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Mexico: Expected/Unexpected Current alliances in art 7 November 2009 - 31 January 2010 From 7 November 2009 to 31 January 2010, the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam will present the exhibition entitled Mexico: Expected/Unexpected. Current alliances in art. The exhibition comprises work by 46 internationally renowned artists from all over the world. Mónica Amor and Carlos Basualdo have compiled an exhibition from a collection of more than 1300 works owned by Isabel and Agustín Coppel. The exhibition is based on a theme that is applicable the world over. They investigate the nature of the imago of art from a certain country. In their treatment of the artworks, they provide a varied and broad response to this question. Because Mexico is the home base of the collection, they orient this question primarily to this country. Amor and Basualdo have produced combinations of artworks that reinforce one another in terms of either content or form, and add a surprising interpretation to the theme of the exhibition. The collection The Mexican couple Isabel and Agustín Coppel live in Culiacán in the northwest of the country. In the eighties, they began to collect modern Mexican and American art dating from the sixties. Later they extended their attention to present-day art from all over the world, with modern art from Mexico as the particular focus. Key figures in contemporary Mexican art such as Francis Alÿs, Melanie Smith, Gabriel Orozco, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Damian Ortega and Carlos Amorales are well represented in the collection. The work of these artists is the subject of worldwide interest. The collection has now developed to become the CIAC institute (Colección Isabel y Agustín Coppel), which manages fascinating examples of world-class art from Latin America, North America, Europe and Asia. Identity and Image A globalizing world, with its increasing economic, political and cultural integration, is currently witnessing an increasingly rapid exchange of ideas, goods and services. People can travel much easier nowadays, and live and work in another country for some time. In the past few decades, artists in particular have shown an ever-greater tendency to travel; some live as almost complete nomads. Questions that arise in this context concern the effect this has on their work as well as the relationship their work holds to that of their colleagues at any specific location. At the request of CIAC, the American guest curators Mónica Amor and Carlos Basualdo have compiled an exhibition from the collection in which the central issue deals with the essence of identity and the image of present-day art from Mexico. To what extent is the artists' nationality determinative for the identity of their work? Can one tell where artists are born, where they live or work just by looking at their products? Mexico: Expected/Unexpected. The exhibition offers a unique opportunity to explore the identity of Mexican art and to establish various links between the work of the Mexican artists, their historical precursors and international colleagues. Artworks with an alleged Mexican identity have been included in the selection on show: works in which a major role is played by themes such as death and transience, desert landscapes, or simply a donkey. Good examples of this are the photographs of the Mexican Graciela Iturbide, the Cuban Ana Mendieta, the American Stephen Shore and the Italian Maurizio Cattelan. In the context of the exhibition, their work complies with the deep-rooted visual clichés of Mexico and the cultural identity of the country. Furthermore, the exhibition also presents works that can be regarded as references to the present-day socio-economic reality of Mexico. The neon B/ORDER by Kendell Geers (South Africa) covers the notion of limits and boundaries; the B flashes on and off so that the viewer alternately sees BORDER and ORDER. The neon 99-Cent Dreams by Doug Aitken (US) can be taken as a reference to the dream of abundance and prosperity, which ought to be within reach of everyone, even if it were only through the one-dollar shops in the US. Current alliances in art Combining objects and installations reveals correspondences in artistic and formal starting points between Mexican artists and artists from elsewhere. In that respect, it is stimulating to compare the work of the Brazilian artists Helio Oiticica (1937-80), Lygia Clark (1920-98) and the American Gordon Matta Clark (1943-78) on the one hand, with the work of the Mexicans Damian Ortega (1967), Francis Alÿs (1959) and Gabriel Orozco (1962) on the other. Helio Oiticica and Lygia Clark explore the principles of modernistic visual language and the possibility of linking this to a practical, everyday usability in which the viewer is not only a spectator but also becomes a participant in a process or an action that determines the form of the work. Helio Oiticica and Lygia Clark are known for their abstract geometric sculptures, components of which can be moved by the viewer so that new forms of sculpture arise. Gordon Matta Clark intercedes in existing situations by drilling large round holes in existing buildings or by sawing these down the middle in order to create a new spatial experience at that location. The work of these artists has exercised much influence on the current generation of artists in Mexico. This is visible in a playful approach to modernistic form language, a focus on everyday situations, and a process-oriented expression of art, as in the video Zócalo by Francis Alÿs, the sculpture Biombo by Damian Ortega, and the sculptures and paintings by Gabriel Orozco. Echoes of the dreamlike and mysterious scenes of the Mexican photographer Manuel Alvarez Bravo (1902-2002) can be found in the work of fellow Mexican artists Graciela Iturbide (1942) and Carlos Amorales (1970). Whereas the photography of Iturbide concentrates on the culture, rituals and everyday life of Mexico, Carlos Amorales displays objects in a more global perspective. The artist has been working for years on a picture archive, his so-called Liquid Archive, which he uses for various new works (collages, animations, videos, installations and performances). Birds, trees, spiders, wolves and also aeroplanes represent a few of his conspicuous picture elements. They can assume new significance in every new portrayal. The images easily evoke associations in the viewer because, according to Amorales, they refer to a collective subconscious in the viewer. In the work of present-day Mexican artists and their international counterparts, there are affinities in the conceptual way of working and formal characteristics, as in the work of the French/Italian Tatiana Trouvé, the Brazilian Rivanne Neuenschwander and the Chinese Terence Koh. It is striking that these artists from the youngest generation do not limit themselves to a single medium, but use different techniques at the same time. Sculpture, video, performance, photography and painting can be deployed alongside one another. The current generation of Mexican artists is part of an international generation of artists. These artists largely draw upon the same sources of inspiration to shape their artistic attitude and working methods, and, at most, are distinguished by a certain couleur locale, determined by local history, traditions, customs and culture. Artists such as Francis Alÿs, Carlos Amorales and Gabriel Orozco are internationally recognized as prominent Mexican artists. However, Alÿs was born in Antwerp and has lived and worked in Mexico City since 1986. Carlos Amorales, born in Mexico City, was educated at the Rietveld Academy and the Academy of Art in Amsterdam, after which he returned to Mexico City. Gabriel Orozco is an artist who does not produce his work in a studio, but rather in all kinds of surroundings, in various places all over the world. The exhibition entitled Mexico: Expected/Unexpected demonstrates how these artists relate to a Mexican and an international environment, and how they contribute to the international development of the visual arts. The exhibition has already been on display in La Maison Rouge, Paris, and TEA, Tenerife. After the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, the exhibition will move on to Madrid. A richly illustrated book will be published to accompany the exhibition. Price: € 35. Artists in the exhibition:
The exhibition has been made possible by financial support from the Municipality of Schiedam, the Fund for Schiedam Vlaardingen and surroundings, the Collection Isabel et Agustín Coppel (CIAC), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mexico, and the Mexican Embassy in the Netherlands, Koninklijke Distilleerderij De Kuyper, Centre Management in Schiedam, Hoogstraat – Koopstraat Shopkeepers' Association. Back to exhibitions |
 Carlos Amorales, From The Bad Sleep Well (detail), 2007, Techniek Collage, 45 x 60 cm, Collection Isabel and Agustín Coppel. |