Muntadas and Luis Felipe Ortega
Sala de Arte Publico Siqueiros (SAPS)
Tres Picos #29, Polanco
11560, Mexico D.F.
(52 55) 5531 3398
www.siqueiros.inba.gob.mx/
“Occupation” by Luis Felipe Ortega, 2004 “Occupation”
by Luis Felipe Ortega
“La Siesta/The Nap/ Dutje”
by Muntadas
“Occupation” by Luis Felipe Ortega
“Occupation” by Luis Felipe Ortega (Mexico City, Mexico, 1966) is a monumental installation composed of a woven network of cotton threads and rubber spheres that cross the SAPS’s white cube space, El Cubo. The installation allows the spectator to access certain areas inside of the space while at the same time generating a visual experience, that of ever-changing shadows and perspectives that naturally are only accessible to the eye.
“Occupation” is a work that contemplates the notions and ambiguities of “being engaged” in a particular activity; on the other hand the “Taking up” of a space in itself. More than a work that simply toys with the practices of vision, Ortega’s piece experiments with the magnitude of the SAPS’ white cube space and alludes directly to the senses and physical presence in a space-time parameter.
This show will open on June 3, 2004 and will continue until its closing date, August 8, at the Sala de Arte Publico Siqueiros located at Tres Picos #29 in the Polanco neighbourhood in Mexico City.
“La Siesta/The Nap/ Dutje” by Muntadas
“La SAPS/The Nap/Dutje” (1995) by media artist Antoni Muntadas (b. 1942 in Barcelona, lives in NY since 1974) opens on June 3rd, 2004 at the Sala de Arte Publico Siqueiros (SAPS). This video installation establishes a parallel between specific filmed documentary representations of history and a person taking a nap; thus presents an interplay between a sleeping individual and tumultuous movements of times past.
Muntadas, an artist who works for specific sites and moments, generates videos and video installations charged with political overtones while concentrating on the media, both as a perceptual filter and an extension of the human body.
The artist’s production is based on relevant scenes from the early work of Dutch filmmaker Joris Ivens (b. Nijmegen 1898, d. 1989 Paris). In “La Siesta/The Nap/ Dutje”, Muntadas has appropriated scenes from Ivens’ films and has issued forth an interesting dialogue with its place of exhibition, the former home of David Alfaro Siqueiros – a museum which holds relevant archival documents related to the times of these clips. For instance, one of the connections that could be made is the relationship between Siqueiros political ideas and the ones shared by Ivens. Interestingly, while “The Spanish Earth” (1937) is a well-known documentary by Ivens on the Spanish Civil War, we cannot help but remember Siqueiros’ important contribution to the Republic side. In this sense, this presentation of “La Siesta/The Nap/ Dutje” is a very meaningful gesture on behalf of the SAPS in that it reinforces the museum’s primary mission of updating a historical legacy by way of contemporary interpretations.
This show has been made in collaboration with the Laboratorio de Arte Alameda in Mexico City, where the retrospective exhibition “Proyectos” (Projects) by Muntadas will open on June 8, 2004.
