When we think about the end of a civilization, we start with the remains that it left behind. Regardless of the circumstances that led or could lead to the disappearance of a culture, its vestiges enable us to hypothesize about the customs, events and ideologies of given moments and eras. This exhibition originates in precisely this idea of imagining a set of works of contemporary art as signs that can give an account of our civilization. The pieces in the show have all been selected because they are constituted as uninhabited scenes or objects in disuse that contain or give shape to traces that are subject to interpretation. To a certain extent, archaeology is the model of this inquiry, insofar as it alters the original condition of the artifact in question, turning it from a mute object into a witness to a whole social and cultural environment. In the manner of an inventory of cultural fragments from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, these works are put up for consideration as testimonies to a broad network of meanings—economic, political, social, cultural and ideological— that determine the work of art. The exhibition is thus posited as a speculative exercise for an observer who is alien to our time and culture, a potential archaeologist from the future who would resolve to explain the issues and contradictions of our time.
Francis Alÿs
Wood, metal, plastic, reels, film material and drawings
15.00 x 19.00 x 29.34 in
Carlos Amorales
Metal ruler and graphite on wall
Size 320 cm diameter
Carl Andre
14 pieces
149.02 in
Helen Barff
Plaster
1.18 x 2.36 x 3.15 in
Bernd and Hilla Becher
Silver gelatin print
75.98 x 92.13 in
Joseph Beuys
Case, pencil on ECG paper
66.93 x 78.74 in
Alighiero Boetti
Embroidery
39.25 x 60.75 in
André Cadere
Lacquered wood
77.52 x 0.35 in
John Chamberlain
Collage on wood, paper, aluminium, steel and plastic
11.50 x 6.50 x 2.99 in
Ramiro Cháves
Inkjet print on photographic paper
17.72 x 25.59 in
Zhang Dali
Color Coupler print
37.68 x 58.74 in
Carlos Garaicoa
Pigment print on bone
4.72 x 5.91 in
Tacita Dean
16mm projection, with sound
07:25
Jimmie Durham
Petrified wood and text on wall. Installation.
Dimensions variable
William Eggleston
Dye Transfer Print
15.98 x 20.00 in
Mario García Torres
Super-8 film digital transfer (DVD) w/o audio
5 min, 53 seg.
Mona Hatoum
Metal benches, fishing lines, plastic buttons
22.05 x 34.06 x 16.54 in
Susan Hiller
Wooden cabinet with bottles of holy water
12.83 x 11.22 x 7.68 in
Alfredo Jaar
3 Color Cibachrome prints; 3 black and white prints
40.16 x 275.20 in
On Kawara
Telegram
11.26 x 8.27 in
Gabriel Kuri
Cardboard, newspaper, cat litter
24.41 x 16.93 x 2.36 in
Marepe
24 pieces of clay
Dimensions variable
Ana Mendieta
Lifetime color photograph
7.99 x 10.00 in
László Moholy-Nagy
Fuji Crystal Archive print
11.00 x 14.00 in
Moris
Oil on canvas and found objects
76.77 x 47.24 x 29.92 in
Gabriel Orozco
Terracotta and wood
2.28 x 39.49 x 7.99 in
Damián Ortega
Triptych. Digital print
20.00 in
Danh Vō
Copper
81.89 x 117.32 x 23.62 in