Make it happen, Mall Punk, Manoa Free University, Sean McCarthy, Aleksandra Mir, Montage, Tom Morton and Catherine Patha (TomCat), OCD, Pacemaker, Patti, Perific Biennale, Lia Perjovschi/CCA, Pist Protta, Pork Salad Press, Plotter, Recluse, Re-Magazine, Saturday, Seth Price, Remote, Carissa Rodriguez, Runway, Saddlesore, Shit TV, Christian Sievers, SlimVolume, Joshua Smith, Space Poetry, Spector, The Stand, Swingset, Things to Come, Times, Morton & Catharine Patha (TomCat), Tourette's, Variant, Version, UKS Forum, WeAreTheArtists, Why we should talk about, Matt Wiegle, The Young Baron, and more.

http://cubittartists.org.uk

Monday 28 June 2004

PABLO'S COPY CENTRE IN 'PRODUCIENDO REALIDAD' IN LUCCA











An information and copy center by Pablo León de la Barra. A low table serves as a platform for the presentation of a thematic cartography of self-published material by different artists and art groups coming from Latin America and who share a similar state of mind, that of contesting the dominating culture produced and distributed by the transnational publishing and music industries. CD’s are displayed for the visitor to listen and burn while a photocopy machine is available for the visitor to copy the material.

*****
Publications available for photocopy:
Landmark. Alora y Calzadilla. Puerto Rico 2003
Printed Material. Mariana Castillo. Mexico-Netherlands 2002-2004
Celeste Sucks. Artist Fanzines. 2002-2004
Museo Hawai. Rodrigo Quijano/Fernando Bryce. Peru 2002
Rejected Projects. 24/7 Gallery. London 2003
La Promesa. Fotonovela. Jesus [Bubu] Negron. Puerto Rico 2003.
Valdez. Bookzine. Colombia-New York-Paris 2003
Hangueando. Raimond Chavez. Newspaper. Colombia-Peru-Puerto Rico-Spain 2002-2004
Colegiala en Cinta. El Vicio. Magazine. Colombia. 2002
Instant City. Maria Ines Rodriguez and others. Newspaper. Paris 2003
Printed Material. Erick Beltran. Mexico-Netherlands 2002
Galeria Chilena. GCH Catalog. Chile-New York 2003
Capacete Entretenimentos. Capacete journal and Artists catalogues. Brasil 2002-2004
El Chino. Periodical Publication. Guadalajara, Mexico 2001-2004
Espacio La Culpable. Photocopied publication. Peru 2002-2004
Geometría Popular. Julieta Aranda and Anton Vidokle. Mexico-New York 2004.
Pulgar. Ocassional Publication. Venezuela 1999-2004
Velocidad Critica. Publication. Monterrey, Mexico 2000-2004
Terry Painter, L;Artiste. Comicbook. Miguel Calderon y Nick Walpington. Mexico-London 2003.
Juliana Periodista. Photocopied Interviews. Argentina 2003
Las Ilusiones Perdidas. Maria Ines Rodriguez. Colombia-Paris 2003
Resistencia. Book. PAC. Mexico 2004.
Mia. Teresa Serrano. Fotonovela. Mexico 2002
Ediciones Eloisa Cartonera. Argentina 2004
Lima, Peru. Gilda Mantilla. Postcards. 2003
Panama. Jonathan Harker. Postcards 2004.

Cds:
The Electric Mass Begins. Sonido Lasser Drakar. 2004
Menonita Rock. Los Fancy Free. 2004
Yo Fui Una Adolescente Terrosatanica. Ultrasonicas. 2003
Shajato Rock. Intestino Grueso/Miguel Calderon. 2000
Welcome to Chimpancingo. Silverio. 2002
Channelizing Paradise. Los Super Elegantes. 2002
Operacion Sandunga. Regeton. Puerto Rico. 2002
Con el agua por alante y atra. Potranka y Jail-A. 2004
Rapza 2. Mexico City. 2001
Hip Hop con Banda Norteño, Cumbia y Mas. 2004
Depois de Cristo. 509E. Hip Hop. Sao Paulo. 2002
Shanty Sounds. Carolina Caycedo. 2003
Silverio 2. 2004
Miki. 2004
Lasser Moderna. 2004
La China Tropical. B-Lo. 2004
Pau-Latina. Paulina Rubio. Pirate Version. 2004
Ellas. 24-7´s Music for the Oppressed Housewife. 2004.
Antologia. Los Prisioneros.
Infame. Babasonicos.
Quemalo. centrodearte.com. 2002
La musica de las Malas Amistades. 2000
Fortaleza Mix 1 y2. Colectivo Cambalache & Som Sobre Som Sanfrancisco. 2002

*****
Extract from a text by Santiago Garcia Navarro on the destiny of publications in Latin America:

"The picture García Canclini paints (in Latinoamericanos buscando lugar en este siglo (and the writer and literary critic Daniel Link seconds)) is more or less as follows. During the 90s, most of the big Latin American publishing houses were purchased by Spanish companies who had, in turn, been bought by multinational groups. The policy for the production and circulation of books suffered a series of metamorphoses due to the neo-liberal economic policy that was already underway in those years. What had once been local publishing houses that influenced the rest of Spanish-speaking America and the Iberian Penisula, had been turned into local branches of emporiums rooted in Spain. As a consequence of the neo-liberal mentality of rationalization and automatization, the system was broken down into national islands that have to provide books for their respective markets, mostly books by authors from that same country. This gave rise to a flood of products superficial in form and content; that is to say, an effect typical of neo-liberalism which encourages hyperinflation of matter and devaluation of thought. Meanwhile, the old craft of the editor as literary talent scout, dedicated to finding new writers, philosophers, sociologists, critics, etc., was replaced by the figure of the executive who must satisfy at any cost the demands of the publishers-entertainment companies, that generally set a three thousand copy minimum for any printing.

For the same reasons, second printings of publishers' catalogs were also dramatically reduced as was the distribution of these second printings to areas not considered profitable, even if these books had had readers in those areas over the decades. This is why for years it has been impossible to find books and essays as crucial as "Art in the Age of its Mechanical Reproduction" by Benjamin or A Thousand Plateaus by Deleuze and Guattari in Buenos Aires, a city that was, along with Mexico City, the greatest publishing center in the Spanish speaking world until the 70s. (This last book is distributed in Spain but, if brought to Buenos Aires, it would be terribly expensive by local standards due to the exchange rate).

Logically, this series of shifts has led to a new cultural order that is decided on the other side of the Atlantic or, to put it more precisely, in an undefined supraterritoriality. I am not, however, crying over the loss of the influence of the nation-state (a loss that, in one way or another, has taken place all over the globe). I am, instead, trying to give evidence for something deeper, something that predates the State as an institution or, indeed, any other form of social control, and that is the loss of the capacity for self-production. This is the authentic loss, the loss of the possibility for a subject to constitute himself as the protagonist in his or her own development. This capacity has been rapidly diminishing on both the individual and the community level."
Santiago García Navarro, Buenos Aires, 28 March 2003
originally published in http://www.kunstverein-muenchen.de

Tuesday 8 June 2004

'LOCALISMOS' AN INTERNATIONAL RESIDENCY AND EXHIBITION ORGANIZED BY PERROS NEGROS IN MEXICO CITY'S CENTRO HISTORICO


outside of the exhibition


exhibition meeting room


Miguel Calderon's gymnasium


Erick Beltran's dice




Aleksandra Mir's 'Yo No Hablo Español' signs


Philipe Hernandez cardboard fake Donald Judd's


Philipe Hernandez 'Tepito Lindo' sign


Nuevos Ricos (Silverio and Carlos Amorales) posters for Rock talent show contest


Julieta Aranda and Anton Vidokle's 'Popular Geometry' newspaper project



24/7 art selling street cart


Pablo Leon de la Barra (with pink Che Guevara Tshirt) and Aleksandra Mir

Perros Negros presents
Localismos: 20 Artists Working In The Center Of Mexico City
A Global Collaboration For A Local Strategy
May 1st - June 30th, 2004
Opening: June 4th, 2004

Localismos, a project by Perros Negros, is a residential workshop in which a group of 20 artists, Mexicans and foreigners, will work for a month in the center of Mexico City. At the end of this month, the artists will produce a series of works, which have as only condition, to be made with materials and craftsmanship available in the historical center so that from its conception, production and exhibition there is a coherent dialogue with the context.

Localismos considers globalization not as an isolated phenomenon, but as a union of localities, in this case observed within Mexico City's Center.

Localismos will compare these perceptions to a global reference. The center is a place that restrains itself from being part of globalization with its idiosyncrasy, its visual richness, its contrasts and its way of functioning.

Through this project, Perros Negros is trying to propose ways to represent social problems in Mexico through art related with processes, art that can be shared and lived. Localismos will be a project focused on the people, how they live, how they work, the existing commerce, the local entertainment and most importantly: how can contemporary artists introduce ourselves into this place, how can the art be accessible to its inhabitants, how can they be involved without feeling intimidated by a language they don't know.

The intention of Localismos is to present the city with a different strategy of social rescue made up of the selected artists.

The importance of Localismos is in the significance it acquires as a record of a historical moment of the transition taking place in Mexico City. It will be a kind of document that will illustrate what it is after the decentralization and before external intervention.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:
Aleksandra Mir
Andrea Crews
Anton Vidolkle/Julieta Aranda
Asier Perez Gonzolez
Carolina Caycedo
Erick Beltran
Mara Verna
Miki Guadamur
Miguel Calderon
Nuevos Ricos
Philipe Hernandez
Santiago Reyes
Tatsuo Inagaki
Tercerunquinto
Xavier Andrade
24/7 (Beatriz Lopez, Sebastian Ramirez, Pablo Leon de la Barra)
bordermates
Diego Berruecos
Ives maes
Sonido Lasser Drakkar

PERROS NEGROS
Izazaga #8, col. Centro
06080, Mexico D.F.
Tel: +52 55 21 60 57
info@localismos.com
perrosnegros@localismos.com
http://perrosnegros.info/

aleksandra mir photographs courtesy of the artist