Globos Sonda / Trial Balloons

A proposal produced by MUSAC and curated by Yuko Hasegawa (Artistic Director of the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa), Agustín Pérez Rubio (Chief Curator, MUSAC) and Octavio Zaya (independent curator, Co-Editor of ATLÁNTICA magazine and member of the Advisory Committee of the MUSAC Collection), along with Tania Pardo as Assistant Curator. Trial Balloons is an exhibition meant to explore the diverse and complex artistic trends currently engaging and concerning a selection of international art practitioners who have been working since the dawn of the current century. This group show, which comprises the work of 48 artists and other creators –including designers, architects, musicians and performers- will occupy all of MUSAC’s halls and exhibition spaces.

The show will be inaugurated on the 6th of May and it will close on the 10th of September. For the opening, MUSAC is publishing an exhibition guide including a brief note on each of the artists selected (list enclosed) and the conceptual framework in which the exhibition is presented. During the second week of July, the museum will present the catalogue of the show, which will include illustrations of all the installations of the works at MUSAC and the theoretical texts by the curators. The show’s logo has been designed by Vasava and the catalogue is a joint publication by ACTAR and MUSAC.

In the words of Agustín Pérez Rubio, Chief Curator of MUSAC and one of the three curators of this new exhibition, “Through this project, in addition to rejoicing after its first year since its inauguration and celebrating the good results obtained, which are even much better than originally expected, MUSAC aims to make a little more headway without losing sight of its original purpose, its idea of collection; in short, to embrace the museographic plan upon which it is sustained. Thus, embodying quite a venture, Trial Balloons tries to reflect in two directions: on the one hand focusing on the re-generation of the artistic event wherein the museum is the foremost protagonist, and on the other hand, probing our obsessions with everything that is emerging and innovative, the fleetingness and speed characteristic of contemporary society, and more specifically with regard to contemporary art. It is very impotant that the MUSAC as an insttution, endeavous to meet this sort of challenge bengtrue to the pesent, and demonstrating itself as a new museum model for the twenty-fst century. The project therefore goes a step further by making a self-reflection about the institution as creator of energies and communities within a sector such as art.”

The proposal stems from the very definition of trial balloons, non-manned balloons that automatically measure temperatures and winds and provide other environmental data at different altitudes, and from the social and political use of the term, which means to tentatively put forth an idea or anticipated plan to test public reaction. Considering what is inherent in the term and its shifting into other applications, and within the context of some important trends and practices developed over the course of the last five years in the contemporary art world, the curators strive to elaborate, according to Pérez Rubio, “a metaphor that forges paths, experiences sensations, individualises collectives, and once again considers those other realities lost after the years of documentary and verite art. The very atmosphere of the proect is that which joins these balloons, takng into account that perhapsthe obsession with the new and the conspicuousness of a still unknown present already weighing us down are very much alike which should rise and grasp these o other ideas, concepts and personalities emerging from the broad scenery of contemporary art”.

For Octavio Zaya, curator of the Shirin Neshat exhibition which MUSAC presented last autumn, and member of the museum’s acquisitions committee, “Trial Balloons is neither a homogeneous entity nor a consciously directed ‘movement’. It is instead a space a ‘condition’, a predicament where competing intentions and effects, diverse social and intellectual tendencies and lines of force converge and clash. Trial Balloons is an open poectand therefore unstable, contradictory, partial and going in several directions. There are no hierarchies no preferences because it flirts and weaves itself equally with the unquestionable, the unpredictable and with failure. Trial Balloons is a process of the potential, of the still possible; scenarios we can speculate with and structures that can be crossed out, changed, interchanged and reinterpreted. They are not fixed representations but spaces of spontaneous encounters and collaborations. Trial Balloons is a polyphony of this moment. This is not an efficient project but one full of complexities, accidents, and errors, and unresolved, doubtfuland undefined questions.

Within this context, in the confusing and unbalanced situation caused by the flood of information brought by mass media as well as the globalization that threatens to homogenize cultures, Yuko Hasegawa wonders, “How can one maintain the freedom of spiitand relate one’s self to the outer world?” “The artists in this exhibition” --answers the Artistic Director of the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art of Kanazawa, Japan herself-- will present us their simple solutions to these questions. Their sharp manner of observation on something usual, ordinary, and vernacular is beautifuly balanced with their unusual and extraordinary transformation through their outstanding manner of intervention o juxtaposition. That will not create a pre-established harmony, but instead, a richly transformed expression will be generated through the exposition of their naked sensibility tothe reality while taking nourishment from it. It can be called ‘the survival of sensibility.’”

LIST OF ARTISTS IN TRIAL BALLOONS

DINO ALVES 1967, Anadia-Aveiro, Portugal Lives and works in Lisbon, Portugal

AMID* architecture [cero9] Cristina Díaz Moreno + Efrén García Grinda 1971, Madrid, Spain + 1966, Madrid, Spain Lives and works in Madrid, Spain

JULIETA ARANDA 1975, Mexico DF, Mexico Lives and works in New York, EEUU

AVAF – Assume Vivid Astro Focus Born anytime between the 20th and the 21st century in various parts of the world Nomads

AVPD Aslak Vibæk + Peter Døssing 1974, Svendborg, Denmark + 1974, Juelsminde, Denmark Lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark

EELCO BRAND 1969, Rotterdam, The Netherlands Lives and works in Amsterdam, The Netherlands

TOBIAS BUCHE 1978, Berlin, Germany Lives and works in Berlin, Germany

DOUBLE STANDARDS/CHRIS REHBERGER 1970, Ruit a.d. Fildern, Germany Lives and works in Berlin, Germany

DR. HOFMANN 1971, León, Spain Lives and works in León, Spain and Madrid, Spain

SMADAR DREYFUS 1963, Tel Aviv, Israel Lives and works in London, UK y Tel Aviv, Israel

HADASSAH EMMERICH 1974, Heerlen, The Netherlands Lives and works in Maastricht, The Netherlands and London, UK

INAZIO ESCUDERO 1972, Bilbao, Spain Lives and works in Bilbao, Spain

HEBA FARID 1966, El Cairo, Egypt Lives and works in El Cairo, Egypt

LARA FAVARETTO 1973, Treviso, Italy Lives and works in Torino, Italy

GUNDA FÖRSTER 1967, Berlin, Germany Lives and works in Berlin, Germany

FUNKY PROJECTS 2000, www.funkyprojects.com Based in www.funkyprojects.com

RYAN GANDER 1976, Chester, UK Lives and works in London, UK

ERIK GÖNGRICH 1966, Kirchheimbolanden, Germany Lives and works in Berlin, Germany

JESPER JUST 1974, Copenhagen, Denmark Lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark

KING/DÍAZ DE LEÓN Jey King + Mario Díaz de León 1978, Cincinnati/OH, EEUU + 1979, St Paul/MN, EEUU Live and work in New York, EEUU

ELLEN KOOI 1962, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands Lives and works in Haarlem, The Netherlands

KYUPI KYUPI A Visual + Performance Unit formed by Yoshimasa Ishibashi (Director) + Mazuka Kimura (3D Artist) + Mami Wakeshima (Performer) + Koichi Emura (Graphic Designer, Drawing Artist) Founded in 1996, Kyoto, Japan Based in Kyoto, Japan

LANG/BAUMANN Sabina Lang + Daniel Baumann 1972, Bern, Switzerland + 1967, San Francisco/CA, EEUU Live and work in Burgdorf, Switzerland

TONICO LEMOS AUAD 1968, Belém, Brazil Lives and works in London, UK

PABLO LEÓN DE LA BARRA 1972, Mexico DF, Mexico Lives and works in London, UK

SHU-MIN LIN 1963, Taipei, Taiwan Lives and works in New York, EEUU and Taipei, Taiwan

JEN LIU 1976, Smithtown/NY, EEUU Lives and works in New York, EEUU

KATARINA LÖFSTRÖM 1970, Falum, Sweden Lives and works in Berlin, Germany and Estocolmo, Sweden

JUAN LÓPEZ 1979, Alto Mailaño/Cantabria, Spain Lives and works in Barcelona, Spain

MONA MARZOUK 1968, Alexandria, Egypt Lives and works in Alexandria, Egypt

TAKAGI MASAKATSU 1979, Kyoto, Japan Lives and works in Kyoto, Japón

ÁNGEL MASIP 1977, Alicante, Spain Lives and works in Bilbao, Spain

JOSEPHINE MECKSEPER 1964, Lilienthal, Germany Lives and works in New York, EEUU

SHAHRYAR NASHAT 1975, Teheran, Iran Lives and works in Paris, France

ALEXANDRA NAVRATIL 1978, Zurich, Suiza Lives and works in Barcelona, Spain and Zurich, Suiza

OLIGATEGA NUMERIC Artist community formed by Mateo Amaral + Maximiliano Bellmann + Alfio Demestre + Mariano Giraud + Leandro Tartaglia Founded in 1999, Buenos Aires, Argentina Based in Buenos Aires, Argentina

ANGEL NÚÑEZ POMBO 1969, Madrid, Spain Lives and works in Ponferrada/León, Spain

PSJM Pablo San José + Cynthia Viera 1969, Mieres/Asturias, Spain + 1973, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain Lives and works in Madrid, Spain

FERNANDO RENES 1970, Covarrubias/Burgos, Spain Lives and works in New York, EEUU

FRANCESC RUÍZ 1971, Barcelona, Spain Lives and works in Barcelona, Spain

MARKUS SCHINWALD 1973, Salzburg, Austria Lives and works in Vienna, Austria

STEVEN SHEARER 1968, New Westminster, Canadá Lives and works in Vancouver, Canadá

SUPERM (Slava Mogutin & Brian Kenny) Slava Mogutin + Brian Kenny 1974, Kemerovo/Siberia, Russia + 1982, Heidelburg, Germany Lives and works in New York, EEUU

KOUICHI TABATA 1979, Tochigi, Japan Lives and works in Tokyo, Japan

TOPACIO FRESH 1973, Rosario, Argentina Lives and works in Madrid, Spain

BANKS VIOLETTE 1973, Ithaca/NY, EEUU Lives and works in New York, EEUU

NADAV WEISSMAN 1969, Hifa, Israel Lives and works in Tel Aviv, Israel

TINTIN WULIA 1972, Bali, Indonesia Lives and works in Maribymong, Australia and Bali, Indonesia

Pressetext

Globos Sonda / Trial Balloons
Kuratoren: Yuko Hasegawa, Agustin Perez Rubio, Octavio Zaya

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