Regina José Galindo
October 2 – November 21, 2009
OPENING Friday, October 2, 2009, 7-10pm
Opening performance by Regina José Galindo at 8:30pm
Regina José Galindo –the second exhibition in Exit Art’s SOLO series and the first in the
Performance in Crisis program – is a ten-year survey of performance and installation work by the
Guatemalan performance artist of the same name. The exhibition includes the New York premiere
of a new work, Crisis: Cloth, to be performed only once: on opening night. Crisis: Cloth is part of a
performance trilogy titled Crisis, for which Regina José Galindo will enact a series of transactions
that reference and critique our current moment of economic instability. For this performance, the
artist will sell each article of clothing she will be wearing for $5 a piece to any audience member
willing to pay and remove it from her body.
For the past decade, Galindo’s work has addressed social and political relations in the Americas.
She draws attention to these issues by inflicting or mimicking direct, physical violence on her body – as in Himenoplastia (Hymenoplasty) or Perra, during which the artist carved the Spanish word for ‘bitch’ into her leg. Regina often places herself and the viewer into difficult psychological situations – as in El Dolor en un Panuelo (The Pain in a Handkerchief), during which newspaper articles about victimized women were projected on her naked body.
Recalling the political and poetic gestures of Ana Mendieta, the endurance feats of Tehching Hsieh, and the extreme actions of Chris Burden, Regina José Galindo creates powerful visual metaphors by establishing her body as a site of conflict. Indeed her compelling – and sometimes disturbing – body of work shows Galindo chained, trapped, drowned, brutalized, and anguished. Her body becomes a specimen, a potent representation of brutality and agitation.
This is her first solo exhibition in New York.
Performance in Crisis
October 2 – December 19, 2009
OPENING Friday, October 2, 2009, 7-10pm
Performance in Crisis is a series of site-specific performative responses to the many crises in the global society from a particular view of the artists’ aesthetic. These performances will happen over three months at Exit Art, using Galindo’s performance work as a point of departure. The performances will be documented with photography and video which will become part of the exhibition both in the gallery and on the web, creating a shifting installation each week over the three months.
Performance in Crisis conceived and curated by Papo Colo with Associate Curator Herb Tam.
Opening night, Friday October 2, 8:30pm:
New York Premiere of Crisis: Cloth (2009), a performance by Regina José Galindo.
For this performance, Regina José Galindo will sell each article of clothing she will be wearing for $5 a piece to any audience member willing to pay and remove it from her body.
Saturday, October 3, 7pm:
Tumulos/Burial Mounds, a performance piece by David Pérez Karmadavis.
Ten people will lie flat on the ground, side to side, with a distance of approximately one meter between them. A carpet or piece of fabric will be placed over their bodies so that they are completely covered, with only their heads revealed.
Performances every Friday evening at 7pm through December 18, 2009.
Other scheduled performances include:
Friday, October 9 / 7pm: Anya Liftig
Friday, October 23 / 7pm: Rosamond S. King
Friday, November 6 / 7pm: Jodie Lyn-Kee-Chow
Friday, November 20 / 7pm: Boryana Rossa and Oleg Mavromatti / Mayumi Ishino
Friday, December 4 / 7pm: Jolie Pichardo
Friday, December 11 / 7pm: Rafael Sanchez
Friday, December 18 / 7pm: Rob Andrews
Other performances with dates to be announced:
Diana Beato; Vanessa Hernandez Gracia; Saeri Kiritani; Wanda Ortiz; Rafa Vargas
both exhibitions at:
Exit Art
475 Tenth Avenue at 36th Street
NYC 10018
212.966.7745 / www.exitart.org
A,C,E to 34th Street / Penn Station
