MODEL KITS

From 26 June 2010 to 9 January 2011, within its 5th Anniversary programme, the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León will be devoting its entire exhibition space to a major exhibition displaying most of the pieces by over 40 Latin American artists held in the MUSAC Collection. Under the title MODEL KITS. Thinking Latin America from the MUSAC Collection, the show curated by Agustín Pérez Rubio (MUSAC Director), María Inés Rodríguez (MUSAC Head Curator) and Octavio Zaya (MUSAC curator at large), invites viewers to trace their own course through contemporary Latin American art, over a layout designed by architect Andreas Angelidakis. In parallel, all activities scheduled at MUSAC between June 2010 and January 2011 will focus on Latin America, including new projects at Laboratorio 987 and the Showcases, artist workshops, publications, seminars, performances, concerts, etc.

MODEL KITS is the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León’s fourth major exhibition of its Collection works, after Emergencias (April – August 2005), Fusion (December 2005 – April 2006) and Existencias (September 2007 – January 2008). The show will also be the first chance to see many of the MUSAC Collection's latest acquisitions made between 2007 and 2010, all of which are included in the book MUSAC Collection Volume III, to be presented on 26 June.

MODEL KITS. Thinking Latin America from the MUSAC Collection draws its inspiration from 62/ A Model Kit, a novel published by Julio Cortázar in 1968, which stands as one of the most enduringly original and ambitions projects in Spanish-language literature. Translating it into a different period and discipline, the exhibition modestly attempts to apply the unique novel's vision in the way it rejects and subverts any single interpretation or conventional linear narrative of the works on display, challenging the viewer to establish her own parameters and directions, connections and relationships. MODEL KITS includes around 100 works by over 40 Latin American artists, produced since the late 1980s (under the MUSAC Collection's purchasing criteria), covering a broad range of media and languages, artistic strategies and significations, references, objects and situations, which jointly contribute to assembling varying narratives and permutations. From leading deceased artists who hold pride of place in Latin American Art History like Ana Mendieta, Leonilson or Maria Teresa Hincapié; to great masters such as Luis Camnitzer, Oscar Muñoz or Miguel Angel Rojas; the landmark 90s generation of Valeska Soares, Rosângela Renó, Jorge Macchi or Carlos Garaicoa; all the way to young artists who are making their mark on the current landscape, such as Mario García Torres, Julieta Aranda or Matías Duville, amongst others.

MODEL KITS challenges the viewer to take the part of an active and liberated reader who writes her own score, creating a new narrative. Under this perspective, the exhibition's varied elements can be combined and analyzed according to the concerns and references each viewer brings to bear. The exhibition does not therefore adhere to a central theme or nucleus around which to develop a privileged narrative. While it may be said that the works' diverse perspectives and languages reflect a critical perspective on society and its relationships with other contexts, the exhibition brings together discourses and approaches that are personal and philosophical, urban and political, literary and artistic, etc., to the point that they cover each and every one of the undercurrents defining contemporary art as it is made anywhere in the world, whether it be Paris, Tokyo, Ohio or Bogota. In this sense, the exhibition is projected as an infinite ars combinatoria, not limited to the featured artists' Latin American geographical and cultural sphere, but aspiring to establish varying and contrasting readings and conclusions, wavering patterns and ambiguous hints, unresolved questions and diverging paths, like a labyrinth with no exit.

Reality and fiction, surprise and mystery, humour and pain go hand in hand, setting a pace marked by a set of events in no specific order, defined alternatively by logic or by intuition; by action or by contemplation; by the material or the spiritual. In its diversity, the exhibition invites us to think of Latin America as a project in progress, laden with endless possibilities; a project with no constraints in space or time, multifaceted and open to different worlds; a project that expresses its artistic interest in what is shared and collective through 'singularity' as opposed to identity. A model kit waiting to be assembled.

On the book MUSAC Collection Volume III The Museum initiated its effort to establish a catalogue and graphic repertoire of all the works held in its Collection five years ago with Volume I. Volume II followed two years later, and now Volume III will mark the Museum's 5th anniversary.

The series, to be completed with a further two books in the next five years, aims to provide the general public with a tool to access the full range of works gradually added to the collection, particularly through its own exhibitions and projects.

Adhering to the format established in the first two books but with a radically different design, Volume III includes works by 64 international artists, all documented in photographs and backed by texts written by leading international critics.

List of artists featured in MODEL KITS. Thinking Latin America from the MUSAC Collection Carlos Amorales. Mexico, 1970. Lives and works in Mexico City Alexander Apóstol. Venezuela, 1969. Lives and works in Madrid Julieta Aranda. Mexico, 1975. Lives and works in Berlin (Germany) AVAF. Art collective founded in New York, 2001. Live and work in Berlin (Germany), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and New York (USA) Fernando Bryce. Peru, 1965. Lives and works in Berlin (Germany) Erick Beltrán. Mexico, 1974. Lives and works in Barcelona (Spain) Iñaki Bonillas. Mexico, 1981 Tania Bruguera. Cuba, 1968 François Bucher. Colombia, 1972. Lives and works in New York (USA) Luís Camnitzer. Germany, 1937. Lives and works in New York (USA) Raimond Chaves. Colombia, 1963 José Damasceno. Brazil 1968. Lives and works in Río de Janeiro Dr. Lakra. Mexico, 1972. Lives and works in Mexico City and Oaxaca (Mexico) Matías Duville. Argentina, 1974 Sandra Gamarra. Peru, 1972. Lives and works in Madrid (Spain) Carlos Garaicoa. Cuba, 1967. Lives and works in Madrid (Spain) Mario García Torres. Mexico, 1975 Diango Hernández. Cuba, 1970. Lives and works in Dusseldorf (Germany) Juan Fernando Herrán. Colombia, 1963 Federico Herrero. Costa Rica, 1978. Lives and works in San José (Costa Rica) María Teresa Hincapié. Colombia, 1956 – Colombia, 2008 Leonnilson. Brazil 1957-1993 Jorge Macchi. Argentina, 1963. Lives and works in Buenos Aires (Argentina) Gilda Mantilla. USA, 1967. Lives and works in Los Angeles Gilda Mantilla and Raimond Chaves Teresa Margolles. Mexico, 1963. Lives and works between Mexico and Spain Hernán Marina. Argentina, 1967 Ana Mendieta. Cuba 1948 – USA 1985 Mujeres Creando. Artist collective established in La Paz, Bolivia, 1992 Óscar Muñoz. Colombia, 1951. Lives and works in Cali Rivane Neuenschwander. Brazil, 1967 Damián Ortega. Mexico, 1967. Lives and works in Mexico City (Mexico) Álvaro Oyarzun. Chile, 1960 Nicolás París. Colombia, 1977. Lives and works in Bogotá Jorge Pineda. Dominican Republic, 1961. Lives and works between Santo Domingo and Madrid Caio Reisewitz. Brazil, 1967 Rosângela Renno. Brazil, 1962 Pedro Reyes. Mexico, 1972 Miguel Ángel Rojas. Colombia, 1946 Martín Sastre. Uruguay, 1976 Melanie Smith and Rafael Ortega. Melanie Smith. UK 1975. Rafael Ortega. Mexico 1965. Live and work in Mexico City (Mexico) Valeska Soares. Brazil, 1957. Lives and works in New York (USA) Javier Téllez. Venezuela, 1969. Lives and works in New York (USA) Meyer Abisman. Venezuela, 1960. Lives and works in Barcelona (Spain) Carla Zaccagnini. Argentina, 1973. Lives and works in Sao Paulo (Brazil)

MODEL KITS
Thinking Latin America from the MUSAC Collection
Kuratoren: Agustin Perez Rubio, Maria Ines Rodriguez, Octavio Zaya

Künstler: Carlos Amorales, Alexander Apostol, Julieta Aranda, assume vivid astro focus , Fernando Bryce, Erick Beltran, Inaki Bonillas, Tania Bruguera, Francois Bucher, Luis Camnitzer, Raimond Chaves, Jose Damasceno, Dr. Lakra , Matias Duville, Sandra Gamarra, Carlos Garaicoa, Mario Garcia Torres, Diango Hernandez, Juan Fernando Herran, Federico Herrero, Maria Teresa Hincapie, Leonilson , Jorge Macchi, Gilda Mantilla, Gilda Mantilla / Raimond Chaves, Teresa Margolles, Hernan Marina, Ana Mendieta, Mujeres Creando, Oscar Muñoz, Rivane Neuenschwander, Damian Ortega, Alvaro Oyarzun, Nicolas Paris, Jorge Pineda, Caio Reisewitz, Rosangela Renno, Pedro Reyes, Miguel Angel Rojas, Martin Sastre, Melanie Smith / Rafael Ortega, Valeska Soares, Javier Téllez, Meyer Vaisman, Carla Zaccagnini