LOCAL WRITINGS: Critical Positions from Central America, the Caribbean and their Diasporas.

In response to the scarcity of information about the artistic and theoretical production from Central America and the Caribbean, TEOR/éTica launches a new series of monographic collectible bilingual books entitled LOCAL WRITINGS: Critical positions from Central America, the Caribbean and their Diasporas. Each title in the series will compile key essays and articles by a number of brilliant writers, artists, philosophers, historians, architects, curators and thinkers from all over the region. These series of texts present some of the most important critical accounts that have been shaking up the contemporary art scene throughout the last three decades.

The reactivation of the editorial endeavor is one of TEOR/éTica’s program’s major task and runs parallel to the pedagogical outcome of our public programs. These publications are an important contribution because they provide global access to some of the most remarkable and sharp critical positions and artistic practices in the region that push beyond their social, cultural and political limits.

To organize this series of books is to recognize an existing number of local outstanding thinkers and cultural agents that are creating alternative readings of history and new possibilities for thinking. The scarcity of publications about regional artistic practices has led to a partial invisibility of Central American and Caribbean artists in international accounts and revisions of the past decades. Therefore, these series of books aim to fill a gap in the knowledge and challenge the conventional perspectives about Central American and Caribbean art.

How can you make a difference?

Your backing will support the publishing of three amazing books from the series LOCAL WRITINGS: Critical positions from Central America, the Caribbean and their Diasporas.The three contributors are recognized figures, well known for their critical thinking and curating in the region. Their socially engaged reasoning has created new possibilities for reflection and dialogue in societies fragmented by social inequality, political conflicts, and gender-based and sexual violence.

These contributors are Cuban-Costa Rican curator and researcher Tamara Díaz Bringas who was curator and editorial coordinator at TEOR/éTica from 1999 to 2009; Panamanian editor, curator, art critic and translator Adrienne Samos, who was founder and editor of cultural magazine Talingo (1993-2003); and Guatemalan writer, independent curator and thinkerRosina Cazali, who was recently honored with the Prince Claus Award.

Other contributors included in forthcoming publications are: U.S. based, Puerto Rican curator, art historian and MFAH Wortham Curator of Latin American Art and Director, ICAA, Mari Carmen Ramírez; Guatemalan writer and Chief Curator of the Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellín, Emiliano Valdés; Dominican curator, art historian and critic Sara Hermann; Trinitarian artist, writer, curator and co-founder of art space Alice Yard, Christopher Cozier; Salvadoran literary critic, thinker and Professor at University of Miami, George Yudice; among many others.

What makes TEOR/éTica so unique?

TEOR/éTica is a private, non-profit, independent project, dedicated to the investigation and diffusion of contemporary artistic practices. Located in San José, Costa Rica, it was founded in 1999 by Virginia Pérez-Ratton (1950-2010) an internationally recognized Costa Rican artist, curator and investigator. The name of our institution, TEOR/éTica means theory, aesthetics and ethics. After more than sixteen years of work, TEOR/éTica has gained international projection because of its role in developing art practices and generating thought in the region, and has become one of the most dynamic cultural projects in the Central American region.

The spirit of TEOR/éTica is to encourage activities and concepts that are bigger than us. This new series of books will be made possible through the support and participation of our community and a network of contributing writers. We would love you to join us in articulating “a memory within a framework of a recent history which is yet to be written,” in words of TEOR/éTica’s founder Virginia Pérez-Ratton.

YOUR SUPPORT WILL ENABLE US TO REACTIVATE TEOR/éTica’s EDITORIAL PROGRAM. WE HAVE TO START NOW!

We have come up with exciting rewards for our backers:

Pledge 8€ or more:

Personalized sticker with backer’s name that will be added to our donors wall in TEOR/éTica.

Plus, your name will be included in a THANK YOU note shared on Facebook!

Pledge 20€ or more:

Limited edition TEOR/éTica cloth bag with ART and THOUGHT anagrams.

Copy of the first book from the series LOCAL WRITINGS: Critical positions from Central America, the Caribbean and their Diasporas, that collects essays by Cuban-Costan Rican writer and curator Tamara Diaz Bringas.

Pledge 30€ or more:

Collection of 6 printed versions of posters designed by José Alberto Hernández of the some of TEOR/éTica’s recent exhibitions (A3 format, opaline paper 250 gr.)

Plus, a TEOR/éTica cloth bag with ART and THOUGHT anagrams.

Pledge 40€ or more:

TEOR/éTica cloth bag with ART and THOUGHT anagrams.

Printed version of the poster of the “Read my lips” exhibition designed by José Alberto Hernández (A3 format, opaline paper 250 gr.) 

The book “Situaciones Artísticas Latinoamericanas I”, with texts by Ticio Escobar, Inés Katzentstein, Cuauhtémoc Medina, Ivo Mesquita, Desiderio Navarro, Mari Carmen Ramírez and Gabriel Peluffo, amongst others. Edited by Tamara Díaz Bringas. (San José, TEOR/éTica, 2005. Bilingual)

Pledge 85€ or more:

“La Negrita” (2015), silkscreen by Marton Robinson, 30 x 35 cm.  Edition of 50, numbered and signed.

Costa Rican artist Marton Robinson has been exploring ways of challenging conventional black representations of identity and ethnicity from the notion of art history, history, politics, mass media, popular culture and religion. His work attempts to create new discourses using mockery and symbolism in relation to how black identity was constructed by colonialism and how this perception is engraved in the psyche of native Costa Rica.

Robinson, one of the most promising young Latin American artists, has recently shown his work at the Getty Research Institute and Eastside International both in Los Angeles. He had a brilliant solo show at TEOR/éTica, curated by Lina Castañeda, in 2015.

Pledge 280€ or more:

Two drawings by Christian Salablanca from the series Studies of Vulnerability, 2014-2015. Photo transfer, pen and pencil on graph paper, 28 x 22 cm each.

Plus, a TEOR/éTica cloth bag with ART and THOUGHT anagrams.

Costa Rican artist Christian Salablanca (San José, 1990) has been investigating how violence appears in daily life through drawings and sculptures that introduce us to an inventory of living species and organisms. His works explore the vulnerability of life, the symbolic and physical use of animals in contemporary society and the methods of analysis and representation of death bodies related to forensic anthropology.

Salablanca is one of the most gifted young contemporary artists in Costa Rica. He recently had a solo show at the Museum of Design and Contemporary Art (MADC) in Costa Rica in 2014, and he was recently awarded the Second Prize of the National Triennial of Ceramics.

Pledge 330€ or more:

Exclusive leather handbag from costarican designer Cuero, papel & tijera with the ART and THOUGHT slogan.

Pledge 400€ or more:

“There is no future” (2015), special edition of two silkscreens by Raimond Chaves and Gilda Mantilla, from the project “Before and after the future”
42 x 29 cm. each. Edition of 50, numbered and signed

Raimond Chaves (Bogotá, 1963) and Gilda Mantilla (Los Angeles, 1969) are artistic collaborators who also maintain solo careers.Their joint undertakings offer an alternative to stereotypical views of Latin America’s landscapes and cultures by focusing on overlooked details of its peoples and places. This special edition of silkscreens produced for TEOR/éTica is part of the project “Antes y después del futuro” [Before and after the future] that explores the language of art criticism and art history and its relation with contemporary society. 

Their work is present in public collections such as the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art, New York), the MUSAC, the Guggenheim Museum, and the MALI (Museo de Arte de Lima).

Pledge 500€ or more:

“Máscara totémica”, special edition silkscreen by Carlos Amorales
50 x 35 cm. Edition of 30, numbered and signed.

The diverse artistic production of Carlos Amorales has always been close to the graphic arts (through the creation of posters, newspapers, prints, album covers, and numerous publications). His work is characterized for exploring an abstract language of fantasy that evokes representations of animal and human figures, collective experiences of fear and horror, apocalyptic landscapes and the cultural heritage of his native Mexico.

His work has been exhibited internationally, including the 50th Venice Biennale, Tate Modern, Pompidou Center, and the Museum of Modern Art.

Pledge 800€ or more:

Peruvian dinner for 10 people prepared by TEOR/éTica Chief curator Miguel López at Lado V’s garden for 10 people.

Plus, selection of three recent publications by Miguel López 
(“Teresa Burga. Structures of aire”, MALBA, 2015; “Sergio Zevallos. An obscene death”, AMIL, 2015; and “Giuseppe Campuzano. Saturday Night Thriller y otros escritos, 1998-2013”, Estruendomudo, 2013)

*The correct English translation of the second book by Adrienne Samos is “Divorce Panamanian Style”

Source: ICNW