In twelve video stations, the exhibition Chronicles: resonances transports us to various places, like a coach. You have the option of getting off at each stop, staying there or continuing on the way. The proposed journey within the walls of the SBC center stops in the streets of large cities, among the ruins of others, as well as in the heart of nature. However, the journey is not one of pleasure.
Chronicles: resonances – Where Crónicas: resonance in Spanish, so much the course takes root in Latin America — speaks of feminicide, enforced disappearance, racism, exclusion. The eighteen artists in this exhibition run by Ex Teresa Arte Actual, a dissemination and documentation center located in Mexico City, do not play into sensationalism. The overall statement, a sort of call for collective resistance, resonates “the processes of denunciation and resilience around realities that are beyond us and constantly afflict us”.
“One of the initial ideas, comments Melisa Lio, one of the four heads behind the exhibition, was to show that from an individual reality resonates a broader, more social context. [qu’intime]. From the body of the artist, from his awareness, there is expansion. »
“Each work speaks of a specific case. From there, the chronicle: an example of a larger thing, a small grain that evokes the entirety of a context”, summarizes his colleague Maribel Escobar.
Ex Teresa Arte Actual, which has occupied a former 17th century convent since the 1990sand century of Mexico, has politics running through its veins. Practices of performance, sound art or art in situ have given it this non-conformist, even anti-establishment character, which is felt in what is presented in Montreal.
Joined by videoconference, the two curators recognize it: “Ex Teresa”, formerly a regular partner of the Place, center of art of Quebec, always exploited “the rich historical context” of its surroundings. Against the tide, criticism of the Catholic tradition, in favor of narrative deconstruction, giving support to alternative voices… From its entrails have emerged artists of great renown today, such as Teresa Margolles, whom the Musée d’art Montreal Contemporary celebrated in 2017.
“We are located behind the Palacio Nacional [siège du gouvernement]. Yes, I believe that social criticism has always been present, says Maribel Escobar. Many performances took place in this epicenter that is the Zocalo, known for its political rallies. The works mingle there, dialogue with the demonstrations and with the political life of the country. »
Among the subjects of the exhibition are the case of the 43 students who disappeared in 2014 in the state of Guerrero and the high rate of homicides perpetrated in the public space. If the commissioners did not limit themselves to the Mexican reality, it is because Ex Teresa often resonated beyond the borders.
Bringing down the dominant discourses
The video that opens the course, El gran retorno (2019), by Regina José Galindo, was filmed in the historic district of Ciudad de Guatemala, similar to that of Mexico City. In this work, whose title evokes a return, literally, a retreat, even a reversal, a military band marches backwards. The metaphor is eloquent: the world (of power) is regressing and dragging communities down with it.
Like this first stop, the others bring together bodies performing, often in the street, and involve, if not the gaze of spectators, their words, their hands and their legs… Obviously, each of the video recordings invites you to take action, beyond the screens.
The viewing stations sometimes consist of small monitors, sometimes of large screens, which gives breath and variety to the visitor experience. The program brings together 18 videos of varying length (3 minutes for the shortest, 13 minutes for the longest), grouped by sub-theme.
The controversial nature of monuments and heritage is the target of three artists in particular. In the bold Goodbye Joseph Gallieni (2021), Iván Argote fantasizes the removal of a controversial statue erected in Paris — Gallieni was a craftsman in the colonization of Africa. It is so realistic that one wonders how this spectacular event did not have a snowball effect.
“A camera doesn’t just document,” says Maribel Escobar. Fiction allows, as with Iván Argote, to question the documentation. »
On the subject of gender disparity, a very funny music video tackles the machismo of art history. The INVASORIX collective appropriates famous group portraits, replacing each man with a crudely disguised woman.
The tone is darker, and sober, elsewhere. On the theme of orality, a sort of critique of official history, Joaquín Segura offers a three-screen work that explores a ghost town in Nicaragua, a symbol of Marxist failure. The narrative thread, deliberately complex (or barely audible), nevertheless speaks of the pride of being a Sandinista.
In the small hall, the program is tougher, although it is a healing process, like Roberto de la Torre’s performance in Toronto. In A cielo abierto… (2014-2016) — another ambiguous title — the Mexican artist mimes the search for the 43 missing students. In #nonosvamosacallar25N(2020, “We will not be silent”), Christine Brault brings together, through interposed screens, a multitude of women who demand more justice for women. From her living room, Lorena Orozco points out, on a large map of Mexico City, the places where under-the-radar cases of gender violence have taken place. His video Encontrado cuerpo de mujer (“Woman’s Body Found”), like two other related works, shows this terrible paradox: a singular and intimate thing like death becomes a collective and public fact, almost banal.
On the Radar | “Post-invisibles”, already?