The Black Death

About Siena's Cathedral

Siena's Duomo was built between 1215 and 1263 and designed in part by Gothic master Nicola Pisano. His son, Giovanni, drew up the plans for the lower half of the facade, begun in 1285. The facade's upper half was added in the 14th century.

The 14th century was a time of great wealth and power for Siena, and plans were made to expand the cathedral into a great church that would dwarf even St. Peter's in Rome. The already-large Duomo would form just the transept of this huge cathedral.

Expansion got underway in 1339 with construction on a new nave off the Duomo's right transept. But in 1348, the Black Death swept through the city and killed 4/5 of Siena's population. The giant cathedral was never completed, and the half-finished walls of the Duomo Nuovo (New Cathedral) survive as a monument to Siena's ambition and one-time wealth.

Quoting Agnolo di Tura

"The mortality in Siena began in May. It was a cruel and horrible thing. . . .The victims died almost immediately. They would swell beneath the armpits and in the groin, and fall over while talking. Father abandoned child, wife husband, one brother another; for this illness seemed to strike through breath and sight. And so they died. None could be found to bury the dead for money or friendship. (They) brought their dead to a ditch as best they could, without priest, without divine offices. In many places in Siena great pits were dug and piled deep with the multitude of dead. And they died by the hundreds, both day and night, and all were thrown in those ditches and covered with earth... I, Agnolo di Tura . . . buried my five children with my own hands. . . . And so many died that all believed it was the end of the world."

After the journey, comes the personal visions:

~

k

that piano in the sky

I didn't know I could play the piano in the sky,

so I did it

majestically

~

Theres's an ELYSIUM

Proviene de la mitología griega. Es un lugar en el inframundo, un limbo entre el bien y el mal, un espacio oscuro pero bendecido donde las almas conviven entre sí y en escencia, donde coexisten las almas de virtuosos y heróicos que han sido elegidos por proyectar a traves de sus cualidades la misión del ser.

A través de la historia ELYSIUM ha cobrado vida en ambitos como la literatura clásica. Homero lo plasma como el lugar dónde yacen las almas después de la vida en la 'Iliada' y la 'Odisea'; en la literatura post clásica, Dante la retoma en 'La Divina Comedia' como el Limbo; Shakespeare en 'Twelfth Night' menciona a las Ilirias y a Elysium como el paraiso; Mozart tambien hace referencia a él en el acto II de su ópera 'The Magic Flute' y autores como Tennessee Williams, J.R.R. Tolkien, John Betjeman y otros más también hablan de ello.

Es nuestro infinito deseo crear un Elysium de nuestro tiempo, erizar la piel por medio del la vista, olfato, tacto y oído.

HOY, ESTE ES NUESTRO ELYSIUM - proyecto audio visual en construcción...

SUBVeRSIóN - la 77

SUBVeRSIóN
exposición colectiva
7 de julio al

5 de septiembre

-con cita-

Kenia Nárez
Leonardo Tezcucano
Liliana Gálvez Heras
Lorena Moreno
Raúl Cerrillo
Rodrigo Imaz
Tania Ximea

Curaduría: Karen Huber
Intervención poética: Dea Arjona

En: el patio 77 - Joaquín García Icazbalceta 77, esquina Manuel María Contreras, Col. San Rafael

Son siete los días de la semana, las notas musicales y los colores del prisma; siete las artes y los artistas de la primera exposición de la 77.

Estos siete cuerpos celestes exhibirán la subversión -revuelta, ruina, destrucción- de un ser que ha perdido su rostro al atravesar y caer en el límite de la muerte de sí mismo...teniendo como fin, la recreación de un nuevo amanecer.

La explosión de lo natural con lo espiritual, el remolino oscuro y chillante de la consumación, la reacción y la separación para una nueva aparición.

La muestra será intervenida con la poesía de Dea Arjona:

‘anteayer anocheció océano
como risa agónica
en el teatro de lo invisible
muerto al pie del mundo
anduvo el todo
prensando su rotura
al pretender de la memoria’

Art exhibition: Symphony of A Decadence

Opening 13th of March, 2010

Ending 10th of April, 2010

Symphony of A Decadence

Sinfonía de una Decadencia

When time erodes the surface of a once splendid thing, a new situation takes hold of it, Decadence.

With this exhibit, seven individual artists and one collective study the concept of decadence as an inevitability, hence an inherent aspect of the “Absolute”.
The outlook is observed through three different perspectives, a type of three-sided mirror in which we contemplate ourselves as individuals chained to our material, emotional and spiritual context. The 14 works presented are the result of each artist’s creative process to represent different ways to work with “decadence”:

Observe and Create, Recreate, Renovate and Redefine. Destroy to Create.

To restore life and strength to the “abandoned”, this show avoids looking at decadence as a fall towards a permanent death that shuts off everything that could have been. With this purpose, the artist collective TRES surveyed the Colonia Roma neighborhood in Mexico City and found a space filled with urban society’s waste and understood as basic part of such a landscape. Within the same idea, they identified and catalogued all forgotten garbage between buildings of the Border Cultural Center. The objects found are exposed in a way that exposes the abusive and selfish relationship between user and object.

José Pisil shows us a different side to the same relationship, highlighting how dependent we are on certain objects, in this case those related to telecommunications.

The characteristic cycle within decadence is similar to that of life itself. By repeating non-functional schemes, we have damaged the cycle and crippled the human capacity for individuality. Our modern age has announced the loss of original ideological postures. But what comes next? We could also find ourselves in a borderline situation, precursor to a stage of regeneration and reconstruction. With this idea, Antonio Ibarra draws and portrays, like a family photo, the archetype of dysfunctional relationships; characters bound physically but isolated emotionally. Dea Arjona writes and rips into her writings, understanding the contemporary life-experience as tortured and agonizing. Following the same scheme, Fernando Pizarro erases the written parts of his collages and dismembers and tears up the individual, unavoidable act in an effort to redefine ones’ self.

In all different works of art there is a feeling of nostalgia, of melancholy and abandonment, a poetic imaginative which is contrary to the ephemeral.

Nature, the ultimate symbol of life and vitality, is used in some pieces as a showcase of death and apathy.

Fabián Peña uses the tiny wings of cockroaches, an insect often perceived as degrading and dirty, to create intricate and precious natural motifs.

\Máximo González uses the process of decay and putrefaction in paper to show us a Ché Guevara that is forgotten and surpassed, humiliated by the passing of time. Finally, Orlando Díaz uses wood in order to physically show the toll of a fight that is unsustainable and impossible, the fight for global equilibrium.

Every work shown can be understood as part of a narrative that has been marked by our own time and place. This creates a symphony in which we all play a part.

Sin ser

Fernando Pizarro

Paper and ink, recycled materials: carton, wood

expanded drawing

2010

Siameses

Fabián Peña

canvas with fragments of cockroaches wings, mixed media

61 x 50.5 cm

2009

libelula

Fabián Peña

canvas with fragments of cockroaches wings, mixed media

61 x 50.5 cm

2009

La última pieza

Orlando Díaz

Instalation: watercolor with charcoal and wood, vertical garden small and large, mixed media

1.70 x 80 cm

2010

Puntos ciegos

TRES

Intervention and urban installation

2010

Silicernio no.7 no.9 no.2 & no.11

Dea Arjona

book pages, poetry, text, typewriter, milimetric paper

62.5 x 62 x 7 cm

2010

Sin título

Máximo González

Object, poster rotten intentionally and recovered, mixed media

53 x 50 x 16 cm

2008

Acto de revelación

Antonio Ibarra

watercolor and acrilic, drawing

2010

Más vale pájaro en mano

José Pisil

bird cages,CD player and monitor,

Audio visual installation

2010

Exposición: Sinfonía de una decadencia

My pride & joy

Cuando el tiempo recorre las paredes de lo que en algún momento vivió su esplendor, hoy encarna una nueva situación, la decadencia

Bajo un proyecto curatorial de Karen Huber, Border presenta “Sinfonía de una decadencia”, exposición que abrirá sus puertas el día sábado 13 de marzo de 2010 a partir de las 12:00 hrs., y permanecerá hasta el 10 de abril de 2010.

Artistas como Antonio Ibarra, Dea Arjona, Fabián Peña, Fernando Pizarro, José Pisil, Máximo González, Orlando Díaz y TRES mostrarán sus obras las cuales incluyen disciplinas como dibujo, collage, intervención sonora, pintura expandida, intervención urbana y mixed media.

Este tema es abordado bajo tres miradas formando un triángulo y un espejo que refleja a nosotros mismos y nuestro alrededor: espiritual, físico y emocional, donde el artista tiene un objetivo: Mirar y crear, intentar de recrear, reapropiar y renovar. Destruir para crear.

En esta decadencia yace un sentimiento de nostalgia, melancolía y olvido, un imaginario poético de algo que es todo lo contrario a lo efímero. A partir de lo decadente se superará lo encontrado.

Para enaltecer y devolverle el habla a lo abandonado, esta muestra pretende evitar el descenso, la muerte final de lo que es y lo que pudiera dejar de ser; se trata de alentar la eterna decadencia. En este caso físico, natural, social, emocional, tecnológico y espiritual; mitificando e inmortalizando lo deshabitado.

El periodo de la decadencia es inevitable. Si la época moderna sugiere una pérdida de ideas originales, esquemas repetitivos y moldes no funcionales es ahora nuestro propósito crear a partir de este periodo decadente un lenguaje propio del tiempo; una reapropiación de los valores culturales, estéticos y sobre todo artísticos de una sociedad en constante penumbra emocional.

Cada pieza exhibida es un instrumento, cada instrumento toca las poéticas notas de lo que se convierte en el tema principal de la sinfonía, juntos como orquesta con un tiempo y movimiento en común presentamos, Sinfonía de una decadencia