Curator: Rosa Martínez.
October 5 to November 9. 1997. Istanbul. Turkey.

Venues

The 5th International Istanbul Biennial was staged at one main centre and a number of satellite venues. Located inside the Topkapi Palace gardens, the Imperial Mint -which perfectly embodied the idea of a city within a city- was the main venue. Other spaces, such as the Yerebatan Cistern, the Hagia Eirene Church or the Women´s Library also hosted art projects. Together with exceptional venues like the Maidens´ Tower or the Pera Palas Hotel, they catalyzed the artistic proposals and, by using the city’s main gates -the International Ataturk Airport, the Sirckeci and Haydarpasa train Stations, the 5th Biennial became both an exhibition and a walk.

Selected Artists: Ahtila. Eija-Liisa. Alaez, Ana Laura. Almeida, Helena. Altindere, Halil. Antoni, Janine. Ataman, Kutlug. Avsar, Vahap. Aziz, Sükran. Berksoy, Semiha. Berlin, Meta Isaeus. Bodnar, Eva Eszter. Bony, Oscar. Bourgeois, Louise. Bournigault, Rebecca. Buetti, Daniel. Caeckenbergh, Patrick van. Cattelan, Maurizio. Creten, Johan. Cross, Dorothy. Davis, Yael. Diller & Scofidio. Durham, Jimmie. Eliasson, Olafur. Emin, Tracey. Erdem, Türkan. Feyzdjou, Chohreh. François, Michel. Gill, Symrin. Golec, Leszek and Tatiana Czekalska. González Torres, Félix. Grigely, Joseph. Gutiérrez, Yolanda. Guzmán, Federico. Hauswolff, Michel von. Hemmo, Irit. Herrán, Juan Fernando. Hoeck, Richard. Höller, Carsten. IRWIN. Ibrahim, Bedi. Janssens, Ann Veronica. Kim, Soo-Ja. Kosmaoglou, Sofia. Kulik, Oleg. KÜLTÜR. Lakner, Antal. Langa, Moshekwa. Leonilson. Lindal, Anna. Lislegaard, Ann. Maestro, Lani. Massumi, Elahe. Mateus, Cristina. McCaslin, Matthew. Mendieta, Ana. Miralda, Antoni. Moral, Sükran. Mori, Mariko. Navridis, Nikos. Neshat, Shirin. Neuenschwander, Rivane. Obregón, Roberto. Orlan. Özseçen, Ebru. Pérez Bravo, Marta María. Piña, Manuel. May Post, Liza. Qiang, Cai Guo. Rakauskaite, Egle. Ribeiro, Flávia. Rist, Pipilotti. Romanos, Chryssa. Rosenfeld, Lotty. Semmes, Beverly. Sense:less. Sterbak, Jana. Sussman, Eve. Sangar, Bülent. Taylor-Wood, Sam. Tian-Miao, Lin. Valldosera, Eulàlia. Vickerson, Laura. Wallinger, Mark. Weber, Martin. Wirkkala, Maaria.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK:
‘On Life, Beauty, Translations and Other Difficulties’

Under the title “On Life, Beauty, Translations and Other Difficulties” the 5th Istanbul Biennial synthetizes the desire to approach and explore some important points of discussion in contemporary esthetic thought and creation: the borderlines that separate art and life; the search for new meanings of beauty, and the awareness that we need languages to communicate even if translations produce displacements of meaning.

Besides its appearance as a totally autonomous entity, and the awareness that, as with any other language, it has its own laws, art also acts as a medium to relate human beings to different areas of reality, and may be considered as a translation, a vehicle for reinterpreting and creating new ways of perceiving and transforming the world. The pleasure of beauty, the strength and the intensity of an aesthetic experience in which emotions function as a form of knowledge is needed in those processes of comunication in which the ‘other’, as Duchamp said, is required to complete the meaning of the artwork.

Life:
An artwork may be seen as a terminal, a point of arrival and departure
between life and language, a space where one can play with signs generated by other fields of knowledge and experience (science, technology, mass media, politics, physicality, sexual identity…), a place where it is possible to value and to transform relations with the ‘others’ by articulating, to different degrees of intensity, the understanding of nature and the multiplicity of cultural differences, so we can move from the ‘pasive aesthetics of mirrors’ to a changing, multi-faceted and active ‘aesthetics of prisms’, where the gaze is multidirectional and inclusive.

Beauty:
Without neglecting the need for content, ideology or pathos, art is
striving to recover the vertigo and intensity associated with the idea of beauty. Beauty is not timeless and universal, beauty is a subjective experience linked to the rhetoric of appearance, to the linguistic qualities of the signifier and the pleasure that they produce in the beholder. Aesthetic values depend on historical and cultural variations of taste and today, from a holistic perspective, we can move from beauty to content and integrate mind and body, thought and emotion, rhetoric and philosophy, pleasure and knowledge to achieve a new conception of life.

Translation:
Translation is implied in any form of creation. Creation is a displacement, a movement from one field (life, culture, experience) to another (visual or poetic languages…). Art today embodies a nomadic experience; it is becoming a form of energy related to displacement.
The desire to explore the differential spaces, the places of the ‘others’ and the fluidity and difficulties of translation between different contexts are being reviewed as a means of reinterpreting our position in the contemporary world.

Difficulties:
To travel between those different spheres (cultural, sexual, linguistic…) is a journey of adventure with various risks and difficulties. The process of exploring and overcoming these difficulties is intrinsic in issues related to translation, life and beauty.

La entrada 5th International Istanbul Biennial, Turkey, 1997 se publicó primero en Rosa Martínez - Independent Art Curator.

Curator: Rosa Martínez.
Limerick. Ireland. 10th March- 4th June 2000

VENUES FOR EV+A 2000 – FRIENDS AND NEIGHBOURS

*Limerick City Gallery of Art, Pery Sq. Was founded in 1948 as an addition to the Carnegie Free Library and Museum of 1906, a Neo-Hiberno-Romanesque style building adjacent to the Peoples Park and on the 19th century Georgian styled Pery Square in Limerick, Ireland’s third largest city.

*Limerick City Hall, Merchant’s Quay. A large purpose designed naturally lit exhibition area in the new City Hall on the Shannon river.

* Victorian House, Pery St. On a row of two story over basement structures (with attic), facing onto Pery Square.

* Slattery’s Pub, Edward St. A classic neighbourhood pub fitted in the style of the 1960’s.

* City Centre Car Park A site once occupied by an abbatoir famous for the production of Limerick Bacon.

* Church of the Immaculate Conception, Franciscan Friary. A large neo-classical structure sited near the river and major crossroads of centre city streets.

* St. Michaels Church, Pery Square

* Dr. Hennessy’s Dental Surgery. An intimate receiption area on the first floor of a building in Limerick’s Newtown Pery Georgian Crescent.

*The Furze Bush. A ground floor bistro.

*Rugby Shop

* The streets. An area of old lanes off Pery Square with the contrast of ruins and tidy homes.

Selected Artists: Open EVA 2000 (Young Irish artists): COLIN ANDREWS, BERNARDETTE COTTER, BETH DERBYSHIRE, MARIA DOYLE, KATIE HOLTEN, ALAN KEANE, BERNIE LAHERTY, CHRISTINE MACKEY, CAROLINE McCARTHY, EDWINA McDONAGH, DEIRDRE MORGAN, DARREN MURRAY, VERONICA NICHOLSON, FIDELMA O’NEILL, DEIRDRE A. POWER, RUTH ROGERS, JIM SAVAGE, ANN SEAGRAVE, BERNARD SMYTH, SEAN TAYLOR

Invited ev+a 2000 (International artists): GHADA AMER (Egypt-USA), JANINE ANTONI (Bahamas-USA), XU BING (China-USA), ALEXANDRE DA CUNHA (Brazil), FEDERICO GUZMÁN (Spain), MONA HATOUM (Palestine-Great Britain), CARL M VON HAUSSWOLFF (Sweden), ERNESTO LEAL (CUBA), AYDAN MURTEAZOGLU (Turkey), NIKOS NAVRIDIS (Greece), RIVANE NEUENSCHWANDER (Brazil), EBRU ÖZSEÇEN (Turkey-Netherlands), TADEJ POGACAR (Slovenia), PIPILOTTI RIST (Switzerland), BÜLENT SANGAR (Turkey), SANTIAGO SIERRA (Mexico-Spain), CHARLENE TETERS (Spokane-USA), SERGIO VEGA (Argentina), GREGOR ZIVIÇ (Austria)

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK:
FRIENDS AND NEIGHBOURS explores the multiple possibilities of conviviality between artists of different generations, various countries and diverse aesthetic positions. Today as the hierarchies between the arts fade away, the notions of center and periphery start to be put into question; we can celebrate the resulting dispersion of artistic energies: there is not a single hegemonic trend that imposes its particular truth over the others; multiple narratives are emerging and we are learning to respect the place of others while we try to create common areas of encounter. The best contemporary art seeks to construct dialogical relations with the viewers; artists are not proposing eternal truths but rather ephemeral events, personal views, or process centred experiences. This can be considered a weak response to the pervasive globalisation of transnational capitalism that imposes a single model of thought and consumerism. These paradoxes provoke in us both fascination and fear. In this context, to be friends or collaborative neighbours can help us face many of those contradictions and awaken in us our capacity for critical thought.

La entrada EV+A 2000 Biennial, Limerick, Ireland, 2000 se publicó primero en Rosa Martínez - Independent Art Curator.

Co-curators: Young Chul Lee, Rosa Martínez, Hou Hanru.
October 2 – November 27, 2000. Pusan, Korea

Selected Artists: Adel Abdessemed (Algeria), Kyu-chul Ahn (Korea), Asaoka Akane (Japan), Ana Laura Aláez (Spain), Helena Almeida (Portugal), Francis Alys (Mexico), Ghada Amer (Egypt), Katerina Apostolidou (Greece), Planet Art (Netherlands), Sylvie Blocher (France), Christophe Charles (France), Shaoxiong Chen (China), Fei Cao (China), Alexandre Da Cunha (Brazil), Michael Elmgreen & Ingar Dragset (Denmark, Norway), Michel François (Belgium), Hiroshi Fuji (Japan), Wineke Gartz (Netherlands), Kendell Geers (South Africa), Federico Guzmán (Spain), Jin Ham (Korea), Carl M von Hausswolff (Sweden), Wee-young Heo (Korea), Solrun Hoaas (Australia), Myung-seop Hong (Korea), Soon-myung Hong (Korea), Ken Ikeda (Japan), Jae-whan Joo & Young-kook Park (Korea), Simone Aaberg Kaern (Denmark), So-ra Kim (Korea), Elke Krystufeck (Austria), Surasi Kusolwong (Thailand), Kyupi Kyupi (Japan), Soo-kyung Lee (Korea), So-mi Lee (Korea), Jung-ran Lee (Korea), Ken Lum (Canada), Zwelethu Mthethwa (South Africa), Aydan Murteazoglu (Turkey), Nikos Navridis (Greece), Veronica Nicholson (Ireland), Honoré d’O (Belgium), Ebru Özsecen (Turkey), Jae-hyun Park (Korea), Dan Perjovschi (Rumania), Steven Rand (USA), Sam Samore (USA), Bülent Sangar (Turkey), Anne Seagrave (Ireland), Ene-Liis Semper (Estonia), Young Shi (China), Myung-eun Shin (Korea), Jeung-eun Shon (Korea), Santiago Sierra (Spain), Ross Sinclair (United Kingdom), Nedko Solakov (Bulgaria), Grazia Toderi (Italy), María Zárraga (Spain), Guogu Zheng (China), Tiehal Zhou (China)

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK:
The title “Leaving the Island” refers both to the desire and the need of making political, aesthetical and existencial borders more fluid and porous. Geographically, islands are pieces of land surrounded by the sea, and they are usually conceived as isolated worlds. In the human imaginary, islands have been mythical allegories of dreamed paradises, places for adventure and locations to rest after difficult journeys. But without human beings speaking about them, islands would be mute, silent pieces of rock and sand. Like human beings, islands are physical, economical and spiritual geographies. Water is the matter that sets the distance between islands and at the same time it is the medium that needs to be traversed to reach those distant realities. It is a frontier and a means of communication.
Artworks have long been seen as islands that condense meaning and beauty. Today the notion of the commodified art object linked to capitalistic ideologies is put into question and art is becoming a means to create new situations and to connect simbolically different individuals and communities. The sea is a powerful metaphore of a fluid and changing medium. Artists can then be seen as producers of deep streams or superficial movements of the waters. Art can be a tool to create new ways of navigation.
A new space of confrontation, negotiation and exchange between different cultures is hence created. It allows us to explore fundamental and urgent questions from aspiration to a better world in a new millennium to everyday violence, from social progress to new conflicts between classes, from globalisation to small events in life.
The three curators of the show – Young Chul Lee, Hou Hanru and Rosa
Martinez- have taken into account the maritim character of the city of
Pusan as a laborious and rich harbour where different kinds of trade take place. Relating this to the above mentioned need to erase aesthetical borders and to provoke new interchanges, they have decided to integrate their thoughts, their visions and their passions for different international artists with the goal of creating a unique mosaic in which the frontiers of who has selected whom are erased. By joining their forces, they are creating a temporary archipelago in which the artists, like floating islands, offer to the public their understandings of a very fast changing present.
In the context of an increasingly globalized world where the power of the media is commodifing even ideas and attitudes, “Leaving the Island” wants to update the utopian idea of connecting art and life, and it expresses the will of shortening the distance that separates art from other spheres of reality. The modernist glorification of the autonomy of art is not seen anymore as a sign of power but as an evidence of its loneliness. The idea of originality is no longer connected to the individual inspiration of a “genius” but to the stablisment of collaborative networks of critical interchange. The meaning and the function of art are being reinvented in relation to the last scienctific, anthropological and technological developements, as well as in connection to the global economies that make cities compete among them.

We conceive exhibitions as open zones and interrelated systems. This is why we hope that the show “Leaving the Island” makes of Pusan a meaningful place where the artists and the public share an atmosphere of aesthetical innovation and ethical concerns; where they can interchange ideas, emotions and sensations, and where they can understand a little bit better contemporary social, ethnical, religious and economical contradictions. Like this, maybe the different islands become peninsulas related to the rest of the world.

Young Chul Lee, Rosa Martínez, Hou Hanru.

La entrada 2nd Pusan Biennial, Korea, 2000 se publicó primero en Rosa Martínez - Independent Art Curator.

Places: Tokamachi City, Kawanishi Town, Tsunan Town, Nakasato Village, Matsudai Town, Matsunoyama Town
Organized by: Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial Executive Committee
General Director: Fram Kitagawa (art director)
Art Advisors: Hou Hanru (curator/Ch), Rosa Martinez (curator/Sp), Tom Finkelpearl (curator/USA), Yusuke Nakahara (art critic/Jp)
Participating artists: about 150 artists from 23 countries.
Oficial website: http://www.echigo-tsumari.jp

The Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial is a natural-setting festival for nature, art and human beings, which takes place every three years in six municipalities of Echigo-Tsumari.
The six municipalities launched the Echigo-Tsumari Art Necklace Project seven years ago, in partnership with Niigata Prefecture, to revitalize the region by taking advantage of its characteristics; they held the first festival of the Triennial in 2000. The Art Necklace Project is an enterprise designed to make use of art and plants in public projects such as the construction of roads, parks and cottages. The Triennial is a three-yearly presentation of the progress of this project that is held along with local traditional festivities. It was conceived with the firm belief that the landscape and the life of the people, both of which have been fostered with the blessing of nature since 5000 years ago, and the long relationship with the earth through agriculture are the most precious treasures of this region.
The artists discovered in Tsumari various features: namely heavy snow that covers the earth for half a year, farming during the rest of the year, people’s wisdom and warmth of heart brought about by such hardships, beautiful, ephemeral and strong nature and cooperation among the communities. The artists turned their discoveries into works of art in collaboration with local residents. Spread over an extensive rural setting, the artistic works that stood in front of the rice plants, whose colors changed everyday in fertile summer, allured many visitors. Some visitors complained about it being “too hot”,”too large” or “too far to walk”, but they said it was “interesting” and they enjoyed their experiences using their five senses. The natural canvas appeared as though illuminated by art.
The first Triennial witnessed a great number of supporters who participated from outside of the region, in particular a young volunteer group named Kohebi-tai. It showed future possibilities in that regions could be promoted through cooperation or people networking, which crosses regions, generations and disciplines.

Features of the 2nd Triennial
For the second festival, artists are creating their works in terraced rice paddies, hamlets, the city areas and parks, and beside ponds and roads. The works are scattered over more than 50 areas at the communities’ request. Many artists are using traditional materials and methods, including kimono, farming tools and yukigakoi, a device for protecting a plant from snow. A great number of workshops have been held so far. The artists have been involved with the communities more profoundly than during the first triennial.
For this festival, a short video competition was organized. It is expected to expose how international artists understand Tsumari, a depopulated, mountainous and agricultural region and how they confront the crisis in the global environment. The winning works will be shown at everyday places such as waiting rooms, meeting places and restaurants.
In addition to 150 permanent and temporary works and 40 video works, several exhibitions are scheduled: a contemporary Aboriginal art exhibition from Australia, an Inuit textile exhibition from Canada and two local exhibitions on Jomon and Akiyamago. The exhibitions on indigenous arts, which have been adopted from ancient times and are being reevaluated as contemporary, will provide us with many ideas. Along with the exhibits on Jomon, Matagi (hunting) and agrarian culture, they will tell us about the relationships between the earth, human beings and art.
The Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial is supported by many countries. The Netherlands presents “Real Lear”, a play performed by Tsumari’s elderly people in collaboration with Dutch artists. We sincerely appreciate countries’ funding of the Triennial. Also, this triennial is characterized by the deep involvement of the aged and children. The 2003 summer in Tsumari is full of works of art, including the existing works created at the last Triennial, exhibitions, summer festivals and events.
Lastly, I am pleased to announce that Echigo-Tsumari Art Necklace has finally begun in full-scale with the completion of the three Stages. The Stages are planned to be the basis for the long-term vision of Art Necklace with the aim of rediscovering regional treasures with the help of artists and trying for independence through collaboration with artists. The Snow-Land Agrarian Culture Center in Matsudai Town will be managed focusing on land. The Museum of Natural Science in Matsunoyama Town will show prospects for preserving the region through ecological research. The concept of the Echigo-Tsumari Exchange Center in Tokamachi City is the exchange of products and information outside a mass consumer society.

Prospects for the Future
We have come to understand, over the six years we have been working on the Triennials, that although the 20th century was the age of cities, Japan and the rest of the world could not be developed only through urbanization; we now realized how important it is to review local properties deeply connected to nature and to encourage exchanges between the countryside and the cities, along with collaboration of people beyond areas, generations and genres. With the theme “Human Beings as Part of Nature”, we wish to further exchanges between the countryside and the cities.
Art has worked as a tie between nature and human beings since ancient times. Art connects people to people. Please come to Tsumari in the summer. Walk around there and feel this connection.

Fram Kitagawa
General Director

La entrada 2nd Echigo – Tsumari Art Triennial, Japan, 2003 se publicó primero en Rosa Martínez - Independent Art Curator.

January 28-February 28, 2005. Press days: January 27-28

Places:
Main Venue: former Lenin Museum, Moscow

Curators:
Joseph Backstein, Daniel Birnbaum, Iara Boubnova, Nicolas Bourriaud, Rosa Martinez, Hans Ulrich Obrist

Press Contact:
info@moscowbiennale.ru
www.moscowbiennale.ru

Why a new Biennale in Moscow?

The First Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, initiated by the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, marks an important step forward in the process of reintegrating contemporary Russian art into the international art world.

One of the most obvious consequences of political and economical stabilisation in Russia is the growing interest of Russian society in contemporary culture, and more precisely contemporary art. In the last decade a totally new Russian art infrastructure has emerged through art fairs, galleries, non-profit exhibition spaces, festivals and conferences. For these reasons, 2005 is the right time for Moscow to create a major international art event, the first of its kind in the country.

The Moscow Biennale aims to become not only a great event in the artistic life of Moscow and Russia but also to play an important social, cultural and political role internationally. It is intended to be not only a particular powerful event, but a new institutional project that will strengthen relationships between curators, art historians, managers, federal authorities, sponsors and trustees, mass media and public opinion on contemporary art both in and outside Russia itself. It is the organisers’ intention that The Moscow Biennale will become a reproducible strong structure that will find its place in the network of other major international art forums.

The Theme of the Biennale

Under the theme, Dialectics of Hope, the main exhibition will present art that focuses on one of the most fundamental experiences of a modern human being: hope. On the one hand, hope exists as a private existential feeling, touching particularly on issues of care or caring, on the other it is found in the older Utopian vision of a shared social feeling. The dialectical character of hope today as well as its emergence in different forms of contemporary art will be the focus for the exhibition, reflecting the influence that social and political changes exert on the way we attempt to anticipate our own future and the development of the societies to which we belong. In politically turbulent and worrying times, the function of hope as an organising principle of our lives becomes increasingly apparent.

Structure

The first Moscow Biennale will include a main project organized by its international curatorial team, and a series of parallel events. The selection of artists and the development of the main projects have been a collective endeavour of the curatorial team.

The 2005 exhibition is the first element of a larger project conceived as a trans-generational endeavour that will unfold in a series of steps until 2007. This first manifestation concentrates on young artists from all over the world. Its main aim is to describe the state of contemporary art and the new issues addressed by the artists of the 21st century. The same curatorial team will also work on the 2007 exhibition.

The main project of the Moscow Biennale 2005 will be accompanied by a series of special projects and a wide parallel program representing contemporary art from Russia and the former Soviet Union. The events will be held in a number of key venues in and around the centre of the city of Moscow.

Curators

Joseph Backstein, Co-ordinating Curator (Russia), Deputy Director of the State Centre for Museums and Exhibitions ROSIZO – Curator of the Russian exhibition at the 25th Biennale in Sao Paolo, 2002 – Curator of the Russian Pavilion at the 48th Venice Biennale, 1999.

Daniel Birnbaum (Sweden/Germany), Rector of the Stadelschule Art Academy, Frankfurt am Main and Director of Kunsthalle Portikus – Co-curator of the Italian Pavilion at the 50th Venice Biennale, 2003 – International Foundation Manifesta Board Member (Amsterdam), since 2000.

Iara Boubnova (Bulgaria), Director of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Sofia – International Foundation Manifesta Board Member, since 2002 – Co-curator of Manifesta 4 (Frankfurt am Main), 2002 – Curator of Bulgarian National Participation in the 48th Venice Biennale, 1999.

Nicolas Bourriaud (France), Director of the Palais de Tokyo, Paris (with Jerome Sans), Founder Director of the magazine Documents – Co-Curator of the Lyon Biennale of Contemporary Art, 2005 – Curator of the Aperto at the 45th Venice Biennale, 1993 – Curator of Unmoving Short Movies at the Venice Biennale, 1990.

Rosa Martinez (Spain), Artistic Director of the Arsenale, Venice Biennale, 2005 – Chief Curator of the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art – Curator of the Spanish pavilion at the 50th Venice Biennale, 2003 – Curator of the 3rd SITE Santa Fe Biennale (New Mexico), 1999 – Artistic Director of the 5th International Istanbul Biennale, 1997.

Hans Ulrich Obrist (Switzerland/France), Curator at the Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and Co-curator of the exhibitions Cities on the Move, Laboratorium, Utopia Station at the 50th Venice Biennale, 1st Berlin Biennale, Manifesta 1. The first volume of his ongoing interview project was recently published: Hans Ulrich Obrist Interviews (Milan: Edizioni Charta, Pitti Imagine 2003).

Chairman of the Organizing Committee: Michail Shvydkoy, Head of the Federal Agency for Culture and Film.

Commissioner: Evgeny Zyablov, Director of the State Centre for Museums and Exhibitions ROSIZO.

Venues

The main project will be realised at the former Lenin Museum, in the very centre of Moscow, near the Red Square. Built in 1892 as the Moscow City Hall, in October 1917 the building became residence of the Committee on Public Security which aimed to prevent the developing revolution. When Soviet power was established, it was first occupied by the Moscow Soviet and then by the Moscow Trade Union Soviet, and since 1936 served as the Lenin Museum, a unique collection of items related to Lenin’s life and activity.

Contact
info@moscowbiennale.ru
http://moscowbiennale.ru/english

La entrada 1st Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art 2005 se publicó primero en Rosa Martínez - Independent Art Curator.

Curtor: Rosa Martínez 
Santa Fe, Nuevo México, USA. July 10 – December 31, 1999.

Selected Artists: Helena Almeida (Portugal), Ghada Amer (Egypt), Janine Antoni (Bahamas/USA), Monica Bonvicini (Italy), Louise Bourgeois (USA), Tania Bruguera (Cuba), Lygia Clark (Brazil), Diller + Scofidio (USA), Dr. Galentin Gatev (Bulgaria), GREENPEACE, Yolanda Gutiérrez (México), Mona Hatoum (Palestine/Great Britain), Carl Michael von Hausswolff (Sweden), Carsten Höller (Germany), Simone Aaberg Kaern (Denmark), Zwelethu Mthethwa (South Africa), Nikos Navridis (Greece), Shirin Neshat (Iran/USA), Rivane Neuenschwander (Brazil), Gabriel Orozco (México/USA), Cai Guo-Qiang (China), Pipilotti Rist (Switzerland), Francisco Ruiz de Infante (Spain), Bülent Sangar (Turkey), Arsen Savadov & Georgy Senchenko (Ukraine), Charlene Teters (USA), Sergio Vega (Argentina), Miwa Yanagi (Japan)

In recent decades, art has abandoned its historical isolation in favor of constructing multiple bridges to reality. Today, art is connected to science, political activism, the exploration of psychic darkness, and new ideas of beauty not necessarily determined by Western paradigms. Simultaneously, a new aesthetic is emerging as a consequence of the latest technologies.

As these technologies change our sense of place, the ways in which we are connected to the flux of information have become more relevant than where we are located. Despite our ability to interact simply and quickly with people in every part of the world, place has become one of the main sources of anxiety in our time.

Land, place, and space are essential to the definition of the relationship between human beings and the world. Contemporary approaches conceive of places as events, as scenes for human life, as crossroads for existential encounters. These approaches seem to go back to the Greek concept of topos, which refers less to a “place” than it does to a “state of being.” There is no topos without movement, and “looking for a place” can also be understood as movement toward a “state.”

The exhibition Looking For A Place is specifically conceived for SITE Santa Fe’s third international biennial. The artists are from many generations and many nations, and they will explore the multiple meanings of place today. The biennial artists will create poetic and critical views of how the “where” is understood today.

The heart of Looking For A Place is to explore the potential and energy of places charged with meaning and to heighten the sensibilities of the spectators. Central to the concerns of the contemporary world and related to the particularity of places are a variety of issues. These range from the boundaries that separate public and private spheres, to the consideration of the space that marginalized groups occupy in society; from the way our bodies (the places of ourselves) relate to architecture and urban environments, to the ethics of how advances in techno-science modify us; from the displacements and cultural clashes linked with migrations, to the defense of identities.

Santa Fe, rich with history, tradition, and myth, is at the center of Looking For A Place. Although the exhibit is more about intensity than extension, the biennial will also have satellite locations throughout northcentral New Mexico. SITE Santa Fe’s third international biennial proposes to discover rural, urban, and psychic landscapes that will provoke emotions and critical reflection about the perception of place. Looking For A Place will contribute to the reinvigoration of contemporary cultural discourse and assume a significant presence among international biennials.

Press Release.
The exhibition, LOOKING FOR A PLACE, sets out to translate the emotion of time and place and to assert that in each corner of the planet there is a universe. The project seeks to reinforce the confluence between nature, science and cultural cross-fertilization. Martínez states, “While the past was considered to be the source of all knowledge and Western reason regarded as the sole truth, today art feels the need to break out of its straitjacket, explore uncharted lands and fashion new possibilities of thought based on the synchronicity of the present.”

The biennial features works by 30 artists whom Martínez views as being interpreters of a rapidly changing world. They represent many countries and thematic as well as stylistic approaches, including installation, video, interactive works, performance, scientific explorations, aesthetics/politics, travel studies, feminist art, and ecological art. In addition, SITE Santa Fe is offering intensive educational and parallel programs designed around the biennial for a variety of participants.

“I strongly believe that Santa Fe is the perfect environment to present an exhibition aimed at establishing a fruitful dialogue with contemporary international art currents,” reflects Martínez. “SITE Santa Fe has stepped into the international arena and become a magnet drawing the attention of both the public and critics, and Santa Fe’s geographical, sociological and cultural hallmarks make it a privileged place for tackling some of the issues facing the world today.”

Sedes.
SITE Santa Fe – SITE Santa Fe es una entidad privada sin ánimo de lucro, dedicada a la presentación de arte contemporáneo local, nacional e internacional en Nuevo México. El edificio, de 1.700 m2, es un antiguo almacén de las cervezas Coors-Maloof, que fue remodelado en 1994 por el estudio de arquitectura neoyorkino de Richard Glackman con el objetivo de dotar a Santa Fe de un espacio flexible de exposición. Se trata de un espacio equiparable a las Kunsthalle europeas, concebidas para albergar exposiciones temporales.

Otras sedes.
La tercera Bienal Internacional SITE Santa Fe se extiende más allá de los muros del museo integrando otras ciudades, pueblos, paisajes e instituciones. La sede principal y el corazón de la exposición es el edificio de SITE Santa Fe y desde allí se establecen conexiones con otros lugares que se describen a continuación:
Este típico motel americano se encuentra ubicado cerca de SITE Santa Fe en el cruce de Cerrillos con Don Diego. (Diller + Scofidio)

Cementerio de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe – Este cementerio con tumbas que datan de 1800 y que en sus origenes estaba en la misión de San Francisco, en la actualidad se encuentra rodeado de numerosos edificios comerciales. (Carl Michael von Hausswolff)

Santa Fe- Santa Fe Southern Railway Station – Esta estación se construyó en 1909 en ladrillo estucado siguiendo el estilo de las misiones californianas. La conservación de este edificio tiene una importancia especial por sus conexiones con la antigua estación de Nuevo México y la llegada del ferrocarril, que influyó de forma decisiva en el curso de la historia y la arquitectura de Santa Fe. (Miwa Yanagi)

New Mexico State Capitol Building – Este edificio es la sede del poder legislativo en New Mexico, pues es la sede del Senado y de la Cámara de representantes. Es conocido popularmente como “The Roundhouse” (la casa redonda) fue construido en 1966 siguiendo la forma del símbolo del sol Indio Zia que aparece en la bandera del estado de New Mexico. (Charlene Teters)

Parking Municipal Sandoval – se trata de uno de los pocos parkings cubiertos de Santa Fe. (Dr. Galentin Gatev)

Los Alamos Airport- fue construido en 1947 por el cuerpo de ingenieros de la armada estadounidense con el fin de servir a Los Alamos National Laboratory. En la actualidad continúa siendo utilizado tanto por la comunidad como por las organizaciones y empresas estatales y federales. (Simone Aaberg Kaern)

San Ildefonso Pueblo- Este pueblo está situado en 26000 acres de tierra, extendiéndose desde el Rio Grande hasta cerca de los Alamos. Cientos de años atrás los habitantes de este pueblo llegaron desde las comunidades de Mesa Verde en Colorado. Aquí se encuentra la sagrada Black Mesa donde en 1964 los habitantes de Pueblo lucharon contra los españoles que intentaron reconquistar New Mexico.(Yolanda Gutiérrez)

La Sala de la sociedad de San José . uno de los muchos edificios históricos de la ciudad de Galisteo. Esta sala fue construida a finales del siglo XIX y utilizada por la comunidad para la celebración de bailes y otros eventos locales. (Carl Michael von Hausswolff)

Vallas publicitarias- Están situadas a lo largo de la importante ruta Norte/Sur, que conecta Colorado con México a través de Nuevo México. (Miwa Yanagi)

Santa Fe Community Television. Esta cadena televisiva llega a cerca de 16000 hogares de Santa Fe, esta red publica provee gratuitamente de una programación no comercial. (Pipilotti Rist)

Galisteo- Esta pequeña ciudad, al sur de Santa Fe, fue primero una colonia española construida sobre las ruinas de un antiguo poblado indio. Actualmente residen en ella artistas, escritores y curanderos. Esta comunidad todavía mantiene la herencia de los americanos nativos y de las tradiciones españolas.

Los Alamos- Gestionado por la Universidad de California y dependiente del Departamento de Energía del Gobierno Federal de los Estados Unidos, el Laboratorio Nacional está ubicado en la ciudad de Los Alamos a 35 millas (56 Km) al noroeste de Santa Fe. Fue creado en 1943 como parte del proyecto Manhattan, con el fin de fabricar las primeras armas atómicas durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial. El departamento de Seguridad Nacional continúa controlando la parte más importante de Los Alamos, pero las experiencias científicas van más allá y se están realizando estudios sobre innovación biológica, sobre la manipulación del clima y sobre nuevos métodos para el examen de las propiedades de diferentes materiales que permitan explorar otros lugares más allá del sistema solar.

La entrada 3rd International SITE Santa Fe Biennial, 1999 se publicó primero en Rosa Martínez - Independent Art Curator.

La entrada 2nd Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art se publicó primero en Rosa Martínez - Independent Art Curator.

Chief curator: Lisette Lagnado
Co-curators: Cristina Freire, Rosa Martínez, Adriano Pedrosa, José Roca
Guest curator: Jochen Volz
President of the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo: Manoel Francisco Pires da Costa

Press conference: 4 October, 10am
Public opening: 7 October, 10am
Preview for guests:  5 October, 8:30 pm; and 6 October, 8pm
Fortnight Film opening: 4 October, 9pm, premiere of Cao Guimarães’s Andarilho [The drifter], Cine Bombril

bienalsaopaulo.org.br – Universes in universe

The 27th Bienal de São Paulo proposes an innovative approach within the tradition of the Fundação Bienal, doing away with the so-called national representations. The title is borrowed from Roland Barthes’s seminars at the Collège de France (1976–77). The exhibition proposes a reflection on how shared and common spaces are constructed, questioning controversial issues such as difference, coexistence, rhythms of production and collaborative practices in an attempt to reach an ethical sense of living-together. To operate in the social sphere and to give a public answer to political events is a feature of contemporary artistic practices. This concept is situated at the crossroads of two lines of thought which are at the basis of Hélio Oiticica’s Environmental Program: the meaning of “construction”, particular to the Brazilian neoconcrete experience, and a “farewell to aestheticism”. In the exhibition, these lines are translated into “Constructive projects” and “Programs for l ife”.

The 27th Bienal is a multifaceted project, encompassing an artist-in-residence program, screenings (the Film Fortnight), seminars, publications, and an educational project, curated by Denise Grinspum. The artist-in-residence program was organized in cooperation with Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado—FAAP and invited ten artists to spend time in Rio Branco, Acre, Recife, and São Paulo. The Film Fortnight will be screened at Cine Bombril and Cine Lasar Segall. The seminars are held at the Bienal Pavilion from January through November, 2006, and will include 36 speakers in six seminars organized by the curators. The Portuguese-English publications will consist of 3 volumes: Guide, How to live together, and Seminars. The poster is by Jorge Macchi with design by Rodrigo Cerviño. The exhibition’s architecture is by Marta Bogéa.

Press:
Solange Viana solange@bienalsaopaulo.org.br
Tel: (55 11) 5576-7636

Guest relations:
Nathalie de la Chevalerie nathalie@bienalsaopaulo.org.br
Tel: (55 11) 8112-1114

Fundação Bienal de São Paulo
Parque Ibirapuera portão 3
04094-000 São Paulo SP
Brazil
Tel: (55 11) 5576-7600 – Fax: (55 11) 5549-0230
http://www.bienalsaopaulo.org.br

List of artists:

Adel Abdessemed, Ahlam Shibli, Akram Zaatari, Alberto Baraya, Ana Mendieta , Andrew McLeod, Ann Lislegaard, Antal Lakner, Antoni Miralda, Armando Andrade Tudela, Atelier Bow-Wow, Aya Ben Ron, Barbara Visser, Bregtje van der Haak, Brendon Wilkinson, Cao Guimarães, Claudia Andujar, Cláudia Cristóvão, Damián Ortega, Dan Graham, Detanico Lain, Diango Hernández, Didier Faustino, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster , Eloisa Cartonera, Esra Ersen, FASTWURMS, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Fernando Ortega, Florian Pumhösl, Francesco Jodice, Gerry Schum , Gordon Matta-Clark, Goshka Macuga, Grönlund/Nisunen, Guy Tillim, Haegue Yang, Héctor Zamora, Hélio Melo, Ivan Cardoso, Jack Smith, Jardim Miriam Arte Clube – JAMAC, Jane Alexander, Jarbas Lopes, Jaroslaw Kozlowski, Jean-Luc Godard, Jeanne Faust, João Maria Gusmão + Pedro Paiva, Jorge Macchi, Juan Araujo, Julio Bressane, Konono no.1, Kristina Solomoukha, Lara Almarcegui, Lars Ramberg , Laura Lima, Lawrence Weiner, Len Lye, León Ferrari, Lida Abdul, Long March Project, Loulou Cherinet, Lu Chunsheng, Lucia Koch, Mabe Bethônico, Marcel Broodthaers, Marcellvs L., Marcelo Cidade, Marcos Bonisson, Marepe, María Galindo, María Teresa Hincapié, Marilá Dardot, Mario Navarro, Marjetica Potrc, Mark Bradford, Martinho Patrício, Marwan Rechmaoui, Mauro Restiffe, Meschac Gaba, Michael Snow and Carl Brown, Miki Kratsman, Minerva Cuevas, Monica Bonvicini, Mustafa Maluka, Narda Alvarado, Nikos Charalambidis, Ola Pehrson, Pages, Paula Trope, Pepón Osorio, Pieter Hugo, Raimond Chaves Gilda Mantilla, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Randa Shaath, Renata Lucas, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Rivane Neuenschwander, Roman Ondák, Sanghee Song, Servet Kocyigit, Shaun Gladwell, Shimabuku, Simon Evans, Superflex, Susan Turcot, Tacita Dean, Tadej Pogacar, Taller Popular de Serigrafía, Thomas Hirschhorn, Tomas Saraceno, Vangelis Vlahos, Virginia de Medeiros, Vladimir Arkhipov, Wang Youshen, Yael Bartana, YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES, Zafos Xagoraris.

La entrada 27th Biennal of São Paulo, How to live together se publicó primero en Rosa Martínez - Independent Art Curator.

ALWAYS A LITTLE FURTHER

SIEMPRE UN POCO MÁS LEJOS 

TOUJOURS UN PEU PLUS LOIN

Curator: Rosa Martínez
Arsenale di Venezia. June 12 – November 6, 2005

www.labiennale.org

The title of this exhibition at the Arsenale di Venezia is taken from one of the Corto Maltese books, a fictional character created by the Venetian writer and comic-designer, Hugo Pratt. Corto personifies the myth of the romantic traveller: always independent, always open to chance and risk, and always crossing all kinds of frontiers in pursuit of his own destiny.

Taking a fictional character as inspiration is a way of affirming that art is an imaginary construct and that fantasy helps us towards a better understanding of reality. In the baroque contemporary condition, we live both a drama and a paradox: we still believe in the need for reason, enlightenment and utopia, even if we have become their most ferocious critics from the new positions of post-colonialism, race and gender. Passion and melancholy, trust and desperation, pleasure and guilt, combine to define the critical approach to the world in which we live.

Art is a fight in the symbolic order – the most relevant creators are those who open new perspectives for linguistic, social and ideological transformation. Today, questioning the autonomy of art and taking aesthetics into everyday life is part of an unstoppable widening of frontiers, of an extension of horizons that goes beyond established models. The adventurer, the philosopher, the scientist, the artist or the exhibition organiser, try constantly to discover new lands and to create new possibilities of thought.

This exercise is difficult in a context where new ideas, people and products circulate at high velocity, where the artists mimic each other constantly, and where institutions franchise culture and in which marketing is the principal methodology of action. One of the main functions of the curator is to reduce the background noise, to assign value and to organise syntax and discourses, which introduce sense into the unending traffic of messages.

The concept of traffic is essential to the social development, as it implies movement and interchange, not only in the social and political, but also in the expositive and libidinal economies. Translation and interpretation are essential to intercultural passages, especially to global exhibitions such as biennales. Throughout its long history, La Biennale di Venezia has become the epicentre, the privileged context for the confluence of artists coming from different geopolitical and cultural contexts.

Offering a chance to analyse the concept of internationality and to redraw the contemporary topographies of alterity, La Biennale is a unique opportunity to invent new forms of neighbourhoods between artists, disciplines and audiences.

In this context, the exhibition Always a little further is an essay presenting artists and aesthetic trends relevant at the beginning of the third millennium. A visit to the Arsenale proposes a fragmentary trip, a subjective and passionate dramatisation to discover the zones of light and dark in our convulsed world. This journey intends to draw the most significant lines in contemporary artistic production and to show that art still holds a promise for those who want to embark on the sort of voyage that made Deleuze take Proust’s motto: the real dreamer is the one who goes out to try to verify something.

Rosa Martínez

Barcelona, Noviembre 2004.

La entrada 51 INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION VENICE BIENNALE, 2005: “ALWAYS A LITTLE FURTHER”, ARSENALE se publicó primero en Rosa Martínez - Independent Art Curator.

Cutaror: Rosa Martínez

Venice June 15 – November 2 , 2003

Santiago Sierra’s work belongs to a set of critical operations which call into question the belief that art is an autonomous, sublime and unselfish activity. Reviewing his works over the last twelve years, what stands out is the persistence of certain subjects – recurring lines of action which end up pointing to a basic obsession: that of deconstructing minimalism as the hegemonic language, associating it with the dictatorship of production and profit.
In his actions, people become ‘performative ready-mades’ that shape ‘situated stories’, extending the classical idea of site specificity. Connecting the semantic charges personified by his actors to socio-economic and geopolitical conditions is an effective way of linking the personal to the political, the local to the global. Some fundamental lines of his poetics converge in his projects at the Spanish Pavilion in Venice – obstruction, linguistic provocation and the reflection on work as punishment.

Wall enclosing a space points to the technologies of mediation and restricted access posed by borders and by limits, whether visible or invisible, which place people in different geographical, social or ideological territories. The wall polarises the Biennial spectators on either side of a hypothetical stage and formalises physical and political tensions evocative of that strange territory of sealed cities and countries defined by contemporary exclusions. Unlike Beckett’s absurd existentialist ‘wall of nothing’, Sierra builds walls that show how frontiers have not been abolished but reinforced. Inside the Pavilion, by staging the remains of construction work on the wall, disorder and abandonment, he proposes an exercise in denuding reality and refers to other remains and other twilight zones.

Covered word is a simple sculpture made of poor materials. Here, Sierra acts by omission. By covering the word ‘España’, he momentarily truncates its multiple historical and symbolic connotations, thus prefiguring a controversial emergence of sentimental reactions, ideological interpretations and aesthetic assessments.

The action, Hooded woman seated facing the wall took place in the physical location of the Spanish Pavilion interior, with no audience, on 1 May 2003. For an hour, a woman wearing a black hood remained seated, still and in silence. This work, which the artist documented in photographs and on video, dwelt on the idea of labour as a technology of domination and punishment, bearing witness to the violence of disciplinary processes and the objectualising power of money. The iconographic connections with Goya’s works, and with torture by the Inquisition, link up with many other contemporary iconological references.

Rosa Martínez Curator of The Spanish Pavilion / Venice Biennale 2003

Excerpts from the essay Merchandise and Death, in Santiago Sierra catalogue. Spanish Pavilion, Venice Biennial 2003. Publishers: Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores. Dirección General de Relaciones Culturales y Científicas / Turner. 2003.

La entrada 50th Venice Biennial – Spanish Pavillion – Italy, 2003 se publicó primero en Rosa Martínez - Independent Art Curator.