An autopic and interdisciplinary experiment, with a title in English and Spanish, was recently carried out at Art in General. Apparently, the objective was to play with art in an anonymous way, though this idea was swallowed up by the confusion of the time in which we are living, and failed to achieve the desired effect. Point of View: Between Two Cities, as the subtitle says, will remain anonymous. It was the overall configuration of the show, which was organized into small sectors, but vague in its conclusion, that gave it a kind of intellectual promiscuity. Cocurated by Juana Valdés and Holly Block of New York, and Diego Gutiérrez in collaboration with Art & Idea in Mexico City, the exhibition consisted of photography, video, mixed media, sound, Internet-based work, and installations.
The idea was for five artists from each of the cities to create anonymous, invented identities and then exchange them through electronic media. The participants produced presentations and actions. The first part took place in various areas of Mexico City, where the five Mexican artists carried out their actions based on the identities invented by their New York counterparts. The second stage consisted of the work of the ten participants in New York. The participants from Mexico were Artemio, Minerva Cuevas, Taniel Morales, Marge Philips, and Héctor Vásquez. The New York participants were Mary Ellen Carroll, Cheryl Kaplan, Sandra Korsak, Alex Ku, Jeannine Digo, and Franklin Sirmans, as well as Jen Budney, from Alberta, Canada. The written letter and paper played an important role, as did the sections inviting spectator participation in the not-very-exciting stadium. Some verses reflected the general conditions described in this note. But the effort seemed more like a late and not very well understood attempt at “deconstruction”, rather than a truly innovative experiment. The reiteration of certain situations was one of the few aspects that managed to embody a concept. The use of technology, heavy masks, and the exchange of roles and fantasies are surely capable of more than this.
This “laboratory” did not seem to be functioning... it was like the remnant of some older installation, which to some extent is what happens with dreams on both the left and the right. It did not become a technological experiment or a synecdoche, but was a hybrid, as the subtitle indicated, sunk in a state of definition.
GRACIELA KARTOFEL