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A PROPOSAL by Curator Luis Camnitzer for an exhibition at Caribbean Museum Center for the Arts in March 2009
Luis Camnitzer:
This show intends to raise the issue of locality, frame of reference, ingrown resonance and tacit understandings that in art often are sacrificed for the sake of external conventions and expectations. Thus locality is often completely erased from the art repertoire, or is translated and misrepresented by the expectations of foreign visitors who look for the signals of exoticism.
Many years ago I took my 12 year-old son to Uruguay, the country where I was raised. We learned in school that our landscape was one undulated by rolling hills with gentle slopes. Uruguay is part of the flat pampas, something that was never underlined. The entrance to the port of Montevideo is flanked by one of our highest mountains, ca 1000 feet, with an old Spanish fort on top. From the other end of the bay I proudly showed my son our mountain, which is also drawn on the country’s coat of arms as one of our symbols of identity. Feigning interest my son’s eyes carefully scanned the horizon while he was saying “yeah, yeah.” Then suddenly he asked “where?” I had to carefully place the bump between tall buildings as a reference. I gathered then that the myth of our mountain was not transferable, no matter its local importance. We visited the fort and I became aware how tourist perception had obliterated the violence and violation of colonization by overlaying the quaintness of antiquity.
For this exhibition I would like to propose a review of these issues. Therefore this is a call to artists challenging them to face locality in two possible ways:
1) Critically: from the point of view of colonial symbolism (what does a fort mean in terms of representation of violation and abuse of power); syncretism (how are imported images digested to acquire a new useful meaning in local culture); cultural conditioning by the tourist trade (how local culture loses sight of itself to accommodate the expectations of the visitors); placement of power (local benefits of polluting industries, import-export relations).
2) A utopian constructive way: offering possibilities for a reaffirmation of locality by isolating and expanding on elements seen as inextricably connected with local everyday life. This second option can re-view issues from the first approach by defusing symbolism and underlining their absorption.
While these topics are more easily described and resolved through narrative and illustrative devices, the processes that operate are more insidious and often operate through formal and non-narrative devices. There are colors used in the Caribbean islands that are not used on the mainland. There are forms of exchange and communication that are not transferable to the U.S. There are definitions of “otherness” that deviate from the mainstream. One could say that the definition of community is and should be a local one. Art is one of the glues to achieve this.
PROSPECTUS
This show will be presented in St. Croix at Caribbean Museum Center for the Arts on March 6, 2009 and will hang for a month or longer. Information about the show will be forwarded to Artnexus, Artnews, Artes as well as the local press and magazines. If funding permits a catalog will be produced.
Virgin Islands and Puerto Rican artists as well as artists who have been residents of Caribbean Museum Center for the Arts Artist in Residence program are invited to submit proposals and images that reference historical buildings such as Fort Frederik, Forts Christian in St. Croix and St. Thomas, Annenberg in St. John and El Morro in San Juan. All media will be accepted – digital images, installation and performance art as well as painting, photography and sculpture. Interested artists should submit a detailed proposal of project with samples of work on CD, slides or e-mail. The artists’ statement about the work should be fully detailed regarding installation and presentation, along with a bio and exhibition history with contact information – NAME, MAILING ADDRESS, TELEPHONE NUMBERS: HOME, OFFICE, CELL. E-MAIL ADDRESS. None of these materials will be returned unless accompanied by a SASE.
All work should be presented in an envelope with the artists’ name, address and telephone numbers clearly marked on the outside and sent to Caribbean Museum Center for the Arts, PO Box 1371, Frederiksted, St. Croix, VI 00841-1371 or hand delivered no later than December 15, 2008. Notification will be sent out by January 15, 2009. Selected work will be due at Caribbean Museum Center for the Arts by Feb.18, 2009.
Artists wishing to participate who are working on proposals should give notice and a brief statement to the Caribbean Museum Center for the Arts by Sept. 15, 2008 – they may submit the full proposal at that time if they wish or before the final deadline of Dec. 15, 2008. Please call Caribbean Museum Center for the Arts for more information and hours of operation, 772-2622. The Museum Center is located on Strand Street in Frederiksted.
IN SUMMARY
