action-video presentation-discussion @ polvo
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Thursday
April 28, 2005, from 7:30pm to 9:300pm
Mexican
artist Pedro Lasch will present a short action and video presentation
(30min) related to his ‘Naturalizations’ project.
This will be followed by a conversation for which the artist wants to invite
the audience to talk about the culture and politics of migration/immigration,
globalized informal trade, and collaborative work. These topics should
be considered in their very local aspects (Chicago), as well as in their
national and international perspective. The conversation will also allow
for an initial exchange of ideas about New York based 16Beaver Group (of
which Lasch is an active member), as well as other collectives who are
taking part in that weekend’s Version<05 Exhibition and Gathering.
VIDEOS (about 3minutes each):
Media
Defacements (Episode #1) differs from previous versions of ‘Naturalizations’ in
that the mirror-masks are physically absent. The project is now literally
contextualized in the more conventional act of reading and viewing the
media. Conflicting experiences of the natural or the alien, and the various
perceptual shifts the masks habitually produce in their users, are now
transferred to the "natural landscape" of photographic journalism
and media consumption. I have selected images from the media and have significantly
altered them to open an internal dialogue between seemingly disparate areas
of the contemporary world stage. The original photographs all share a common
icon: human defacement. Indigenous zapatistas wearing black ski-masks in
southern Mexico, women wearing blue burqas in Kabul or black abayas in
Saudi Arabia, Iraqi torture victims wearing green or black hoods at Abu
Ghraib, Jacko wearing a mask in Russia, and black bloc members covering
their face in Seattle, are but a few examples of the "refusal of the
face" which has become the paradoxical icon of our generation. (This
piece was originally published as a set of still images for the journal ‘Rethinking
Marxism’ October, 2004.)
The Dance of Mirrors (In collaboration with Mexicanos Unidos de Queens, and Asociación Tepeyac de New York) This short video is an artwork in its own terms, while it also documents an experimental dance with over 60 children wearing mirror-masks in Queens, NY. The piece has a wild soundtrack co-produced by the children, and generally allows clear connections with the importance of folkloric ballet in immigrant communities, while looking nothing like it. Think of it as an avant-garde folkloric ballet of the 21st Century, where children reflect the surveillance put on them and engage in stages of production from which they are usually excluded.
In addition to these 2 short videos,Pedro will present a new version specifically designed for Chicago. Statements on the Mask (Episode #1) consists of a live bilingual (English/Spanish) action blurring the borders between the artist and the audience. A little bit of Wittgenstein, plenty Zapatismo, some Levinas, and enough Teatro Campesino, this neo-barroco dialogue will allow the audience to experience the reflective masks in person. (note that the artist prefers the word ‘action’ or Spanish ‘acción’ to the term performance)
About Pedro LaschPedro Lasch was born and raised in Mexico City, and moved to New York City in 1994. He currently shares his time between New York City, as director (also co-founder) of Asociación Tepeyac’s experimental arts program "Art, Story-Telling, and the Five Senses" (El arte, el cuento y los cinco sentidos), and Durham, North Carolina, where he serves as fulltime professor of visual arts at Duke University.
About his work
Pedro Lasch sees his work as a consecutive set of acts and ideas, which
complement and interrupt the flow of the everyday, a chain of routine-breaking
routines. His role as an artist, educator, activist, cultural organizer,
and producer need to be understood as a cohesive
whole, which develops within specific social situations and exists mostly
outside of the conventional art context. His presentations in museum and
gallery settings represent only a part of his overall production. A preoccupation
with the theory and practice of socially
engaged art, which is rooted in daily exchanges, has led him to the formulation
of an aesthetics based on public interventions, social interactions, games,
and temporal rearrangements.
The range of his projects encompasses anti-monuments (Memorial, 2001-2006; LATINO/A AMERICA, 2003; A Sculptural Proposal for the Zócalo, Mexico City, 1999, Interpolation, 1999), language games (Formal Conversation and Chance Debate, 2000-2003; Brain Review, 2002; A Systematic Reading of Some Poems by Bertolt Brecht, 1999; Eight Visual Dialogues, 1999), artist's books (Crumbs: Drawing on a Limited View of New York City's Cultural Wealth, 2000), radio works (Radiopolyphony, 2003; Border Report /Aguilas Eagles, 2001; Frequency Response, 2000), monthly lunch events (16Beaver Lunchtime, 2002-2003), experimental workshops, events, and activities (Tianguis Transnacional, 2004; Naturalizations, 2003; How to Know, 2003; Art, Story-Telling, and the Five Senses, 1999-2003, Come Paint the White House!!!, 2000, First International Lunchtime Summit, 2003), as well as the regular participation in the organization of various social networks (Nomads&Residents, 2001-2003; 16Beaver Group, 2000-2003, Mexicanos Unidos de Queens, 1999-2003, Asociación Tepeyac de New York, 1999-2003).
His work has been presented in the following cities around the world:
U.S [ New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, San Diego ], and abroad [ Mexico
City (Mexico), Vienna (Austria), Vilnius (Lithuania), Weimar (Germany),
Leipzig (Germany), Gateshead (England), Singapore (Singapore), and Aarhus
(Denmark) ].
This event is part of Version05: Invincible Desire, April
22-May 1, 2005, http://versionfest.com