This summer, The Shed will premiere three distinct yet interrelated new commissions in an exhibition that explores social and cultural confrontations and alliances. Collision/Coalition pairs new work by artists Tony Cokes and Oscar Murillo, on view June 19 through August 25, 2019, with screenings of a new documentary film about artist Beatriz González, directed by Yanina Valdivieso and Vanessa Bergonzoli, July 31 through August 25, 2019. Varied in medium and approach, the commissions will be on view in The Shed's Level 4 Gallery. Collision/Coalition is organized by Emma Enderby, Senior Curator, with Adeze Wilford, Curatorial Assistant.
"Collision/Coalition asks, 'What is the role of art in the face of political, social, and economic power?'" said Emma Enderby. "The Shed is a place for conversation and reflection and by interconnecting three distinct commissions and angles-Tony Cokes, Oscar Murillo, and Yanina Valdivieso and Vanessa Bergonzoli's documentary on Beatriz González's work-questions are raised on art's agency and relationship to capital, on its power to succumb or to subvert."
"The Shed helps artists create work that addresses the issues and challenges of our time," said Hans Ulrich Obrist, Senior Program Advisor of The Shed. "Collision/Coalition manifests this mission, enabling Tony Cokes, Oscar Murillo, Yanina Valdivieso, and Vanessa Bergonzoli to further their visual practices and connect to other disciplines."
"These commissions explore the relationship between art and the politics of space," said Alex Poots, Artistic Director and CEO of The Shed. "These artists raise vital questions about socio-economic conflicts in our societies and the potential for art to engage them. "
Tony Cokes, whose work arranges appropriated materials like pop music and news texts in a confrontational collage, will explore the relationship between the artist, the artist's studio, and gentrification. Two new, immersive works on large LED screens form a diptych titled Before and After the Studio (2019). The videos investigate the historic and contemporary role played by artists' studios in shaping artworks and creating communities, focusing on the architecture of the studio and its social role, as well as wider themes of urban development in New York City. The work will feature found texts and a soundtrack of music by Drake and a selection of UK dubstep.
Also on view are three related works by Cokes: shrinking.criticism (2009), which explores, in Cokes's words, "the systemic features of cultural production under global capital" and features text from British writer Julian Stallabrass's essay "The Decline and Fall of Art Criticism" set to the dubstep sounds of Kromestar; studio, time, isolation: reconstructions of soul and the sublime (2011), which combines recordings of reggae singer Cornell Campbell with text from art historian Tom Holert's essay "Studio Time;" and killer.mike.karaoke (2017), which plays two songs by hip hop artist and activist Killer Mike while also displaying their lyrics on screen. On August 24, in a special, one-night-only performance, German electronic musician Jan Jelinik will perform a live score set against Cokes's commissioned videos in Collision/Coalition.
Oscar Murillo, known for exploring the conditions of contemporary globalization defined by constant cultural exchange and increasing cultural displacement, will create an installation of paintings, drawings, sculptures, and performance inspired by Diego Rivera's famed, unrealized mural at Rockefeller Center. The mural, in which Rivera contrasted socialism and capitalism, was commissioned by the Rockefeller family but removed once it was labeled "anticapitalist propaganda" by the media. To pay homage to the mural and the history of an almost hopeful, unlikely coalition of cultures, Murillo organized a procession from The Shed to Rockefeller Center, wheeling human-scaled stuffed figures through the streets. On view in Collision/Coalition will be the effigies and a film of the procession with a soundtrack by the contemporary American composer Missy Mazzoli.
A series of new, large-scale abstract paintings, as well as a series of drawings that Murillo creates as he travels, are also featured. Using carbon paper so the traces of his drawings linger on top of one another, the drawings are typical of Murillo's laborious process of mark-making, with lines repeated over and over or the same word written countless times. The drawings will be activated in the exhibition by members of The Shed's staff reading drawings aloud, and visitors will be encouraged to do the same. Matte black canvases, hanging from the gallery ceiling on hooks like draped flags, divide the space between Murillo and Cokes's works. These colossal stitched "flags" are soaked in black paint and burned with an iron to form a tough, skin-like texture. The paintings act as a permeable barrier between the installations that visitors can pass through and touch, feeling their weight and presence.
The third commission is Beatriz González: A Documentary, by Yanina Valdivieso and Vanessa Bergonzoli (produced by Display None and co-produced by Catalina Casas) about one of Colombia's most celebrated artists. Screening from July 31 to August 25, the film centers on Beatriz González's monumental public artwork Auras Anónimas (2009), an installation of 8,957 tombstones in Bogotá's Central Cemetery in tribute to those that died due to armed conflict in Colombia's civil war. Sourcing imagery from newspapers and other media, González created silhouettes of soldiers carrying bodies in sheets and makeshift hammocks, which were then painted on mausoleums.
This important memorial to the victims of violence is under threat of being demolished by Bogotá's city administration. Creating a "counter-monument" through public art, González explores the meaning of memory, memorials, and mourning.
Collision/Coalition is on view at The Shed Tuesday, Wednesday, Sunday from 11 am to 6 pm; Thursday to Saturday from 11 am to 8 pm. Tickets to Collision/Coalition are $10 (admission is free for those 18 and under) and available at theshed.org. Screenings of Beatriz González: A Documentary will begin in The Shed's Level 4 Gallery on July 31 and continue daily (except Mondays) through August 25. More information about Collision/Coalition is available at
theshed.org.
Image: Oscar Murillo, flight #58, 2018. Photo: Matthew Hollow. Courtesy the artist.
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