Portadores de sentido: Contemporary Art from the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Museo Amparo 2 Sur 7908, Centro Puebla, Pu., Mexico 72000
Information about the catalogue for the exhibition can be found here. About the exhibition The Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (CPPC), in collaboration with the Museo Amparo in Puebla, Mexico, presents the exhibition Portadores de sentido—Contemporary Art from the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, on view at the Museo Amparo from February 9 to July 22, 2019.
Portadores de sentido brings together 70 contemporary artists from 16 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean whose works were acquired by the CPPC between 1990 and 2015. The exhibition is curated by Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy, former Curator of Contemporary Art at the CPPC and now the Director of the Witte de With Contemporary Art Center in Rotterdam. Sara Meadows, Project Manager at the CPPC, is the Assistant Curator for this exhibition.
A number of the artists included in Portadores de sentido have made short audio recordings in which they discuss their works on view. These are accessible in the gallery via cellphone through a link printed on the associated wall label, and on this page.
An exhibition guide will be published including images and didactic texts representing all the work in Portadores de sentido. It will be available for purchase at the Museo Amparo. Curatorial Text Portadores de sentido presents a broad range of contemporary art by artists from Latin America and the Caribbean from the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (CPPC). The work in the exhibition is informed by artistic research that elicits narratives, resources and associations with a number of disciplines. With those disciplines in mind, the exhibition has been organized into four groupings, each one of which borrows methodology or derives inspiration from areas of inquiry beyond aesthetics.
The first grouping, Insertions, concerns ethnography and its theories; the second, Excursions, is an analysis of geography; the third, Concrete Environments, considers the implications of urbanism; and the final group, Mediations, addresses media and mass communication. The exhibition emphasizes the artists’ analytical and sensitive responses to a given environment, and how artworks are experienced as bearers of meaning (portadores de sentido) across time and place. Portadores de sentido presents more than 100 artworks acquired between 1990 and 2015 that are representative of the diversity of artistic concerns emerging in Latin America during that time.
Beyond a common geographical determination, the concept of the artist as conveyor of meaning runs through the five collecting areas of the CPPC. Besides contemporary art, the CPPC’s other four collection areas—modernism, colonial art, traveler art from the 16th to 19th centuries, and ethnographic objects from the Orinoco River Basin—reflect a wide range of research and material from Latin America. The concerns of each of these four other areas find renewed expressions in contemporary artistic practice. From the collection of modernist art, specializing in geometric abstraction, there is an impetus to experiment with forms of artmaking in a perceptual and rational idiom; within the colonial period, there is an emphasis on the sacred and secular uses of art; from the collection of traveler art, there is a focus on the artist as an explorer dedicated to the task of field research and the registration of landscape; and from the Orinoco collection, the consideration of the foundational role of everyday and ceremonial materials in both anthropology and aesthetics.
Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy, Curator Sara Meadows, Assistant Curator
Insertions The artists in this section are concerned with people and cultures, focusing on the particularities of experience and place. Some incorporate ethnographic methodologies directly into their artistic practice. For example, field research is central to Laura Anderson Barbata and Pepe López; both artists have spent extended periods of time with indigenous groups, and their work speaks to the endurance of ancient cultural traditions. The observation of social practices can be found in several works, such as in Juan Manuel Echavarría’s video Bocas de ceniza, in which he documents individuals bearing witness through song to the drug-related violence they experienced. Also included in this section are artists who collect and record everyday materials from contemporary life to provide insight into a particular time and environment. Other artists revisit cultural histories, transforming archival material in order to invite a contemporary perspective. Together, the artists in this group share different stories of humanity.
Excursions
The artists in this section share an interest in place, and in the relationships between humans and land. With their video documentation of glass bottles accumulating in a recycling center in Panama, Donna Conlon and Jonathan Harker draw attention to the impact people have on the environment. Eduardo Navarro takes a specific landform—Guagua Pichincha, an active volcano outside of Quito, Ecuador—as the subject of his work Poema volcánico. In preparation for his descent into the crater, the artist conducted extensive research in collaboration with a volcanologist. Exploration, adventure, and the long tradition of scientific expeditions are the inspiration for several works in this section. Inspired by the unfamiliar, Irene Kopelman travels to remote places to record her first-hand observations and impressions. With his presentation of a contemporaneous itinerary of Magellan’s circumnavigation of the globe, Paul Ramírez Jonas allows the viewer to think through the con-temporary nature of travel. The notions of territory and cartography are addressed in the work of Manuela Ribadeneira and Daniel Medina, who both point to the often arbitrary nature of borders. These are but a few of the multi-layered and shifting approaches to geography that have been used by artists in this section.
Concrete Environments
The theme of urbanism unites the works in this section of the exhibition. How individuals and societies interact with the built environment, the persistent evidence of history in urban spaces, the political forces that shape them, the cycles of decay and resurgence exemplified in a city’s architectural ruins, and abandoned or in-process sites of construction are all rich areas of inquiry. Among those artists responding to urbanism, Iosu Aramburu’s work infers not only loss but continuity of the past into the present. Federico Herrero and Pia Camil are both inspired by the unfinished and derelict areas of a city, but Herrero finds in the open-endedness of these spaces an opportunity to see “where painting is happening” spontaneously, while Camil sees the urban ruins along Mexico’s highways as a manifestation of “the aesthetic of failure.” Dulce Gómez contrasts the green space of an urban park with a brick wall, and Alejandro Paz Navas films the wandering journey of a homeless man, incongruously shadowed by a bodyguard, as the two men walk through Guatemala City.
Mediations
The social impact of media and mass communication on the construction of culture and individual identity provides a common thread between the artists in this section. Included in this group is Luis Molina-Pantin, whose photographs of telenovela sets bring us into the realm of imaginary real estate inflected with cultural referents that make the invented spaces of television appealing to their audiences. The ability of media to make certain objects and materials universally desirable, erasing local preferences, can be seen in Mauricio Lupini’s photos of Barbie and Ken dolls with their homogeneous perfection, and in Valentina Leirnur’s use of denim, a ubiquitous fabric in contemporary life. The videos of Jessica Lagunas remind us of the absurdity of the ideals of feminine beauty perpetuated by popular media. Sebastián Gordín renders pulp journalism unreadable by recasting magazines in marquetry, inventing mysterious cover images that remain unexplained by their “content.”
Donation of Artworks In addition to this collaboration, the Museo Amparo joined the network of international museums to whom Patricia and Gustavo Cisneros have donated their artworks in their continued mission to promote a greater appreciation of the diversity, sophistication and diversity of Latin American art, particularly through an educational approach. The work Call Forwarding (2013) by Mexican artist Tania Pérez Córdova, included in Portadores de sentido, joined the Museo Amparo’s permanent collection, as well as her work Person Leaning on his Elbow, un extra (2012), also by the same artist.Public Programs
Film Screening Series: Latinoamericano
June 8, 2019, 18:00–19:00
Museo Amparo, Auditorio Arq. Pedro Ramírez Vázquez
On occasion of the exhibition Portadores de sentido, a film screening series—with selections by Johan Woolfschoon, the exhibition's designer—will take place in June and July 2019.
Schedule: June 8, 2019 La estrategia del caracol (1993) Directed by: Sergio Cabrera Country: Colombia Duration: 116 minutes
June 15, 2019 Fitzcarraldo (1982) Directed by: Werner Herzog Countries: Peru and Western Germany Duration: 157 minutes
June 22, 2019 Temporada de patos (2004) Directed by: Fernando Eimbcke County: Mexico Duration: 90 minutes
June 29, 2019 Cidade de Deus (2002) Directed by: Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund Country: Brazil Duration: 135 minutes
July 6, 2019 La jaula de oro (2013) Directed by: Diego Quemada-Díez Countries: Mexico and Spain Duration: 102 minutes
July 13, 2019 Conducta (2014) Directed by: Ernesto Daranas Country: Cuba Duration: 108 minutes
July 20, 2019 Historias mínimas (2002) Directed by: Carlos Sorín Countries: Argentina and Spain Duration: 92 minutes
Artist Talk with Laura Anderson Barbata May 8, 2019, 18:00
Museo Amparo, Arq. Pedro Ramírez Vázuez Auditorium
Laura Anderson Barbata will talk about her public project Transcomunalidad [Transcommonality], a series of intervention and collaborations with stilt walker communities in Trinidad and Tobago, New York, and Oaxaca.
Screening: Mario García Torres February 18–July 22, 2019
Museo Amparo, Auditorium
Mario García Torres's artwork ¿Alguna vez has visto la nieve caer? (2010) will be screened every Monday from 12–3pm until July 22, 2019 in the Museo Amparo's Auditorium.
Screenings will start at 12pm, 1pm, and 2pm.
Performance: Osías Yanov February 16–July 20, 2019
Museo Amparo, Second Floor
Osías Yanov’s artwork ///////)))_Io))) (2014) will be activated with a performance by Guadalupe Flores every Saturday from 12–2pm until July 20, 2019 in the second floor courtyard at Museo Amparo.
Installation: Javier Téllez March 19–June 24, 2019
Museo Amparo, Gallery 3 (on the Third Floor)
Javier Téllez's artwork Letter on the Blind, for the Use of Those Who See (2008) will be projected in Gallery 3 on the third floor of the Museo Amparo from March 19 until June 24, 2019.
Title:
Portadores de sentido: Contemporary Art from the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros
Date:
February 9, 2019 - July 22, 2019
Title:
Portadores de sentido: Contemporary Art from the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros
Date:
February 9, 2019 - July 22, 2019
Portadores de sentido: Contemporary Art from the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Museo Amparo 2 Sur 7908, Centro Puebla, Pu., Mexico 72000
Information about the catalogue for the exhibition can be found here. About the exhibition The Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (CPPC), in collaboration with the Museo Amparo in Puebla, Mexico, presents the exhibition Portadores de sentido—Contemporary Art from the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, on view at the Museo Amparo from February 9 to July 22, 2019.
Portadores de sentido brings together 70 contemporary artists from 16 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean whose works were acquired by the CPPC between 1990 and 2015. The exhibition is curated by Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy, former Curator of Contemporary Art at the CPPC and now the Director of the Witte de With Contemporary Art Center in Rotterdam. Sara Meadows, Project Manager at the CPPC, is the Assistant Curator for this exhibition.
A number of the artists included in Portadores de sentido have made short audio recordings in which they discuss their works on view. These are accessible in the gallery via cellphone through a link printed on the associated wall label, and on this page.
An exhibition guide will be published including images and didactic texts representing all the work in Portadores de sentido. It will be available for purchase at the Museo Amparo. Curatorial Text Portadores de sentido presents a broad range of contemporary art by artists from Latin America and the Caribbean from the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (CPPC). The work in the exhibition is informed by artistic research that elicits narratives, resources and associations with a number of disciplines. With those disciplines in mind, the exhibition has been organized into four groupings, each one of which borrows methodology or derives inspiration from areas of inquiry beyond aesthetics.
The first grouping, Insertions, concerns ethnography and its theories; the second, Excursions, is an analysis of geography; the third, Concrete Environments, considers the implications of urbanism; and the final group, Mediations, addresses media and mass communication. The exhibition emphasizes the artists’ analytical and sensitive responses to a given environment, and how artworks are experienced as bearers of meaning (portadores de sentido) across time and place. Portadores de sentido presents more than 100 artworks acquired between 1990 and 2015 that are representative of the diversity of artistic concerns emerging in Latin America during that time.
Beyond a common geographical determination, the concept of the artist as conveyor of meaning runs through the five collecting areas of the CPPC. Besides contemporary art, the CPPC’s other four collection areas—modernism, colonial art, traveler art from the 16th to 19th centuries, and ethnographic objects from the Orinoco River Basin—reflect a wide range of research and material from Latin America. The concerns of each of these four other areas find renewed expressions in contemporary artistic practice. From the collection of modernist art, specializing in geometric abstraction, there is an impetus to experiment with forms of artmaking in a perceptual and rational idiom; within the colonial period, there is an emphasis on the sacred and secular uses of art; from the collection of traveler art, there is a focus on the artist as an explorer dedicated to the task of field research and the registration of landscape; and from the Orinoco collection, the consideration of the foundational role of everyday and ceremonial materials in both anthropology and aesthetics.
Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy, Curator Sara Meadows, Assistant Curator
Insertions The artists in this section are concerned with people and cultures, focusing on the particularities of experience and place. Some incorporate ethnographic methodologies directly into their artistic practice. For example, field research is central to Laura Anderson Barbata and Pepe López; both artists have spent extended periods of time with indigenous groups, and their work speaks to the endurance of ancient cultural traditions. The observation of social practices can be found in several works, such as in Juan Manuel Echavarría’s video Bocas de ceniza, in which he documents individuals bearing witness through song to the drug-related violence they experienced. Also included in this section are artists who collect and record everyday materials from contemporary life to provide insight into a particular time and environment. Other artists revisit cultural histories, transforming archival material in order to invite a contemporary perspective. Together, the artists in this group share different stories of humanity.
Excursions
The artists in this section share an interest in place, and in the relationships between humans and land. With their video documentation of glass bottles accumulating in a recycling center in Panama, Donna Conlon and Jonathan Harker draw attention to the impact people have on the environment. Eduardo Navarro takes a specific landform—Guagua Pichincha, an active volcano outside of Quito, Ecuador—as the subject of his work Poema volcánico. In preparation for his descent into the crater, the artist conducted extensive research in collaboration with a volcanologist. Exploration, adventure, and the long tradition of scientific expeditions are the inspiration for several works in this section. Inspired by the unfamiliar, Irene Kopelman travels to remote places to record her first-hand observations and impressions. With his presentation of a contemporaneous itinerary of Magellan’s circumnavigation of the globe, Paul Ramírez Jonas allows the viewer to think through the con-temporary nature of travel. The notions of territory and cartography are addressed in the work of Manuela Ribadeneira and Daniel Medina, who both point to the often arbitrary nature of borders. These are but a few of the multi-layered and shifting approaches to geography that have been used by artists in this section.
Concrete Environments
The theme of urbanism unites the works in this section of the exhibition. How individuals and societies interact with the built environment, the persistent evidence of history in urban spaces, the political forces that shape them, the cycles of decay and resurgence exemplified in a city’s architectural ruins, and abandoned or in-process sites of construction are all rich areas of inquiry. Among those artists responding to urbanism, Iosu Aramburu’s work infers not only loss but continuity of the past into the present. Federico Herrero and Pia Camil are both inspired by the unfinished and derelict areas of a city, but Herrero finds in the open-endedness of these spaces an opportunity to see “where painting is happening” spontaneously, while Camil sees the urban ruins along Mexico’s highways as a manifestation of “the aesthetic of failure.” Dulce Gómez contrasts the green space of an urban park with a brick wall, and Alejandro Paz Navas films the wandering journey of a homeless man, incongruously shadowed by a bodyguard, as the two men walk through Guatemala City.
Mediations
The social impact of media and mass communication on the construction of culture and individual identity provides a common thread between the artists in this section. Included in this group is Luis Molina-Pantin, whose photographs of telenovela sets bring us into the realm of imaginary real estate inflected with cultural referents that make the invented spaces of television appealing to their audiences. The ability of media to make certain objects and materials universally desirable, erasing local preferences, can be seen in Mauricio Lupini’s photos of Barbie and Ken dolls with their homogeneous perfection, and in Valentina Leirnur’s use of denim, a ubiquitous fabric in contemporary life. The videos of Jessica Lagunas remind us of the absurdity of the ideals of feminine beauty perpetuated by popular media. Sebastián Gordín renders pulp journalism unreadable by recasting magazines in marquetry, inventing mysterious cover images that remain unexplained by their “content.”
Donation of Artworks In addition to this collaboration, the Museo Amparo joined the network of international museums to whom Patricia and Gustavo Cisneros have donated their artworks in their continued mission to promote a greater appreciation of the diversity, sophistication and diversity of Latin American art, particularly through an educational approach. The work Call Forwarding (2013) by Mexican artist Tania Pérez Córdova, included in Portadores de sentido, joined the Museo Amparo’s permanent collection, as well as her work Person Leaning on his Elbow, un extra (2012), also by the same artist.Public Programs
Film Screening Series: Latinoamericano
June 8, 2019, 18:00–19:00
Museo Amparo, Auditorio Arq. Pedro Ramírez Vázquez
On occasion of the exhibition Portadores de sentido, a film screening series—with selections by Johan Woolfschoon, the exhibition's designer—will take place in June and July 2019.
Schedule: June 8, 2019 La estrategia del caracol (1993) Directed by: Sergio Cabrera Country: Colombia Duration: 116 minutes
June 15, 2019 Fitzcarraldo (1982) Directed by: Werner Herzog Countries: Peru and Western Germany Duration: 157 minutes
June 22, 2019 Temporada de patos (2004) Directed by: Fernando Eimbcke County: Mexico Duration: 90 minutes
June 29, 2019 Cidade de Deus (2002) Directed by: Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund Country: Brazil Duration: 135 minutes
July 6, 2019 La jaula de oro (2013) Directed by: Diego Quemada-Díez Countries: Mexico and Spain Duration: 102 minutes
July 13, 2019 Conducta (2014) Directed by: Ernesto Daranas Country: Cuba Duration: 108 minutes
July 20, 2019 Historias mínimas (2002) Directed by: Carlos Sorín Countries: Argentina and Spain Duration: 92 minutes
Artist Talk with Laura Anderson Barbata May 8, 2019, 18:00
Museo Amparo, Arq. Pedro Ramírez Vázuez Auditorium
Laura Anderson Barbata will talk about her public project Transcomunalidad [Transcommonality], a series of intervention and collaborations with stilt walker communities in Trinidad and Tobago, New York, and Oaxaca.
Screening: Mario García Torres February 18–July 22, 2019
Museo Amparo, Auditorium
Mario García Torres's artwork ¿Alguna vez has visto la nieve caer? (2010) will be screened every Monday from 12–3pm until July 22, 2019 in the Museo Amparo's Auditorium.
Screenings will start at 12pm, 1pm, and 2pm.
Performance: Osías Yanov February 16–July 20, 2019
Museo Amparo, Second Floor
Osías Yanov’s artwork ///////)))_Io))) (2014) will be activated with a performance by Guadalupe Flores every Saturday from 12–2pm until July 20, 2019 in the second floor courtyard at Museo Amparo.
Installation: Javier Téllez March 19–June 24, 2019
Museo Amparo, Gallery 3 (on the Third Floor)
Javier Téllez's artwork Letter on the Blind, for the Use of Those Who See (2008) will be projected in Gallery 3 on the third floor of the Museo Amparo from March 19 until June 24, 2019.
