Images: Mauricio Esquivel and Natalia Dominguez in "Zona en Descarga", a performance directed by René Lovo.
Independent jurors Ana Tome, Daniel Soto Morúa and Pablo Ramírez selected Mauricio Esquivel's curatorial project “Mi casa no es su casa” and Natalia Dominguez's performance series "Tropical Damage" as winners of the 2018 Artist Project Grants.
Read about “Mi casa no es su casa” here.
Read about "Tropical Damage" here.
YES 2018 ARTIST ACADEMY
CURATORIAL SYMPOSIUM HIGHLIGHTS
AUGUST 10-12
From left: Claire Breukel (YES Contemporary), Joss Pinto (Manifesto Espacio), Nadie (Fea/ Adapte) and Pablo Ramirez (independent curator/ talk moderator). Photo by Raquel Urbina
Day 1:
YES Talk Unpacking Curatorial Practice at the Spanish Cultural Center, San Salvador Moderated by independent curator Pablo Ramirez with panelists Claire Breukel (YES Contemporary), Joss Pinto (Manifesto Espacio) and Nadie (Fea/ Adapte).
Day 2 + 3:
Symposium: What is Curatorial Practice? and Research Tools for Alternative Modes of Curating at the Impact Hub San Salvador. Presenters included Alejandro Cordova, Claire Breukel, Jorge Palomo, Joss Pinto, Patricio Majano and Simon Vega.
See the talk video and symposium presentations here.
Key questions emerged from the symposium, these included:
How do we define Curatorial Practice in El Salvador today when "formal" curatorial theory is disconnected from the practice?
How can we help to close the generation gap that exists between artists in El Salvador?
How do we create projects that bring together a segregated public?
YES ONLINE STUDIO VISIT
FREDY SOLANO (PÓKER) AND DANIEL SOTO MORÚA
Aug 3, 2018
On August 3, Salvadoran artist Fredy Solano (Póker), now based in Madrid Spain, spoke with Museum of Art + Design, Costa Rica Chief Curator Daniel Soto Morúa about his practice, and his latest light intervention project "Through a horizon without a body" commissioned by the Cultural Department of the City of Galicia, Spain. See more of Fredy Solano's intervention projects here.
YES THANKS ADRIANA CISNEROS DE GRIFFIN FOR HER BOOK DONATION TO THE YES CONTEMPORARY ART LIBRARY
AT IMPACT HUB SAN SALVADOR
SPECIAL FEATURE
21 PAIZ BIENNIAL, GUATEMALA
SIMÓN VEGA AT CENTRO CULTURAL MUNICIPAL Simón Vega presents his installation "Apollo-Soyuz-Chapultepec Project" as part of a group exhibition which also includes work by Alfredo Ceibal, Bryan Castro, Cildo Meireles, Ricardo Lanzarini, Xu Zhen, Hellen Ascoli and Jorge de León. "Apollo-Soyuz-Chapultepec Project" explores the 1975 peaceful meeting of a USSR and USA space craft in outer space, and features footage from the Miss Universe contest, which was hosted in El Salvador that year, interjected with footage of the unrest happening in El Salvador at that time.
Image: Simón Vega, "Apollo-Soyuz-Chapultepec Project", installation, 2018. Courtesy the artist.
CRACK RODRÍGUEZ AND JOSÉ DAVID HERRERA AT GALERÍA DEL CENTRO FUNDACIÓN G&T
Curated by Marlov Barrios, "Guatemala: Discrepancia de Facto" is an exhibition featuring work by Salvadoran artists Crack Rodríguez and José David Herrera, along with work by Marcos Agudelo, Erick Boror, María Raquel Cochez, Luciano Goizueta, Jorge Linares, Jason Mena, Lucrecia Muñoz, Arturo Solís and Ale Souto.
Image: Crack Rodríguez, "Teorema de la desubicación", performance, 2013. Courtesy the artist.
ALEXIA MIRANDA AT LIVINGSTON, IZABAL, GUATEMALA
For her project “Plataforma flotante para anidar los sueños” Alexia Miranda directed a five day workshop at the Beluba Luba Furendei Library in Livingston, Guatemala. The workshop invited the community to build a bamboo raft. The children who participated were invited to draw their dreams on paper and attach them to the raft, which was later launched during a performance by the artist.
Image: Alexia Miranda. “Plataforma flotante para anidar los sueños”. Workshop and performance. 2018. Courtesy the artist.
GABRIELA NOVOA AT LANTANAZO Gabriela Novoa presented the solo project "Tu piel desintegrándose en mis labios" (Your skin disintegrates in my lips), at Lantanazo in Guatemala City. Novoa's draws images derived from sexual experiences and found imagery on to traditional Salvadoran sweets and invites the viewer to consume them.
Image: Gabriela Novoa, drawing on empiñada (traditional Salvadoran sweet), 2018. Courtesy the artist.
ABIGAIL REYES AND WALTERIO IRAHETA AT POPOROPO Salvadoran artists Abigail Reyes and Walterio Iraheta present "Léxico" at Poporopo. The exhibition explores text, and features Reyes's black text "intervention" murals along with Iraheta's "super" series of drawings and photography. The exhibition is on view until September 1, 2018.
Image: Abigail Reyes, mural painting, 2018. Courtesy the artist.
JOSÉ DAVID HERRERA AND GABRIELA NOVOA AT MANIFESTO-ESPACIO, GUATEMALA
Salvadoran artist Gabriela Novoa and José David Herrera participated in the group video exhibition "Después de mí, el sueño", which featured artists from Guatemala, Mexico and El Salvador. This one day exhibition was presented on August 14 at MANIFESTO-espacio.
Image: José David Herrera, "Tardenoche", short film, 2014. Courtesy the artist.
INTERNATIONAL
BEATRIZ CORTEZ IN "SALVADORAN ART & ACTIVISM IN LA: 1980's - PRESENT"
“Salvadoran art and activism in LA: 1980’s – present”, a conversation about the Salvadoran community in LA, took place at August 11, 2018, at The Mistake Room in Los Angeles, within the context of the exhibition “My Veins Do Not End In Me”. Panelists included Madeline Janis, former executive director of the Central American Resource Center (CARECEN); Beatriz Cortez, Salvadoran artist and scholar of postwar Central American literature and culture; and Eddie Aparicio, one of the three artists in the exhibition.
Image: “My Veins Do Not End In Me”, installation, 2018. Juan Edgar Aparicio, Eddie Aparicio, Maria de la Paz Torres de Aparicio. Courtesy The Mistake Room.
LUISA FUENTES GUAZA WRITES ABOUT MORAZAN, EL SALVADOR
Curator, researcher and YES Art Trip guest Luisa Fuentes Guaza wrote the article “Morazán o cómo ahondar en un lugar como estrategia de regeneración tras los Acuerdos de Paz (1992)" for the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros online magazine. The article describes Morazán, a region greatly affected by Salvadoran Civil War and which is now relatively peaceful, as well as the work of artists such as The Fire Theory and Óscar Moisés Díaz, that explore ideas pertinent to the region both then and now.
Read the complete article here.
Image: Óscar Moisés Díaz. "Mal de amores (Mercedes)", 2015. Performance and installation.
CRACK RODRÍGUEZ AT GUEST SPEAKER AT FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERISTY IN LEAD UP TO THE SHOW "BLACK MIRROR"
Salvadoran artist Crack Rodríguez will be a guest speaker at the Noontime Artist Talk series at Florida Atlantic University. Rodriguez will share his action work, as part of an event series in lead up to the exhibition "Black Mirror" which opens on February 14, 2019. The exhibition, curated by Claire Breukel with work from the Mario Cader-Frech Collection, presents work by contemporary Salvadoran artists, including Rodríguez. The talk will take place at VA Room 105 at the Florida Atlantic University on Friday August 31, 12pm.
Image: Crack Rodríguez, “Volkswagen Neutropolitan Attack”, 2012. Courtesy the artist.
SUPPORT ISABEL, A FILM BY KENIA GUILLEN
New York-based Salvadoran film director Kenia Guillen calls for support for her short film "Isabel." Isabel is a young and curious girl, who recently migrated from El Salvador to Westbury, a town in Long Island. She represents the resilience and beauty of migrant youth. For the director, Isabel embodies the personal and collective memory of migration.
MELISSA GUEVARA AND LUCY TOMASINO AT THE MUSEUM OF ART OF EL SALVADOR
Salvadoran artists Melissa Guevara and Lucy Tomasino present the exhibition “Díada”, as part of MARTE Contemporáneo program at the Museum of Art of El Salvador (MARTE). The exhibition features solo exhibitions by each artist, and will be open until September 16, 2018. See more of Melissa Guevara here
See more of Lucy Tomasino here
Image: Melissa Guevara. "Bicefalia" first test, 2018. Video.
VLADIMIR RENDEROS AT LUIS POMA THEATER
Vladimir Renderos presents the solo exhibition “Antipersona” in the lobby of the Luis Poma Theater. The exhibition includes drawings, paintings and installations which explore the artist's interest in graffiti, street art, as well as symbols from war, violence as well as popular culture. See more of Vladimir Renderos here
Image: Vladimir Renderos. "Nuestras incertidumbres", 2017, Photograph. Courtesy the srtist.
FEATURED EXHIBITION REVIEW Wounds of War
By Jeremiah Francis
The El Salvadoran Civil War began on October 15, 1979 when the El Salvadoran army killed individuals who were protesting the country’s impending coup. Over the next 12 years and three months, the nation would see the deaths of more than 75,000 residents and the emigration of more than 1.5 million people.
The existing government received generous financial backing by the US because the El Salvadoran rebels were being supported by the communist Soviet Union, thus making the conflict into a proxy for the Cold War between the US and the USSR. Although the civil war in El Salvador ended more than 25 years ago, its effects are still in place today. Over 250,000 Salvadorans call Los Angeles their home, which has led to the immense diffusion of El Salvadoran culture into mainstream LA. The reverse is also true as the gang MS-13, which was founded in LA, has migrated back to El Salvador with a vengeance. The exhibit The Wounds of Warat Avenue 50 Gallery provides insight into the effects of the war from the perspective of Los Angeles-based artists of Salvadoran descent.
Images: Josh Vasquez "Cultural Currency (Served on a Platter)" and below Elmer Guevara, "The Wrong Way". Courtesy the artists.
YES MEET THE ARTIST By Patricio Majano
Lucy Tomasino
Lucy Tomasino is a multidisciplinary artist from El Salvador. Her practice originated from photography and later developed to a variety of mediums. In the piece “Subjuntivos”, Tomasino utilizes part of a saxophone that belonged to her father, and which he destroyed.
Audio recordings from Narcotics Anonymous
meetings in El Salvador, digitally transformed to musical notes so that they are unrecognizable,
play from the instrument. Representing a process of catharsis and healing through an instrument that was once destroyed and now reconstructed to produce sounds.
In the piece “Síntoma”, Tomasino presents a lightbox activated by the spectator’s action of breathing into it. The artist addresses breathing as a manifestation of life, as the piece only exist with this action. The title alludes to suffering and pain, while it presents the human being as a medium of relief.
Images: Lucy Tomasino. “Subjuntivos” (subjunctive). Saxophone, speaker. 2016. Photo by Caroline Lacey.
Lucy Tomasino. “Síntoma” (Symptom). Lightbox activated by breathing. 2018. Photo by Andrea Gómez.
Patricio Majano (1992) is a Salvadoran art professional, who graduated from the Art School at the University of El Salvador. His artwork focuses on the Salvadoran environment and society, and has been exhibited in El Salvador, USA, Guatemala and Spain.
Y.ES is an initiative of the Robert S. Wennett and Mario Cader-Frech Foundation
