Mexico meets Berlin

Iván Abreu

Marisa Polin

Heriberto Quesnel

Mexiko trifft Berlin
A group exhibition of five Mexican artists at EMERSON Gallery in Berlin: 

Iván Abreu, Vanessa Farfán, Lucero Hernández, Marisa Polin, Heriberto Quesnel.

Opening:  22.07.11   7pm
Exhibition:  23.07.2011 - 04. 09.2011
Tuesday -Friday  2 -7 pm.

-Iván Abreu (La Habana Cuba 1967). Video, drawings, performance.
Iván Abreu's work articulates art, design and technology by using multiple media such as electronic devices, software development, sound experimentation, Internet, industrial design, documents, video and photography. For Abreu the use of technology as an artistic strategy allows the coupling of situations that were not designed to operate together to create singular effects. Technology activates these unions in art that in referencing social and political, transforms relations from cause and effect to cause and consequence.
-Vanessa Farfán (Mexico City 1977). Painting, installation.
Using different media as paint, threats, fabric and objects, her works show the result of situations created by intention or by accident. Structured spaces are transgressed by the movement of the elements which live in there. For Farfán, the relation space+time=movement is an important formula in her work.
-Lucero Hernández (Jalisco, México 1980). Installation, performance.
The women's murders in Ciudad Juárez, the role of the women in the Mexican society and the cultural shock are the topics of Lucero's work. In her performances, Hernández takes part of the Mexican everyday life and she places it out of context,making the meaning of this "Mexican situations" stronger.
-Marisa Polin (Mexico City 1965). Painting.
Images from newspapers and publications are reinterpreted in paintings. The work of Polin makes a synthesis of the weak and strong points of contemporary Mexico, always with a critical point of view.
-Heriberto Quesnel (Mexico City 1971). Painting, collage.
Critic of the social behavior through the cultures , Heriberto uses humor to point out the terrifying situations
of the political and social structures nowadays. He uses commercial, social, cultural or political icons to play around the context and the meaning of them.

EMERSON Gallery 
Gartenstr. 1, 10115 Berlin / (030) 24 04 72 95 /
info@emersongallery.de  / http://www.emerson-gallery.de/
Tue-Fr   2 - 7 pm

 

Do you want to see my working studio? Trendbeheer.

From South Africa with Love

Photographs recently taken at Port Elizabeth and Cape Town, South Africa 2011. The last two are at Mzoli's, one of the nicest places I visited.

©Marisa Polin

A sea of seeds

Ai Wei Wei's infinite sea of porcelain sun seeds at the Tate Modern in London. 

 

They look very much like the real seeds but they were all made and painted by hand in China in one town where all of a sudden every body had this temporary job.  As you know we are not allowed to walk on them as it was first possible, but now we can't even touch the work and there is a person checking you don't get nearer than a meter. Well, what can I say, at least I could take pictures of the seemingly dirty seeds.

The most interesting part of this work is possibly the metaphor on China, its inhabitants, the way of working, the "made in China" concept. It amazes to know there are so many millions of seed reproductions, one by one they are imitating nature, and probably a seed that we had never paid that much attention before. The total work is not an extremely beautiful work, it is just a sea of seeds.

Nelson's ship

Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle by Yinka Shonibare. A huge 'poetic' translation for the 4th plinth on Trafalgar Square.

Absurd. On this photograph also on Trafalgar Square, 8 photographers excluding me, taking a snap of two pigeons as if they were film stars. They were not a group but rather one person started attracting the other photographer ans so on.

We are next at Tupajumi

Finally showing the non Dutch born artistis on the third day of the 'Dutch Treat' exhibition organized by Tupajumi Foundation in Bergen, Norway. 
 To see all the photos.

 

At the Sultan's Harem

Topkapi, Istanbul.

Ataturk Now

Istanbul 2010 © Marisa Polin

On Scarfs

Istanbul 2010 © Marisa Polin
The Dutch moslim fashion.

Olmec Heads on a rainy day

On my only visit to San Andres Tuxtla (known as part of Los Tuxtlas) in Veracruz, Mexico there was so much rain that there was little to see of the typical relaxed atmosphere I was told it had.

Luckily the largest Olmec head ever found is there in the middle of the main square to be seen by everyone. So obvious that when I asked on the adjacent streets where was the Olmec head, they didn't know the answer right away.
This huge head, the only one with eyes opened, is not the most beautiful one but it amazes to think how did the Olmecs a couple of thousand years ago were able to sculpt it and transport it .

The Museo Regional Tuxteco on one of the sides of the square is a very small one, showing very few prehispanic objects, but they have also one of the only 17 found stone Olmec heads.

The heads are drawn on the same scale. Right under is the one at the square.

The original Shell logo by Olmec.

Even though it has been glued from many parts it is a very impressive big pot even for now days.

At this warm and rainy place glass windows are not necessary and you save on air conditioning. This is probably the reason why they can't have more objects at the museum.

The street vendors just outside the museum.

The river cutting the town.

Anything can become a ruin within short time at this ultra wet weather.