Alexander Apostol - Tropical Modernity

MUSAC, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, presents, as part of its 5th anniversary programme, the first monographic publication about the work of the Venezuelan artist Alexander Apóstol. Under the title ALEXANDER APÓSTOL. Tropical Modernity, this monograph launches the publishing series Doble A, which the MUSAC will be devoting to art and architecture. To introduce this first publication of the series, Apóstol will present a site-specific installation for the Showcase Project that will be on view as of June 26th. This project arises within the context of the show Model Kits. Thinking Latin America from the MUSAC Collection, which comprises a series of exhibitions, seminars, forums and activities to be held from June to December 2010, entirely devoted to the American continent.

About the publication and the Showcase Project The current book project aims to cover the body of work of the Venezuelan artist Alexander Apóstol, who has developed a research project on the repercussions of Latin American modernism in the contemporary city. Through his photography and video work, which he has been producing since the 90s, he seeks to demonstrate the failure of this model. MUSAC presents a bilingual (English/Spanish) retrospective monograph published by María Inés Rodrígez, Chief Conservator of MUSAC.

The book will be a profusely illustrated catalogue raisonné accompanied by three critical texts by Cuauhtémoc Medina (Mexico. Art critic), Julieta González (Venezuela. Associate Curator of Latin American Art at the Tate Modern of London) and Juan Herreros (Spain. Architect. Professor at Princeton and Columbia universities. He is currently building the Munch Museum in Oslo.)

The installation for the MUSAC’s Showcase Project is generated from this publication, conceived by Apóstol as a visual aid for it. In the artist’s own words: “The function of a showcase is to exhibit art objects, natural products or commercial items with security and without damage.” Thus, the project for the MUSAC Showcases will consist in exhibiting the image of the sliding doors of the house that Gio Ponti designed in Caracas in 1957, translating into colours his idea about the dynamic and effervescent elements in tropical modernity. In Apóstol’s words: “This concept shows itself to be altered and distorted in Venezuela 60 years on, where the economy that allowed that growth was not accompanied by social maturity. The tension of gaining access, behind an impermeable showcase, to a space of doors that do not open, is the impossibility of existing from that very modernity, where needs and frustration become one and the same word, yet the generous tropical orchids still remain.”

About Alexander Apóstol As a multi-disciplinary artist he has developed his work in different media, with which he has explored themes such as memory, the body and identity. His most recent proposals incorporate the urban environment and popular iconography for the conceptual investigation of the politically pre-established archetypes of gender. Apóstol uses irony and humour to question the human condition in contemporary society. He has had solo shows in spaces such as LACE of Los Angeles (2006), the DRCLAS of Harvard University (2007) and the Project Room of Distrito Cuatro gallery at ARCO 08, Madrid (2008), in addition to participating in different international biennials such as the 25th Sao Paulo Biennial (2002) and the 8th Istanbul Biennial (2003). His work has been acquired by collections such as that of the Tate Gallery of London, the Daros – Latin America collection of Zurich and El Museo del Barrio of New York, in addition to that of the MUSAC, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León.

Alexander Apostol
Tropical Modernity
Kurator: Maria Ines Rodriguez