CURATOR

Cuauhtémoc Medina

VENUE

Rota Ivancich Palace
Castello 4421 (close to San Marco square)
30122 Venice

CATALOGUE

A catalogue will be published, including essays by well known authors such as Cuauhtémoc Medina, Ernesto Diezmartinez Gumàn, Elmer Mendoza, Antonio Escohotado, Mariana Botey.

SPONSOR

The pavilion is sponsored by The National Council For Culture And The Arts (CONACULTA), The Institute of Fine Arts (INBA), The Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE), The National University of Mexico (UNAM), Patronato Del Arte Contemporaneo (PAC)

Mexico presents its second official national representation at the 53rd International Art Exhibition, la Biennale di Venezia, on June 7 through November 22, 2009. The pavilion will be located in the historic Rota Ivancich Palace, built in the 16th century, next to Querini Stampalia Foundation, close to San Marco square, in the heart of Venice.

The pavilion will host a solo show by Mexican artist Teresa Margolles titled ¿De qué otra cosa podríamos hablar? (What Else Could We Talk About?) which involves of a single and continuous intervention, with different actions and works along the pavillion. The show is curated by Cuauhtémoc Medina.

Teresa Margolles’s work, despite its controversial character, has increasingly been exhibited in different venues and around the world, includying the Liverpool Biennial (2006), The Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Germany (2007), La Colección Jumex, Mexico (2007) and Kunsthalle Krems, Austria (2008).

The works presented at the Mexican Pavilion are a subtle chronicle of the effects of a devilish international economy: the vicious circle of prohibition, addiction, accumulation, poverty, hatred and repression that transmogrifies the transgresive pleasures and puritan obsessions of the North into the South as Hell.

The show will be accompanied by a bilingual catalogue published in English and in Spanish with texts by the curator Cuauhtémoc Medina, Ernesto Diezmartínez Guzmán writer and cinema’s critic; Luis Astorga reasearcher for Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales, UNAM; Elmer Mendoza writer; Sergio González Rodríguez, writer; Antonio Escohotado Spanish philosopher; Mariana Botey Mexican artist and theorists and an interview about the realisation of the exhibition of the artist by Taiyana Pimentel and Cuauhtémoc Medina.

In 1990 Teresa Margolles (Mexico, 1963) was a founding member of the group SEMEFO (Servicio Médico Forense/Forensic Medical Service) and has in this capacity since held performances, made installations, objects and videos and intervened in public places. Later on, she continued working on her own using the morgue as a laboratory and study, developing social and conceptual artistic strategies on the basis of the use of bodily substances and images of corpses. Her exploration of death as a subject, has been related to a ever deepening research on issues of economic and political unequalities, social exploitation, the process of historical mourning and the way extended violence defines the cultural and philosophical landscape of today.

Due to the recent upsurge of violence in Mexico ─ according to the press, in 2008 more than 5000 people lost their lives in executions and shootings related to drug trafficking and its combat ─ Teresa Margolles’s work, that for almost two decades has concentrated in the exploration of the artistic possibilities of human remains, has put an increasing emphasis in the meditation on violent death and its victims.

Margolles most recent work involve a subtle and moving chronicle of the pervasive economy of death that plagues the north of Mexico.

In the last two years, she had focused in creating installations, paintings and objects departing from the material traces of killings in the streets and the associated verbal production taken from execution notes, police reports and press accounts of violence.

¿De qué otra cosa podríamos hablar? will be a narrative based on tactics of contamination and material actions, which will seek to emotional and intellectually involve the visitors in the issues surrounding the way violence and the current global economy involve the effective declaration of whole generations of individuals as a virtually disposable social class, trapped in between the perverse logic of criminality, capitalism and prohibition. The Pavillion project will be accompanied by a number of public actions which will extend the concept of her participation to the venues of the Venice Biennale and the city.

CONTACT
Simona Pezzano
email: pezzano.simona@gmail.com
mobile: +39-347 0884713

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer represents Mexico at the 52nd Biennale di Venezia with the exhibition Some Things Happen More Often Than All of the Time, curated by Príamo Lozada and Bárbara Perea, a show which will mark Mexicos first official participation in the Biennale. The exhibition will consist of 6 large-scale installations covering 1,000 square metres of the Palazzo Van Axel, a 15th-century gothic landmark bordering the Chiesa Santa Maria dei Miracoli, in the vicinity of the Rialto bridge.

Lozano-Hemmer (Mexico City, 1967) develops large-scale interactive installations combining the languages of architecture and performance art. His work uses technologies such as robotics, surveillance and telematic networks to create platforms for audience participation, creating “anti-monuments for alien agency”. His large-scale light and shadow installations are inspired by animatronics, carnivals and phantasmagoria, situating the spectator as a fundamental component to complete the work.

His work succeeds in giving the unchoreographed the power of a full orchestra. Go look him up, go be part of his next project!
— CK Kuebel, NY Arts Magazine

Lozano-Hemmers work in kinetic sculpture, installation, video and photography has been shown in over thirty countries, including the Biennials of Sydney (Australia), Shanghai (China), Liverpool (United Kingdom), Istanbul (Turkey) and Havana (Cuba). His work is part of important private and public art collections such as those of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, La Colección Jumex in Mexico City, Fundación Cisneros Fontanals in Miami, the Daros Latin America Collection in Zürich and the Tate Collection in London.

The official participation of Mexico in Venice is the result of joint efforts by Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores, Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, Consejo de Promoción Turística and the generous support of the Fundación/Colección Jumex and the Fundación BBVA Bancomer. The non-profit Patronato de Arte Contemporáneo, which has also contributed funding and resources, is in charge of the administration of the project. The receptions, starring DJ sets by Sonido Changorama, will feature sponsored drinks by Jumex, Tequila Cuervo and Cerveza Sol.

A bilingual catalogue will be published by Turner Libros, featuring essays by Manuel de Landa, José Luis Barrios, Barbara London, Cuauhtémoc Medina, Victor Stoichita and curators Príamo Lozada and Bárbara Perea.

Coinciding with the 52nd Biennale di Venezia, Lozano-Hemmers work will also be exhibited at Art Basel Unlimited, at the Luminato Festival in Toronto and in the exhibition Automatic Update at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Contact information:
Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes:
Plácido Pérez Cué, Director General de Comunicación Social
Tel. 52 555 662 1907
Fax 52 555 662 4314
pperzcue@correo.conaculta.gob.mx
Contact for Rafael Lozano-Hemmer:
Natalie Bouchard
Tel 1 514 597 0917
Fax 1 514 597 2092
natalie@antimodular.com

www.lozano-hemmer.com/

Contact for the curators:
Proyectos Hélix
Príamo Lozada and Bárbara Perea
39 340 755 9584 in Venice
52 555 207 6411 in Mexico
helix.curatorial@gmail.com
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer is represented by Galería OMR (Mexico City), bitforms gallery (New York) and Galerie Guy Bärtschi (Geneva).

Mexican Pavilion

Mexican Pavilion, 52 Venice Biennale
Some things happen more often than all of the time
by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer

Exhibition:
10 June 21 November 2007
Vernissage:
7 – 9 June 2007

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer will represent Mexico at the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007. The exhibition, Some things happen more often than all of the time will be curated by Priamo Lozada and Barbara Perea.

The exhibition project is supported by the National Council for Culture and the Arts (CONACULTA), through the Institute for the Fine Arts (INBA); the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Mexican Embassy in Italy. The organizing efforts will be carried out by ArtFest A.C., a non-profit cultural agency, in conjunction with major contributions from other public and private institutions. A bi-lingual catalogue will be published to accompany the exhibition.

This is the first time that Mexico will have an official presence, with a pavilion in site at the San Marcos area. The exhibit will be held in Mexico afterwards.

Lozano-Hemmer (Mexico City, 1967) is an electronic artist that develops interactive installations that are at the intersection of architecture and performance art. His main interest is in creating platforms for public participation, by perverting technologies such as robotics, computerized surveillance or telematic networks. Inspired by phantasmagoria, carnival and animatronics, his huge light and shadow works are antimonuments for alien agency.

His work in kinetic sculpture, responsive environments, video installation and photography has been shown in three dozen countries, including Art Basel Unlimited (Switzerland), Laboratorio Arte Alameda (Mexico), Musée des Beaux Arts (Canada) and Biennials in Sydney (Australia), Liverpool (UK), Shanghai (China), Istanbul (Turkey) and Havana (Cuba). His work is in important private and public contemporary art collections such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Jumex Collection in Mexico, the Cisneros Fontanals Foundation in Miami and the Daros-Latinamerica Collection in Zürich.

His work in public space has been commissioned for events such as the Millennium Celebrations in Mexico City (1999), the Cultural Capital of Europe in Rotterdam (2001), the opening of the Basque Museum of Contemporary Art ARTIUM (2002), the United Nations World Summit of Cities in Lyon (2003), the opening of the YCAM Centre for Art and Media in Japan (2003) and the Expansion of the European Union in Dublin (2004).

At the Prix Ars Electronica in Austria, his pieces have received a Golden Nica, a distinction and two honorable mentions. He also won two BAFTA British Academy Awards for Interactive Art in London, a distinction at the SFMOMA Webby Awards in San Francisco, Artist of the year at Wired Magazines Rave Awards, a Rockefeller fellowship, a Langlois Grant, the Trophée des Lumières in Lyon and an International Bauhaus Award in Dessau, Germany, among others. Videos, texts and images of his works can be found at www.lozano-hemmer.com

For further information on the presence of Mexico in the Venice Biennale, please visit:

www.mexicobienaldevenecia.org

Contact:
info@mexicobienaldevenecia.org