Group Exhibition
"Read my lips" at TEOR/éTica, San José, Costa Rica
This exhibition aims to explore the various uses of language in the process of criticism and resistance from feminism, gender and sexuality, both in the field of art and activism. The title “Read my lips” is a direct interpellation to the visitor. All the assembled pieces are a stubborn exercise to communicate that, which, in some contexts, isn’t allowed to be spoken of aloud, that which is persecuted or banished to underground space and symbolic illegality. Read my lipsThe exhibited projects seek to create other forms of speech, alternative communication systems, codes of self-defense and confrontation against the violence frames that still today, are imposed on our bodies. It is about breaking the silence under every circumstance, declaring and shouting despite all consequences. Artistas/Artists: Lucy Argueta (Honduras), Victoria Cabezas (Costa Rica), Giuseppe Campuzano (Perú), CUDS (Coordinadora Universitaria de Disidencia Sexual) (Chile), Erreakzioa – Reacción (España), Jaume Ferrete (España), fierce pussy (EEUU), Bob Flanagan (EEUU), Regina Galindo (Guatemala), GANG (EEUU), Roberto Guerrero (Costa Rica), Solange Jacobs (Perú), Jeleton (España), Zoe Leonard (EEUU), Priscilla Monge (Costa Rica), Carlos Motta (Colombia) con José Daniel Clarke (Costa Rica), Mujeres Públicas (Argentina), Daniela Ortiz (Perú), Jorge Pineda (República Dominicana), Victoria Santa Cruz (Perú), Beth Stephens & Annie Sprinkle (EEUU) en polinización cruzada con Guillermo Gómez-Peña (México), Wu Tsang (EEUU). Curator: Miguel A. López
Screening
"Deseos / رغبات" presented by Mor Charpentier Galerie at Claustro de San Agustín, Bogotá
more info here
Group Exhibition
Acting on Dreams: The State of Immigrant Rights, Conditions, and Advocacy in the United States, Franklin Street Works, Stamford
“Acting on Dreams: The state of immigrant rights, conditions, and advocacy in the U.S.” is an original group exhibition curated by Yaelle S. Amir for Franklin Street Works. It will be on view from June 13 – August 30, 2015. Opening reception is Saturday, June 13 from 6:00 – 8:00 pm. With a VIP members preview from 5:00 – 6:00 pm.
Acting on Dreams explores the work of artists who use creative, often process-oriented, strategies and community collaborations to advocate for authorized and undocumented immigrants and propose innovative alternatives to immigration reform. Exhibiting artists are: Andrea Bowers, CultureStrike & JustSeeds, Chitra Ganesh and Mariam Ghani, Ghana ThinkTank, Marisa Morán Jahn (Studio REV-) in collaboration with National Domestic Workers Alliance and Caring Across Generations, Jenny Polak, QUEEROCRACY in collaboration with Carlos Motta, and Favianna Rodriguez.
more info here
Group Exhibition
Japanese Nightingale Doesn’t Sing at Night, XYZ collective, Tokyo
Japanese Nightingale Doesn’t Sing at Night at XYZ collective curated by American Boyfriend Opening Reception : 2015.6.21 16:00-19:00 Open : 14:00 - 19:00 Thursday- Sunday (close Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday) Artist : Johanna Billing / Carlos Motta / Hajime Sawatari / Yui Usui / Amy Yao But if we are social beings and our survival depends upon a recognition of interdependency (which may not depend on the perception of likeness), then it is not as an isolated and bounded being that I survive, but as one whose boundary exposes me to others in ways that are voluntary and involuntary (sometimes at once), an exposure that is the condition of sociality and survival alike. Judith Butler “Frames of War –When is Life Grievable?” (Verso, 2009) I started American Boyfriend in 2012 as a way of researching the post-war history of Okinawa, where the fences of American military bases have created boundaries that divide both land and society. Through the project I aim to unearth clandestine relationships, such as an intimate connection shared by an American serviceman and a local Okinawan man, that were nurtured by the presence of such boundaries yet never surface within the official historical narrative. This exhibition stems from my interest in whether these boundaries exist outside of Okinawa, and if so, what relationships do they produce and how do such relationships resonate with one another? As Butler wrote, if there is “an exposure that is the condition of sociality and survival alike,” then the resulting relationship may indeed be universal. Such relationships may exist in various parts of the world, various time periods throughout history, and various regions with language- or culture-based conflicts; equally there are those who attempt to destroy the boundaries, and those who attempt to co-exist in spite of the divisions caused by such boundaries. The majority of such instances do not affect politicians nor artists, instead it is people like ourselves, those who are simply trying to live ordinary lives. We are constantly exposed to boundaries. And while boundaries can be sites of confrontation, they also have the potential to be sites where new relationships are nurtured. It is not too futile to imagine sharing the same air as those on the other side of the boundary, or even reaching out to them. More than a century ago in America, the Chinese-Canadian novelist Winnifred Eaton adopted the pen name of Onoto Watanna and after claiming to be Japanese-American, went on to write numerous novels set in Japan. “Japanese Nightingale” was a bestseller at the time, but its title is a contradiction in itself. The uguisu, which Eaton referred to as the Japanese Nightingale, doesn't in fact sing at night as the nightingale does. Yet we must remember that the vastness of the Atlantic Ocean separated the author from her novel's setting – her romantic story resulted from reaching out to imagine the other side.
Group Exhibition
Memorias imborrables, MALBA, Buenos Aires
Carlos Motta, Letter to my father (standing by the fence), 2005 This video exhibition revisits polemic and conflict-ridden historical events from the personal perspectives of major international artists such as Akram Zaatari and Walid Raad (Lebanon); Coco Fusco (USA); Bouchra Khalili (Morocco); León Ferrari (Argentina); and Rosãngela Rennó, Carlos Motta, and Jonathas de Andrade (Brazil). At the invitation of Solange Farkas—curator, founder, and director of the Associacao Cultural Videobrasil—Agustín Pérez Rubio, Artistic Director of MALBA, undertook an exhaustive study of the Videobrasil collection in order to choose eighteen works with highly political and social content. Whether addressing the Portuguese “conquest" of Brazil, the military coup in Chile, the 9-11 attacks in the United States, the massacre in Tiananmen Square China, or the civil war in Lebanon, there are many ways to relate—or to try to erase—stories kept alive thanks to the sensibility and work of countless artists from those regions. Memorias imborrables helps to restore the memory of events and conflicts whose interpretation is often formulated in the official versions of the “winners,” events and conflicts that, nonetheless, live on in personal narratives that tell a different story rendered visible through art. The exhibition was first presented from August 31 to November 30, 2014 at the SESC Pompeia in San Pablo. Organized in conjunction with the Art Department of the Universidad Torcuato Di Tella.
