After having traveled for thirteen years through some of the most important cultural institutions in Germany, France, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Finland, Sweden, Russia, Denmark and Slovenia, and received more than seven million visitors, the Fundación Cisneros/Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros in collaboration with Centro Gaiás Cidade da Cultura present, for the first time in Spain, the “Orinoco. Viaje a un mundo perdido” ["Orinoco. Journey to a lost world"], on view from May 27th 2013 through January 12th, 2014.

The show at Centro Gaiás offers a unique tribute to the cultural tradition of the twelve ethnic groups living in the Venezuelan Amazon: De’aruwa (Piaroa) Ye’kuana, Yanomami, Hiwi (Guahibo) , E’ñepa (Panare) Wakuenai (Curripaco), Baniva, Bare, Puinave, Warekena, Tsase (Piapoco) and Hoti. Composed of a wide selection of useful objects used by each indigenous group, the collection consists of over 1,500 pieces collected over fifty years of exploration: masks, basketry, body ornaments, musical instruments, feathered, canoes, paddles or gear , everyday objects and magical-religious objects made of forest materials, from parts of animals to plants and minerals.

The Orinoco Collection immerses in the so called “Lost World”, a protected and warm place in the heart of the Amazon jungle, where only one percent of the sunlight manages to reach the ground by noon, but where thethese groups found twelve thousand years ago a cozy place with all the necessary to live. The exhibition is a hymn to unspoiled nature and to the respect for the environment as well as a tribute to traditional cultures and their environmentally friendly way of live. You can explore the show at www.orinoco.org

Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros and Independent Curators International are pleased to announce that Remco de Blaaij has been selected as the second recipient of the CPPC Travel Award for Central America and the Caribbean. The award supports a contemporary art curator based anywhere in the world to travel to Central America and the Caribbean to conduct research about art and cultural activities in the region. The process will generate new collaborations with artists, curators, museums, and cultural centers in the area.

Remco de Blaaij (b. 1979, The Netherlands), a Glasgow-based curator, will research women activist practices in the countries of Guatemala, Jamaica, Nicaragua, and Suriname. De Blaaij will visit local artists, art institutions and non-profit organizations, conduct research in the archives of Edna Manley College in Jamaica, interview art historians and curators, and give public lectures throughout the region. Travelogs, details on related events, and further information on de Blaaij’s research will be available on ICI’s website this fall 2013.

Remco de Blaaij has been curator at CCA Glasgow since October 2012. Previously he co-curated Picasso in Palestine whilst working at the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands (2007-12). He worked on the team of Be(com)ing Dutch, a two-year elaborate project in the museum that dealt with residues of globalization, national identity, and immigration. He moved to London in 2011 to conclude his research at the Centre for Research Architecture, Goldsmiths University with the publication too little, too late on border practices of visual culture against the backdrop of Suriname.

Remco de Blaaij was selected from more than 50 applicants from over 20 countries. The selection was made by a jury of professionals, which included María José Chavarría (curator, Museo de Arte y Diseño Contemporáneo de Costa Rica), Adán Vallecillo (artist and curator, Nicaragua), and María del Carmen Carrión (Associate Director of Public Programs & Research, ICI). In their selection, the jury considered the need to balance new readings and narratives for Central American and the Caribbean art histories, as well as identify projects responding with innovative approaches to the area’s most urgent needs..

Application deadline: April 1, 2013

Application guidelines>>>

The Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (CPPC) and Independent Curators International (ICI) are pleased to announce an open call for curators: The 2013 Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Travel Award for Central America and the Caribbean. In its second edition, this travel award will support a contemporary art curator based anywhere in the world to travel to Central America and the Caribbean to conduct research about art and cultural activities in the region. Intending to generate new collaborations with artists, curators, museums, and cultural centers in the area, this award will cover curatorial residencies, studio visits, and/or archival research.

The CPPC Travel Award will support a curator to visit either one or multiple locations in Central America and the Caribbean, and will prioritize first encounters, allowing curators that have not traveled to the region to make connections and develop networks. The travel period can be anywhere between three weeks and three months, and take place between May and November 2013. The grant will cover costs of up to $10,000. Funds can be requested to visit one or more of the following countries: Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama; and, in the Caribbean: The Antilles, The Bahamas, Colombia (Caribbean region), and Turks and Caicos Islands.

Independent curators and those with institutional affiliations may apply. Applications from established and emerging curators (3+ years professional experience) will be considered. Application guidelines for the CPPC Travel Award can be found here. Independent curators and those with institutional affiliations may apply. Applications from established and emerging curators (3+ years professional experience) will be considered. A jury of professionals who live in, or have extensive knowledge of the region, will select the successful applicant.

The first CPPC Travel Award was granted last year, and was given in honor of curator Virginia Pérez-Ratton (1950-2010), who was internationally renowned for working with contemporary artists in Central America and the Caribbean. As a resource complementing the Travel Award, ICI hosts an online platform that provides information about the institutions, archives, collections, and cultural activities in the region, and will include accounts from the Travel Award grantee.

Patricia Phelps de Cisneros invites you to explore lainvencionconcreta.org from Colección Cisneros on Vimeo.

From the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid, Patricia Phelps de Cisneros talks about the collecion’s first major exhibition in Europe, La invención concreta, and its digital components: an iPad app available on iTunes for free, through which you can explore the works in the show from abroad, and a website that enhanced onsite visits through customized tours and audio guides.

Patricia Phelps de Cisneros presenta “Colección privada, vocación pública” from Colección Cisneros on Vimeo.

On the occasion of the opening of the show La invención concreta [Concrete Invention], the first major exhibition of the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros in Europe, we present an excerpt from Patricia Phelps de Cisneros’ conference entitled “Colección privada, voación pública” ["Private collection, public functions"] for the Círculo Arte y Mecenazgo organized by Fundación Arte y Mecenazgo in Madrid, Spain.

Conversaciones/Conversations: The Digital Editions from Colección Cisneros on Vimeo.

The Fundación Cisneros/Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (FC/CPPC) is pleased to announce the launch of the e-book versions of its acclaimed series, CONVERSACIONES/CONVERSATIONS, which are now available for purchase here.

The series first launched in print format in 2010, under an imprint created by the FC/CPPC to support its mission to enhance appreciation of the diversity, sophistication, and range of art from Latin America; advance scholarship of Latin American art; and promote excellence in visual-arts education.

The FC/CPPC is committed to optimizing the use of digital media to help advance scholarship and awareness of Latin America’s contributions to the history of art and ideas. The e-books will be made available in a standard EPUB 3 format, the most versatile platform to date, designed for all eReaders.

The FC/CPPC has partnered with London-based digital art book publisher MAPP Editions on the design and production of the e-books. All forthcoming titles will be published simultaneously in print and digital editions.

The Fundación Cisneros/Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (FC/CPPC) announces its first major exhibition in Europe, La invención concreta: Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros at the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid, from January 23rd through September 16th 2013.

La invención concreta [Concrete Invention] traces the development of geometric abstraction in Latin America from the 1930s to the 1970s.

Jointly curated by the respective directors of the Reina Sofia and the CPPC, Manuel Borja-Villel, and Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro, this exhibition covers a period of optimism for Latin America as its economies grew after World War II, bringing a sense of confidence and an independence from the European influence that had characterized Latin American culture before the war.

The show is organized around the idea of the intentions of these artists who produced works that they believed could change the world, sometimes socially and sometimes more intimately.

The works connect to a belief system and a broader cultural project, and ask fundamental questions about the nature of art and its place in the world. This exhibition is based on the premise that geometry is a language used by artists to express a broad range of often contradictory intentions, including works by Lygia Clark, Jesus Soto, Tomás Maldonado, Joaquín Torres-García, Hélio Oiticica among many more.

The five groupings around which the exhibition is organized—illusion, geometry, vibration, dialogue and universalism—respond to philosophical premises about geometry and its significance, ranging from the material to the spiritual, the metaphorical to the objective.

Digital Initiative:

FC/CPPC seeks out innovation within the digital world, taking advantage of new tools to further expand its mission and reach the widest audience possible. Accordingly, the show will be accompanied by a comprehensive digital initiative that includes a mobile website and an iPad app that will enhance onsite visits and allow people to access the show and get familiar with the artwork from home and abroad, while sharing through social media tools their own experience with their acquaintances. To explore the artwork in the show please visit www.lainvencionconcreta.org or download the iPad app through iTunes for free.

Author: Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro
Language: English and Spanish
Publication date: December 2012
ISBN: 9780982354483

Gyula Kosice in conversation with /en conversación con Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro is the sixth title in the CONVERSACIONES/ CONVERSATIONS series.

The 170-page, bilingual (English-Spanish) book presents a valuable exchange between Gyula Kosice, one of the key figures in the history of abstract art in Latin America, and Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro, the chief curator and director of the CPPC. This book records the conversations conducted over twenty years, which began shortly after the first encounter Pérez-Barreiro had with Kosice’s work in a retrospective of the artist in 1991. The book includes an introductory essay by curator and art historian Andrea Giunta. Gyula Kosice is one of the most remarkable visionary artists of the twentieth century. He co-founded the Madí movement in the 1940s and he is also the creator of the Hydrospatial City, a radical urban proposal that creates a utopian environment suspended in space. Kosice is recognized as one of the leading pioneers of Lumino Kinetic art.

Gyula Kosice in conversation with /en conversación con Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro is also the first title in the series conceived simultaneously in print and electronic formats. The digital version of all titles published in the series to date will be available in February 2013.

Available through D.A.P.

Cabinet and the  Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros invite you to a discussion to celebrate the launch of Gyula Kosice in conversation with/en conversación con con Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro, the sixth book in the Fundación Cisneros’s Conversations/Conversaciones series.

The discussion, featuring Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro, Eva Díaz, and D. Graham Burrnett, will explore the legacy and implications of this enormously important, yet under-recognized visionary modernist.

A Q&A will follow.

Copies of the book will be available for purchase.

ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS

D. Graham Burnett is an editor at Cabinet and a professor of history at Princeton University. His most recent book is “The Sounding of the Whale” (University of Chicago Press, 2012).

Eva Díaz is assistant professor in the History of Art And Design at Pratt institute. “The Experimeters,” her book on Black Mountain College, will be released in the fall of 2013 by University of Chicago Press. Díaz’s writing has appeared in Artforum, Art Bulletin, Art Journal, Art in America, Cabinet, Frieze, Grey Room, and Tate Etc. She is currently working on a book about the legacy of Buckminster Fuller’s work in contemporary art practices.

Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro is director and chief curator of the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros. From 2002 to 2007 he was Curator of Latin American Art at the Blanton Museum of Art, the University of Texas at Austin. He was curator of the 6^th Mercosul Biennial (2007)

The second iteration of the Seminario Fundación Cisneros, entitled The Betrayal of The Contemporary- activations, suspensions, and projections of the contemporary in art, will be held on Friday, November 9th, in the Auditorium Carlos Raúl Villanueva, at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the Universidad Central de Venezuela (FAU/ UCV) in Caracas.

This edition combines the model of a symposium with the Pecha Kucha format, a creative presentation in which a work is outlined in a simple and informal manner. The seminar gathers artists, writers, art curators and critics, as well as producers in other disciplines and the general public, to consider the many genealogies and languages in the visual arts simultaneously operating in the field of culture.

In addition, the seminar includes an on- and offline exchange program that comprises tours through the university and a number of virtual interventions. Furthermore, in order to contribute locally to Venezuela’s cultural development, the seminar has established partnerships with the schools of photography Organización Nelson Garrido and Escuela de Fotografia Roberto Mata, as well as the Capriles film school, whose the students will document the seminar’s activities. The results of these collaborations will be published both on this website and in media allies. To register, be updated on the related news, and follow the live stream visit www.coleccioncisneros.org/seminario.