Acto poético recorrido terreno, Ciudad Abierta, c. 1970. Photography, b/w.
José Vial Armstrong Historical Archive, School of Architecture and
Design, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Chile.
The historical development of Modernism has been understood as continuous and relentless impulse which implies the cancellation of the immediate past and the immediate reconstruction of new reference frameworks. In this situation, minor histories are understood as peripheral, lateral, or simply derivative, while the main narratives are propelled forward, with no possibility of establishing connections or mutual dependencies. According to this line of thought, the world has been conceived as a system of unique trajectories, but it is, instead, a set of relationships. The task of the Museum is not that of re-tracing those powerful trajectories, but that of dispersing and disseminating them in an archipelago of connections and zones of contact beyond the control of a single dominant model. There are no primary and secondary, protagonist and local histories, but, rather, simply relationships to be established, much like the case of knowledge, which cannot be used to reinforce the canon, but to uncover new networks.
Dates: May 4 - August 23, 2010
Location: Sabatini Building, Floor 3
Drifts and Derivations is an essay-like exhibition which researches definitions for the architecture of the future in Latin American cities which remained on the margin of the official narrative of the so-called First World. The exhibition collects Utopian projects, whether realized or not, plans and models by architects who mix functionalism, futurism and surrealism, and dream of environments of collective coexistence and societies based on play.
Related activities:
The seminar
The Drift Is Oursis a workshop of experience and production, reflection and debate from the standpoint of pedagogy and Modernist utopia in Latin America, closely linked to the exhibition project.
Dates: May 12 – September 6, 2010
Location: Nouvel Building, Floor 0
The Potosí Principle project focuses on analyzing the notion of Modernity and its universal expansion, which has taken place since the colonization of Latin America. The exhibition will display examples of Andean colonial painting and works by international artists, inviting viewers to reflect on relationships between sixteenth- to eighteenth-century colonial art and the contemporary world. Beginning with examples of vice-regal painting from the Potosí School, the project’s line of investigation relates these isolated fragments of history to the conditions of artistic production today. Potosí Principle is an aesthetic proposal with an ambiguous meaning. "Principio" in Spanish can refer to, on the one hand, a temporal meaning or a beginning—the enduring memory of Potosí. On the other hand, it also refers to technique, such as a mechanical principle or rule, which is repeated on different global coordinates in time and space. These two potential foci form the basis for the project, which together with the exhibition will include several seminars, conferences and publications.
Related Activities:
Dates: July 14 – February, 2011
Place: Parque del Buen Retiro, Palacio de Cristal
Jessica Stockholder's work, located beyond the ontological definition of sculpture, is a questioning of the heterogeneous, where the visibility of its elements achieves the regulation of matter. It is a case of an additive process, of overlaying of materials, in which the artist compiles real-world objects with objects created by her, avoiding chaos through the control of space and what it contains, achieving an order in something apparently chaotic and discontinuous.
