We Have Never Been Contemporary
October 25, 2018–February 9, 2019
Participating institutions in Zacatecas, Mexico
Museo de Arte Abstracto Manuel Felguérez, Museo Pedro Coronel, Museo Rafael Coronel, Museo Zacatecano, Museo de Guadalupe, Antiguo Templo de San Agustín, Museo de Historia Natural de la Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas, El Santero and other independent initiatives.
The XIII FEMSA Biennial We Have Never Been Contemporary employs a collaborative model with cultural institutions throughout the State of Zacatecas, to generate a dialogue between a local cultural context and the world of global contemporary art.
During the 18-month curatorial program, the biennial will test new museological, pedagogical, and editorial methodologies through an international program built around Latin American art.
The XIII FEMSA Biennial differs from the contest model that structured its previous editions, concentrating instead on its curatorial program and proposing a review focussing on how historical periods are formed. Following a model of superposed narratives, rather than pretending to demonstrate an artistic present, the Biennial embarks on a historical reflection founded in the concept of “multiple space,” developed in the seventies by Zacatecan artist Manuel Felguérez.
Through the different exhibitions, commissioned projects, and collaborations involving diverse local actors, the XIII FEMSA Biennial seeks to test existing historiographic, museological, pedagogical, and editorial models, inviting artists and the public to reflect on existing cultural, social, and aesthetic norms that upon which the notion of the contemporary is built, while simultaneously questioning the biennial’s format. We Have Never Been Contemporary considers how historical categories are woven together, and how they might allow us to glimpse social and economic latencies, borne from histories of migration or the extraction of natural resources.
Commissioned museological collaborations and public interventions includes works by: Eduardo Abaroa, Ricardo Alcaide, Plinio Ávila, Antonio Bravo, Christian Camacho, Luis Carrera-Maul, Giacomo Castagnola, Mario García Torres, Verónica Gerber Bicecci, Cynthia Gutiérrez, Javier Hinojosa, Iván Krassoievitch, Runo Lagomarsino, Caroline Montenat, Felipe Mujica, Chantal Peñalosa, Diego Pérez García, Rita Ponce de León, Liliana Porter, Naomi Rincón Gallardo, Vanessa Rivero, Nicolás Robbio and Fabiola Torres-Alzaga.
In addition, the exhibition program will feature selected works by other modern and contemporary artists, as well as pieces from the collections of the Instituto Zacatecano de Cultura Ramón López Velarde and the FEMSA collection, including works by Jennifer Allora & Guillermo Calzadilla, Iván Ávila, Juan Carlos Badillo Herrera, Enrique Barajas Pro, Odin Barrios, Marcelo Bonevardi, Ary Brizzi, Fernando Candber, Renny Castillo, Lygia Clark, Pedro Coronel, Rafael Coronel, Javier Cortés Martínez, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Inés Cusi, Emilio Carrasco Gutiérrez, Anakaren Corvera, Marco A. Chávez Pérez, Manuel Dena Salazar, Javier Díaz Riva Palacio, Patricia Dunn, Helen Escobedo, Manuel Felguérez, León Ferrari, Pedro Friedeberg, Gego, Sarah Goaër, Francisco Goitia, Gaspar GU, Ismael Guardado, Armando Haro, Carmen Herrera, Fernando Jiménez Luévano, Julio Le Parc, Iván Leaños, Omar Lemus, Alfonso López Monreal, Pedro López Recendez, Osvaldo Lugo, Uriel Márquez Valerio, Francisco Matto, Guillermo Méndez, Leobardo Miranda, Francisco Moyao, Alejandro Nava, Alberto Ordaz, Manuel Pastrana, Tarcisio Pereyra, Ángeles Perelló, Antonio Pintor, Eduardo Ramírez Villamizar, Jesús Reyes Cordero, Vicente Rojo, Mónica Romo, Juan Manuel de la Rosa, Julio Ruelas, Adrián Ruiz Esparza, Kazuya Sakai, Susana Salinas, Carlos Alberto Sánchez, Francisco de Santiago, Sebastián, SEMEFO, Jesús Rafael Soto, Gabriela Suárez del Real, Eduardo Terrazas, Sara María Terrazas, Luis Tomasello, Joaquín Torres-García, Joaquín Trujillo, Ignacio Vera Ponce, Juan Carlos Villegas and Leticia Zubillaga.
Workshops, seminars, talks, and other artistic commissions include Mónica Amieva, Campaña Negra, Patricia Dunn, César Espinosa, Sofía Gallisá Muriente, José Miguel González Casanova, Mônica Hoff, Maya Juracán, Israel Martínez, Gerardo Mosquera, Museo Comunitario y Club de Lectura de Sierra Hermosa, Colectivo Ocupa, Sofía Olascoaga, Marcelo Rezende, Rodrigo Simancas, Veta Gráfica, Saúl Villa, Andrés Villalobos and Araceli Zúñiga.
Willy Kautz
Artistic Director
Gabriela Correa
Executive Director
Daniel Garza Usabiaga
Curator
Nicolás Pradilla
Editorial Curator
Eric Nava Muñoz
Associate Curator
Fernando Salcedo Suárez del Real
Curatorial Assistant
