The Holocaust, vies not from then, but from here and now
BERLIN - Rebuilding a Palace may become a great blunder
How to compensate for the loss of philanthropic, endowment and visitor incomes
Museums lending to commercial galleries: the debate
Piss Christ es una controversial fotografía del artista estadounidense Andrés Serrano. La foto muetra un pequeño crucifijo de plásticos sumergido en un vaso de orina del artista. La pieza fue la ganadora de un premio a las artes visuales de Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, que estaba auspiciado en parte por el national Endowment for the Arts, una agencia del gobierno de Estados Unidos que ofrece apoyo y fondos para proyectos de arte.
Controversia
La pieza causó un escándalo cuando fue exhibida en 1989 y sus detractores incluyeron al Senador Al D'Amato y Jesse Helms, quienes criticaron qeu Serrano recibiera $15,000 por su trabajo, parte de ellos provenientes del National Endowment for the Arts, que se nutre de los impuestos de ciudadanos. Quienes apoyan a Serrano argumentan que Piss Christ presenta un caso de libertad artística y libertad de expresión. La revista Arts & Opinion describió la controversia como un "choque entre los intereses de los artistas sobre la libertad de expresión, y el daño que sus trabajos puedan causar a una sección de la población."
Algunos han alegado que la financiación gubernamental de Piss Christ violaba la separación de iglesia y estado.
Piss Christ fue incluido en "Down by Law", una exhibición sobre políticas de identidad y desobediencia dentro de la Bienal del Whitney en el 2006. El documental Damned in the USA, producido por la BBC, exploró la controversia del Piss Christ.
Más información:
Comentarios sobre Andrés Serrano por miembros del Senado de los Estados Unidos
Sacrifice, Piss Christ and Liberal excess
Art, religion and the culture war (DOC)
Permanecerá en el Centro Nacional de Arte hasta el 1 de junio.
La exposición "Los niños en las colecciones del Museo del Louvre" abrió hoy sus puertas en Tokio con cerca de 200 obras de arte que generalmente adornan las salas del célebre museo parisino.
La muestra, que permanecerá en el Centro Nacional de Arte hasta el 1 de junio, está coorganizada por el Museo, el diario japonés Asahi Shimbun y el Museo Nacional de Arte de Osaka (centro de Japón), próximo destino de la exposición.
Los cerca de 200 cuadros, esculturas, piezas artesanales, bocetos y grabados que han viajado hasta Japón proceden de siete secciones del Museo del Louvre, entre ellas las de arte antiguo egipcio, antiguo oriental, antiguo griego, etrusco y romano.
A través de las obras expuestas, en las que se muestra cómo se ha ido tratando la niñez en el arte a lo largo de cientos de años, los visitantes podrán viajar a través del tiempo, las regiones y los distintos géneros artísticos, según sus organizadores.
Entre las piezas más destacadas de la muestra se incluyen restos de momias infantiles, esculturas de niños griegos, juguetes del Lejano Oriente, pinturas de maestros como Tiziano y Chardin y bosquejos de artistas consagrados como Rubens.
La comisaria de la exposición es una de las restauradoras del Departamento de Antig edades Egipcias del Louvre, Guillemette Andreu.
La muestra será trasladada en junio al Museo Nacional de Arte de Osaka, donde podrá visitarse entre el 23 de junio y el 23 de septiembre.
WALTHAM, Mass. — Speaking publicly for the first time on a proposal to close the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University to the public, the family of the museum’s benefactors sharply criticized university officials on Monday for what it called a planned “plundering” of its collection. The family insisted that the museum remain open and that none of its works be sold to raise money.
The university’s trustees voted in January to close the museum and sell its works, which are estimated to be worth about $350 million. The university later backtracked, saying the Rose would remain open as an academic fine arts center, but not a public museum. It has put together a panel to help determine the museum’s fate; its first meeting is Thursday.“ ‘Re-purposing’ the museum is closing by another name,” 50 family members said in a statement released Monday night at a symposium at the Rose. “It would not be the Rose. Any other understanding of the university’s current plan is disinformation.
“The art has been put on the auction block. The museum has been put on the chopping block.”
In an interview, Meryl Rose, speaking for the family, said the university’s initial announcement had already harmed the museum.
“What donor would give a piece of art that might be sold to pay for administrative expenses?” Ms. Rose said. “This was meant to be a public art museum when it was built. It can be nothing but.”
In addition to demanding that the museum continue, the family wants the university to renew the contracts of its director, Michael Rush, and staff and to make plans for new exhibits. The current exhibit is scheduled to end in May.
Joseph Baerlein, a Brandeis spokesman, questioned the timing of the family’s statement, saying that no firm decisions would be made until the panel came up with a plan.
“It’s really exaggerating what’s happening right now and what is going to begin Thursday,” Mr. Baerlein said.
In a statement, the Brandeis provost, Marty Wyngaarden Krauss, said the museum “will remain open with a desired goal of being more fully integrated into the university’s core educational mission.”
“What precise role the museum will have will be informed by the recommendations of the Rose Committee to the Brandeis board,” Ms. Krauss said.
Brandeis initially decided to close the museum to help raise operating money for the university, whose endowment has dropped by 30 percent in the past year. The university, which faces up to a $79 million budget gap in the next five years, has raised tuition and fees, trimmed expenses and left positions vacant.
The museum was started in 1961 with a $1 million gift from Ed and Bertha Rose. The Rose family claims the museum has three funds set up to ensure its survival, but Brandeis disputes that.
The Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office is reviewing whether selling the art would violate the terms of wills and donations.
Edward Dangel, a lawyer for the chairman of the museum’s board who has been contacted by members of the Rose family, said there had been little discussion with the university.
“Right now we’re not at a crisis point, but we’re coming close to a crisis point,” Mr. Dangel said. “If the university doesn’t relent and change its position in the next few months, the donors and the trustees will take action to test whether the intent of the donors has been honored here.”
The family spoke Monday before a symposium on art and museums in the financial crisis. Dozens of people, many wearing buttons saying “Save the Rose,” attended, and signs protesting the Rose’s closing were affixed to its front windows.She listed artifacts that the Getty returned to Italy during her tenure as antiquities curator, from 1986 until 2005. They included a 2,500-year-old kylix, or drinking cup, by the Greek artists Onesimos and Euphronios; a bronze Etruscan tripod; and some 3,500 objects from the archaeological site at Francavilla Marittima in Calabria. In each case that the museum discovered that a piece had been stolen, she said, it gave the object back.
Ms. True was speaking in the Rome courtroom where she is on trial with the American antiquities dealer Robert Hecht on charges of conspiracy to traffic in antiquities looted from Italian soil. In Italian legal proceedings, defendants are allowed to make spontaneous comments, and Ms. True’s remarks came in response to testimony by Daniela Rizzo, an archaeologist and prosecution witness.
Ms. Rizzo said on Friday that Ms. True could have, and should have, done more to prevent the trade in looted antiquities. “Your cooperation has always been very positive,” she told Ms. True, who sat with her lawyers. “But you are an archaeologist, a scholar and a great expert, and you had the knowledge to recognize objects that could have come from Etruria.”
Perhaps “a closer, more direct collaboration with Italian archaeologists would have been more useful than to return objects over time,” Ms. Rizzo said.
It was the first time that Ms. True has appeared in court to refute the charges against her in a trial that began nearly four years ago.
Even as the proceedings have dragged on from hearing to hearing, often with months of delays in between, Italian Culture Ministry officials have negotiated deals with American museums and private collectors, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and the Cleveland Museum of Art, for the return of artifacts said to have been looted.
In 2007, after years of legal wrangling, the Getty agreed to turn over 40 objects from its collection, some of which are part of the prosecution’s case against Ms. True and Mr. Hecht. The return of the objects had no bearing on the case.
The charges against Ms. True surprised many in the art world. During her tenure at the Getty she tightened the museum’s policy on collecting antiquities and collaborated with Italian investigators looking into international trafficking in such pieces.
Sounding calm and sure of herself, Ms. True said the Getty had always followed proper procedures when buying objects on the international market, contacting Italian culture officials to determine if there were liens on specific artifacts. “I didn’t have the right to make informal inquiries” in Italy, she said.
The two archaeologists sparred as the defense lawyers began their first day of questioning of Ms. Rizzo, who has been on the stand for about a dozen hearings over the past two years. Citing documents on the purchase of several objects by the Getty, Alberto Sanjust, one of Ms. True’s lawyers, suggested that Italian officials might have been remiss in providing proof and that they failed to warn the museum that some artifacts might have been looted or illegally exported.
The defense plans an object-by-object rebuttal of the prosecution’s case for each of the 35 artifacts that Ms. True approved for acquisition and that the Italians say were looted.
“Just as long as the trial doesn’t drag on until it’s time for me to retire,” said the chief judge, Gustavo Barbalinardo, who has announced that he plans to step down in three years.
“The Blue Line” (2005-06)
“Ocean Symphony (Dirge for the Fiji Mermaid)” (2007)
"The Merger" (2005)
“The Burden (I Shall Leave No Memoirs)" (2006)
SOME 150 yoga fanatics, mats in hand, gathered in the second-floor atrium of the Museum of Modern Art one recent Saturday morning. They were there to “Put the oM in MoMA,” as the invitation read.
Assembled in a circle, the group practiced poses while on the walls surrounding them flowed giant images of budding tulips, slithering worms and a pig in a verdant meadow biting into a juicy apple, all part of the Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist’s monumental video installation “Pour Your Body Out (7354 Cubic Meters).” The free 75-minute class was such a success that there is talk of holding another in the museum’s sculpture garden.
“In these difficult times we want to hit as many buttons as we can,” said Glenn D. Lowry, director of the museum. “We’re doing everything possible to connect with people.”
So is the Hammer Museum, part of the University of California, Los Angeles. The artist Lisa Anne Auerbach has organized a bike night at the museum for April 16, during which bicyclists can ride into its courtyard.
“We will have valet parking for the bikes,” said the museum’s director, Ann Philbin. “In a city like Los Angeles, people are finding excuses to get together without going to expensive restaurants.” The gathering will include cocktails and a screening of the movie “Breaking Away.”
Yoga classes and bicycle get-togethers may not be your typical museum fare, but in these rough economic times, anything goes.
The downturn has hit museums hard, with plummeting endowments, dwindling donations, fewer tourists and the decline of the corporate museum party, once a steady revenue stream. Museums have been forced to freeze hiring or lay off staff members, close satellite shops and make other cutbacks.
But lean times are bringing out a pioneering spirit as museum officials strive to develop creative strategies for what is undeniably a new world.
“This is a good moment to refocus and reinvigorate,” said Thomas P. Campbell, who took over the helm from the legendary director Philippe de Montebello at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in January. “We want people to know we’re here and have been for 138 years. We’re a place of infinite experiences. Last year there were something like 20,000 different events from lectures to tours. A tour leaves every 15 minutes. It’s really quite phenomenal.”
Beneath all the upbeat talk lies the same kind of fear and uncertainty that is being felt throughout the business world. As reports of layoffs and budget cuts stream in from museums across the country, directors are struggling to do more with less. To reach new and bigger audiences, many are revamping their presence on the Web or trying new forms of marketing.
Most, if not all, are also expanding their public programs. More than before, institutions big and small have adopted the same mission: to transform once-hushed museums into vibrant cultural centers where the activities go far beyond what’s hanging on the walls.
“We can’t just be about art anymore,” Ms. Philbin said. “Museums are the new community centers.”
Whether visitors come to see a movie or listen to poetry, take in an art exhibition or attend a lecture, it doesn’t matter as long as they come.
“The better we are at serving our audiences, the more we will be appreciated,” Ms. Philbin said. “And people will want to give us money.”
With falling tourism, some of the larger (and richer) museums are starting ambitious advertising campaigns aimed at local — and younger — audiences. In New York, for example, both the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art are delivering not-so-subtle messages about their permanent collections.
A billboard near Times Square shows a couple kissing in front of Rodin’s sculpture “Eternal Spring,” accompanied by the tag line “It’s Time We Met.” The photograph, taken by Laura P. Russell of her parents, Gene and Cindy, is one of about a dozen being used in the marketing campaign. They were chosen from thousands of snapshots taken by Met visitors with works of art at the museum and posted on the photo-sharing site Flickr.
Each ad carries the name of the photographer (who will be paid $250 per photograph and receive a one-year membership to the museum), and the date and time the photograph was taken. “In the 19th century people would make a sketch in the galleries,” Mr. Campbell said. “Now they take pictures and upload them.”
The campaign is splashed on the sides of Manhattan buses, in the subways, on train platforms, on Web sites and even on the construction fence outside the museum’s Fifth Avenue entrance.
“For years our advertising was focused around special exhibitions,” Mr. Campbell said. “But in this time of gloom and doom we want to show people we’re a haven, a place to explore, discover and find inspiration.”
In a campaign that ended this month, the Museum of Modern Art plastered a Brooklyn subway station with reproductions of 58 works from the museum’s permanent collection. The Atlantic Avenue-Pacific Street station’s tiled walls and columns and even the arms of the turnstiles were covered with images of iconic works in the MoMA collection, including Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup cans, Monet’s waterlilies and Duchamp’s bicycle wheel. The campaign, which was seen by an estimated 50,000 commuters a day, was intended to remind New Yorkers of the riches that make up the museum’s holdings.
With costly blockbusters on the wane, in fact, promoting permanent collections has become a priority. Last year, MoMA mounted two shows centered on important paintings in its collection, and the museum has plans for a similar effort in September — an exhibition based on the Monet waterlilies.
The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis is in the middle of a major reinstallation of its permanent collections. Plans include rotating it as often as three or four times a year. “Our permanent collection has not been as visible as it should be,” said the center’s director, Olga Viso. She also will invite artists to create a work of art using something in the collection as inspiration. “The point is to show that our collection is a living and dynamic resource that we draw from,” Ms. Viso said.
Making the Art Institute of Chicago the cultural hub of the city is the No. 1 priority for James Cuno, its director, as he gears up for the opening of its new modern wing on May 16. Designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano, the 264,000-square-foot space will house the institute’s 20th- and 21st-century art collection. Its exhibitions, lectures and educational programs will include local partners like the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Goodman Theater.
“Each exhibition has a set of lectures, poetry readings and a chamber music series that relate to one another,” Mr. Cuno said. “We are also reaching out to graduate programs in the city with a series of influential art historians and professors that will be lecturing for students as part of the curriculum.”
It is also holding free lunchtime concerts planned in cooperation with consulates including Spain, China, India, Germany, Croatia, South Korea and Poland, and readings by international poets. “We want to get repeat visitors and build up a sustained relationship to the community,” Mr. Cuno said.
In Los Angeles, Michael Govan, director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, is gearing programs to local communities. In June, for example, the museum is presenting Twelve Contemporary Artists From Korea as a way of appealing to the city’s large Korean population.
Museums are seeking younger audiences through social networking sites. Nearly every museum has a page on Facebook. The Brooklyn Museum recently introduced a new tier of membership using social networking sites like Facebook, Flickr and the microblogging site Twitter to lure 20- and 30-somethings.
Some institutions are also using the Internet to give an exhibition an added dimension. At the Walker, for example, a traveling show called “Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes” has its own Web site, which includes a lexicon of terms related to suburbia. Visitors can add their own terms and can also post their personal suburban stories on YouTube, 16 of which were included in the show when it was on view at the Walker last summer. (The exhibition, which was also at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh last fall, opened at the Yale School of Architecture on March 2.) It’s just one example of many ways the Walker is trying to “merge on-site with online,” as Ms. Viso explains it.
The Art Institute’s Web site even has an online book club where curators select readings related to exhibitions and create downloadable discussion guides. There are also interactive components including curator-led discussion groups and readings at the museum. Since it began a year ago it has attracted nearly 700 members.
The Hammer’s new site has a podcasting component that has already caught on. “It makes us international,” Ms. Philbin said. This month the Museum of Modern Art rolled out a new version of moma.org that is not only more viewer friendly but more communicative, too. Highlighted on the site are blogs as well as links to places like Flickr and Twitter.
Some efforts to increase visitorship are decidedly less high-tech. To capture more New Yorkers, the Museum of Modern Art has decided to add a second late night. In addition to staying open until 8 on Fridays, it will be open till 8:45 on one Monday a month. “This is targeted for local people who want to be able to go to the museum on their way home from work,” said Mr. Lowry, the director.
The Walker Art Center is planning a first this summer: to be open on July 4, with a selection of free programs that are family focused. “Typically we’re closed that day,” Ms. Viso said. “But we recognize that many people will not be traveling this year.”
The students served by Brick by Brick, which is financed by the Heckscher Foundation for Children and J. P. Morgan Chase, are typically from difficult neighborhoods, Mr. Riley said. “This program is about their having a certain amount of control,” he said. “Through design we’re trying to show them that their neighborhoods are not irredeemable, that they can improve.”
An exhibit of the students’ designs, as well as the three-dimensional computer models of these neighborhoods rendered in miniature, is being planned for the spring. In the meantime, young people from the four local communities are invited to share their experiences, or post their artwork and stories and other related links, on a museum blog, mambxb.blogspot.com.
While the Miami museum is busy building bridges to local schoolchildren, the Cleveland Museum of Art is engaged in arts education programming geared to increasing its transparency.
“Obama wants to make his government transparent,” said Marjorie Williams, director of education and public programming. “That concept is really driving what we’re doing here.”
The museum’s Lifelong Learning Center, scheduled to open in 2012, will be just off the main entrance, she said. This location, and an abundance of glass in the architecture, are intended to enhance the center’s main purpose: offering a behind-the-scenes study of museum activities, she said.
In the 10,000-square-foot center, interactive equipment will enable classes and families to experience how exhibits are assembled and organized, and how collections are maintained. By accessing the museum’s collections on a computer, visitors will be able to curate virtual exhibits of their favorite artworks and historical objects, projecting images of their selections on the center’s walls. “We want to remove all the mystery about what happens in a museum,” Ms. Williams said.
The museum has already been beaming its collections and educators into school classrooms through live videoconferencing equipment. In 2008 alone, Ms. Williams said, the museum’s Distance Learning Program reached more than 28,000 students, from Cleveland to the remote village of Wildwood in Alberta.
Most museum administrators agree that arts education is essential for encouraging children to think creatively. Robert Lynch, president and chief executive of Americans for the Arts, an advocacy group, and a member of Mr. Obama’s national arts policy committee, said: “In order for Americans to remain competitive in the global economy, we have to make sure that our kids are getting meaningful arts education.”
Still, school classrooms have suffered from repeated cuts to education. And given the current economic climate, financing for kindergarten through 12th-grade arts education programs in city schools is endangered.
In the meantime, the Phillips Collection in Washington has embraced what it sees as the very backbone of arts education: local schoolteachers.
When an exhibit organized by the museum, “The Great American Epic: Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series,” went on a national tour in 2007, Susan Wright, director of education at Phillips, said she saw a great opportunity.
She and her staff contacted teachers from schools within easy traveling distance of the museums where the exhibit was on view. “We’ve got this nationally traveling art exhibition,” she said she told them. “We want to work with your community and your students.”
Offering interested teachers stipends to support their research, members of the museum staff helped them create lesson plans about “The Migration Series,” Mr. Lawrence’s colorful 60-panel cycle from 1941 that depicts the historic flight of more than six million African-Americans from impoverished communities in the rural South to cities in the North.
“Migration is a continuing reality in America,” Ms. Wright said, adding: “We are a country made up of immigrants; we really tried to generate enthusiasm and encourage teachers to take risks by pushing the boundaries of their curriculum. Then we tried to show them how making a difference in their curriculum could have an impact nationally.”
At a follow-up forum in Washington, teachers and other educators described how the traveling exhibit was used in multiple disciplines, from social studies to language arts. “A second-grade teacher from Texas had never used art in the classroom before,” Ms. Wright said. “That was really powerful.”
In spite of these efforts, however, Ms. Wright said teacher support of arts education had been seriously eroded by the priorities of the No Child Left Behind Act. At the Phillips, for example, programs virtually grind to a halt during the two-month drilling period when children prepare for tests, she said.
“There’s such pressure on teachers now,” she said. “If their students don’t perform well on tests, they worry about losing their jobs.” In taking such a narrow view toward education, she said, “No Child Left Behind is not preparing students for their role in 21st-century society.”
A spokesman at the federal Department of Education said it was too early to know how a reframed — and renamed — No Child Left Behind Act would affect K-12 arts education. Referring to the secretary of education, Arne Duncan, the spokesman said, “Secretary Duncan has opinions based on his longtime experience as a superintendent, but he wants to speak to people in the field before he develops a plan for N.C.L.B.”
And while museum directors remain hopeful, they also want their accomplishments recognized.
“It’s just shocking to me,” said Ms. Fogarty, referring to an amendment, proposed last month by Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, that grouped museums with golf courses and casinos as being similarly nonessential and thus not eligible for money in the recovery package. (The approved package ultimately preserved a $50 million allocation to the National Endowment for the Arts and eliminated the language that excluded museums.)
“The Obama platform mentions the impact arts can have on creative thinking,” she said. “But there still seems to be this limited understanding of the role museums play in this. We are schools if we’re providing for schools. I know many museums that have thousands of kids coming through their doors every day.”
Olor a pintura fresca, un piso inmaculado, mesas con lavamanos integrados y la entrada de la luz natural a través de ventanales será, a partir de hoy, el escenario de creación para los 160 estudiantes del programa de Artes Plásticas de Baldwin School.
La nuevas instalaciones para alumnos de los grados intermedios y superiores serán inauguradas hoy, a las 6:00 p.m., como parte de una iniciativa para continuar el enriquecimiento del currículo de arte impartido en la institución educativa.
“El currículo de arte está vinculado a otras disciplinas que estimulan el desarrollo integral de los estudiantes. Antes era un salón normal; ahora podrán contar con un salón de apreciación de arte, donde a través del año podrán exhibir sus trabajos”, señaló la principal de intermedia y superior, Laura Maristany, quien añadió que la solidez de las clases electivas de arte se debe en parte a la dedicación de las profesoras, Carmen Santiago y Sofía Vizcarrondo.
El nuevo espacio, ubicada en el tercer piso del colegio, fue diseñado por el arquitecto Luis Gutiérrez. En su diseño, se destaca la entrada de la luz natural y altos techos de madera.
En un mismo lugar se integran una sala de exhibición y conferencias, un gran salón para las clases de arte, otro para escultura y cerámica, y un área aparte para los trabajos de fotografía y arte digital. Cada salón cuenta con los elementos necesarios, desde mesas, iluminación segmentada para cada pared de exhibición y equipo indispensable para el desarrollo de los trabajos artísticos de los alumnos.
Durante la actividad, habrá un corte de cinta que estará a cargo del director de la institución, Günter Brandt, seguido por la apertura de la exhibición de los trabajos realizados durante este año escolar. La muestra incluye cerca de 200 obras de arte realizadas en diferentes medios.
Tomado de Primera Hora:"Va a tomar la ciudad de una manera muy fuerte y eso es un sello que la distingue", dijo a Efe el curador principal de la Bienal, Nelson Herrera Ysla.
La Bienal será inaugurada el próximo 27 de marzo y sus promotores esperan la presencia de 140 artistas participantes e invitados de 56 países.
La cita llevará el lema "La integración y resistencia en la era global", en alusión a la unión sin perder la identidad propia, indicó Ysla.
Las obras de la muestra proceden de América Latina y el Caribe, frica, Asia y Medio Oriente y, en menor escala de Norteamérica, Europa y Australia.
Además, fuera del programa de la Bienal, el Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes ha anunciado la exposición "Chelsea visita a La Habana", compuesta por obras de los fondos de galerías de Nueva York, y en la que interviene un grupo de unos 40 artistas estadounidenses.
El conjunto abarca grabados, esculturas, instalaciones y obras en vídeo de creadores como Uta Barth, Delia Brown, Carrey Maxon, Paul Pfeifer, Laurie Thomas, Andrew Moore, Matthew Ritchie, Tina Barney y Ed Ruscha, entre otros.
En el marco estricto de la bienal, las obras ocuparán toda la red de galerías de la ciudad y estará diseminada en unos veinte espacios de La Habana, explicó el especialista.
Como novedad, anunció los talleres que dictarán artistas como el puertorriqueño Antonio Martorell y la cubana Tania Brugueras.
Entre los invitados confirmó la presencia de León Ferrari (Argentina), Sue Williamson (Suráfrica), Hervé Fischer (Francia y Canadá), Pepón Osorio (Puerto Rico), el fotógrafo Paulo Bruscky (Brasil), Darío Escobar y Regina José Galindo (Guatemala), y Abraham Cruz-Villegas (México).
"Sigue siendo una bienal que tiene la característica de que mantiene una presencia amplia, de toma e intervención en la ciudad", agregó el miembro del comité organizador.
Señaló que la Bienal está aún en la fase de preparación de los locales en el complejo de fortalezas coloniales Morro-Cabaña, donde estará el núcleo central, dedicado a los artistas invitados, como ha sido habitual desde 1994.
Otras ocho exposiciones individuales e igual cifra de colectivas están previstas en espacios del centro histórico de La Habana, la Casa de las Américas y el céntrico Pabellón Cuba.
Destacó la presentación de las muestras "Inquietud lúdica", dedicada al diseñador japonés Shigeo Fukuda, y otra al fotógrafo colombiano Fernell Franco, ambos fallecidos.
http://www.bienalhabana.cult.cu/
This structurally incomplete version of the ode (the hole in the piano renders two full octaves inoperative) creates variations on the corporeal as well as sonic dimension of the player/instrument dynamic, the signature melody being played, and its pre-established connotations. With Stop, Repair, Prepare, Allora & Calzadilla explore the fluid and organic relationships inherent in music, exposing the varied dynamics between composition and meaning, instrument and performance, while tracking the political and artistic sentiments involved in music’s history. Throughout the exhibition, there will be hourly performances on Tuesday through Saturday by the following pianists: Amir Khosrowpour, Kathy Tagg, Mia Elezovic, Sheryl Lee, Sun Jun, Terezija Cukrov, Walter Aparicio.
Strongly keeping alive the austerity of such a primadonna of the orchestra, Allora & Calzadilla pursuive also in this piece in investigatine on the poetry of the objects with irony and smart glance, saying that the joke has something serious to tell us.
Collaborating since 1995, Allora & Calzadilla approach visual art as a set of experiments addresing issues like nationality, borders and democracy into our global and consumerist society. They mix sculpture, photography, performance, sound and video coming out with actions that broke any expectation.
It’s the same at Gladstone gallery, where musicians forced to play in such a painful way, are also mooving in the space of the gallery, reacting with the public and turning it from a still and stiff observer into a object itself who needs to move in oder to follow. And again the Synphony is the soundtrack for a parade. Are we men or obiects?
Carmen Ruiz de Fischler es la primera directora del Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña que “reincide” en el cargo.
La también ex directora de los museos de Arte de Ponce y de Puerto Rico conoce bien el ICP porque llegó allí en 1984 a sustituir a la controvertible Leticia del Rosario en momentos en que los defensores de la cultura puertorriqueña, literalmente a gritos, pedían su destitución.
Ruiz de Fischler fue en aquel entonces más que administradora, diplomática, una cualidad con la que de nuevo llega a dirigir el Instituto.
Los problemas de ese organismo son hoy distintos a los de la década de los ochenta. Son primordialmente económicos y debido a esa realidad tuvo que iniciar funciones consolidando programas.
Música, por ejemplo, fue fusionado con Teatro; Patrimonio Histórico Edificado con Mejoras Permanentes, y se contempla consolidar también Artes Populares con Promoción Cultural.
Ruiz de Fischler busca ahorros por doquier, pero al mismo tiempo quiere del ICP un organismo eficiente, por lo que también decidió cerrar oficinas fuera de la sede del Instituto para traer a todo su personal a trabajar en el antiguo Asilo de Beneficencia.
“El Instituto no está muerto. Si ésa es la percepción que hay, vamos a trabajar para cambiarla”, consignó la nueva titular de la agencia, quien ve ese organismo autónomo como uno que necesariamente evoluciona hacia el uso de nuevos recursos de difusión de la cultura puertorriqueña, como puede ser el Internet.
Ruiz de Fischler buscará además el apoyo de agencias como los departamentos de Educación y Familia para llevar actividades culturales a las comunidades menos privilegiadas.
También les estará tocando puertas a los alcaldes para que la ayuden con el mantenimiento y la programación de los distintos monumentos históricos que ubican en la Isla.
En cuanto al Museo de la Raíz Africana, la titular del ICP llamó la atención a que éste está “bien deteriorado”, al extremo de que el comején ha invadido la instalación.
Será necesario, según dijo, reconceptualizar ese museo por completo.
También se propone abrir este año el Museo del Libro, uno de los grandes tesoros del país que se encuentra clausurado.
Ruiz de Fischler señaló, sin embargo, que lo que más le preocupa es la colección de obras de arte del ICP.
“Están inventariadas y almacenadas con seguridad, pero las condiciones no son las óptimas. El espacio (en el antiguo Arsenal) es limitado y se necesitan unas instalaciones con mejor control de ambiente”, develó, al destacar que estará buscando un nuevo edificio donde pueda ubicar pinturas, muebles antiguos, armas, santos y otras obras de nuestro acervo cultural.
En cuanto a las piezas de valor arqueológico, la directora del Instituto descarta la necesidad de establecer un gran depósito para guardarlas. Lo deseable, según dijo, es que se creen varios, por regiones.
En esa tarea también piensa involucrar a los alcaldes.
Sobre el mundo del teatro y la música, Ruiz de Fischler apuntó que es necesario resolver el problema de los descuentos a las personas de mayor edad.
La directora recomendó que el Estado subvencione en parte los boletos o que se limite su número, porque los productores ahora mismo no pueden recuperar en absoluto su inversión.
El director artístico de la próxima Trienal Poli/Gráfica de San Juan habla sobre su génesis conceptual
Museo del café
Dedicado a preservar y promover todo lo relacionado con la cultura del café en la Isla. Entre sus antigüedades figuran cafeteras, tostadoras y despulpadoras, además de un molinillo de 1726. También, cuentan con documentos históricos sobre la industria de este grano, con especial énfasis en la Casa Pintueles, que desde mediados del siglo XIX fue la principal compañía exportadora de café a nivel local. Además, es la única tienda especializada en la venta de café gourmet de todas partes del mundo.
Dirección: Calle Palmer #42, Paseo del Aroma del Café, Ciales
Horario: Lunes a viernes de 1:00 p.m. a 6:00 p.m., y sábado y domingo de 9:00 a.m. a 6:00 p.m.
Información: 787-871-3500, 787-313-0925 o www.museodelcafepr.com
Precio de entrada: Gratis
Museo del mundillo
Presenta una exhibición de piezas de vestir hechas de este tejido delicado. También, hay muebles y maquinaria relacionados con la elaboración de mundillo. Una de las máquinas más antiguas data de hace más de un siglo. Entre la exhibición existen piezas que presentan la evolución de este arte a lo largo de los siglos, incluyendo algunas de Europa del siglo XVI. Además, se exhiben piezas hechas con fibra de la planta de maguey como una muestra de la amplitud creativa para la que se presta este arte.
Dirección: Calle Barbosa #237, Moca
Horario: Martes a sábado de 9:00 a.m. a 1:30 p.m.
Información: 787-877-3815, 787-487-7924 o museomoca@museodelmundillo.org
Precio de entrada: Donación a discreción del visitante
Museo de la muñeca
Los amantes de las Barbies admirarán sobre 850 modelos de la muñeca, además de accesorios relacionados con ella y otros personajes de la línea Mattel. Fundado en 1998, en la colección figuran personajes de cuentos famosos y de diversas nacionalidades. La más antigua es de 1959, cuando estrenó en el mercado. La compañía Mattel prohibió a la institución utilizar la marca como parte de su nombre.
Dirección: Bo. Cocos, Carr. 482 km. 0.9, Quebradillas
Horario: Sábado, domingo y días feriados, de 12:00 del mediodía a 5:00 p.m.
Información: 787-895-1517,
Precio de entrada: $3.75 (más IVU)
Museo del tabaco Herminio Torres
Se exhibe y se demuestra el arte de enrollar tabacos a mano. A través de documentos antiguos, artículos, fotos y un documental, el visitante puede conocer sobre la historia de la siembra de tabaco en Caguas, además de la participación de la mujer en la industria tabacalera en la Isla. También, se puede observar a los artesanos presentes despalillar hojas, separar los mazos y preparar cada cigarro. El material confeccionado se dispone para la venta.
Dirección: Calle Betances # 87, Esq. Padial, Caguas
Horario: Miércoles a domingo de 9:00 a.m. a 12:00 m. y de 1:00 p.m. a 5:00 p.m.
Información: 787-744-2960
Precio de entrada: Libre de costo
Museo Antigua Aduana de Arroyo
Además de exhibiciones de arte de pintores regionales, este museo incluye una colección de artículos pertenecientes a Samuel Morse (siglos XVIII-XIX), inventor del telégrafo, y de su hija y su yerno, un hacendado inglés. Entre éstos se incluyen la mesa donde se cree que Morse tenía uno de sus equipos de transmisión en la ciudad sureña, además de una cigarrera. También, cuentan con fotos de la entrada de las tropas estadounidenses al pueblo de Arroyo en 1898.
Dirección: Calle Morse #65, al lado de la alcaldía, Arroyo
Horario: Lunes a sábado, de 9:00 a.m. a 5:00 p.m.
Información: 787-839-8096 y Facebook: Patronato de Arroyo, Puerto Rico
Precio de entrada: Gratis
