The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) in New York has launched a whopping group exhibition exploring the field of Latin American design, showcasing the work of more than 75 artists, artisans and collectives from the increasingly influential region. New Territories: Laboratories for Design, Craft and Art in Latin America takes the year 2000 as a starting point, focusing on the innovative creative output of a number of key cities since then. “New Territories” is a phrase coined by Gaetano Pesce that refers to making in a globalised society, with increasingly blurred boundaries between art, design and craft.
The exhibition has been organised into six main sections, with each one looking at a particular city and a specific practice that is prevalent there. We start off in Venezuela, looking at how artists in Caracas are incorporating their culture’s aesthetic legacies into contemporary work, such as through the use of geometric patterns. Moving to Brazil, the exhibition focuses on repurposing and upcycling, especially in the cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The cities’ social problems are reflected in the work of Design de Gema; the studio has riddled a pair of commonplace plastic chairs from a streetside café with stainless steel eyelets in a powerful commentary on gun violence. That theme recurs throughout the exhibition, notably in the work of Mexican artist Pedro Reyes who strives to take something beautiful from the mayhem, dismantling weapons and rebuilding them as musical instruments including his Guitarra from 2013.
The Empty Plaza/ La Plaza Vacia, 2012
Coco Fusco
Single channel video
Courtesy of the artist and Alexander Gray Associates, New York
Guitarra, 2013
Pedro Reyes
Instrument made from destroyed weapons
Courtesy of the Tiroche DeLeon Collection and Art Vantage PCC Limited
Cultivating Collectivity and Experimentation centres on the Chilean capital Santiago and Buenos Aires, Argentina. Angello García Bassi plays with popular toy imagery as a vehicle for design with his Japanese-inspired Cutoboy, while gt2P are fusing traditional craftsmanship with cutting edge technologies. The drive to continue Developing New Markets for local design is under consideration in places such as San Salvador (El Salvador) and San Juan (Puerto Rico), and in the Navigating Personal and Civic Space section, the issue of reclaiming public areas and personal integrity is investigated in the context of an ever-changing political climate.
Cuban photographer Ernesto Oroza’s Architecture of Necessity series highlights the common practice of retrofitting buildings with makeshift systems to meet the occupants needs, and Peruvian clothes designer Lucia Cuba explores the notion of gender and individuality with her digitally printed canvas dresses in Artículo 6. Moving Craft into the Future through Collaborations with Artists and Designers rounds off the topics under discussion.
The event is up and running at MAD and will continue until 6 April 2015.
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Cubotoy, 2013
Angello García Bassi
Paper (Bond 90 grams)
Courtesy of the artist
Photo by Angello García Bassi
Abdelin, El Valle, 2012 from the series Priti Baiks
José Castrellón
Archival pigment print
Courtesy of the artist
Artículo 6, from the series Artículo 6:
Narratives of gender, strength and politics, 2012-2014
Lucia Cuba
Cotton canvas, thread, digital printing, hand & machine sewing
Courtesy of the artist
Peru
Photo: Erasmo Wong Seoane
Informed consent/Meta-pieza, 2012-2014 part of the series Artículo 6:
Narratives of gender, strength and politics
Lucia Cuba
Cotton canvas, transparent thread, digital printing, machine sewing
Courtesy of the artist
Alamar, from the series Architecture of Necessity, 2005
Ernesto Oroza
Chromogenic Photographic C Print
Courtesy of the artist
Cuba
Totem after Ettore Sottsas, 2013
Edgar Orlaineta
Steel, mirror, glass, turned wood
Courtesy of the artist and Steve Turner Contemporary, Los Angeles
Mask II (DCW) After Charles Eames, 2013
Edgar Orlaineta
Steel, brass, bent walnut plywood, turned wood, wood veneer, rive rocks,
rubber, cambaya fabric, natural wax, acrylic paint, lacquer, hardware
Courtesy of the artist and Steve Turner Contemporary, Los Angeles
Cactus Light (2012)
Studio Swine
Pine offcuts, bottle bulbs, LED light, brass fittings, fabric cable
Courtesy of Coletivo Amor de Madre
UK
Photo by Studio Swine
Hammock, 2013
Rodrigo Almeida
Hand-made cotton fabric, perforated leather (bovine)
Courtesy of the artist
Murano, from the Prostheses Innesti series, 2012
Studio MK27, Marcio Kogan, Manuela Verga, and Paolo Boatti
Reclaimed wood (fir), Murano blown glass, gold
Courtesy of Marcio Kogan, Manuela Verga and Paolo Boatti
