Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation presents Liquid Sensibilities
The works from the 14th edition of the Grants & Commissions Program will be exhibited from September 8 – October 30, 2016
Miami, Florida – August 2016 – The Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (CIFO) gears up for the opening of Liquid Sensibilities. As it is customary, the ten (10) recipients will be part of the inauguration celebrations on September 8. The exhibit will be available to the public until October 30 at the CIFO Space.
The title of the exhibition makes an allusion to the reflections of the contemporary world Zygmunt Bauman introduced in Liquid Modernity, his renowned book. The Polish-born sociologist states that we live in an era of instantaneity. In contrast to the old order, which showed greater attachment to the idea of durability, Bauman uses the metaphor of “liquidity” to refer to the nature of this new phase in the history of modernity. In addition, Liquid Sensibilities reveals interesting indicators about the context of the artistic production, and the artist’s thoughts. Through these indicators, we are able to detect the interrelation between certain core problems, discern conceptual similarities and understand concepts of visuality. Considered from this perspective, the artwork included in the exhibition provokes deep and varied implications. As site-specific, the artwork is allowed to permeate the space, flow, contaminate. However, these works unmask traces that are hard to dissolve such as the effects of a war not yet over, unsolved territorial border problems, unsettled gender issues and alternative forms to evade systems of control. At the peak of its tension, between the end of a world and the beginning of another, we are left with the "almost."
“By reversing the curatorial process, the Grants & Commissions Program works as a diagnostic study of various topics that occupy and preoccupy the Latin American scene,” explained Eugenio Valdes Figueroa, Director and Chief Curator at CIFO. “It also emphasizes its laboratory component because it is built upon the hypothesis arising from the personal inquiries of each artist that are somehow connected by the regions they represent.”
For this 14th edition of the Grants & Commissions Program, the awarded artists represent five (5) different countries, divided in three different categories; Emerging Artist: Elena Damiani (Peru), Óscar Farfán (Mexico), Fidel García (Cuba), Felipe Meres (Brazil), Sandra Nakamura (Peru) and Fabián Peña (Cuba). In this edition, Colombia is well represented through the Mid-Career awarded artists; Jorge Julian Aristizábal, Carlos Castro Arias and the duo Leidy Chávez and Fernando Pareja. The Achievement Award also goes to Colombian-born performance artist, María Evélia Marmolejo, who will be performing Conciencia Dopada on September 8th. As one of Latin America’s pioneer performance artists, her pieces focus on her views on political oppression, environmental concerns, women’s role in society and the symbolic meanings of women’s physiological functions, such as bodily fluids, many of which are used in her performances. In Conciencia Dopada,she proposes her body, mind and emotions, as a collective body that reflects distortion, fragmented consciousness, and dissatisfaction, affected by the loss of identity and very existence.
Also part of this exhibit and due to this year’s surge of nominations from Colombia, CIFO will welcome world renowned curator Jose Roca; Editor in Chief and founder of Art Nexus Magazine Celia Birbragher, and Oscar Roldán-Alzate, professor of Fine Arts and Chief Curator of Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellín for this quarter’s CIFO Talk. The distinguished panelists will join Eugenio Vlades Figueroa on a discussion about the burst and development of the Colombian art scene. This event will take place on October 5th at 7 pm.
About CIFO:
Ella Fontanals-Cisneros established the non-profit Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (CIFO), in 2002. The foundation’s mission is to support and foster cultural understanding and educational dialog among Latin American artists and global audiences. CIFO is a platform for emerging, mid career and established Latin American artist through the Grants & Commissions Program, the CIFO Collection, the CIFO Art Space and other related art and cultural projects in the United States of America and internationally.
