Interstices

Drawing from the scope of Colección Jumex–one of the most important holding of contemporary art in Latin America– the exhibition presented works by 20 artists that deal directly or obliquely with the precarious conditions of life in an economically motivated and mediated globalized world.

The exhibition highlighted art from a variety of media that emphasizes social issues framed within the embracing concept of interstices, namely the spaces between disciplines, practices, and cultural phenomena; the fluid gaps where these intervene in each other, and pause only to dynamically interact once more.

Informed by current anthropological issues involving cultural identity, both in terms of displacement and belongingness, the exhibition addressed the sites where nature and technology intersect; the zones where urbanism and depopulation overlap; and, the temporal intervals and spatial crevices within which the dynamics of multiculturalism and exclusion play off one another.

The flux of issues and perspectives articulated in the exhibition expressed an intergenerational character ranging from such established figures as Fischli & Weiss, Mike Kelley and Jeff Wall; to mid-career artists such as Doug Aitken, Francis Alys, Mark Dion, Gabriel Orozco, Ugo Rondinone and Rirkrit Tiravanija on to such emerging talent as Gardar Eide Einarsson.

The artists–many of whom live and work full or part-time in Mexico such as Miguel Calderón, Minerva Cuevas, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Jose Dávila, ‘Moris’ Israel Meza Moreno and Santiago Sierra–presented without romanticism a contemporary dystopia that yearns for understanding.

Varying in formal approaches, the themes are articulated succinctly; evoking a sense of the poetics of daily life, at times with a bittersweet sense of humor, other times as a registrar of power. Much is left to the viewer, concentrated yet open to multiple interpretations; interstices by definition operate as fissures and openings, making breaks between objects and ideas, creating intervals in the manner in which things and understanding are set, pauses for critical reflection.

Thematically and in its curatorial approach, Interstices upheld an interdisciplinary methodology to artistic production, and suggested a contextual reading to art dealing with broader issues that are nonetheless formally and conceptually grounded.

Curated by Edelbert Köb (mumok) and Victor Zamudio-Taylor (Fundación/Colección Jumex)