Colección

RAFAEL LOZANO-HEMMER

REMOTE PULSE, 2019

Installation with heart rate sensor board.

Remote Pulse is an interactive installation consisting of two pulse-sensing stations that are interconnected over the Internet. When a person places their hands on one station automatically the persono in the other station feels their pulse, as the plates vibrate in sync with the heartbeath of the remote person, and viceversa. Two lights indicate the hearthbeat of both persons as well.

This piece was originally presented as part of Lozano-Hemmer’s Border Tuner installation across the US-Mexico border, with one station in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, and the other in El Paso, Texas. For the exhibition Latidos, the stations were interconnected between Arte Abierto, in Mexico City and the Museo Amparo of Puebla. Now both stations are located in the architectural complex of Artz Pedregal.

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RAFAEL LOZANO-HEMMER

(Mexico, 1967)

Interdisciplinary artist whose work has been focused in developing interactive installations that are at the intersection of architecture and performance. His main interest is to create platforms for public participation, usign technology as a language of our time, and as an inevitable yet questionable vehicle. He was the first artist to officially represent Mexico at the 52nd Venice Biennale. His work has been presented at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo in Mexico City, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA),among other spaces.

ERICK MEYENBERG

THINGS WE DO FOR LOVE, 2022

Ceramic sculpture

During a trip to Japan, Erick Meyenberg saw and filmed a chrysanthemum on a Tokyo cementery after falling because of a typhoon. The scence reverberated in the artista due to a personal momento he was going through that made everything around him look fragmented. Thus, from the Japanese philosophy and technique of Kintsugi, which consist of repairing broken ceramics, highlighting the joints to underline their value and beauty despite their fractures, he had the ide of making a sculpture of the dismembered petals of that flower –considered the imperial emblem of Japon–. Meyenberg then thought that the sculpture had to rise from the ground just as Aphrodite rose from the waters; its forms recover the strenght and movement ow water, while its color reflects the love and eroticism embodied by Aphrodite. The Kintsugi metaphor invite to reconize the beauty that exits even in the fragments or breaks that are part of life.

This work represents the first time that Meyenberg works with ceramics. It was conceived specifically for his video-installations Things We Do for Love, commissioned by Arte Abierto, and was produced at Cerámica Suro workshop in Guadalajara.

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ERICK MEYENBERG

(Mexico, 1980)

Interdisciplinary visual artist who sees painting as a fundamental element of expression, although he also explores other media such as sound installation, drawing, collage, video and performance. In his work, he shows a special interest in literature, history, social sciences, and natural sciences. His work has been exhibited in spaces such as Laboratorio Arte Alameda, Museo Tamayo, inSite / Casa Gallina, Biennial of the Americas, Arts University of Berlin, among others.
Representative in the Mexico Pavilion at the 60th Venice Art Biennale (April, 2024) with the project ‘Nos marchábamos, regresábamos siempre’, along with curator Tania Ragaso.

JULIA CARRILLO

ESE PUNTO EN EL ESPACIO, 2021

Ese punto en el espacio (That Point in Space) (2021) is an optical artifact that shows the capacity of geometry and reflective matter to guide light and build simulated spaces that challenge our gaze. When looking inside the piece, you can observe a game of infinite reflections that, in turn, generate a parallel scenario in relation to our position in real physical space.

Conceived as a light sculpture, the effect it produces is the result of a precise composition in which a series of mirrors are arranged geometrically. The abstraction that is generated represents, for Julia Carrillo, a tribute to The Aleph by Jorge Luis Borges in which a point in space contains the four corners of the universe, that is, the Whole.

The art piece was created and commissioned especially for the Luz Instante exhibition that was presented at Arte Abierto in 2021 and which brought together seven works by Carrillo focused on the exploration of light.

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JULIA CARRILLO

(Mexico, 1987)

She studied mathematics at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). She has a master’s degree in Visual Arts from the San Carlos Academy and studied at the New York School of Visual Arts (SVA). She has participated in various solo and group exhibitions in Mexico and abroad. She is currently a researcher at C3 (Center for Complexity Sciences, UNAM) and is a beneficiary of the Young Creators program of the National Fund for Culture and Arts (FONCA).

JOSE DÁVILA

JOSE DÁVILA (Mexico, 1974)
JOINT EFFORT, 2019

Concrete volumes, volcanic rock and ratchet straps

This piece is a sculpture of large dimensions that exemplifies the formal and conceptual interests of the artist Jose Dávila, such as the relationship with resistance, tension and the geometric order of the materials that he uses. The volcanic rock and concrete here point out a contrast between organic and industrial materials, highlighting their strengths and capacities through a composition in which both elements support their respective weights, while the straps strengthen the dynamic exerted between the concrete and the rock. As suggested by its title, this piece is literally a joint effort to keep the balance, strength and harmony of its components.

Jose Dávila (Guadalajara, 1974) His work addresses the existent relationships between contrasting and contradictory elements. Most of his work focuses on exploring the possibilities, capacities and properties of sculpture, through a meticulous selection of the materials and the forms with which his pieces are produced. Commonly guided by intuition, in his sculptural structures tension and calm, geometric order and random chaos, and fragility and resistance coexist while connecting the form with the content.

DANIEL BUREN

DANIEL BUREN (France, 1938)
DE LA ROTONDA DE LA FUENTE. CINCO COLORES PARA MÉXICO, 2018

In situ work, memorial to architect Manuel Tolsá

Marble, aluminum and colored glass

Daniel Buren’s work revolves around the abstraction of the form through lines and color; his artistic proposal is framed within the fields of architecture and urbanism. With his in situ work, he highlights certain aspects of the buildings and spaces he intervenes, and as a result he also has an impact on the landscape. Ultimately, his compositions address the relationship between human beings and their physical surroundings.

The artwork exhibited here was thought up and created to fit the central fountain of the ARTZ Pedregal complex. In doing so, the artist opened a dialogue with the space and its surroundings, by combining simple materials, geometric figures and solid colors that coexist with the water and the natural light.

Daniel Buren (France, 1938) have been working over five decades on the intersection between art, architecture and space. In the 60s developed the idea of the “degree zero of painting” as he called it, to play with the means and their relationship with the support and medium that made possible a work of art. His intervention projects are conceived and created in situ, borrowing and coloring the spaces in which they are presented. These pieces are meant to question how we look and perceive, as well as the way space can be used and appropriated. Buren’s work has been presented in museums, public spaces and art institutions from Germany, Belgium, United States, Spain, France, Italy and Mexico, among others.

AI WEIWEI

AI WEIWEI (China, 1957)
FOREVER, 2013

Stainless steel

Forever is China’s most popular bicycle brand and it has been mass-produced in Shanghai since 1940.

The sculpture consists of a series of bicycles tortuously exhibiting their iterative shape. It prompts a reflection on the individual in Chinese society, where little by little metropolitan growth has led to the emergence of other means of transport which have replaced the use of bicycles. Today, the urbanism of contemporary Chinese metropolis has left their utility and social status marginalized and diminished.

On the other hand, you can’t help but notice his reference to the ready-mades or found objects from the early 20th century, where the bicycle is one of the most recognizable figures.

Ai Weiwei (China, 1957) is one of the leading artists and cultural of his generation, both for his artistic production and political activism. His work moves between modes of production and social investigation, which defined the forms of representation and composition of his art. Through sculptures, photography, performances, installations and ready-made —usually uniting craftmanship and conceptual work—, explores the human existence in relation to economic, political, natural and social forces. His work has been presented in museums, public spaces and art institutions from Germany, Austria, Brazil, United States, France, England, Israel, Mexico, Portugal and Turkey, among others.

TANIA CANDIANI

TANIA CANDIANI (Mexico, 1974)
KIOSKO SONORO, 2018

Steel structure, trumpets, tubes, concrete base.

To create this interactive piece, the artist used as a starting point a traditional kiosk, and the social and cultural role it plays in the public square.

The sound sculpture reflects on the historic burden contained within this type of construction. It does so through its structure, which comprises a reticulated installation of trumpets, connected via rigid hoses to a single transmission point that can be activated by the public. The piece then acquires new attributions by allowing for a direct personal experience in a public environment.

Tania Candiani (Mexico, 1974) is a multidisciplinary artist working in the intersection between art, literature, design, music, architecture, science and technology. Her projects plays and approach to the different symbolic and communication systems used daily, such as the phonetic, graphic, linguistic and technological languages. Thus, her works —performances, installations, objects, sculptures, actions— seeks to reflect on the different ways in which we relate each other as social and cultural beings. Candiani has been fellow of the Sistema Nacional de Creadores de México (National System of Art Creators) since 2012 and represented Mexico at the 56th Venice Biennale. Her work has been presented in museums, public spaces and art institutions from Colombia, Cuba, United States, Italy, Lithuania, Mexico, Poland, United Kingdom and Russia, among others.