Point of Departure
What are the implications of looking at contemporary art from the perspective of a place like Mexico? What does working from that country to create a collection of the art of our time entail? These questions stimulate a series of reflections of the Isabel and Agustin Coppel Collection.
Mexico is a fundamentally mestizo nation, with its vibrant miscegenation of ethnicities and cultures, and that defining feature of its history and identity is this exhibition’s conceptual point of departure. Mestizaje is never limited or reduced to two antithetical positions in direct confrontation, but rather generates a synthesis that reveals a third path: that of the hybrid, the diffuse, the blended. It is rooted in a dialectical relationship and a movement of things where there are no absolute, definitive categories, only a multiplicity of representations and a singularity of forms. Standing at this complex crossroad, this exhibition considers the idea of mestizaje or miscegenation as a way of thinking and positioning oneself in the world from a Mexican standpoint.
Point of Departure is structured around five concepts: Pedagogy, Identity, Territory, Economy and Community. These pillars constitute a frame of vision that offers us a complex, off-centre perspective.
- Curatorship: Magnolia de la Garza and Patrick Charpenel
- Artists: Jennifer Allora & Guillermo Calzadilla, Francis Alÿs, Carlos Amorales, Leonor Antunes, Diane Arbus, Lothar Baumgarten, Joseph Beuys, Alighiero Boetti, Marcel Broodthaers, Johanna Calle, Luis Camnitzer, Mircea Cantor, Ulises Carrión, Lygia Clark, Anne Collier, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Santiago Cucullu, Angela Detanico & Rafael Lain, Jimmie Durham, Lucio Fontana, Mario García-Torres, Héctor García, GEGO, Fernanda Gomes, Sigurdur Gudmundsson, David Hammons, Sharon Hayes, Gary Hill, Thomas Hirschhorn, Pierre Huyghe, Fritzia Irízar Rojo, Toril Johannessen, Alicja Kwade, Runo Lagomarsino, David Lamelas, Cinthia Marcelle, Fausto Melotti, Bruce Nauman, Rivane Neuenschwander, Hélio Oiticica, Roman Ondak, Gabriel Orozco, Damián Ortega, Fernando Ortega, Irving Penn, Amalia Pica, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Bernard Plossu, Stephen Prina, Mimmo Rotella, Michal Rovner, Thomas Ruff, Anri Sala, Tomás Saraceno, Cindy Sherman, Stephen Shore, Do-Ho Suh, Superflex, UMBO, Wolfgang Tillmans, Tunga.
- Sala de Arte Santander, Madrid, Spain from February 21, 2017 to June 11, 2017
- Read Magnolia de la Garza and Patrick Charpenel’s essay: Colección Isabel y Agustín Coppel: Point of Departure
Irving Penn
Three Dahomey Girls, One Reclining
Platinum palladium print
19.49 x 19.49 in
Hélio Oiticica
Metaesquema 354
Gouache on paper
18.23 x 20.39 in
Allora & Calzadilla
Intermission: Halloween Afhanistan I (Capitan America)
Print on linen
120.00 x 168.00 in
Leonor Antunes
Discrepancies with X
Leather, hemp rope, bamboo, linen thread, oak
125.98 x 72.44 x 90.55 in
Diane Arbus
Blaze Starr in her living room, Baltimore, MD
Gelatin silver print
20.00 x 15.98 in
Lothar Baumgarten
Moleküle
Drawing
17.64 x 13.11 x 0.98 in
Marcel Broodthaers
Porte Capital A
Enamel on plastic
35.43 x 48.82 in
Johanna Calle
Sermón
Ink on rolled paper
55.91 x 28.54 x 29.33 in
Luis Camnitzer
The Invention of Rain
Silver gelatin print
10.98 x 13.98 in
Ulises Carrión
Abecedario
9 hojas mecanografiadas
11.02 x 8.27 in
Lygia Clark
Bicho, Arquitectura Fantástica
Sculpture aluminium (16 leaves)
15.75 x 11.81 x 5.91 in
Anne Collier
Women With Cameras
Sixty-one 35mm slides, 35mm slide projector, pedestal stand and base
Detanico/Lain
O Livro do Universo (The book of the Universe)
24 Inkjet prints
31.50 x 23.62 in
Gego
Seis de la serie de Nueve
Steel wire and Plexiglas
16.73 x 6.30 x 3.35 in
Sigurdur Gudmundsson
Past and Future Piece (Study)
Silverprint on fiberbased paper, text
28.74 x 39.76 in
Thomas Hirschhorn
Relief Abstrait Nº 548 (Nietzche)
Aluminium foil, plastic and paper collage in wooden frame
89.02 x 67.99 x 5.00 in
Runo Lagomarsino
We didn´t cross the border, the border crossed us
11 Postcards, depicting the border of Mexico and US, glass form US and frames from Mexico.
5.51 in
David Lamelas
Time as Activity- Düsseldorf
16 mm film, black and white, silent
13 min
Cinthia Marcelle
Capitulo 12 - da série Secession: The Tempest
Cretacolor Monolith 6B pencil on offset 63 gm paper
12.99 x 10.63 in
Bruce Nauman
Double Poke in the Eye II
Tubos de neón montados sobre aluminio
24.02 x 35.98 x 9.25 in
Hélio Oiticica
Metaesquema 214
Gouache on paper
16.73 x 19.49 in
Roman Ondak
Tomorrows
Series of six colour photographs mounted on Dibond.
13.62 x 18.11 in
Roman Ondak
Memory Game
Memory cards, card table, two chairs
55.12 x 55.12 x 35.43 in
Damián Ortega
Brasilia
Triptych. Digital print
20.00 in
Fernando Ortega
New Balance
Wooden board, glass and chromogenic print
136.61 x 11.81 x 1.57 in
Michelangelo Pistoletto
Senza Titolo
Silkscreen on inox steel
88.62 x 40.55 in
Bernard Plossu
Baja California, Mexico
Silver gelatin print
9.45 x 11.81 in
Stephen Shore
Jerusalem, Israel, January 9, 2010
Chromogenic print
20.00 x 24.02 in
Do Ho Suh
Floor Module
4 glass plates and PVC sculptures
Dimensions 39.4 x 39.4 x 3.1 in each
Do Ho Suh
Metal Jacket
U.S military jacket covered by 3000 metal tags
60.00 x 50.00 x 15.00 in
Superflex
The Financial Crisis (Session I-IV)
Video with sound
15 min
Tunga
La Belle et La Bête
Bronze, iron, copper plated bronze, copper spheres on stools with canes
100.00 x 93.98 x 75.98 in
