Organized by the Museo de Arte de Lima in collaboration with the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Chile and the Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark with the support of David Zwirner, Gordon Matta-Clark: Undoing Spaces is the first comprehensive exhibition of the artist to be presented in South America. Born in the privileged milieu of surrealist artists Roberto Matta and Anne Clark, Gordon Matta-Clark (New York 1943-1978) is an artist of mythical stature little known to wider audiences in South America.
Curated by Tatiana Cuevas and Gabriela Rangel, the exhibition aims to introduce the work of Gordon Matta-Clark as a radical figure who brings together critical discourses of the European Neo-Avant-Garde and experimental art practices that emerged in New York between the 1970s and 80s. The show will create a dialogue between Matta-Clark’s work and the local contemporary art scenes.
The exhibition proposes a reconstruction of the various layers encompassed in Matta-Clark’s approach to art-making as well as in his interest in the history of architecture and derelict urban spaces. Together with the photographic and filmic documentation of his iconic building “cuts” such as A W-Hole House (1973), Splitting (1974), Bingo (1974), Day’s End (1975), Conical Intersect (1978), Office Baroque (1977), and Circus (1978), Gordon Matta Clark: Undoing Spaces reconsiders some of the artist’s social or political grounded actions such as Garbage Wall (1970), the Counter-Biennial (1971), Fresh Air (1972), Fake Estates (1973), the development of the concept and language of Anarchitecture (1972-1974), or his late recorded performance at the Berlin Wall –The Wall (1976)–, all in a broader context informed by the Cold War and the transformation of cities into real estate commodities.
This is the first time a group of photographs from the artist’s in-site 1971 intervention at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Chile will be shown. The exhibition will also present a selection of notebook sketches, drawings, and written statements, which go from negotiations with potential sponsors to produce his works to more philosophical meditations on space and time.
Gordon Matta Clark: Undoing Spaces examines the artist’s critical response to the failure of modern architecture as a humanist endeavor and the collapse of affordable housing policies vis-à-vis his social concerns for creating sheltering (from self sustainable dwellings such as garbage walls, basket houses, balloon houses, among others) which still could find an echo within the urban changes and social demands of many South American countries.
The catalogue, edited by the Museo de Arte de Lima and published in bilingual editions Spanish/English and Portuguese/English, includes texts by Jane Crawford, Tatiana Cuevas, Lisette Lagnado, Justo Pastor Mellado, Gwendolyn Owens and Gabriela Rangel, as well as a selection of the artist’s writings and interviews.
The exhibition is scheduled to open at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Chile in November 2009. It will continue its tour to Brazil, finishing its presentation at the Museo de Arte de Lima.
The exhibition will travel to:
Museu de Arte Moderno in Sao Paulo
February 25th, 2010 - April 4th, 2010
Museo de Arte de Lima (MALI)
August 18th, 2010 - October 31st, 2010
About the curators:
Tatiana Cuevas (Mexico City. Lives in Lima) is Curator of Contemporary Art at the Museo de Arte de Lima – MALI. She has an MA in Curating Contemporary Art from the Royal Collage of Art in London and a BA in Art History from the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City. During 2005-2008 she was Associate Curator at the Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo in Mexico City. In 2004 she obtained the Hilla Rebay International Fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation in New York. Recent exhibitions include: Henrik Håkansson. Novelas de la selva and Thomas Hirschhorn. Stand-alone, both presented at the Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo (2008); Mexico Cabinet. Supplements to a Collective Reverie, 7 Internationale Foto-Triennale Esslingen, Villa Merkel, Galerien der stadt Esslingen am Neckar, Alemania (2007); Jesús Rafael Soto. Visión en movimiento, Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo–Fundación Proa, Buenos Aires–Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea de Bergamo, Italia (2005-2006).
Gabriela Rangel M. (Caracas. Lives in New York) is Director of Visual Arts and Curator at the Americas Society in New York. She has an MA in Curatorial Studies from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College and an MA in Media and Communications Studies from the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello in Caracas, where she also studied law. She holds a BA in Film Studies from the International Film School at San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba. Prior to this position she was Assistant Curator of Latin American Art and Programs Coordinator for the International Center for the Arts of the Americas at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. She has contributed to Parkett and Atlántica, and has written catalogue essays for Da Adversidade Vivemos: Contemporary Latin American Conceptual Artists (Musee de Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris), Liliana Porter (Centro de Arte Recoleta, Buenos Aires), Claudio Perna: Arte Social (Galería de Arte Nacional, Caracas) and Arte No es Vida (El Museo del Barrio). Recent exhibitions include Dias & Riedweg:…and it becomes something else (2009), Emancipatory Action, Paula Trope and the Meninos (2006) and So far so close (2005).
Curated by Tatiana Cuevas and Gabriela Rangel, the exhibition aims to introduce the work of Gordon Matta-Clark as a radical figure who brings together critical discourses of the European Neo-Avant-Garde and experimental art practices that emerged in New York between the 1970s and 80s. The show will create a dialogue between Matta-Clark’s work and the local contemporary art scenes.
The exhibition proposes a reconstruction of the various layers encompassed in Matta-Clark’s approach to art-making as well as in his interest in the history of architecture and derelict urban spaces. Together with the photographic and filmic documentation of his iconic building “cuts” such as A W-Hole House (1973), Splitting (1974), Bingo (1974), Day’s End (1975), Conical Intersect (1978), Office Baroque (1977), and Circus (1978), Gordon Matta Clark: Undoing Spaces reconsiders some of the artist’s social or political grounded actions such as Garbage Wall (1970), the Counter-Biennial (1971), Fresh Air (1972), Fake Estates (1973), the development of the concept and language of Anarchitecture (1972-1974), or his late recorded performance at the Berlin Wall –The Wall (1976)–, all in a broader context informed by the Cold War and the transformation of cities into real estate commodities.
This is the first time a group of photographs from the artist’s in-site 1971 intervention at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Chile will be shown. The exhibition will also present a selection of notebook sketches, drawings, and written statements, which go from negotiations with potential sponsors to produce his works to more philosophical meditations on space and time.
Gordon Matta Clark: Undoing Spaces examines the artist’s critical response to the failure of modern architecture as a humanist endeavor and the collapse of affordable housing policies vis-à-vis his social concerns for creating sheltering (from self sustainable dwellings such as garbage walls, basket houses, balloon houses, among others) which still could find an echo within the urban changes and social demands of many South American countries.
The catalogue, edited by the Museo de Arte de Lima and published in bilingual editions Spanish/English and Portuguese/English, includes texts by Jane Crawford, Tatiana Cuevas, Lisette Lagnado, Justo Pastor Mellado, Gwendolyn Owens and Gabriela Rangel, as well as a selection of the artist’s writings and interviews.
The exhibition is scheduled to open at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Chile in November 2009. It will continue its tour to Brazil, finishing its presentation at the Museo de Arte de Lima.
The exhibition will travel to:
Museu de Arte Moderno in Sao Paulo
February 25th, 2010 - April 4th, 2010
Museo de Arte de Lima (MALI)
August 18th, 2010 - October 31st, 2010
About the curators:
Tatiana Cuevas (Mexico City. Lives in Lima) is Curator of Contemporary Art at the Museo de Arte de Lima – MALI. She has an MA in Curating Contemporary Art from the Royal Collage of Art in London and a BA in Art History from the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City. During 2005-2008 she was Associate Curator at the Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo in Mexico City. In 2004 she obtained the Hilla Rebay International Fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation in New York. Recent exhibitions include: Henrik Håkansson. Novelas de la selva and Thomas Hirschhorn. Stand-alone, both presented at the Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo (2008); Mexico Cabinet. Supplements to a Collective Reverie, 7 Internationale Foto-Triennale Esslingen, Villa Merkel, Galerien der stadt Esslingen am Neckar, Alemania (2007); Jesús Rafael Soto. Visión en movimiento, Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo–Fundación Proa, Buenos Aires–Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea de Bergamo, Italia (2005-2006).
Gabriela Rangel M. (Caracas. Lives in New York) is Director of Visual Arts and Curator at the Americas Society in New York. She has an MA in Curatorial Studies from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College and an MA in Media and Communications Studies from the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello in Caracas, where she also studied law. She holds a BA in Film Studies from the International Film School at San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba. Prior to this position she was Assistant Curator of Latin American Art and Programs Coordinator for the International Center for the Arts of the Americas at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. She has contributed to Parkett and Atlántica, and has written catalogue essays for Da Adversidade Vivemos: Contemporary Latin American Conceptual Artists (Musee de Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris), Liliana Porter (Centro de Arte Recoleta, Buenos Aires), Claudio Perna: Arte Social (Galería de Arte Nacional, Caracas) and Arte No es Vida (El Museo del Barrio). Recent exhibitions include Dias & Riedweg:…and it becomes something else (2009), Emancipatory Action, Paula Trope and the Meninos (2006) and So far so close (2005).
