Play with Me
The Museum of Latin American Art–MoLAA presents Play with Me, an exhibition curated by Cecilia Fajardo-Hill, Selene Preciado, and Idurre Alonso that will remain open to the public until September 2, 2012.
The exhibition consists of 15 medium to large-scale installations created by 14 Latin American artists and collectives: Ernesto Neto (Brazil), Alberto Baraya (Colombia), Darío Escobar (Guatemala), Federico Herrero (Costa Rica), Cubo (Mexico/US), Franklin Cassaro (Brazil), Dream Addictive (Mexico), Leslie García, and Carmen González (Mexico), Felipe Ehrenberg (Mexico), Rafael Lozano-Hemmer (Mexico), Rivane Neuenschwander (Brazil), Rubén Ortiz-Torres (Mexico), Pedro Reyes (Mexico), and Sofía Táboas (México). The exhibition explores the interactive potential of contemporary art installations, as it attempts to turn contemporary art into an engaging and approachable experience for viewers.
The installations are meant to be thought-provoking, with unconventional and playful environments that engage viewers while they also challenge the way in which traditional artistic mediums are perceived. The works entice visitors to have an immersive experience within the artwork itself, as opposed to the passive and distant manner in which viewers are often encourage to approach art.
Artists Franklin Cassaro, for instance, created an "inflatable" entitled Abrigo Freud (Freud Shelter), a large tent-like structure made out of pages of a book by Sigmund Freud. Constructed in a way that allows visitors to enter it, the inflatable is activated by the movement of air, whether from an electric fan or the wind. The piece entitled Three Religions, No God and the Children by Ernesto Neto, originally presented at MOCA, consists of a sculptural installation of translucent fabric and textures in which visitors can enter through three openings that lead to a variety of interactive spaces, as it provides stimuli for the senses and the mind. 0 to 0, by Darío Escobar, is an unusual basketball court where the public can play while inside the museum. Rubén Ortiz-Torres uses paint that changes color when heat is applied to it, so when spectators touch the piece with their hands, for example, the contact leaves a temporary imprint in its surface. Federico Herrero transfers the color palette, shapes, and forms from the streets of San José, Costa Rica—and the tropical landscape that surrounds that city—and places these elements on the walls of the gallery. Herrero took over the space in the Museum lobby and a section of the galleries in such manner that his proposal allows visitors to interact with the pictorial space. Va de Retro (Sombras Nada Más) (Going Retro [Only Shadows]), by Felipe Ehrenberg, is an empty "frame" made of tape that mimics the size and shape of classical painted portraits showing the subject's head and shoulders. When a spectator stands in front of the frame, the shadow of his/her silhouette is cast in it. Expedition California, a project by Alberto Baraya, consists of a 2-part installation with a herbarium of artificial plants brought to the museum by the community, and of other artificial plants that will be collected and classified as a way to participate in a post-colonial discourse and to deconstruct the concept of the explorer.
MediaWomb (2009) is an invitation to observe more critical and interactive installations by the Cubo collective, a small group of artists and cultural producers who are active in the border region. Their proposal confronts issues like the disappearance of public spaces, the decomposition of social networks, the prevalence of the mass media as an environment for domination, reproduction, and distribution.
In Watchworld, a work by Brazilian artist R...
