Regina José Galindo: The Body of Others at Modern Art Oxford on artrepublic.com
Exhibition running from Jan 31 2009
until Mar 29 2009
Modern Art Oxford’s major spring exhibition will be the first in the UK to showcase performances and actions by Guatemalan artist, Regina José Galindo. The artist has produced a vast body of work over the past decade. The Body of Others will survey highlights from this period, including a newly commissioned action piece – a staged event involving members of the public. Galindo’s films, performances and poetry are responses to her native Latin America, a place presented as contradictory and complex; at once tragic and tender, and at times brutal. Galindo uses her body to express visual metaphors of the Guatemalan condition, and wider imbalances of authority: be it the carnage of civil war, endemic sexism and violence towards women, or Central America’s relationship with the US. Though she positions herself as artist rather than activist, the Internet plays an important part in Galindo’s work. Extracts of performances are posted on video sharing websites where they become stimuli for political commentary and raise awareness of the particular context in which she is working. Galindo achieved wide recognition when she won the Golden Lion Award at the 2005 Venice Biennale for videoed performance, ¿Quien puede borrar las huellas? (Who can erase the traces?), 2003. The work documents the artist’s walk from Guatemala City’s Constitutional Court to the National Palace, leaving a trail of bloody footprints. The work is a response to General Rios Montt’s 2003 presidential campaign, and commemorates the victims of the former dictator’s violent regime. As well as using her own body, Galindo increasingly involves the public as material and subject to reflect culturally specific codes and histories. A recent performance in Cordoba, Argentina, Reconocimiento de un cuerpo (Identification of a corpse), 2008, alludes to the country’s history of ‘the disappeared’. The performance sees Galindo lying deathly still on a morgue gurney, covered only in a white sheet as members of the public approach and tentatively lift the cloth. As Galindo explains, the response of the audience exposes a ritual that unites and defines a culture: “In Latin America people know exactly what they have to do when they see a covered body”. Suzanne Cotter, Acting Director of the Modern Art Oxford said: “Regina José Galindo’s exhibition continues Modern Art Oxford’s commitment to presenting artists working internationally, sometimes in challenging cultural and political contexts. We are excited to be bringing her powerful and poetic art to a broader audience here in the UK.” OPENING HOURS: Tue - Sat: 10.00 - 17.00, Sun: 12.00 - 17.00 Image Credits: Image 1: ¿Quien puede borrar las huellas? (2003, Guatemala)Foto: © Victor Perez, Courtesy the artist and prometeogallery di Ida Pisani Image 2: Regina Jose Galindo, Reconocimiento de un cuerpo (2008, Argentina) Photo: David Perez  |
