 02/20/06 Americas Society
VIS-À-VIS: DIALOGUES BETWEEN ARTISTS AND CURATORS FROM THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE is a new program of the Visual Arts at the Americas Society, in which emerging artists are invited to discuss contemporary art practices and current ideas about the visual arts with a curator or art critic of their choice. These lively discussions will develop without the intervention of the hosting institution Responsive Practices A Presentation by Judi Werthein and Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy By juxtaposing two monologues, each recounting and standing for various indeterminate viewpoints, Judi Werthein and Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy will explore the scope and character of responsiveness in contemporary art. The departure for this performance-type presentation is Brinco (Jump), a project by Werthein and commissioned by inSITE_05, Tijuana/San Diego. Brinco is a new, high-top tennis shoe inspired by the border region of Mexico and the USA. Designed by Werthein and distributed to a group of Mexicans preparing to illegally jump the border into the USA, Brinco is fashionably designed, well made, and practically equipped for the trek of an illegal immigrant. Setting a tension between the functionality and uselessness of this artwork, as well as its paradoxical struggle for both uniqueness and ubiquity, Brinco is also displayed under a labeled vitrine in Blends, a tennis shoe boutique in downtown San Diego. Judi Werthein lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Her work is included in On Mobility, organized by de Appel, Amsterdam, which is currently on view at the CAC, Vilnius, Lithuania; and Dark Places, at the Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, California. Wertheins work has also been featured in inSite_05, in San Diego, California and Tijuana, Mexico; Can I get a witness?, at Longwood Art Gallery @ Hostos in the Bronx, New York; The S-Files at El Museo del Barrio, New York; It Could Happen to You at Apexart, New York; and the 7th Bienal de La Habana, in Havana, Cuba. Solo projects include Manicurated at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, New York; Thoughts Come to Mind at the Chinati Foundation, Marfa, Texas; and Split Screen, in collaboration with Lucas Michael at Parlour Projects, Brooklyn, New York. Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy is curator and programs manger at Art in General, a nonprofit organization in New York City that assists artists with the production and presentation of new work. Previous to this position, she worked at the Americas Society, where she curated Pictures of You (2001) and Puerto Rican Light: Jennifer Allora & Guillermo Calzadilla (2003). She also initiated a number of programs, including the round-table discussion Conversation Circles and AS a Satellite. Most recently, and together with Raimundas Malasauskas and Alexis Vaillant, Hernández Chong Cuy was co-curator of the recent BMW: IX Baltic Triennial of International Art, organized and hosted by the Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius, Lithuania, 2005. Americas Society is a not-for-profit organization that promotes understanding about the political, economic, and cultural issues that define and challenge the Americas today. Events are FREE, open to the public, and wheelchair accessible. Americas Society Members receive priority seating. For more information or to reserve your seat, please contact 212.277.8359 or culture@americas-society.org |
