The Prince Claus Fund is happy to announce that the project "Frontera", which the Fund supported in its past edition, has won the 2008 First Prize of the Best Art Practices Award by the Italian Government, via the Bolzano Province.
This is an important international award whose jury included the contemporary art curator Carlos Basualdo, among others, and which promoted artistic interventions in unconventional places.
On words of the jury, the project merited the first prize on the basis of what they appreciated as "the social importance; the ability to involve the tradition and the local population in the creation and fruition of the works presented; the innovatory character aimed at overcoming public art practices typical of the 90s; the topic and more precisely the research into the frontier question in an area of scarce media attention; the unusual ability to develop feelings of freedom, fantasy and poetry."
The project ‘Frontera, A rehearsal for the creation of a future society' was initiated by ‘Laboratorio Curatorial 060’ which is an interdisciplinary collective looking to question the ideas that both define and contain contemporary artistic practice. Its members came together to create fissures of concrete formulas, to purge the indifference of the closed monologue and to propose alternative ways of thinking around and about curatorial practices beyond the politically correct. They are interested in borders: the borders between disciplines, curators, artists and public, the borders between what is and what is yet to come.
Having curated shows in many prestigious art institutions in Mexico, they have decided to leave the safety of the institutional space behind and explore future possibilities of the cultural sphere.
The project, ‘Frontera, A rehearsal for the creation of a future society' took place at Frontera Colozal, Chiapas, a relatively unknown settlement located in the Southern border between Mexico and Guatemala. ‘Frontera’ literally means “border”, so it was chosen symbolically for its name and geographical position. A hard, unpretentious site, far away from any center or even periphery related to the contemporary discourse.
The show was aimed to develop more as a curatorial happening than as a standard exhibition, thus providing the ground for joint experimentation. They were looking for ways to incorporate imminent and unavoidable topics – indigenous people, the Zapatists, the mystification of ancient Maya cultures, the Choles – in the curatorial discourse in creative and rather unsuspected ways.
As one of the main features in the program they organised with the Centro Cultural España, based in Mexico City, a series of conferences with theorists and artists from Europe, Mexico, USA and Central America. The main goal of these was to discuss the possibilities of technology, the narratives of science fiction and the role of contemporary art in thinking alternate futures in which to display different social orders.
Frontera project
Frontera project
René Hayashi, Eder Castillo, Antonio O'Connell
guatemex, 2006
Installation view
Among others: Francis Alys (Belgium/Mexico), Néstor Batres (Mex), Carlos Bunga (Portugal), Miguel Calderón (Mex), Gilberto Esparza (Mex), Alicia Framis (Spain), Sandra Gamarra (Peru/Spain), Ariel Guzik (Mex), Pablo Helguera (US/Mex), Jesús “Bubú” Negrón (Puerto Rico), Enrique Jezik (AR/Mex), Anibal López (GT), Miguel Ángel Madrigal (Mex), Ives Maes (Belg), Juan Andrés Milanés (Cuba), Roland Morán (GT), José Osorio (GT), Proyecto RGE (Mex), Beatriz Santiago (Puerto Rico), Mariana Rondón (Mex/Venezuela), Miguel Ventura (P.Rico/Mex), Tercerunquinto (Mex), Héctor Zamora (Mex)
http://lc060.org/frontera/
www.bestartpractices.it
www.e-flux.com
