NEW YORK– El Museo del
Barrio announces the exhibition A Universe of Fragile Mirrors, a solo
exhibition on the work of Beatriz Santiago Muñoz (b. 1972, San Juan, Puerto
Rico; lives in San Juan). The exhibition is organized by the Pérez Art Museum
Miami (PAMM) and curated by María Elena Ortiz. El Museo’s exhibition will open
on January 11 and will remain on view through April 30, 2017. Beatriz Santiago
Muñoz: A Universe of Fragile Mirrors is the third exhibition of El Museo’s
five-year series highlighting Latina artists.
Through a series of
films and videos, A Universe of Fragile Mirrors captures the ironies of
post-colonial conditions in the Caribbean — specifically in Haiti and Puerto
Rico. Focusing on indigenous cosmologies, post-military spaces, and syncretic
religions from the Caribbean, Santiago Muñoz borrows techniques from
performance, film, visual ethnography, and anthropology, to document specific
communities and public sites in order to generate her own bricolage - an
alternative story about a popular Haitian market, or a newly discovered
archeological site in Puerto Rico.
The exhibit will
consist of films on continuous play, portraying Santiago Muñoz’s own
interpretation of the realities in Haiti and Puerto Rico. Influenced by
experimental cinema, she relies on observational research to generate
non-linear narratives that challenge the boundaries between documentary and
fiction. Santiago Muñoz’s characters are not professional actors, but instead
everyday people who have direct experiences with the sites portrayed in her
works. “The process is more experiential,” Santiago Muñoz explains. The result
is a captivating piece representing daily events and life on the islands through
an audiovisual language.
Beatriz Santiago Muñoz, La Cueva Negra,
2013, HD color video with sound, 20 min.
Courtesy the artist
and Galería Agustina Ferreyra
Each video carries its
own story and speaks to daily life and the traditional myths engrained in
Caribbean culture. “Beatriz produces compelling images that provoke new
interpretations on the realities of the Caribbean experience,” explains PAMM
Curator María Elena Ortiz.
In addition, El Museo
has invited Santiago Muñoz to explore El Museo’s collection of over 8,000
objects and select a group of works that connect to her ideas, her films, her
approach to making art and other real or symbolic affinities. Acting as
curator, Santiago Muñoz has selected works from the permanent collection that
include Hector Mendez- Caratini’s photographs of Taino petroglyphs, Ana
Mendieta’s performance Body Tracks, a selection of destroyed film works by El
Museo’s founder Raphael Montañez Ortiz, and works by Nuyorican artists
including Marcos Dimas and Carlos Irizarry. In addition, the artist will create
an installation with the museum’s holdings of Taino art. This will be an
extension to A Universe of Fragile Mirrors and curated in collaboration with El
Museo. "Having Beatriz Santiago Muñoz explore our collection is not just
an honor, but also a rare treat. Artists look at objects and collections in
unique ways and we find that it is deeply enriching to have artists make
selections and create new visual and conceptual dialogues among works of art,”
states El Museo Senior Curator, Rocio Aranda-Alvarado.
Film stills from
Untitled (Blood Sign #1), 1974 / El Museo del Barrio Collection
ABOUT BEATRIZ SANTIAGO
MUÑOZ
Beatriz Santiago Muñoz
was born in 1972 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where she lives and works today. She
studied at the University of Chicago and the School of the Art Institute of
Chicago. Santiago Muñoz was a co-founder of the internationally acclaimed
alternative school Beta-Local in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Solo exhibitions on her
work have been presented at Teorética, San José, Costa Rica; Sala de Arte
Público Siquieros, Mexico City; Gasworks, London; and CCA Wattis Institute for
Contemporary Arts, San Francisco. Her films and videos have been included in
significant group exhibitions showcased at CAPC, Bordeaux; the Solomon R.
Guggenheim Museum, New York; Tate Modern, London; the Bienal do Mercosul, Porto
Alegre; Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City; and the Brooklyn Museum, New York,
among others. In 2015, she was the recipient of the Creative Capital Visual
Arts Grant. Santiago Muñoz was an artist in residence at the New Museum in
2016, where she presented the exhibition Beatriz Santiago Muñoz: Song,
Strategy, Sign as part of this project.
EL MUSEO DEL BARRIO’S WOMEN ARTISTS
RETROSPECTIVE SERIES
In recognizing the
historical exclusion of women from the art professions, which has directly
contributed to an international museum culture predisposed to male artists, El
Museo del Barrio is resolved to challenge this gender bias, within our means
and within our walls, by organizing a retrospective or major survey of works by
outstanding women artists—one each year.
The surveys will span
decades of an artist’s career, occupy the majority of the gallery space in the
museum, and be accompanied by public programs and a book publication with new
scholarship that positions and conveys the import of the artist’s contributions
to the field.
SPONSORS
Beatriz Santiago
Muñoz: A Universe of Fragile Mirrors is organized by Pérez Art Museum Miami
Assistant Curator, María Elena Ortiz. The exhibition is made possible with
major support from The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Foundation, Series Sponsor of
El Museo del Barrio’s Women Artists series. Additional support from the New
York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito through the New York City
Department of Cultural Affairs. Support for the exhibition catalogue provided
by Galería Agustina Ferreyra.
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