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.
Irving Penn
Platinum palladium print
19.49 x 19.49 in
Hélio Oiticica
Gouache on paper
18.23 x 20.39 in
Allora & Calzadilla
Print on linen
120.00 x 168.00 in
Leonor Antunes
Leather, hemp rope, bamboo, linen thread, oak
125.98 x 72.44 x 90.55 in
Diane Arbus
Gelatin silver print
20.00 x 15.98 in
Lothar Baumgarten
Drawing
17.64 x 13.11 x 0.98 in
Marcel Broodthaers
Enamel on plastic
35.43 x 48.82 in
Johanna Calle
Ink on rolled paper
55.91 x 28.54 x 29.33 in
Luis Camnitzer
Silver gelatin print
10.98 x 13.98 in
Ulises Carrión
9 hojas mecanografiadas
11.02 x 8.27 in
Lygia Clark
Sculpture aluminium (16 leaves)
15.75 x 11.81 x 5.91 in
Anne Collier
Sixty-one 35mm slides, 35mm slide projector, pedestal stand and base
Detanico/Lain
24 Inkjet prints
31.50 x 23.62 in
Gego
Steel wire and Plexiglas
16.73 x 6.30 x 3.35 in
Sigurdur Gudmundsson
Silverprint on fiberbased paper, text
28.74 x 39.76 in
Thomas Hirschhorn
Aluminium foil, plastic and paper collage in wooden frame
89.02 x 67.99 x 5.00 in
Runo Lagomarsino
11 Postcards, depicting the border of Mexico and US, glass form US and frames from Mexico.
5.51 in
David Lamelas
16 mm film, black and white, silent
13 min
Cinthia Marcelle
Cretacolor Monolith 6B pencil on offset 63 gm paper
12.99 x 10.63 in
Bruce Nauman
Tubos de neón montados sobre aluminio
24.02 x 35.98 x 9.25 in
Hélio Oiticica
Gouache on paper
16.73 x 19.49 in
Roman Ondak
Series of six colour photographs mounted on Dibond.
13.62 x 18.11 in
Roman Ondak
Memory cards, card table, two chairs
55.12 x 55.12 x 35.43 in
Damián Ortega
Triptych. Digital print
20.00 in
Fernando Ortega
Wooden board, glass and chromogenic print
136.61 x 11.81 x 1.57 in
Michelangelo Pistoletto
Silkscreen on inox steel
88.62 x 40.55 in
Bernard Plossu
Silver gelatin print
9.45 x 11.81 in
Stephen Shore
Chromogenic print
20.00 x 24.02 in
Do Ho Suh
4 glass plates and PVC sculptures
Dimensions 39.4 x 39.4 x 3.1 in each
Do Ho Suh
U.S military jacket covered by 3000 metal tags
60.00 x 50.00 x 15.00 in
Superflex
Video with sound
15 min
Tunga
Bronze, iron, copper plated bronze, copper spheres on stools with canes
100.00 x 93.98 x 75.98 in