País de Poetas
BRIC’s Rotunda Gallery presents “País de Poetas: Contemporary Art and Artists from Santiago to Brooklynâ€, curated by Isolde Brielmaier and Omar Lopez-Chahoud which opens Wednesday, 21 March 2007, at 7pm. The show features ten Chilean artists, seven of which who live in Brooklyn (Francisca Benitez, Ivan Navarro with Courtney Smith, Diego Fernandez, Cristobal Lehyt, Felipe Mujica and Nelson Rivas) and three others (Patrick Hamilton, Juan Cespedes and Mario Navarro) who live in their homeland.
The work deals with issues of identity, economics, history and migration in living as an expat in a foreign country and what it means to be Chilean in the U.S. A kind of social commentary as they see and experience life as an outsider, the show's quite political.
Rivas, whose work deals with censorship, painted a mural on the gallery wall (pictured above right), covering it with the title of his work "El temor a la inserruccion de los desposeidos /The fear of the insurrection of the dispossessed" to prevent the audience from getting the full picture. Much like during the years of the dictatorship in Chile, Rivas says, “the system blocks any attempt at change in this world but, at the same time it's impossible to cover it all—leaving a little hope.â€Â
On Tuesday, 17 April 2007, at 7pm, the Gallery will host a discussion with select artists from País de Poetas, moderated by Christian Viveros-Faune, the director of Roebling Hall Gallery. A performance by Nutria N.N. will follow.
País de Poetas: Contemporary Art and Artists from Santiago to Brooklyn
Opening Reception: Wednesday, 21 March 2007, 7-9pm
21 March-7 May 2007
The Rotunda Gallery
33 Clinton Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201 map
tel. +1 718 855 7882
