#61: Note On the Index

Every month Marginalia invites an artist, curator, or project to provide a series of images that will serve as the background of Terremoto, in relation to their practice and current interests. At the end of each month, the whole series of images is unveiled. Here the selection of July 2020.

Note On the Index……………………………………………………………………………7

CHAPTER I: The Road to the Country, An Investigation on the Rural Artist

1. Synchronous Production…………………………………………………………………11

Oye, let’s go to the country! — a trip in the country — Foucault and cows. — stones, bags, objects, and trails: and… and…—Residual Spaces: natural, urban, and country. — country evolution.

2. To Be(come) A Rural Artist……………………………………………………………..18

When inaction happens—t o  b e. — Synchronous production: it’s easy, it is just -being- done. — images shared in dreams and on Inst*gr*m. — producing for cute record(s). — real images virtual supports.

3. Empirical country abstract country……………………………………………………….24

Urban country, flanking country, mental country. — What is the country in Yucatán?—It later is… and is there.

CHAPTER II: CALLE.NART AND WHAT IT LEFT SPREAD TO THE LANDSCAPE.

1. The nart whores……………………………………………………………………………………………….29

The workshop as home and the home as workshop. — walking, street, and installation. — working progress: wishful installation.

2. Expandedlandscape #tremendousartist…………………………………………………..42

Dialectical past: superimposed images — “garden in the city” the promise of a residential life away from traffic and the specter of an immersed labyrinth. —keep clean keep real: introduction to #PNGsalon.

CHAPTER III: #PNGSALON

1. Hyperlink and hyperlinking…………………………………………………………………………………..57

Behind the account: (id)entities. — virtual exhibitions and the pandemic. — I am not a robot. — video calls and patas. — national gatherings of brown youth.

2. The PNG’s Economy………………………………………………………………………………………….62

Space as background and object as layer. — #PNGsculpture. — web specific. — be your own institution.

3. Four Proposals for #PNGinstallation……………………………………………………………………..74

Leonardo Ascencio: An Installation for Farewells — Anna Karen Miranda Ayuso: wish room / habbo hotel residency. — Mariana Ledesma: in the future, those who washed their hands well will be our heroes. — Syndell Razo: @cheapqueen is an Inst*gr*m avatar that interacts with biohuman postures.

CHAPTER IV: INDEX OF PROPOSALS, PROJECTS, AND ARTISTS

1. An “organic” sense of production…………………………………………………………………………..90

A piece made for PNG by Natalia Degetau.

2. Metacommentaries…………………………………………………………………………………………….111

This was the text — these are proposals managed by yucatec (emerging or marginalized) artists — this which is yet to be named.

3. The last thing this index……………………………………………………………………………………118

Well, that’s all. — thank you for reading.

Note On the Index

This text arises from the fictional situation of having lost the actual piece of writing. A little bit like when the “dog eats the homework.” It is here where the homework becomes what is enunciated by an affected student. The excuse takes the place of the homework (and, if reality were anything like cartoons, the student would be saved depending on their discursive abilities).

In this cartoonish situation, it is important to note that the affected do not always lie. Many cartoons (about simulated realities) show that the extraordinary event does happen: “on occasion, the dog does eat your homework.” What I find pertinent to highlight is that this situation happens because there is a turnout and a confrontation. This leads to the unveiling of the excuse, or, in other words, a narration of the extraordinary events that caused the homework to “be lost.”

This event then leads to a dialectical confrontation against reality with the teacher. There is a loss, and absence, and a ghost of the homework. This text comes from a fictional situation with results of a real production. This text, like an elementary school, is built under a cemetery (of something that never was). For this edition of Marginalia #61 I present an index of projects that are taking place in our pandemic moment. Projects that showcase the interests of young artists residing in southeastern Mexico, Yucatán being the point of departure.

Collaborating mainly with Natalia Degetau and Alejandro Manzanero, we have undertaken projects and created platforms in the interest of contributing to proposals for contemporary art as presented below:

(1) The first chapter is an investigation on the country artist, an artist interested in unstable aesthetics, an investigation on the space they inhabit (where they are and where they exist) in continuous evolution. Emphasizing the “road to the country,” the project not only addresses the “path” to the country, but it also takes us there. We worked on this project with Natalie Degetau as the first approximation to a production and investigation based on collective and collaborative art. This project, initially, situates us in the Yucatec country where, as in many Mexican cities, the city’s everyday landscape is progressively modified by the nature-industry. This refers to a discursive journey that regards the (urban) country as a residual space, delimited by a borderline (the street) that signals and separates it. It is in this line where the second project to be discussed is situated.

(2) Calle.nart is a collaborative platform developed with Alejandro Manzanero in which, under the interest of these “new” aesthetics, we carry out projects that work with the variables and different production lines that surge from questionings derived in the practice itself. Working primarily with the idea of the street, we advance the nart as a visual diet that necessitates—from its state as a platform—a good Shitposting as we share stories and upload memes to our feeds. The third project to be explained arises from this practice of expanding the meme’s narrative possibilities (expanded meme).

(3) The #PNGsalon starts off as an algorithmic museum, located under the hashtag of the same name. Through this project, we support the initiative of exhibiting specific collections of images (produced, downloaded, stolen, or found), highlighting their political and poetic value through their conversion to PNG files.

Focusing primarily in the production of #PNGinstallation, artists that we “find on Inst*gr*m” are personally invited to participate in a video call every Tuesday. #NPGsalon stems from the necessity of production, as well as the search for alternative exhibition modes, and is in turn simplified in a publication and through hyperlinking via hashtag. Of Yucatec origin, #PNGsalon has reached different places in the country (Guadalajara, Guanajuato, Tamaulipas, Saltillo, Mexico City). Amongst those invited have been projects of similar interests, including: @grupoascencio131, @centro_cultural_kappa, @neotortilleria, @sep_nuevageneracion @tetrade.arte, @servicioatodalarepublica, @bexpo7.5 (with @bexpo8 coming soon).

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