Together, the artists in “Ojalá” use new media and installation, in order to challenge the viewers relationship and responsiveness of historical museums. The exhibition presents interdisciplinary work that seeks active engagement in order to measure paradigm shifts within modes of exchange and cultural context.“Ojalá” brings together works by nine artists from across the americas, the majority of whom are exhibiting in New Mexico for the first time. Each artist uses the methodologies of sound and alternative forms of communication to address social, political, and cultural upheaval.
Atomic Culture has been committed to curating exhibitions that ignite further conversation around invisible borders. This exhibition continues that conversation. The title, Ojalá , considers the word’s cross-section of cultures — the Arabic root, inshallah translates to god willing - Oxalá"( from an Yoruban origin “Obatala”) is known in West-African and afro-Brazilian religions as the father of all people. “Ojalá” explores linguistic structures that are linked to set powers of inequality, established through cultural erasure — the artists exhibiting offer models of examining cultural recall and materiality for purposes of breaking down pre-determined systems that blanket our communities, globally. The exhibition employs objects connected to a multitude of cultural experiences in order to provoke reflection upon the viewer.
Merida, Mexico -- Atomic Culture and Galeria Merida present, Entre Irse y Quedarse (Between Coming and Going), multi series exhibition focusing on the dialogue between artists living along border, specifically those in the “Americas”. In observing cross sections of the vibrant visual legacy of the global south, the exhibition seeks to mediate the complex tensions that arise when imagined lines are made real. hrough public intervention and installation, each of the artists in the exhibition -- Crack Rodriguez, Electronic Disturbance Theater 2.0, Cristobal Martinez, Sandra Monterosso, and Delilah Montoya -- Activate the observer to address their experiences with cultural erasure in relation to border issues with public intervention and xperiential installation.
As the Nobel prize winning poet Octavio Paz often alludes to in his writings about self reflection, the exhibition speaks to the mass reflection society needs to participate in, considering the legacy of colonial imperialism within the Americas. Entre Irse y Quedarse reflects on immigration, the disregard toward earth’s resources, and the hypocrisy of the human condition. Over the course of the last year, the conversations surrounding immigration reform has becoming increasingly central to the public discourse internationally, with the global refugee crisis and waves of economically motivated immigration headlining international news and often posed as a societal threat. Yet, these conversations and the issues raised in the media are not new nor consequential.
The artists in Entre Irse y Quedarse illustrate the movement of ideas and people as drivers of our innovation, and bolsters of economic industry. Cristobal Martinez’s Con Frascos Embrujados Me Ensangrente las Manos. Escucha Cuando Me Chingé Solo con Tierra y Viento, invites participants to interact individually or in tandem by picking up and twisting hanging jars that when activated immerse the space with the evocative reverberation of standing in the desert. Martinez aims for the participants to experience the unleashing of “ a death curanderismo that arises from the artist’s perception of the irradiated borderlands.” Sandra Monterroso confronts dialogue around identity and its conditioning, looking at both ancestral memory and contemporaneity, focused in particular on Guatemalan context. Crack Rodriguez’s public intervention is a catalyst for social change by focusing on the abuse of power upon socially and economically disadvantaged populations. And the seminal works of the Electronic Disturbance Theater 2.0 and Delilah Montoya focus attention on the basic human needs of those caught in the intersection of flux and political feud.
Each artist explores borders as a physical reality and as a site for possibility, encompassing multiple disciplines, reflecting the ways in which contemporary artists themselves cross disciplinary borders, bringing nuanced perspectives to international concerns. As Octavio Paz wrote, “All is visible and all elusive, all is near and cannot be touched."
Artists: Electronic Disturbance Theater 2.0, Nani Chacon, Gilbert "Magú" Luján, Ryan Dennison, Zeke Pena, Chico MacMurtrie, Claudia X. Valdes, William Camargo, Rick Cortez, Lindsay Kane, Delilah Montoya, Cristobal Martinez, Scott Williams, Cultural Workers, and a SSSK Distro retrospective.
Atomic Culture is proud to present its inaugural arts program, Turn On and Take Cover, with live music and an exhibition of works by six contemporary artists based in or from New Mexico.
The inaugural exhibition is structured around a showcase of contemporary artists from the southwest and their relationship and use of the land. The results are shocking, playful, and heart-breaking, with abstract relationships revealed in the artist's struggles with an unrelenting landscape, political issues and ancient traditions. Participating artists include Nani Chacon, Chico MacMurtrie, Death Convention Singers, Claudia X Valdes, Scott Williams, Joel-Peter Witkin.
Free live music will be offered in Halagueno Arts Park., with Sleepercar (El Paso, TX), an alternative country project of Jim Ward of Sparta and former member of At the Drive-In, glam metal band Chicharra (Albuquerque, NM), and surf punk band Miijas (El Paso, TX).
There will be a free community portrait booth - photography by Mathew and Malinda Galindo will be available online the next day for all subjects.
Atomic Culture is both an idea and a place where people from all backgrounds are encouraged to learn, create, and experience art in it’s myriad forms. The organization curates free cultural events, approximately every four months in New Mexico, aimed at engaging all generations of the community in a long-term and ongoing growth of artistic enablement, understanding, and inclusion. These events encourage active participation and bring awareness to not only the indigenous cultures dominant in the area but also a broader spectrum of art-based activity.
Representing a wide range of practice in visual, sound, and performance arts, Atomic Culture provides exhibitions, live performances, and workshops. In providing an open arts space the organization and it’s sponsors encourage conversation and inspire new works across a diverse range of cultures, ages, and levels of arts awareness.
Opening - February 4, 2017: Cultural Workers will perform followed by a discussion on the history and uses of the Agave. Tequila and Mezcal Tasting.
February 11, 2017: Nativa Remedies by Celeste Casillas: Community workshop on how to use traditional herbs in modern daily life and creating at home remedies influenced by elder and ancestral healing methods and the passing down of stories. Participants will make a salve to take home.
Feb 9, 2017: Ricardo Dominguez will join us for a conversation and skype in his collaborator Amy Sara Carroll (who wrote the poems on the Transborder Immigrant Tool) we will be talking about Border publics, Art and Activism.