For the Record

Panel Discussion on Latin American Photography at MoLAA

noreply@blogger.com (Rubén Ortiz Torres) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 21:33:00 +0000

Some Acknowledgements

noreply@blogger.com (Rubén Ortiz Torres) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 00:51:00 +0000

The production of art and culture usually requires the work and assistance of a large group of people. This is certainly the case of my latest photographic body of work and exhibition at the "Centro de la Imagen" in Mexico City. I need to acknowledge the people that helped me.

I would particularly like to thank Anthony Zepeda, Francesco Siqueiros and the Nopal Press. Friends, masters, collaborators, teachers and partners in crime in the dying field of the graphic arts and the impression. I do not see how their knowledge and craft will ever be substituted. Mario Rangel my etching and "neographics" teacher, this last show and body of work is dedicated to you. Thank you for introducing me to all sorts of artists and practices including the previously mentioned printers.

I would also like to thank all the people that helped me explore the Mayan mediterranean, Atlantis, the several promised lands, Easter Island in the empire of the rising sun, etc. Without them my last photographic project and the archeology of the globalized simulated archeology would not have been possible. Thanks to Shin Taniguchi for his invaluable help and companionship in Himeji and Awaji, the Adachi family in Fukuoka (Terumi the best cook, Joji for all the onsen, gadget and Ultraman exploration and Sauri for teaching us "imitation English"), Aurelio Asiain who tried to show me the "real" monuments in Kyoto and "Chingo" Sochu, Konstantinos Mavromichalis for his guidance in broken Japanese, Rex Yuasa for his advice, Magdalena Jitrik for driving the "milqui" Fiat 1500 across the pampas of Argentina while wired on mate in search of pyramids, castles, Roman temples, aliens and a tree that grows paintings, Julieta Ulanovsky for taking me to the "wailing wall," and the best Argentinean Tex-Mex music, Miguel Angel Merodio for logistical support in Catalan Mayan territories, Ana Pareja for a brief apparition, Pedro Romero for the good food and advice in Seville, Patrick Miller for the countless hours and patient photo service of all sorts, Glenna Jennings for her help resuscitating the UCSD photo lab, Daniel Mirer for the digital emergency line, Jesse Lerner for working on seminal projects that led to this thing and his knowledge, Roberto Tejada for the beautiful words, Estela Treviño, Juán Antonio Molina and Alejandro Castellanos for their interest on the work, etc.

Thanks for the support of the C.O.L.A. 2007 Individual Artis Fellowships, UCSD, Centro de la Imagen and Galería OMR.

Special thanks for Rhonda Ortiz for supporting and tolerating all of the above.

Presencia Flagrante/ El Pasado ya no es lo que Era

noreply@blogger.com (Rubén Ortiz Torres) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 21:19:00 +0000

Estoy exponiendo con Marcos López en el Centro de la Imagen de la Ciudad de México en el marco de Fotoseptiembre que esta ocasión tiene como invitada especial a la Argentina.

Expongo lo mas reciente de mi producción fotográfica que incluye imágenes impresas en procesos que ahora llaman alternativos como la cyanotipia, el platino, las sales de plata, etc.

Desde los territorios perdidos de el sur de la Alta California he partido en diversas expediciones al Mediterraneo maya, la Atlántida, la isla de Páscua en el imperio de el sol naciente, el Egipto Americano y diversas tierras prometidas tanto australes como en el Noreste de América, Las fotografías de magníficos palacios, templos y otros monumentos son testimonio de que los habitantes de dichas regiones descienden de grandes civilizaciones. Hay quien argumenta que estas maravillas solamente pueden haber sido realizadas por seres superiores provenientes de otro planeta. Otros argumentan que fueron realizadas por una de las tribus perdidas de Mesoamérica.

Este trabajo documenta y por lo tanto nos presenta una “falsa verdad” de lo “verdaderamente falso”. Mientras las ruinas originales reconstruidas se presentan como una falsa verdad las copias de estas son verdaderamente falsas. La fotografía digital se imprime no para poder materializar la imagen como era necesario hacer a partir de negativos sino para legitimizarla como arte y comercializarla como objeto a partir de convenciones ortodoxas. De hecho limitar las posibilidades audiovisuales digitales a la fotografía es ya de por si hacer una reconstrucción historicista.

“La originalidad de la obra de arte es que es real y falsa simultáneamente.”

Aristóteles

Mario Rangel Faz 1956-2009

noreply@blogger.com (Rubén Ortiz Torres) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 01:39:00 +0000

Mario Rangel Faz fue grabador, dibujante y pintor. Murió el día de hoy 16 de septiembre de 2009 de cancer en el pulmón. Fue alumno y maestro de la Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas y miembro fundador del grupo SUMA. Con ellos desarrollo gráfica experimental en la calle y el espacio público de la ciudad de México en los años setentas. Fueron precursores en el uso de stenciles, mimeografías, xerox en gran formato y lo que ahora llamamos "culturas públicas". Se podría argumentar que fue el grabador mas importante de su generación.

Maestro y amigo, nos vemos después.

Mario Rangel Faz was a printer, a draftsman and a painter born in Mexico. He died today September 16 of lung cancer. He was a student and a teacher of the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas where he was a founding member of the SUMA group. In the seventies they developed new graphic techniques to work on the streets and the public spaces of Mexico City. They used stencils, large format mimeographs and xeroxes and foresaw what we call now "public cultures." Arguably he was the most important engraver of his generation in Mexico.

Other presidents of African descent in America.

noreply@blogger.com (Rubén Ortiz Torres) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 02:28:00 +0000

A lot it is going to be said this week about Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King as important precedents that made possible the election the first African American president of the United States. However there are other important historical figures that should be remembered as well. One of them is Vicente Guerrero (1781-1831) who was the first president in North America of African decent. He was one of the leading revolutionary generals of the Mexican War of Independence against Spain. His African roots came mostly from his father Pedro who was in the almost Afro-Mexican profession of mule driver in Tixtla. He became the second president of Mexico in 1829 fighting against Iturbide and other conservatives who wanted a constitutional monarchy that would favor the wealthy landowners through continued exploitation of the poor. He defended a democracy of all clases and races and abolished slavery. He was betrayed and executed by Vice-president Anastasio Bustamante in 1831. There is a state named in his honor. He was the grandfather of the important general, intellectual and writer Vicente Riva Palacio.

We should also remember Alexandre Pétion (1770-1818) who was the first president of Haiti and one of its founding fathers. He was born in Port-au-Prince to a Haitian mother and a wealthy French white father. He was educated at the Millitary Academy in Paris and returned to Saint-Domingue to take part in the expulsion of the British from Saint-Domingue. Championing the ideals of democracy he became president of Haiti in 1806. He gave sanctuary to Simón Bolívar in 1815 and provided him with infantry and support. He died of yellow fever in 1818.

Samuel Huntington 1927-2008

noreply@blogger.com (Rubén Ortiz Torres) — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 17:30:00 +0000

I posted this commentary in yesterday's New York Times online obituary:

Huntington in his paranoid fear of immigrants and Muslims reflected more his intolerance and incapability of assimilation to the world at large.

Paradoxically he had more faith and respect for Mexico's and Latin America's poor people believing that they will divide the most powerful empire in the history of humanity in two while Mexican (and some Chicanos like Rudy Acuña in his previous comment) intellectuals argue instead that despite abuse and segregation in their former lands they inoffensively will speak English, eat fast food, get fat, consume and become "Americans."

Is it a coincidence that Huntington died a week before there will be an African American president?

Ruben Ortiz Torres
Professor

UCSD

Hi 'n' Lo at LAXART

noreply@blogger.com (Rubén Ortiz Torres) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 06:46:00 +0000

LAXART
2640 S La Cienega Blvd
Los Angeles, California
90034
US

Rubén Ortiz Torres: High ’n’ Lo

Julio Cesar Morales: Interrupted Passage

House of Campari Presents LAXART Project Space

November 15, 2008 – January 3, 2009
Opening reception: This Saturday, November 15, 7-9pm

Walk-through with Julio Cesar Morales and Aram Moshayedi
November 15, 6pm

For more information, gallery hours, and contact information, please visit www.laxart.org

LAXART’s programs are made possible with the generous support of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Peter Norton Family Foundation, The Kenneth T. and Eileen L. Norris Foundation, Danielson Foundation, The Audrey and Sydney Irmas Charitable Foundation, Campari, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Eileen Harris Norton, The City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, ForYourArt, The Standard Downtown LA, and the LAXART Board of Directors, Producers Council, Curators Council, founding members, and patrons.

This exhibition is supported, in part, by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.

These projects are affiliated with the 2008 California Biennial, organized by the Orange County Museum of Art and curated by Lauri Firstenberg.

High 'n' Lo was produced with support from Fabric Workshop, Philadelphia; MACLA; and the Zero1 Festival. Hydraulics by Salvador “Chava” Muñoz. Paint, chrome, rims, and grill by ADMWorks.

Interrupted Passage was commissioned by New Langton Arts, San Francisco and produced in association with LAXART, Los Angeles, and OCMA, Newport Beach. It has been supported by the Nimoy Foundation, Tim and Nancy Howes, Fleishhacker Foundation, The San Francisco Foundation Fund for Artists Matching Commission, Larry Mathews, Deborah Schneider, Ted Ridgway and Ellena Ochoa, and Christopher Vroom.

Pachucos, Cholos y Chundos Invitando a la Chilanga Banda.

noreply@blogger.com (Rubén Ortiz Torres) — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 23:28:00 +0000

El Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo invita al simposio

Sitio, presencia y ausencia

Apariciones y estrategias del arte después del movimiento chicano

Viernes 7 de noviembre de 2008

12:00 a 14:00 horas y 16:00 a 18:00 horas

Entrada libre l Cupo limitado

En el marco de la exposición Apariciones fantasmales. Arte después del movimiento chicano, el Museo Tamayo organiza este simposio donde expertos y artistas de la muestra analizarán la intervención y la tendencia conceptual del arte chicano.

Registro 11:00 horas

Sesión 1 Apariciones

12:00 a 14:00 horas

Ponentes

Ondine Chavoya, historiador del arte

Sandra de la Loza, artista de la exposición

Mario Ybarra Jr., artista de la exposición

Moderador

Cuauhtémoc Medina, crítico de arte y curador

Receso 14:00 a 15:30 horas

Registro 15:30 horas

Sesión 2 Sitios

16:00 a 18:00 horas

Ponentes

Mariana Botey, historiadora del arte

Christina Fernandez, artista de la exposición

Rubén Ortiz-Torres, artista de la exposición

Moderador

Victor Zamudio Taylor, historiador del arte y curador

Informes

http://www.museotamayo.org/apariciones/simposio.htm

simposio_apariciones@museotamayo.org

Tel. 5286 6519 ó 5286 6529 ext. 2229

Custom Mambo

noreply@blogger.com (Rubén Ortiz Torres) — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 23:50:00 +0000

1992, 5 min. 13 sec.

"Manejar bajo (to drive low) is for the pride. And despacio (slow) is because we want to be seen”.

Crazy George from the "Viejitos" car club.

Technology can have applications other than material, practical ones. For the Lowrider community, linguistics and aesthetics play a more important role than transportation. They fix their cars in the most incredible, excessive, baroque way ever imagined. Metal flake illustrated paint jobs, gold plated engines and brakes, velvet upholstery, disco lights, video systems and deafening stereos are some of the features that transform Chevies and other makes into shrines to be admired on the streets. Hydraulic systems are used to make the cars jump and dance and the beds of the trucks spin at more than 70 miles per hour. The car symbolizes the Californian way of life. Lowriders slow the freeways disrupting their efficient, pragmatic purpose, transforming them into a playground and meeting place.

This early nineties video is the first I did about the subject. It doesn't pretend to coldly document this phenomenon but rather functions in a visually seductive way like the machines themselves using images, video technology and effects of dubious taste. The music composed by Xavier Alvarez is an electroacoustic piece that samples Perez Prado (the king of Mambo). Here again new technologies create rhythms and sounds that deal with the notion of "avant garde" and tradition at the same time. "You lower your car for the pride and if you drive too fast, people won't be able to check it out" says Crazy George from the Viejitos car club. These "rides" constitute an effort to be noticed in a society that doesn't want to see the people that ride them. I hope the video conveys the overwhelming experience of the Dyonisian "beauty" that escapes any notion of rationality and at the same time hints at some of the problems it raises.

Mandorla 11

noreply@blogger.com (Rubén Ortiz Torres) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 01:38:00 +0000

The new issue of Mandorla is out. In its own words: "First published in Mexico City in 1991, Mandorla emphasizes innovative writing in its original language--most commonly English or Spanish--and high-quality translations of existing material. Visual art and short critical articles complement this work."

It includes a selection of images from my newest photographic portfolio The Past is not What it Used to be and an excerpt of my text A True Account Concerning Conquests of the New America translated by Roberto Tejada. The full text called Historia Verdadera de la Conquista de la Nueva America was posted in its original "old" Spanish previously in this blog. Considering that English has changed a lot more than Spanish a translation that could keep the spirit of the original text seemed really complicated and certainly beyond my bard capabilities. Roberto did an awesome job. It reads as if I know how to write. Regular readers of this blog might know the truth. No surprise Octavio Paz had him as a translator.

The photo on the cover of the magazine is called Cenote Sagrado and it was taken with a cheap underwater camera in the Bahamas around 2005.

I also enjoyed reading the poetry of Heriberto Yépez.

El Tren le Arrancó la Cabeza! (The Train Chopped his Head!)

noreply@blogger.com (Rubén Ortiz Torres) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 22:56:00 +0000

This is the original article published by Alarma! magazine in 1986 that inspired and it is sang in the opera ¡Únicamente la Verdad! Notice the photograph of Camelia la Texana crying next to the mutilated body of Eleazar Pacheco Moreno on the top left of the page.

Este el el artículo original publicado por la revista Alarma! en 1986 que inspiró y es cantado en la ópera ¡Únicamente la Verdad! Es de notar la fotografía en la parte superior izquierda de la página en la que aparece Camelia la Texana llorando al lado del cuerpo mutilado de Eleazar Pacheco Moreno.

VAZQUEZ, Juan Pablo: "El Tren le Arrancó la Cabeza," Alarma!, no 1191, February 26 of 1986, Mexico, p. 29.

¡Únicamente la Verdad!

noreply@blogger.com (Rubén Ortiz Torres) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 17:30:00 +0000

Last week on August 8th and 9th was the world premiere of the opera ¡Únicamente la Verdad! (Only the Truth!) composed by my sister Gabriela Ortiz. I put together the libretto, the video and conceptualized the visuals.

The opera was presented by the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in Indiana University at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater.

More than ten years ago my sister asked me to develop the idea of an opera. Trying to figure out what to do I came across an article of Alarma! magazine from 1986. Alarma! is a sensationalist and morbid Mexican tabloid that claims to show the truth and what others do not dare. This truth consists of explicit images usually of death and mutilated corpses and the stories around them (you can check the link to Alarma! at your own risk and discretion). Any of these stories is a tragedy worthy of an opera but there was something particular and interesting about El Tren le Arrancó la Cabeza! (The Train Chopped his Head!). Eleazar Pacheco Moreno was a 22 year old migrant worker who after being robbed committed suicide in Ciudad Juarez placing his neck on the railroad track to be beheaded. According to Alarma! he was accompanied by his lover Camelia la Texana. They even included a picture of her crying next to the mutilated body. Could she be the original character of Contrabando y Traición (Smuggling and Betrayal) the popular song popularized by Los Tigres del Norte considered to be the first drug smuggling corrido? I started doing research and found interviews with her in La Jornada (an important liberal Mexican newspaper) and TV Azteca (a big Mexican network). However these were from two very different women. The woman interviewed by TV Azteca was Agustina Ramirez and claimed to have stopped smuggling drugs to dedicate her life to the lord. The woman interviewed by La Jornada was called Camelia Maria and claimed to be from Topolobampo, Sinaloa and never to have smuggled drugs. I also did interview a man from El Paso called Mario Borunda that claimed to have known her and that she was a tall, drug addict, prostitute born in Socorro, Texas. Elijah Wald in his book about Narcocorridos interviewed Ángel Gonzalez who is the composer of Contrabando y Traición. Gonzalez says he invented the story. He knew a Camelia in Los Angeles but she was not from Texas and she did not smuggled drugs.

All this contradictory information forms the plot of the opera and these are its characters. It has the structure of an experimental documentary where I try to reconstruct the truthful story of a myth or perhaps the mythological story of a truth.

I wanted to develop a system where the singers would sang in front of a green screen to be placed in real time in footage of the original locations of the incidents and interviews. The idea was to deconstruct the creation of a cinematic or televised representation and to contrast it and confront it with the live performance. For this purpose it was crucial the collaboration of former partner in crime in Low Rez Crimez Konstantinos Mavromichalis from Urban Visuals in Vancouver. He brought the latest VJ technology and practices to this norteño gesamkunstwerk. We had to compromise and learn the theatrical conventions of the genre.

I would like to thank the musical director Carmen Helena Tellez and Marianne Kielian-Gilbert for their involved support and development of this project with all its passionate discussions, the Stage Director Chía Patiño for putting up with us and for showing us how it gets done, Sound Designers Rodrigo Sigal and Francisco Colasanto, Costume Designer Angela Burkhardt, Managing Producer and Coca Cola Sommelier Mark Brennan Doerries, Technical Director Jacob Lish for his hard work and expertise, Asisstant, Technical Director and Prop Mistress Tina Hanagan, all the singers but in particular Heather Youngquist and Meghan Dewald who were the Camelias, Chris Lysack with his stupendous voice who was the journalist César Güemes from La Jornada, Jonathan Green who gave a lot of presence to Elijah Wald and Jerome Michael S. Síbulo who play the Señor de El Paso and was my favorite character of the opera.

Also I would like to specially thank Jimmy Mendiola for his help filming the video of the decapitation, Miljohn Ruperto for the special effects, Ricky Delaveaga for his help in the edition and Alejandro Dávila who played a very handsome version of the decapitated Eleazar.

There were interesting comments made by Brian Dickie the General Director of the Chicago Opera Theater and a review by Peter Jacobi from the Herald Times.

Algunas reflexiones sobre la producción artística y la escritura de la historia.

noreply@blogger.com (Rubén Ortiz Torres) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 20:53:00 +0000

El miércoles 2 de julio tuve la oportunidad de participar en la mesa redonda Algunas reflexiones sobre la producción artística y la escritura de la historia en el Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires. Esta fue en relación a la presentación de la exposición La Era de la Discrepancia en dicho museo. Moderó la discusión la artista argentina que alguna vez radicó en México Magdalena Jitrik. Ella aparece en la serie de fotografías Retratos de Vida y Muerte que tomé en Guanajuato en 1984 de la cuál les muestro una imagen. Participó también la historiadora de arte y crítica Valeria González. A continuación les presento su texto que presenta una visión clara e inteligente que en su distancia contribuye a una lectura mas objetiva de la exposición.

Desde 1998 empecé a escribir para la página de arte del diario Pagina 12. Fue con motivo de la Bienal de San Pablo, y desde entonces solo escribo mas o menos una vez por año, y solamente en ocasión de muestras grandes, no grandes en términos de tamaño sino en términos de la pretensión de sus hipótesis. A veces creo que mi labor curatorial mas importante, donde siento mas claro el aporte de mi pensamiento, no pasa tanto por las exposiciones que he curado sino por las exposiciones cuyo discurso he intentado analizar críticamente. Las relaciones que a través de la escritura he establecido con las exposiciones de otros me van dibujando a mi misma, porque no hay modo de pensar críticamente, como bien dicen Olivier Debroise y C Medina en su introducción, si no es desde una posición parcial y apasionada. Por supuesto, ustedes saben: la calidad de las argumentaciones, el bagaje académico, la solidez teórica… pero en definitiva todo ese “saber” se pone en juego para argumentar a favor de lo uno quiere que sea una exposición. El eje es emocional y es político.

Menciono algo de estas variadas relaciones:

La documenta X, sobre la que no pude -a esa edad- construir distancia porque no fue una muestra que visité sino que me hizo.

La documenta 11, cuyos presupuestos forcé hasta llevarlos a un grado de radicalidad, incluso traicionando sus gestos de corrección política.

La ultima bienal de San Pablo, cuya adscripción política y su voluntaria falta de originalidad me emocionaron y defendí por sobre los resultados.

Muestras que me horrorizaron ideológica y estéticamente, como la bienal de San Pablo de 2005.

Muestras que aborrecí ideológicamente pero me cautivaron en su sensibilidad estética, como la ultima documenta.

En fin… toda esta introducción para decir que este proyecto “La era de la discrepancia” coincide punto por punto con todo lo que yo hubiera querido hacer, o que hiciéramos, si hubiese estado en ese lugar. Y para que se entienda en el pleno sentido de la palabra y no como una complacencia circunstancial.

Señalo algunos de estos puntos:

La verdadera, trabajada vinculación entre curaduria e historia del arte. Es la falta endémica, ubicua, de trabajo historiográfico lo que precisamente ha convertido a la curaduria en una pura disciplina escenografica: inventar un guión atrayente, original, y ponerlo en escena a través de obras de otros.

El grado de necesidad de su existencia que la exposición logra probar a través de su trabajo. Nos deja claro que no se trata solo de una exposición interesante o bien hecha, sino de una exposición necesaria. En el sistema global del arte, indisociable del turismo y la industria cultural, con la multiplicación creciente de bienales y megaexposiciones de arte tenemos la sensación de un espectáculo cuya lógica de recambio es tan vistosa como banal. Los efectos de una exposición duran lo que dura la exposición. “La era…” tiene el peso de necesidad de una reparación histórica. No otra interpretación de la historia del arte mexicano, sino la detección (la construcción) de un vacío en esa historia. El primer eje de la exposición es la construcción de ese vacío: la enunciación de esa laguna a través de la reunión de pruebas de todos los costados posibles: la historia del arte, la curaduria, la política cultural estatal, el funcionamiento de premios y adquisiciones (el concepto de patrimonio), las conductas del coleccionismo, las necesidades ideológicas, la lógica del mercado, y por fin, los estereotipos de lectura de lo mexicano desde la perspectiva del sistema global del arte.

¿Cómo se escribe la historia de lo fue mantenido al margen de la historia? Se preguntan los curadores. Lo primero es la construcción de ese margen. Que involucra un momento de pensamiento critico negativo “La era…” involucra un nivel de denuncia poco corriente en los discursos culturales, aun los disidentes o no oficiales. Es valiente y sólido a la vez. Porque no bastaría la pasión de una acusación general sino estuviera acompañada por un mapa minucioso de prácticas concretas, de la suma de prácticas concretas públicas y privadas, nacionales e internacionales, que constituyeron esta laguna. Nos referimos, claro esta (y es la hipótesis central que motiva, que mueve a este proyecto) a la supresión de las prácticas estético-políticas a partir de los 60, radicalizadas en la atmósfera de ese año simbólico que marca el inicio de esta historia y de esta muestra: 1968.

Y luego de este momento critico negativo, implica otro momento de propuesta constructiva. Porque para demostrar que algo es una laguna en la historia debo demostrar no solo la existencia de ese algo (reunión y reconstrucción de documentos, testimonios, objetos…) sino además probar la relevancia histórica de ese algo. Demostrar que esas prácticas combativas, radicales, de los 60 y los 70 son visibles en las huellas que han dejado en el arte posterior. Este es el objetivo que estructura el discurso historiográfico del catalogo, la articulación de los 9 núcleos, y por supuesto también el guión visual del montaje.

Es muy fuerte hablar de una “era” de la discrepancia. La palabra discrepancia esta tomada directamente del discurso de Javier Barros Sierra, el rector que defendió la autonomía universitaria durante las represiones del 68 y que destaco la disidencia como motor del pensamiento y el intercambio. Hay allí una adscripción ideológica. La palabra “era” le da un sobretono: no es lo mismo decir “época”, “periodo”, que “era”. Diccionario: Punto fijo o fecha determinada de un suceso, desde el cual se empiezan a contar los años (La era cristiana), Cada uno de los grandes períodos de la evolución geológica o cósmica (era cuaternaria); Extenso período histórico caracterizado por una gran innovación en las formas de vida y de cultura (era atómica). Postula el 68 como emergencia de una clave de articulación entre arte y poder (la discrepancia) que rige hasta la actualidad. Que sobretodo es puesta en relación a la generación de los artistas mexicanos de los 90 rápidamente globalizados (G Orozco, Ruben Ortiz, y los demás).

Podemos estar de acuerdo o no en la constitución de esta genealogía, pero en cuanto a la posición política y ética de los curadores no hay más que celebrar cuando afirman que la inserción, el éxito de visibilidad obtenido por el arte mexicano en el mundo globalizado debe involucrarnos en una renegociación de las historias del arte de las periferias. Eso seria servirse del existo internacional: volverlo un recurso para trabajar lo propio. O, como diría Deleuze, poder tornar los obstáculos en medios.

Podemos decir (y dice el refrán popular: lo perfecto es enemigo de lo bueno) que no todos los enlaces entre estos 9 núcleos son igualmente sólidos (*). Pero si que una buena exposición no pretende exponer verdades conclusivas sino plantear un territorio para el debate, para seguir trabajando. Podemos, además, seguir trabajando sobre el discurso historiográfico de esta muestra porque A) este discurso es en si polifónico (varios autores) y fundamentalmente es explicito al detalle, obsesivamente. Todos sus supuestos y decisiones concientes están escritos. B) porque comprende la constitución de un archivo. Podemos generar nuevas discrepancias sobre la era de la discrepancia porque el proyecto ha puesto a disposición pública los testimonios que utiliza como documentación probatoria. Como dijo Ranciere, en el Maestro Ignorante, el documento es la instancia material que habilita la igualdad de condiciones de las inteligencias.

La importancia del catálogo. Si lo curatorial se subordina al trabajo historiográfico, también el catalogo. La espesura de sus textos, la articulación conceptual de su secuencia, la claridad en la selección y ordenamiento de los testimonios gráficos y visuales. Un catalogo enorme, lleno de contenido, y carente de todo recurso seductor superficial en términos de diseño y edición. Un libro de estudio. Un catalogo que es mas que la memoria o el recuerdo institucional de una muestra. Un libro que sabe que su destino temporal excede la circunstancia efímera de la cita presencial de una exposición de arte, y que sabe también que por su formato comunicativo puede también sortear las limitaciones inherentes a una exposición de arte (es decir EN el catalogo están las claves para que la exposición no sea percibida como una yuxtaposición de partes).

Por ultimo, menciones particulares donde la percepción de relevancia se une a mis preferencias profesionales y emocionales, como ser el contundente rescate de la fotografía documental mexicana, y la mención continua, al lado de los artistas y sus producciones, de espacios de debate y gestión tan queridos para mí como los Coloquios mexicanos de fotografía latinoamericana y los espacios de gestión independiente como Curare y tantos otros.

(*) Ruben: en este sentido, preferí no decirlo explícitamente en la charla, pero para mí el punto mas débil es la conexión entre toda esta tradición setentista “subterránea”, que perdura más allá de los 70, y el arte contemporáneo mexicano de visibilidad internacional. La conexión con los artistas “neoconceptuales” de los 90 la justifico a partir de la estrategia política de servirse de una plataforma dada para insertar, mas allá de México, una nueva historia del arte mexicano. Pero el único logro seria ese, el logro de un escenario eficaz para decir lo verdaderamente importante, que es el rescate de ese pasado. Creo que la relevancia histórica de ese pasado, sus huellas no necesariamente deberían ser comprendidas en términos de un “rendimiento” visible en el arte posterior. Me hubiese gustado mas que las únicas líneas de hilván se hubieran confiado a la fotografía documental y a la vitalidad de los espacios de arte alternativos, las dos instancias verdaderamente distintivas, creo, de México en el contexto latinoamericano. Como decir: la única herencia constatable del 68 pasa desde el proyecto fotográfico Chiapas hasta la Panadería, etc. Pero más me enoja la inclusión (¿Por qué necesaria?) de Julio Galán y en general todo el apartado titulado “identidad y utopía”. Creo que el remozado titulo no logra desplazar el discurso posmoderno “neomexicanista” que los curadores dicen deplorar. Obvio: los curadores quieren problematizar esa supuesta “historia del arte instantánea” que rodea al éxito repentino de la generación de los 90. Es obvio que ese mito no sirve y que hay que estudiar la genealogía de este arte. Pero, a diferencia del estudio acerca del 68 y sus proyecciones, este estudio acerca de los 90, aun luego de “La era…” esta aun en pañales, es todavía una asignatura pendiente.

Valeria González

Universidad de Buenos Aires

Hi 'n' Lo.

noreply@blogger.com (Rubén Ortiz Torres) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 00:11:00 +0000

Finally Hi 'n' Lo had its debut at the 01SJ global festival of art on the edge. The scissor lift danced a couple of times to a track composed by Jorge Verdín (a member of Clorofila of the Nortec Collective). The music was done with samples of hydraulic sounds, the scissor lift and others made by the tools we used to fabricate it. Salvador "Chava" Muñoz did the inspired hydraulic engineering and hit the switches. This piece was made in collaboration with The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia. Additional support by MACLA and 01SJ. The paint job, chrome, rims and grill were done by ADM Works. Particular thanks to Javier Valdivieso and painter Rigo Hernandez. Transportation by Tony Ortiz from Backyard Boogie Hydraulics. The photographs are by Patrick "The Dude" Miller.

The customized machine and some of the original designs will be on display at MACLA in San Jose until August 8. If in the bay area stop by to check the missing link between Brancusi, constructivism and the low rider pick up movement of the late eighties and early nineties.

Changing Ties.

noreply@blogger.com (Rubén Ortiz Torres) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 03:46:00 +0000

Nery Lemus (a very active artist who is doing his MFA in Calarts right now) invited me to participate in a show that he is curating at Avenue 50 Studio, Inc. in Highland Park. The show is trying to foster a cross cultural dialogue between Latinos and African Americans.

He wanted me to present a series of baseball caps that I started doing in the early nineties. I would like to take advantage of this opportunity to post a text I wrote about them.

"Colors": Xicano Progeny, Investigative Agents, Executive Council and Other Representatives from the Sovereign State of Aztlán, The Mexican Museum, San Francisco, 1995, p. 36

Uniforms, banners, colors, flags and logos have been used to represent in a very attractive way different sport teams. Going to a sport stadium is an intense aesthetic experience. Sport teams usually represent a place that competes within certain rules against another. It is quite common to find that certain sport teams use images and names that are associated with certain groups of people not always related directly with the teams. The Cleveland Indians do not necessarily represent the Native-Americans or the San Diego Padres a catholic community and most of the Boston Celtics are African American. Sometimes the signifiers that are used by certain teams in different contexts reflect specific historical affiliations. The Scottish soccer team from Glasgow called "The Celtics" is supported by the Republican community in Northern Ireland; while the Glasgow “Rangers" is supported by the Loyalists.

Baseball caps are widely used in the streets as a popular form of expression. In Los Angeles teams emblems have been reappropiated by different local communities and gangs, for example the Bloods wear red, like the Chicago Bulls while the Crips wear blue the colour of the Georgetown Hoyas. On the other hand, Chicanos like to sport Cleveland Browns paraphernalia giving expression to pride on brown color, while L.A. Kings caps are now associated with Rodney King and Martin Luther King.

In altering, recodifying and recontextualizing signs already given in baseball caps I want to comment on the relation between aesthetics, history, mass media, culture, fashion, politics etc. and different communities divided by arbitrary rules and signs like sport teams.

Since my youth days in little league I've been collecting baseball caps. My collection of altered caps started in 1991 at the Watts Drum Festival when my African American teacher, Joe Lewis gave me a Malcolm X cap to wear instead of what he called, "ethnic caps" (referring to the ones with Latin motifs I use to wear). I wanted to use it in a way that would relate to Latinos and created the "Malcolm Mex" cap.

Since then I've been travelling with my caps having them customized by different artisans in the Americas and Europe. Laponian designs contrast with the Minnesota Viking's logo, while Native American bead work decorates the Chicago Blackhawks cap. In Guatemala a Mayan Indian embroidered what he considered were Aztec decorations on a San Diego Aztecs cap substituting an eagle with the local quetzal. Although I played baseball in what was called the "Mayan" little league I haven't found a Mayan team lately, unless we would consider the Carolina Jaguars one). In the swapmeets of L.A. the hip hop community creates it's own designs using computer operated stitching machines that are a lot faster than the manual embroidery of the indigenous artisans who earn a lot less for their work in the third world. These caps not only reflect the complex readings of signs within our cultures but also reflect the enormous differences which exist between labour and wealth from the first to the third world.

Even though most people outside the United States might not have prior knowledge or relate to the teams; the caps on the other hand are becoming widely universal fashion. In Guatemala the most colorful caps are preferred, while in Europe the darker caps are more popular or the ones that have famous rapper connotations.

Ultimately these objects while they have been appropriated as a universal (MTV) dress code, they address issues of economical, cultural exchange and difference.

Barbie Parachutes Onto Puerto Vallarta's Wal-Mart

noreply@blogger.com (Rubén Ortiz Torres) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 20:01:00 +0000

Sand Castles, DV, 60 min (looped continously), Raza Cósmica Productions, Puerto Vallarta, 2008

Nuevo Vallarta, DV, 60 min (looped continously), Raza Cósmica Productions, 2008.

This text was published in relation to the art festival Puerto Vallarta Arte Contemporaneo 08. "Barbie Parachutes Onto Puerto Vallarta's Wal-Mart," Puerto Vallarta Arte Contemporaneo 08. Extended Borders: Shifting Cartographies, May 28-June 1 2008, Puerto Vallarta, p. 4.

Boundaries constitute obstacles designed to be crossed by tourists, inmigrants, capital funds, products, handcrafts, internationally renowned artists, collectors, etc.

After cruise ships unload their passengers in Puerto Vallarta, the tourists' first destination is the handcraft-selling Wal-Mart. On the other hand, immigrants from Jalisco can find Tejuino (a non-alcoholic, fermented corn beverage) in Los Angeles Mac Arthur Park.

Both destinations become replicas of the places where their visitors originated. Thus, Puerto Vallarta experiences a hasty urban development characterized by skyscrapers, while Southern California shows samples of promiscuous forms of Mexican vernacular architecture. Large cities try to capitalize on culture and turn it into another tourist attraction. Other tourist destinations, striving for a share of visitors' purchasing power, generate hybrid cultural products. The parachuting Barbie constitutes an example of this. From my personal experience, Barbie flies and hovers better than the pretentiously trendy two-line kites sold in Europe and Malibu.

The purchasing power derived from the United States' Social Security system has decreased, and many retired seniors move to Mexican destinations such as Puerto Vallarta because the cost of living is less expensive. According to recent statistical data, the Social Security system in the United States is staving off collapse in part because of taxes paid by the immigrant work force; many of these immigrants are Mexicans. So Social Security in the United States has a direct dependence on the immigrants' contribution to the economy.

Art fairs in places such as Miami or even Mexico City become interesting destinations for collectors who travel to those cities-they are then able to avoid the need to visit the various cities where international galleries represented in these fairs are located. Artists such as Damien Hirst, who is British, find it useful to produce art at Mexican beaches while obtaining a greater profit by working with a local gallery. On the other hand, some Mexican artists consider it viable to create work for international markets while eliminating links with their local reality.

This is how contemporary art arrives in Puerto Vallarta, and vice-versa.

Barbie Desciende en Paracaidas en el Wal-Mart de Puerto Vallarta.

noreply@blogger.com (Rubén Ortiz Torres) — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 22:42:00 +0000

Este texto fue escrito y publicado en relación al festival Puerto Vallarta Arte Contemporaneo 08. "Barbie Desciende en Paracaidas en el Wal-Mart de Puerto Vallarta", Puerto Vallarta Arte Contemporaneo 08. Fronteras Extendidas: Cartografías Cambiantes, 28 mayo-1 junio, Puerto Vallarta, p. 4.

Las fronteras constituyen obstáculos diseñados para ser cruzados por turistas, inmigrantes, capital, productos, artesanías, artistas internacionales, coleccionistas, etc.

Los cruceros desembarcan en Puerto Vallarta y su primer destino es el Wal-Mart donde venden artesanías. Los inmigrantes de Jalisco pueden encontrar tejuino en Mac Arthur Park en la ciudad de Los Ángeles.

Ambos destinos se convierten en réplicas de los puntos de origen de sus visitantes. Así pues Puerto Vallarta se urbaniza aceleradamente con rascacielos mientras en el sur de California aparecen promiscuas formas de arquitectura vernacular informal. Las grandes ciudades tratan de capitalizar la cultura como atractivo turístico. Otros destinos turísticos generan híbridos productos culturales en busca de el poder de compra de sus visitantes. Un ejemplo es la efectiva Barbie en paracaidas que en mi experiencia personal vuela mejor que los mas pretenciosos papalotes de dos cuerdas adquiridos en Europa y Malibú.

El poder adquisitivo de la seguridad social en Estados Unidos disminuye y muchos viejos retirados se mudan a México a destinos como Puerto Vallarta. De acuerdo a recientes estadísticas gracias a los impuestos y a la fuerza de trabajo de inmigrantes en su mayoría mexicanos esta seguridad social no se colapsa y depende de estos.

Las ferias de arte en lugares como Miami o la misma ciudad de México se vuelven destinos interesantes para los coleccionistas que viajan a ellas sin necesidad de visitar las galerías en sus ciudades originales. Así pues a artistas como Damien Hirst quién es británico, le funciona producir en las playas de México y obtener un mejor porcentaje de ganancia en una galería local. Mientras tanto, es viable para algunos artistas mexicanos producir para mercados internacionales y desvincularse de su realidad local. En la ciudad de Los Ángeles estas realidades locales se vuelven internacionales.

Así pues llega a Puerto Vallarta el arte contemporaneo y viceversa…

Milton Ernest (Bobby) Rauschenberg 1925-2008

noreply@blogger.com (Rubén Ortiz Torres) — Thu, 15 May 2008 15:56:00 +0000

Milton Ernest Raushenberg (mas conocido como Robert Rauschenberg) murió este lunes 12 de mayo de un paro cardiaco. Le tomé este retrato con Juan Carlos Lafontaine. En aquella época haciamos música industrial electrónica en un grupo que se llamaba Das Happy. Lo conocimos en una comida en la casa Gilardi diseñada por Luis Barragán. Mientras el maestro del collage hacia chistes sobre chiles bebimos la botella de Chateneuf du Pape que me había regalado la pulga cancelando la posibilidad de descorchar esta con mi amor platónico de la preparatoria. En aquel entonces comenzaba el Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Exchange con una exposición en México.

Recuerdo haber leído a Octavio Paz acusando en los sesentas a la obra de Rauschenberg de ser un "ejercicio de buen gusto". En aquella época este comentario debió de haber sonado absurdo y provocador en relación a ensamblados con cabras pintarrajeadas en el hocico con una llanta encima. Sin embargo si vemos la vóragine y el prolífico exceso de collages y gráfica de su última época en el que se repitió ad infinitum en una cacofónica y estetizada diarrea visual, el comentario de Paz es premonitorio. El sutil gesto de borrar un dibujo de De Kooning acaba resultando mucho mas importante.

Olivier Debroise 1952-2008

noreply@blogger.com (Rubén Ortiz Torres) — Tue, 13 May 2008 01:20:00 +0000

Este martes 6 de mayo a las 10.30 pm murió Olivier Debroise. Lo esperabamos en la Universidad de California en San Diego.

No recuerdo exactamente cuando lo conocí pero escribía de arte y fotografía en La Jornada y frecuentaba el 9, el Consejo Mexicano de Fotografía y la casa de Adolfo Patiño y Carla Rippey. Junto con Rubén Bautista y Maria Guerra desarrolló la práctica de la curaduría en México. Al igual que ellos murió antes de tiempo. A diferencia de estos logró consumar sus proyectos mas ambiciosos. Mas que un crítico, un curador o investigador fué un instigador. No se conformaba con hacer un análisis distante y objetivo del arte y la cultura porque quizo participar en estos de manera mas directa. Empujaba y buscaba asociarse con los artistas que le interesaban y de quién escribía. Mezcló la investigación académica con la producción del arte en su película Un Banquete en Tetlapayac. En este experimento sui generis vemos como académicos que han dedicado su vida a deconstruir la fabrica de sueños de Hollywood y la sociedad del espectáculo se vuelven estrellas de cine que interpretan sus temas de estudio.

Tal vez su legado mas importante es la exposición La Era de la Discrepancia. Esta y su inmenso catálogo tratan de disipar la ignorante noción de que el arte mexicano reaparece en los noventas por generación espontanea gracias la negación de si mismo en Nueva York. De ahí el boicot y los chantajes de algunos artistas beneficiados por la amnesia.

Tuve la fortuna de pasar tiempo recientemente con el y de presenciar su última conferencia resultante de su residencia en el Getty Center. En este analiza una serie de proyectos de tres artistas argentinos en los años sesentas. Estas son las acciones e instalaciones de Marta Minujín, Oscar Masotta y Roberto Jacoby (miembro del grupo Tucumán Arde). El texto es poético, elocuente y esta ilustrado con fotografías y mapas animados en su versión para Power Point y teje cordenadas de interés para Olivier. Estos artistas produjeron obra que utilizó los medios de comunicación. Minujín cordinó la transmisión via satelite de acciones de ella en Buenos Aires, Wolf Wostell en Alemania y Allan Kaprow en Nueva York. Roberto Jacoby y el grupo Tucumán Arde cuestionaron la tergiversación de la realidad social a través de la manipulación de los medios de comunicación haciendo instalaciones y acciones con fines revolucionarios. Oscar Masota (quién posteriormente fuera sicoanalista lacaniano) realizó una acción en la que convocó a una serie de gentes a una locación particular donde poco antes había aparecido un helicóptero. Así pues la acción existiría mas como un mito o una narración. La relación entre el arte latinoamericano, la “escena internacional”, su realidad social y su subjetividad fue una preocupación constante en la investigación/obra de Olivier. En su último texto la expone de manera compleja, literaria, original y madura. Habrá que ver como y donde publicar lo que prometía ser el principio de una nueva aventura y cuerpo de trabajo. Habiamos acordado vernos en Buenos Aires a finales de junio con Magdalena Jitrik.

Lamento muchísimo su perdida y no poder haber asistido a su funeral debido a compromisos de trabajo. Les pido perdón a los artistas que si asistieron.

Mestizo, No te Entiendo, El Camino, Trabantimino & Others.

noreply@blogger.com (Rubén Ortiz Torres) — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 22:28:00 +0000

"De español e india, produce mestizo" (Of a Spanish man and an Amerindian woman, a Mestizo is produced).
"De tente en el aire y mulato, sale no te entiendo" (From stand-on-the-air man and a Mulatto, an I-do-not-understand-you is obtained).
“De troka y Chevy sale El Camino” (From a pick-up truck and a Chevy is begotten an El Camino).
“De El Camino y Trabant produce Trabantimino” (Of an El Camino and a Trabant, a Trabantamino is produced).

Sexual contact among Europeans, Native Americans, and Africans occurred in the Americas as early as the sixteenth century and in most cases not out of love. From it, mixed people were born. Spaniards tried to develop a complex hierarchic taxonomic system called “castas” to organize their colonial social structure to favor themselves. Mestizos, Mulattos, and others mixed among themselves, combining and recombining and thus creating new multiracial categories that became hard to distinguish and understand. Such was the “No te entiendo” (which literally means “I do not understand you”) that was the result of a “Tente en el aire” (hold in the air) and Mulatto. The “Tente en el aire” was the combination of “Calpamulato” and “Cambujo.” “Calpamulato” came from “Zambaigo” and “Lobo.” “Zambaigo” was produced from Spanish and Chinese, etc. Paintings were commissioned to illustrate and explain the scheme.

In a no less absurd racial system in Anglo America, all these categories are now labeled as “Hispanic.” Spaniards started these classifications to distinguish themselves and now are lumped together and mistaken with “Brown” people of indigenous ancestry and “Black” people of African descent. There are other labels for people of Asian and African descent, but people of other European origin are labeled as “White” or “Caucasian” without any ethnic or geographic questioning of their American belonging. There is a category called “Other” for people of unidentifiable race (mixed). More often than not, mixed people have to define themselves in pure terms according to what they resemble most or who rejects them further. Anybody that has crossed an immigration checkpoint knows that for the U.S. Border Patrol, the more European you look, the more “American” you might be. Is “American” the result of the physical and cultural encounters in the New World or its puritan denial?

“How do you turn a Trabant into a sports car? Put sneakers in the trunk!”¹

Liz Cohen, like so many of us, is trying to figure and reconfigure how to construct herself and what she does. However, she does it with amazing versatility and ability. She documented the transgender community between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans in Panama City. Her skill as a photographer, knowledge of Photoshop, and experience with a personal trainer were useful in transforming herself from a geeky intellectual into a sexy lowrider model. This same model happens to also be the mechanic who has been customizing a mutating Trabant that transforms into an El Camino through hydraulic pumps. She has been so adamant about learning and doing the mechanics herself that the project has had the time to mature slowly, like any good lowrider or bottle of wine.

Designed in the ’50s and produced until 1991, the Trabant is a boxy little East German car that despite its smoky two-stroke engine was fast, compact, light, durable, and even had room for four adults and luggage. Inspired by the Soviet Sputnik, the name Trabant means “fellow traveler” (satellite) in German. It was the Iron Curtain answer to the VW Beetle, the “people’s car,” and on Time magazine’s list of fifty worst cars of all time. Imported by Liz into the United States, this car, like any surviving savvy immigrant, has had to develop the most sophisticated strategies to adapt and blend in while being able to reconfigure itself and simultaneously stay true to its origins. And so it converts into that most “American” of cars, the Chevrolet El Camino. When I use the connotation of “America,” I speak of the one from most of the continent, the one of the mix and the hybrid as opposed to the pure and the simple relocation.

Like its predecessor and rival, the Ford Ranchero, the El Camino (meaning “the road” in Spanish) is an odd concoction between a pick-up truck and a big car (in car parlance a “coupe utility”). Paradoxically the car sold in Mexico as the Chevrolet Conquistador. In order for Liz’s car to transform into an El Camino, one of the pumps extends the wheel base to that of an El Camino and the back of the Trabant to the length of the bed of an El Camino. Needless to say, the car has also been souped up with thirteen-seven wheels and chromed knock- off rims. One pump lifts and locks the rear, and another one hops to the front. The cabin houses the switches that change the vehicle and also make it dance in celebration. The proper paint job and upholstery are in the works. As a work in progress, the car reveals the bondo and primer used in the reconstruction but more interestingly the Duroplast. This Eastern European material is made from different fibers, such as cotton and occasionally paper with some kind of plastic resin. It is similar to fiberglass but since it could be made in a press similar to shaping steel, it was more suitable for volume car production.

Certainly this car is not a trailer queen or a mere art world commodity; it will cruise the boulevard and is expected to participate in car shows. Even though the project was originally funded by a Creative Capital Foundation grant and has been considered art since it’s beginning, Liz wants it to compete and participate in the lowrider car scene. She is already combining these two worlds, curating a radical mod car show at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art parallel to an exhibition of car-related art, in which the Trabantimino is included. Lowriders are on the fringe of custom cars, which happen to be on the fringe of car culture in general. Nevertheless, they have established their traditions and can be dogmatic in their particular set of values. They revere the Chevy, and it is uncertain to what extent they will accept the conversion of a Trabant into one.

Salvador “Chava” Muñoz created the first transformer pick-up truck, originally called “Wicked Bed.” A new competition category called “radical bed dancing” had to be established for the unique movements and particular cubist deconstruction of this vehicle. Chava’s customizing was so extreme that at one point it had no real competition. This ended up killing the category and the lowrider pick-up movement. The Nissan truck ended up exiled as an art piece called “Alien Toy.” Liz Cohen is resuscitating the movement and the use of hydraulics to transform a pick-up into an art piece and lowrider. She uses them in a different and particular way, creating a transformation that is not just formal or abstract but iconic and in the self. She is able to change an object smoothly back and fort between different political, social, cultural, and aesthetic systems. This car is not a celebration of triumphant, gas-guzzling, excessive, baroque capitalism or an apology of the Spartan and stoic sacrifices demanded by communism to liberate the oppressed masses. It is a negotiation and perhaps a dialectic synthesis of both, not to even mention the transgression of stereotypical gender and ethnic constructions and boundaries that have never fit her well as a Jewish, Colombian, San Franciscan art student, Phoenix suburban girl, beautiful lowrider model, rough mechanic, photo geek, and whatever else she decides to be.

As Tiger Woods wins more tournaments than anybody else and Barak Obama is a hopeful presidential candidate, it might be time to reconsider the U.S. obsession with Manichean, purist, racial definitions and to reconsider the idea of what “American” means.² In this sense, the Trabantimino is neither a car nor an art piece but a vehicle that helps us to rethink who we are, where we came from, and more importantly what we want to be.

1. East German joke.

2. White racists embraced the “one-drop rule” (any trace of sub-Saharan ancestry was enough to make you Black) to keep the white race “pure” as some African Americans now do it as a form of pride.

Phantom Sightings, talks.

noreply@blogger.com (Rubén Ortiz Torres) — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 04:15:00 +0000

Manhattan Dub.

noreply@blogger.com (Rubén Ortiz Torres) — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 00:44:00 +0000

Art has often been considered an “agent of transformation.” However, what happens when the art and the spaces where we present it are in a state of flux and transformation? During the twentieth century, mechanics allowed us to incorporate the notions of speed and motion into visual representation. New technologies give us the possibility to create forms in transformation avoiding the limitations of particularity and singularity. These mutant forms might respond to a public space that is mutating too. Forms can be combined and recombined seamlessly like if we were altering their genetic or molecular composition.

I have been working with hydraulic mechanics and other customizing techniques to alter the form and adapt objects to particular and specific cultural, political or aesthetical needs. However these analogical and modern processes seem to be limited to their original structures. During modern times simultaneity and a multiplicity of points of view were organized in fragmented ways such as cubism, collage and the modern city. I am currently exploring 3D design programs to create flexible sculptures or forms that transform themselves. With other programs I could also morph and hybridize these and other forms in seamless un-fragmented ways. By intervening different spaces with these alien and malleable forms I am hoping to reveal the glitches in the matrix.

Manhattan Dub documents the intervention of public space in New York City in a customized Penske truck with virtual graffiti.

An art piece by Rubén Ortiz Torres produced by Low Rez Crimez for the exhibition The Manhattan Project at Art in General, New York City, 2004.

Graffiti animation: Raymond Gutierrez

Video mix projections and truck customizing: Konstantinos Mavromichalis

Truck driver and curator: Sofía Hernandez

Stills: Vicente Razo

Original music: Dewey Ambrosino

Final editing: Ricky Delaveaga

Fabrication and First Test.

noreply@blogger.com (Rubén Ortiz Torres) — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 00:18:00 +0000

We worked until the late hours of the night for a couple of months welding, cutting and installing in the metal shop of the Visual Arts department at UCSD while listening to a radio horror show in Spanish called “La Mano Peluda” (the Hairy Hand). We scavenged the junkyards of San Ysidro and Chula Vista. We bought a cheap used lift from Otay Mesa Sales that came all rusty with stains of cement and bad batteries. We got our hydraulics set up from Pro Hopper, the steel from Material Sales Inc and hardware from K Surplus.

Finally we were able to test the machine. Even though we still need to make some adjustments, it was very exciting to see how this portable monument unfolded, spun and danced. We will certainly need to change the used batteries that came with the lift since they are very weak and reinforce or change the frame of the basket because it bends with the force of the spin and the dance. We should also add some legs on the side of the body to make the lift more stable when it is unfolded so that it doesn’t collapse when we turn the steel arm to the side.

But once that is all done, we will soon be ready for the next stage of the production that involves metal flake painting, some chroming and as much pimping as we can afford.

Chava's Drawings.

noreply@blogger.com (Rubén Ortiz Torres) — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 00:46:00 +0000

Eventually I was invited to do a project with the Fabric Workshop in Philadelphia. I pitched them different ideas, among them customizing the scissor lift. They liked it and finally we are making it.

I am working with legendary radical bed dancer world champion Salvador “Chava” Muñoz from Colotlán, Jalisco. After seeing the photo montages and getting a used scissor lift we came up with a plan. The idea was to graft a Z-rack on top of the scissor lift. On the base of the basket we installed the hydraulic pumps and the batteries. On top of the Z-rack we are making a new basket that will unfold and spin. The Z-rack also turns and the base of the basket tilts up.

These are a couple of technical drawings that were made by Salvador to figure out the system and the flow of the oil in the hydraulic pumps.

High n' Low Rider.

noreply@blogger.com (Rubén Ortiz Torres) — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 07:08:00 +0000

After Monster Garage rejected the High n' Low Rider project I made a series of photomontages with new designs. A pick up truck would not fit in the majority of galleries or museums. The idea now was to make a scissor lift that would perform its regular functions and could dance and transform into an interesting sculpture. Some of the collages were more fantastic and extreme, making interesting graphic work. I showed them at OMR Gallery in Mexico City trying to convince them to use them to sell or pitch the production of the object.