THE EVENING BEFORE THE MORNING AFTER, MARIO GARCIA TORRE'S COCKTAIL NIGHT AT BISTROTHEQUE

Vladimir offering some Sprouzos!


MGT's Sabor a Mi (Taste of Me)


The CWE, Aleksandra Mir's Rejection, and Sarah McCrory's Cheeky Vimto


serving some Jonathan Monk's Bloody Gin and Tonic Mary


dj of the night Craig Garett together with chief cocktailier Mr Waddington


MGT and PLB waiting for the customers


Mario Garcia Torres


Mme Horan, creator of the Nailgroni


Mr. Giles Round creator of the Crystal Meth


Kit Hammonds about to have his Publish and be Slammed shot


Manuela Ribadeneira with her Cruz del Sur drink


Ali MacGilp and Carmen Julia having a Klein Blue


Mrs Gwendoline Christie and Mr David Waddington


Mme Esther Planas, celebrating her birthday with Aztec zombie friends


Pijnappel, Angelidakis, Mirko de Lisi


Jose Garcia Torres, Patrick Charpenel


Mr. Gabriel Lester and friends

Pablo Accinelli having a Jonathan Monk's Bloody Gin and Tonic Mary

The Centre for the Aesthetic Revolution and Bistrotheque presents:
THE EVENING BEFORE THE MORNING AFTER
a small show, or gathering, or event-exhibition, or bar night, or cocktail menu
by Mario Garcia Torres

*****

COCKTAIL MENU

CWE
by Cerith Wyn Evans
Equal parts of Evian and Bdoit, slice of cucumber

The Rejection
by Aleksandra Mir
Ice cold sparkling water, wedge of lime, no ice cubes

Counter-Insurgency
by Claire Bishop
A conservative glass of chilled Rosé

Sprouzo
by Pauline Daly and Rebecca Warren
Sprite, Ouzo

Cheeky Vimto
by Sarah McCrory
1 bottle WKD Blue, shot of Port, ice

Gloria
for Rosalind Nashashibi
Tequila, Prosecco and Triple sec

The Bloody Gin and Tonic Mary
by Jonathan Monk
Gin, Vodka, tonic water, tomato juice, equal amounts of each with lemon juice, lime juice and ice

Crystal Meth
by Giles Round
Champagne, Vodka, pomegranate juice and cassis

Nailgroni
by Phillipa Horan
A traditional Negroni with an ice cube in it which has a small piece of nail in it
You have to drink the Nailgroni quickly before the ice melts so you don't swallow a piece of my nail

Publish and be Slammed
by Kit Hammonds
salt rimmed Tequila shot with a lime Vodka jelly at the bottom of the glass
In the jelly would be floating some letters cut from Frieze magazine

La Cruz del Sur
by Manuela Ribadeneira
Cachaca, five ice cubes (one for each star)
Look south literally or metaphorically while drinking

Dry Laurette
by Matthieu Laurette
Gin, dry vermouth, olive (no lemon twist nor vodka!)

Sabor a Mi
by MGT
Prosecco, Cynar, Gin, St. Germain, sugar water, orange peel

The Klein International Blue
by Yves Klein
Gin Bombay Sapphire, Curaçao Amerlalis, Cointreau, lemon juice

*****

THE EVENING BEFORE THE MORNING AFTER
a small show, or gathering, or event-exhibition, or bar night, or cocktail menu
by Mario Garcia Torres

Alcohol (as well as drugs) consumption have been historically, and most probable mistakenly, connected to the creative act. Yet there has been a number of visual artists that have resorted to the old idea of drinking and getting drunk to create their work, both as a medium and as its “content”. The English duo Gilbert & George in Balls: The Evening Before the Morning After - Drinking Sculpture (1972) took blurred pictures of themselves while getting drunk, it is from this work that this night and cocktail menu take its title from. In another of their iconic works Gordon’s Gin Makes Us Drunk (1972), the couple is seen on a video piece indulging in the mentioned spirit. Similarly, the entire Andy Warhol film Drink (1965) is a long take of the filmmaker Emile de Antonio downing a bottle of whiskey. The Act of Drinking Beer with Friends -I wouldn't limit it to only such beverage- is the Highest Form of Art (1970), declared Tom Morioni as he inaugurated what now is called a social situation type of artwork.

By chance, and several years before, the experience of art through a cocktail was extended after the fact, some would say into the morning after. Those who attended the opening of the French artist Yves Klein at the Galerie Iris Clert in Paris on April 29, 1959 could acknowledge it. For this exhibition the space had been painted with white enamel and stripped of all objects and furniture except for a white, empty cabinet. The almost bare gallery could not be seen from outside as the windows had been painted blue and the door was covered with a heavy curtain of the same colour, with two Republican Guards keeping watch over it. Nevertheless the artist had arranged for a specific cocktail made with Gin, Cointreau and Curacao to be served. To the French artist delight -who had been painting deep blue monochrome paintings made out of a self invented recipe for such pigment- all who enjoyed the drink eventually found their pee stained blue.

Thinking about this and proposing, again, to use the idea of the cocktail as a medium, or more so to use the mixology that such a drink require to provoke a specific aesthetic experience, or... maybe just as a decoy to have a good conversation, I have invited a number of artists friends to present their own cocktail, either one that they like, have customised or that have put together themselves. As an honorary place, the menu will close with the historic blue cocktail.

THE EVENING BEFORE THE MORNING AFTER takes place once a month at Celeste House in Mexico City, for this occasion Bistrotheque and the Centre for the Aesthetic Revolution have invited MGT and artists and curators in London to participate in a London version of this evening.

MARIO GARCIA TORRES 'THE EVENING BEFORE THE MORNING AFTER' COCKTAIL NIGHT AT CELESTE BAR, MEXICO CITY

From: Mario Garcia Torres

Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2011 13:18:41 -0500

Subject: The Evening Before the Morning After



Yo! I am organizing a small show, or gathering, or event-exhibition, or cocktail menu at Celeste Champagne Bar in Mexico City. I proposed to present each month an artist cocktail in the bar, and I would love,- be honored-, if you accept this invitation. I am asking you to send me the recipe or name or whatever of a cocktail that you like, or that you have mixed or customized yourself to be included in this menu, and which would either have your name or a title that you wish to put to it. How does this sound? It would be amazing if you accept to participate. Here is below an intro text that I wrote for it, and that will be printed in our menu. I look very much forward to hear from you.



All my best,

MGT



PS: In case you feel lost on this cocktail world as I was not too long ago, I invite you to enter into it through the Mixilator: http://www.cocktaildb.com/mixilator



*****



The Evening Before the Morning After

Thursday August 25, 2011

Celeste Champagne Bar



Alcohol (as well as drugs) consumption has been historically, and most probable mistakenly, connected to a creative act. Yet there has been a number of visual artists that have resort the old idea of drinking and getting drunk to create their work, both as a medium and as its “content” as the English duo Gilbert & George argued with their Drinking Sculptures series where they took pictures of themselves in that very same act. In one of their most iconic works, besides the one which this menu take its title from, is Gordon’s Gin Makes Us Drunk (1972), the couple is seen on a video piece indulging in the mentioned spirit. Similarly, the entire Andy Warhol film Drink (1965) is a long take of the filmmaker Emile de Antonio downing a bottle of whiskey. The Act of Drinking Beer with Friends -I wouldn’t limit it as only such beverage- is the Highest Form of Art (1970), declared Tom Morioni as he inaugurated what now is called a social situation type of artwork.



By chance, and several years before this, the experience of art through a cocktail was extended after the fact, some would say into the morning after. Those who attended the opening of the French artist Yves Klein at the Galerie Iris Clert in Paris on April 29, 1959 could acknowledge it. For this exhibition the space had been painted with white enamel and stripped of all objects and furniture except for a white, empty cabinet. The almost bare gallery could not be seen from outside as the windows had been painted blue and the door was covered with a heavy curtain of the same color, and two Republican Guards kept watch over it. Nevertheless the artist had arranged for a specific cocktail made with Gin, Cointreau and Curacao to be served. To the French artist’s delight -who had been painting deep blue monochrome paintings made out of a self invented recipe for such pigment- all who enjoyed the drink eventually found their pee stained blue.



Thinking about this and proposing, again, to use the idea of the cocktail as a medium, or more so to use the mixology that such a drink requires to provoke a specific aesthetic experience, or… maybe just as a decoy to have a good conversation, I have invited a number of artists friends to present their own cocktail, either one that they like, have customized or that have put together themselves. Each month a new cocktails by artists will be presented until a full bar menu is completed. As an honorary place, the menu will open with the historic blue cocktail.



Mario García Torres



*****



The Klein International Blue by YVES KLEIN

Gin Bombay Sapphire, Curaçao Amerlalis, Cointreau, lemon juice $95.00



Caesar by RODNEY GRAHAM

Clamato, vodka Three Olives, green bean pickle $90.00



The Luis Barragán by PABLO LEÓN DE LA BARRA

Tequila Herradura Blanco blessed by a priest $75.00



Happy Stan by STAN DOUGLAS

Vodka Chopin, tequila Corralejo, lemon juice $135.00



El López by EDUARDO LÓPEZ

Ron Bacardi Blanco, lemon juice, mineral water, ginger syrup, cucumber, mint $70.00



Wendt Up by KONRAD WENDT

Blueberry tea, Black tea, Amaretto Disaronno, Grand Marnier $150.00



Jonathan Johnson by CARL MICHAEL VON HAUSSWOLF

Lemon Soda, Rioja La Vendimia Rioja Red Wine, vodka Three Olives $220.00



Luis G. Urbina by ZELIKA GARCÍA

Moet & Chandon Brut Imperial Champagne, vodka Belvedere $360.00



Araki by ARAKI NOBUYOSHI $25.00

MARIO GARCIA TORRES 'JE NE SAIS SI C'EN EST LA CAUSE' AT EL ECO EXPERIMENTAL MUSEUM

installation views of 'Je ne sais si c´en est la cause' at Museo El Eco




beach chairs designed by Mario Garcia Torres with The Grapetree Hotel logo




Mario Lopez Landa playing at El Eco as part of 'Je ne sais si c´en est la cause'
buy Mario Lopez Lada's CD here: https://www.cdbaby.com/cd/mariohappyfi




'JE NE SAIS SI C'EN EST LA CAUSE'
Mario García Torres
El Eco, Museo Experimental
from June 9, 2011

Described as a story of “deceptions and disappointments,” Mario García Torres' audio-visual installation in the Main Gallery describes the context in which The Grapetree Hotel was built in the 60s, on the island of St. Croix. It was at this hotel that the young French artist Daniel Buren produced a group of murals. Buren struggled to make these works and expressed his distaste for them, but later acknowledged their importance as his first in-situ works, a characteristic of his highly influential Conceptual Art practice. García Torres' project explores the inherent fictions, politics and creativity of history. Originally presented in 2009, the artist has adapted the work to the characteristics of Mathias Goeritz´s architecture. He has specifically chosen not to darken the space completely, but to incorporate the changing light effects experienced throughout the day in the building. His slide images will appear pale and bleached by the summer sun at various times, while as the sun sets they will become more defined.

Mario Garcia Torres was born in 1975 in Monclova, Mexico and currently lives in Mexico City. His solo shows include the Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid (2010); Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona (2009); UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley (2009); Kunsthalle Zürich (2008) and Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2007). He has participated in multiple bienales including: the 29th Bienal de São Paulo (2010); Taipei Biennial (2010); 52nd Biennale di Venezia (2007); 8th Panama Biennial (2008); and in group exhibitions at museums and institutions worldwide. He was the recipient of the Cartier Award at the Frieze Art Fair (2007).

As part of the exhibition, Mario García Torres presents: Mario López Landa who composed the song for JE NE SAIS SI C´EN EST LA CAUSE.
a concert by Mario López Landa, together with Goma and the musicians of Quiero Club
Thursday, June 30 2011, 20:00 PM

Mario García Torres (in colaboration with Mario López Landa)
'No sé si esa sea la causa / Je ne sais si c’en est la cause' exhibited at Museo El Eco, is a work which forms part of the exhibition 'INCIDENTS OF MIRROR TRAVEL IN YUCATAN AND ELSEWHERE' curated by Pablo Leon de la Barra at Museo Tamayo.

http://www.eleco.unam.mx

installation photos by Ramiro Chavez http://chavesphoto.com/

buy Mario Lopez Lada's CD here: https://www.cdbaby.com/cd/mariohappyfi

*****

Je ne sais si c´en est la cause, 2009
Mario García Torres (in colaboration with Mario López Landa)
Audio and music lyrics:

On Southeastern coast of St. Croix, is what once was called the Grapetree Bay Hotel.

Exposed to the Caribbean sun, have the remains been, in constant decay, for the last couple of decades.

One could probably say that story of the Grapetree Bay is surrounded by deceptions and disappointments. And maybe that is what makes it fascinating.

The hotel opened in the early sixties, and ran only for a little bit more than a couple of decades. Most people would think without much luck.

Even before it opened its doors in the early sixties, the enterprise was already the motive of legal and economic disputes.

But for most guests, the hotel seemed like a lively place. A fantastic spot, set on white sands. A paradise, only a few hours away, they would say.

Misfortune came again when in 1989 a hurricane hit the island, damaging the premises and leaving them abandoned thereafter.

Today old guests can be seen once in a while walking through the debris, probably in search for lost memories.

They walk through hollow structures, habited by nature. There is the empty pool by the clubhouse, but the tennis courts have almost disappeared.

Still there though, half destroyed, are the mosaic and ceramic murals that decorated the place. Not many people put attention to them then, hardly any these days.

Since its inception it seems they where also the product of a hard time; a foundational time.

Fate has dramatically changed their context, but surprisingly they seem to play the same unimposing role, almost unaware of their importance.

Je suis toujours aussi mal installé.
Je ne sais si c'est la cause de,
mais depuis un mois
que je travaille sur un grande toile,
j'en ai fait au moins 20
les unes sur les autres
toutes plus dégueulasses
les unes que les autres.
Le résultat est nul.

Je Suis Toujours Aussi Mal Installé
JE NE SAIS SI C'EST LA CAUSE DE

A story of deceptions and disappointments
Longing for Happier Times
Faith has dramatically changed their context

*****

Je ne sais si c´en est la cause, 2009
A Project by Mario García Torres

In the 1960s, two sets of murals were created by the French artist Daniel Buren at the Grapetree Bay Hotel, on the island of St.Croix. The young artist was invited to make these artworks as he was just finishing art school. He first came to the island in 1960 and completed on site a group of figurative works, for the large dinning room of the hotel. He later returned in 1965 to make a mosaic for the pool house area. His interest in the mural format was partly derived from his experiences in Mexico in 1957, where he had seen murals by Diego Rivera and had met David Alfaro Siqueiros.

Buren had difficulty making these artworks and expressed his distaste for them in his writings during this period. But in retrospect, they came to hold an important place within his artistic development. He later acknowledged them as his first in situ projects, a central characteristic of his highly influential Conceptual Art practice that emerged at the end of the decade. His signature style became bold stripe works, taken from commercial shop awnings, which he began to present both inside and outside gallery contexts. In the form of paper posters, they were plastered in the streets of Europe and the U.S. and were understood as a gesture toward breaking down the traditional boundaries between life and art, the street and the museum. Influenced by French deconstructivist philosophy, these works highlighted the surroundings in which they were placed, leading the way toward other artists´ integration of socio-political contexts into Contemporary Art production.

Construction of the Grapetree Bay Hotel began in early 1960 on the Southern Coast of St. Croix. The development of the hotel formed part of the economic transition of the island from an agricultural economy, based on sugar production, to a tourist economy. St. Croix had been purchased by the United States in 1917 from the Danish government for military purposes, but in the Post-War period private investment in tourism was encouraged by the U.S., in an attempt to boost the failing economy of the island.

The hotel had financial problems from the begining. It took over four years to open, as millions of dollars, invested by an American named Farleigh Dickenson, Jr. were mishandled by local administrators and complicated legal and financial battles ensued, involving the lawyer Thibaut Saint Phalle. Large sums were spend on advertising for the hotel, including a blatantly promotional record by the popular steel band musician, Pedrito Altieri. The hotel stayed open for over twenty years and attracted many tourists to its attractive beach location. But it continually struggled to stay open, until in 1989 the devastating Hurricane Hugo forced it to close.

Mario García Torres became interested in the anecdote of the murals in the early 2000s and their troubled and pivotal position within Buren´s oeuvre. The Mexican artist began to research extensively the murals, their post-colonial island location and the various legal and financial battles that surrounded them. In 2005 he visited the island and the abandoned hotel. The first set of murals in the dinning room had been removed, but the mosaic works by the pool house area were still visible. He documented the entropic state of the hotel photographically. These images, projected as slides, along with historical photographs and promotional materials, give form to his installation Je ne sais si c´en est la cause (I don´t know if that was the reason), presented at El Eco. The title of the piece is a phase taken from a letter that Buren wrote to his family while working on the murals, where he describes them as failed works. As part of the project, García Torres commissioned the Mexican musician Mario López Landa to reproduce this text in the form of a melancholic song, which is played on an old record player in the installation and follows a short text that narrates the story of the hotel and the artworks executed there.

During the past ten years, García Torres has advanced an artistic practice involving extensive research into little known art historical moments, investigating and exhibiting his findings in highly subjective ways, which often imbue these narratives with a sense of fiction. The artist is always present within the documentation of his research, at times in a protagonist role, at other times more oblique. Within the slide images of the Grapetree Bay Hotel, in its dilapidated rooms and terraces, overrun with tropical plans and debris, the viewer can note slight interventions that appear to be made by the artist. A phone is shown off-the-hook, two shutters are placed on top one another in a posed manner, square pieces of boards lean against a painted wall in an aestheticized installation. One image focuses on a square wooden door, set into a wall, made of vertical pieces of painted wood, which significantly recalls the stripe works of Buren.

García Torres´s project articulates a reflection on how history is continually used and constructed in retrospect, how it is perpetually manipulated after-the-fact. These works explore history´s inherent fictions, politics and creativity. His artistic investigations are not nostalgic, but rather look for generative models. In Je ne sais si c´en est la cause the younger artist extends and engages the logic inherent in the later conceptual practice of Buren, in order to produce this contemporary piece, through his exploration of the socio-political context in which the French artist´s first site-specific works were produced.

This installation was originally presented in 2009 and is being shown for the first time in Mexico City. For El Eco, García Torres has adapted the work to the characteristics of Mathias Goeritz´s unique architecture. He has specifically chosen not to darken the space completely, but to incorporate into the installation the changing light effects experienced throughout the day in the building. His slide images will appear as the sun begins to set. Chairs that reference a vacation setting provide viewers with a chance to sit, to read, to contemplate these enigmatic and lonely images and listen to the audio recording, echoing from a distant part of the building.

Tobias Ostrander, Curator, Museo El Eco

'INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL IN CENTRAL AMERICA, CHIAPAS, YUCATAN AND ELSEWHERE' CURATED BY PABLO LEON DE LA BARRA AT CCE IN GUATEMALA

Rodrigo Fernández Cevallos

Mayita Moderno, Estela, Objeto Encontrado, puerta intervenida 2010

Esta puerta fue encontrada por el artista en una aldea cercana a Panajachel, Guatemala. Pertenece a un adolescente de la localidad. La puerta muestra aparte de un deterioro natural, una serie de intervenciones realizadas por el adolescente las cuales expresan su rebeldía, su deseo de expresión y una fuerte influencia de la cultura televisiva a través de series de dibujos animados. La puerta es presentada como una estela o monolito Maya contemporáneo que podría ser considerada de importancia en un futuro para los arqueólogos que estudien nuestra civilización.



















Frederick Catherwood

Incidentes de Viaje en Centro America, Chiapas y Yucatán, Litografías Dibujos originales realizados entre 1841 y 1842

El escritor John L. Stephens y su fiel acompañante, el dibujante Frederick Catherwood partieron de Nueva York rumbo a Centro America, Chiapas y Yucatán en Octubre de 1839. En aquella época solo eran conocidos tres sitios arqueológicos mayas, Copan, Palenque y Uxmal. Stephens concibió la idea de explorar la región y dar a conocer esa civilización. En el medio norteamericano de aquel entonces, la sola idea de una ‘civilización’ indígena era algo que no era aceptado fácilmente. El libro de sus viajes, Incidentes de Viaje en Centro America, Chiapas y Yucatán, con ilustraciones de Catherwood, se imprimió en 1843, y rápidamente se convirtió en un best seller. Posteriormente Stephens y Catherwood abandonaron su vida de arqueólogos para encargarse de empresas dedicadas a la construcción de ferrocarriles, el primero en Panamá y el segundo en la Guyana Británica. Sin embargo, el clima tropical cobro su cota: en 1850, Stephens viajó a Panamá, para trabajar en el proyecto del ferrocarril Trans-Ístmico. Dos años después aún durante los trabajos de construcción del ferrocarril, Stephens enfermó gravemente de malaria, fue encontrado inconsciente debajo de una ceiba, (árbol considerado sagrado por los mayas) y tuvo que ser embarcado a Nueva York. Murió en su casa de LeRoy Place 13, Greenwich Village (que aun esta en pie), el 13 de Octubre de 1852. En cuanto a Catherwood, hallo la muerte en una travesía de Londres a Nueva York, al hundirse la embarcación ‘S.S. Arctic’ en 1854

Robert Smithson

Hotel Palenque, Paginas fotocopiadas de catalogo, enmarcadas en vidrio, 1969/1972

En 1969 Robert Smithson visitó el sitio arqueológico Maya de Palenque en Chiapas, México. Ahí se hospedo en un hotel en construcción con el mismo nombre que el sitio arqueológico. El hotel aun no estaba terminado y aun así tenia secciones que ya se estaban convirtiendo en ruina. Hotel Palenque impresiono mas a Smithson que el mismo sitio arqueológico de Palenque. En el hotel, Smithson hizo una serie de fotografías que presento como una proyección de diapositivas en una conferencia que dio en 1972 a los alumnos de arquitectura de la Universidad de Utah en Salt Lake City. La conferencia a los estudiantes es algo entre una charla académica seria, y una irónica proyección de diapositivas de unas vacaciones en un lugar exótico. Smithson utilizo la entropía existente en el hotel para hacer analogías con el discurso y las obras de arte producidas por sus contemporáneos: las obras y situaciones anónimas que encontraba Smithson en el hotel eran mucho mas interesantes que mucho del trabajo de sus contemporáneos. La conferencia fue grabada y presentada después de la muerte de Smithson como una obra de arte.







Beatriz Santiago

Inventario, HD video, 18:00 minutos, 2006

En la frontera entre México y Guatemala, el poblado de Frontera Corozal fue creado en 1976 para reubicar a 601 familias choles en los bordes del Río Usumacinta. A cada familia se le dio un lote de 50 por 50 metros, y la traza de estos lotes configuran una retícula casi perfecta en medio de la selva Lacandona. Trabajando con la idea de la imposibilidad de realizar un inventario del mundo natural, Santiago involucro a los habitantes del lugar en la realización de un film donde pidió a los habitantes que dibujaran en el aire los contornos de su propio espacio o de un paisaje natural imaginado. También trabajo con los 18 comuneros del consejo del poblado para hacer un inventario de todo lo que existe en la población. El inventario fue después narrado por uno de los miembros del consejo utilizando su idioma de origen maya, el Chol de Tila y comunicado a través del sistema de perifoneo del pueblo. El inventario incluye también aquellas cosas o elementos que ya no están presentes en el poblado, a los que el portavoz dice adiós: “adiós, jaguar, adiós armadillo, adiós árbol de Ceiba…”

Jardin de Voyageurs (reading garden), loosely inspired by Marcel Broodthaers' 1974's Jardin d'Hiver





an old copy of 'Incidents of Travel in Central America...'





Mariana Castillo Deball

Estas Ruinas Que Ves, Audio, 2006/2007

En Estas Ruinas Que Ves, Castillo Deball evidencia las diferentes capas que conforman los discurso arqueológicos para poder cuestionar el uso de estas ideas en la construcción de nuestras identidades e historias nacionales y así poder recontextualizar y poner el presente en tela de juicio. El trabajo sonoro presentado es parte de una audio-guía museográfica de objetos comunes, con el objetivo de develar la carga ideológica que se encuentra implícita en las practicas museográficas y que inevitablemente condicionan nuestra percepción de los objetos presentados.





Armando Andrade Tudela

Sin Titulo, (Escultura de Asfalto), Dimensiones variables (Cortesía del artista y Galería Carl Freedman, Londres), 2007/2008

Las esculturas de asfalto de Armando Andrade proponen un uso artístico de un material común usado para cubrir avenidas y carreteras. El Asfalto es uno de los componentes del petróleo crudo, una presencia negra y semi-sólida. Las esculturas de asfalto, figuras negras, amorfas y opacas al ser colocadas sobre superficies de vidrio o acrílico sobre pedestales adquieren un valor que antes no poseían y se insertan en un nuevo circuito de valores. Las esculturas de asfalto bien podrían ser objetos arqueológicos provenientes de un sitio futuro…





Armando Andrade Tudela

Marcahuasi, Film transferido a video, (Cortesía del artista y Galería Carl Freedman, Londres), 2010

Marcahuasi es una planicie de unos cuatro kilómetros cuadrados situada en la cordillera de los Andes, al este de la ciudad de Lima, Perú. Se trata de una impresionante formación de piedras de origen volcánico a más de cuatro mil metros sobre el nivel del mar. Las rocas, impresionantes no solo por su tamaño sino por sus formas extravagantes, han dado lugar a un sin fin de teorías grotescas sobre su origen y han sido bautizadas con los nombres más elocuentes. A mediados de la década de los cincuenta, Daniel Ruzo, un arqueólogo reputado para unos, y un profeta y criptógrafo para otros, escribió un texto en el que señala que las piedras son ‘esculturas’ creadas hace más de diez mil años por lo que él llama la cultura ‘Masma’ o ‘Cuarta Humanidad’. En la década de los sesenta Marcahuasi se convierte en un lugar de culto, y llega a ser conocida como ‘la meseta de los dioses’, un centro de peregrinación que atrae a hippies de todo el continente. Repensar Marcahuasi, representa la posibilidad de invertir las grandes narrativas arqueológicas e históricas que han ignorado a este lugar, e invoca a una cultura anterior a las modernidades ‘Occidentales’ que atribuimos a Egipto o a Grecia, insertando así de nuevo en la Historia a una tribu primigenia, una cultura tecnológicamente avanzada, que podría ser la matriz de todo el resto de culturas.







Cyprien Gaillard

Cities of Gold and Mirrors, 16mm transferido a video, 8 minutos 52 segundos, (cortesía del artista y Galería Laura Bartlett, Londres), 2009

Cities of Gold and Mirrors fue filmada en la ciudad Mexicana de Cancún en la Península del Yucatán y consiste en una secuencia no narrativa construida por 5 partes y acompañada por el soundtrack en loop de The Mysterious Cities of Gold una caricatura Francesa/Japonesa popular en Francia en la década de los ochentas. La caricatura contaba la historia de un conquistador Español, y mezclaba historia pre-Hispánica y de la conquista del continente Americano con arqueología y ciencia ficción. Hoy día Cancún, fundada por el gobierno mexicano como destino turístico en 1970 le ofrece a Gaillard un paisaje perpetuado por un espíritu de ruinas y anacronismo habitado por jóvenes vacacionistas estadounidenses en Spring Break que regresaran a su país con recuerdos borrosos debido a la ebriedad. Mientras las tomas de los hoteles modernos construidos en estilo Maya, sobre las ruinas Mayas, intentan una reconstrucción historizada del pasado.





Los Super Elegantes

Nothing Really Matters, DVD-video, 5 minutos 08 segundos, 2006

Nothing Really Matters es el video musical para la canción del mismo nombre de Los Super Elegantes y fue filmado en locaciones en Atenas, Grecia. El video es tanto una investigación sobre Atenas y su historia, una ciudad llena de mitos antiguos como de complejidad contemporánea. Así como un proyección de fantasías culturales hacia esta. Nothing Really Matters presenta una sinopsis libre de la historia Griega y la civilización occidental, reconstruida a través de un collage visual de referencias fílmicas. El video incluye ruinas antiguas de fondo, tomas de la Acrópolis, vestuarios vintage de la época de Onassis, y bailarines semidesnudos cubiertos en togas.







Los Super Elegantes

Estudio de Portada para Vogue vestidos con textiles Guatemaltecos, Impresión digital, 55 x 55 cms, 2004/2010

Estudio de Portada para Vogue vestidos con textiles Guatemaltecos es una fotografía de Los Super Elegantes, realizada como un estudio fotográfico ficticio para una deseada pero poco probable portada de la revista de modas Vogue. En ella aparecen Martiniano López-Crozet montado a caballo y Milena Muzquiz como su guía y fiel acompañante. Los dos están envueltos de textiles Guatemaltecos, combinados con tartan escocés y otros remansos de telas y sabanas, simulando una alta costura de diseñador de modas. Fotografiados contra el paisaje de Los Angeles, que bien podría ser el de cualquier otra ciudad, los dos aparentan ser estrellas del mundo del espectáculo fotografiados en su rancho, o unos conquistadores perdidos, una versión moderna de Quijote y Sancho Panza o, incluso, viajeros occidentales sin destino, que han perdido su identidad al vestirse de la cultura que visitan, y que ahora visten de una historia reconstruida libremente a través de cut and paste.





Cerith Wyn Evans

Aquí todo parece que esta en construcción y ya es una ruina, escultura efímera construida con fuegos artificiales, Dimensiones variables, (Cortesía del artista y colección INHOTIM, Brazil) 2004

Cerith Wyn Evans presenta una frase, construida en fuegos artificiales que dice ‘Aquí todo parece que esta en construcción y ya es una ruina’. La cita esta tomada de la canción Fora de Ordem de Caetano Veloso, que a la vez es adaptada de un fragmento de Tristes Tropiques, el texto de 1955 del antropólogo Frances Claude Levi Strauss sobre su encuentro con el ‘nuevo mundo’.









Naufus Ramirez Figueroa, costume-models based on Guatemala's prehispanic, colonial and modern architecture





Marimba del Infierno, Siempre Juntos



























Naufus Ramirez Figueroa

Breve Historia de la Arquitectura en Guatemala, Espectáculo dadaísta, 2010

Naufus Ramirez Figueroa junto con Diego Sagastume, Jennifer De León, y el maestro Alfonso Tunche estarán vestidos de ruinas de diferentes eras de Guatemala mientras danzan al ritmo de la Marimba Siempre Juntos (Marimbas del Infierno).







before the performance: Naufus Ramirez Figueroa, Pablo Leon de la Barra, Naufus' performers and Señor Marimba!





artist Stefan Benchoam, PLB, and Emiliano Valdes, the amazing curator at CCE Guatemala who invited me to do the exhibition there.

(professional photos, courtesy Byron Marmol, blurry ones by myself)





‘Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, Yucatan and other places...’

A project by Pablo Leon de la Barra with Frederick Catherwood, Robert Smithson, Carlos Mérida, Lara Almarcegui, Armando Andrade, Mariana Castillo Deball, Rodrigo Fernández, Cyprien Galliard, Mario García Torres, Beatriz Santiago, Los Super Elegantes, Carla Verea, y Cerith Wyn Evans and a performance by Naufus Figueroa...



Centro Cultural de España, Guatemala, Guatemala

May 2010



“The existence of most of these ruins was entirely unknown to residents of the capital; - but few had ever been visited by white inhabitants; - they were desolate, and overgrown with trees. For a brief space the stillness that reigned around them was broken, and they were again left to solitude and silence. Time and the elements are hastening them to utter destruction. In a few generations, great edifices, their facades covered with sculptured ornaments, already cracked and yawning, must fall and become mere shapeless mounds.”

John L. Stephens, Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan, 1841



“If you visit the sites (a doubtful probability) you find nothing but memory-traces, for the mirror displacements were dismantled right after they were photographed. The mirrors are somewhere in New York. The reflected light has been erased. Rememberances are but numbers on a map, vacant memories constellating the intangible terrains in deleted vicinities. It is the dimension of absence that remains to be found. The expunged color that remains to be seen . The fictive voices of the totems have exhausted their arguments. Yucatan is elsewhere.”

Robert Smithson, Incidents of Mirror-Travel in the Yucatan, 1969



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Incidentes de Viaje en Centro America, Chiapas, Yucatán, y otros lugares...

Con trabajos de Frederick Catherwood, Robert Smithson, Carlos Mérida, Lara Almarcegui, Armando Andrade, Mariana Castillo Deball, Rodrigo Fernández, Naufus Figueroa, Cyprien Galliard, Mario García Torres, Beatriz Santiago, Los Super Elegantes, Carla Verea, y Cerith Wyn Evans.



Un proyecto de Pablo León de la Barra





“La existencia de la mayoría de estas ruinas era completamente desconocida a los habitantes de la capital; pocas habían sido visitadas jamás por hombres blancos; estaba desoladas y cubiertas con árboles. Durante un breve espacio de tiempo, la quietud que reinaba alrededor de ellas fue interrumpida, y luego fueron nuevamente abandonadas a la soledad y el silencio. El tiempo y los elementos están acelerando su completa destrucción. Tras algunas generaciones, grandes estructuras, sus fachadas cubiertas por ornamentos esculpidos, ya rajados y bostezantes, caerán para convertirse en meros montículos sin forma.”

John L. Stephens, Incidentes de viaje en América Central, Chiapas y Yucatán, 1841



“Si usted visita estos sitios (una dudosa probabilidad), encontrará nada más que huellas de memoria pues los deslazamientos-espejo fueron desmantelados inmediatamente después de ser fotografiados. Los espejos están en algún lugar de Nueva York. La luz reflejada ha sido borrada. Los recuerdos son sólo números en un mapa, memorias vacantes constelando los terrenos intangibles en proximidades suprimidas. Es la dimensión de la ausencia la que queda por ser encontrada. El color expurgado que queda por ser visto. Las voces ficticias de los tótems han agotado sus argumentos. Yucatán está en otro lugar”

Robert Smithson, Incidents of Mirror-Travel in the Yucatan, 1969





Inspirado libremente por los ‘Incidentes de Viaje en América Central, Chiapas y Yucatan’ de John Lloyd Stephens y Frederick Catherwood (1841-1842) y el viaje realizado por Robert Smitshon por Yucatán y Chiapas (Incidents of Mirror Travel in Yucatan y Hotel Palenque, 1969), la exposición presenta el trabajo reciente de artistas contemporáneos que a través del turismo, la arqueología o la antropología se relacionan con el paisaje de ruinas antiguas y modernas para construir una arqueología del presente.



‘Incidentes de Viaje en Centro America, Chiapas, Yucatán, y otros lugares...’ presenta las litografías realizadas por Catherwood, así como copias de las fotografías hechos por Smithson junto a obras recientes que exploran el paisaje ‘arqueológico’ de la contemporaneidad. En contraste con las narraciones subjetivas de Smithson y Catherwood, el video de Beatriz Santiago Inventario (2006) filmado en Frontera Corazal en la frontera entre Chiapas y Guatemala, invita a los habitantes de este poblado a describir su entorno.



La estela Mayita Moderno (2010) de Rodrigo Fernández recrea una estela moderna que da la bienvenida al visitante al CCE, y cuestiona nuestra relación con la producción actual de los descendientes de los Mayas. La guía auditiva para exposiciones Estas ruinas que ves (2008) Mariana Castillo Deball explora los mecanismos de exhibición, presentación y contextualización de restos del pasado dentro de estructuras museográficas. Para Lara Almarcegui, el sitio de investigación arqueológica es la misma sala de exhibición, presentando un proyecto donde retiro y volvió a instalar el suelo del espacio expositivo. Armando Andrade presenta una escultura asfáltica, una roca arqueológica que podría provenir de un futuro lejano o de otro pasado desconocido; mientras su film Marcahuasi presenta la posibilidad de otra narración del pasado arqueológico y la historia de las civilizaciones. Carla Verea, en un trabajo comisionado específicamente para esta exposición investiga las ruinas de la modernidad registrando fotográficamente el estado actual de los murales hechos por Carlos Mérida en la ciudad de Guatemala. De igual manera, la proyección de diapositivas de Mario Garcia Torres Je ne sais si c'en est la cause (2009), es una especie de diario de viaje, donde García Torres busca los restos del mural hecho por Daniel Buren en los sesentas el Grapetree Bay Hotel de las Islas Vírgenes.



Otros trabajos exploran la relación existente entre arqueología y turismo. En el video de Cyprian Galliard Cities of Gold and Mirrors (2009), filmado en Cancún (ciudad construida para el turismo extranjero en Mexico en 1970) conviven hoteles en forma de pirámides mayas junto con turistas estadounidenses en vacaciones de primavera, en un paisaje que es casi ficticio. Mientras que Los Super Elegantes presentan una imagen fotográfica de ellos vestidos de viajeros con textiles Guatemaltecos, y un videoclip que los muestra bailando frente a las ruinas de la Acrópolis de Atenas donde los restos del pasado se vuelven un pastiche para la reconstrucción libre y superficial de la historia, un escenario para un turismo con memoria selectiva...



Finalmente dos trabajos serán visibles solamente durante la inauguración. Naufus Figueroa presenta Breve historia de la arquitectura en Guatemala, un performance donde se viste de ruinas de diferentes eras de Guatemala mientras danza al ritmo de la Marimba. Cerith Wyn Evans presenta una escultura temporal construida en fuegos artificiales con la frase escrita ‘Aquí todo parece que esta en construcción y ya es una ruina’…