Presencia activa, a coproduction of LABoral and MARCO, opens in Vigo this Thursday
Following its stay at the Centre in Vigo, the exhibition will be shown at the Centre of Art and Industrial Creation in Gijón between 5th October 2012 and 13th March 2013
Thom Kubli. 'Record Attempt', 2011. Photo: Courtesy of the artist
Presencia active [Active Presence], a coproduction between LABoral and MARCO, Museo de Arte Contemporánea de Vigo, will be inaugurated this 9th February at MARCO, Museum of Contemporary Art in Vigo. The exhibition presents the work by a group of artists in the field of performance art and includes installations in which physical experience is the key element.
Curated by Sergio Edelsztein, Director of the Center for Contemporary Art, Tel-Aviv, and Kathleen Forde, Head Curator of EMPAC-Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, Troy, the show will be on exhibit at the Centre of Art and Industrial Creation in Gijón from 5th October until 12th March 2012.
Actions and installations as artistic disciplines are a mirror image of each other. In fact, both are based on the same principle of presence; of active presence. In performance art, the presence of the artist; in installation art, that of the spectator. In this way of being reflected in each other, installations and performances move in opposite and overlapping directions, creating an axis between two poles –the artist and the spectator–along which there are infinite possibilities of interaction. At one extreme, the spectator is turned into a participant, and at the other one, the physical presence of the artist can volatilize.
The works making up this exhibition, most of which are newly produced, are situated along this axis. At one end, you find theatrical-like proposals in which the spectator has a passive role; and at the other end, those in which the public gets totally involved; and in the middle, the different possibilities of relations between the two. With the exception of the pieces by John Bock and by La Ribot, the rest of the works are new productions specifically designed for this project.
Until September 2nd, works by Maja Bajevic, John Bock, Gary Hill, Thom Kubli, Mads Lynnerup, Alastair MacLennan, Sergio Prego, La Ribot, Carlos Rodríguez-Méndez and Sue-C+AGF can be viewed at MARCO, Museo de Arte Contemporánea de Vigo. During the first weekend, the participating artists will carry out different performances in the installations, the majority of which will be documented. The resulting material will become part of the installations on show in the exhibition rooms. The exhibition in Gijón will additionally include newly produced pieces by other artists.