Mario Garcia Torres

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still from "What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger?", 2007

in partnership with Itinerant
45 Orchard Street, New York (between Hester and Grand)
Opening Saturday, April 23, 6-8pm.
Artist Talk, Sunday, April 24, 6:30 pm
Exhibition runs 23 April - 8 May 2011

Reviews:

Press Release:

Itinerant / Protocinema are pleased to announce an exhibition of Mario Garcia Torres at 45 Orchard St. This exhibition is a collaboration between Itinerant, founded by Rose Lord, and Protocinema, founded by Mari Spirito. The exhibition will be open from 23 April until 8 May, Thursdays - Sundays, noon - 6pm. The exhibition presents two works by Garcia Torres, both on 35mm slides, which explore specific narratives involving artists and their relationships to the managerial structure of an art institution. In What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger, 2007, Garcia Torres investigates Martin Kippenberger's attempts to establish a Modern Art Museum on the Greek island of Syros. The work is half travel log, half proposal and is typical of Garcia Torres' playful yet rigorous approach to the archaeology of cultural history, unlocking and reviving forgotten narratives and myths, to bring forth new stories, ideas and meanings in his own work. It is not just a comment on the nature of art history, but also on how mediation affects its reception.

In a new work, Cover Letter, 2011, Garcia Torres goes right to the heart of the relationship between the artist and the art institution by re-presenting a letter recently sent to the Kunsthalle Bern. In the letter, which was sent as a series of slides, the artist presents himself as a candidate to direct the institution, while documenting an action that could potentially present his approach to think about the different layers and implications of publicly presenting art works. These subtle documentations of past, ephemeral events are presented in this temporary space in New York, the provisional nature of which might echo that of the museum in Syros, as well as of the possibility that the artist opened by sending the letter to this iconic Kunsthalle.

Please join us for the opening on Saturday 23 April from 6-8pm. An informal talk by Mario Garcia Torres will take place on Sunday 24 April at 6.30pm.

Mario Garcia Torres was born in Monclova, Mexico in 1975 and lives and works in Mexico City. Some of his recent solo exhibitions include: Directions: Cyprien Gaillard and Mario Garcia Torres, Hirschhorn Museum Museum, Washington (2010); What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger, FRAC Franche-Comt, Besanon (2010); Have You Ever Seen the Snow?, Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid (2010); I Will Be With You Shortly, Peep-Hole, Milan (2010); It's Embarrassing, but for Some Time Now I Only Have Had Title Ideas in English, Espai 13, Fundacio Joan Miro, Barcelona (2009); Unspoken Dailies, Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo (2009); The Exhibition Formerly Known as Passengers 2.11: Mario Garcia Torres, 9 at Leo Castelli, Wattis Institute, San Francisco (2009); Early Color Video Tapes, Proyectos Monclova, Mexico City (2009); MATRIX 227, UC Berkeley Museum of Art and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley (2009); All That Color is Making Me Blind, Jan Mot, Brussels (2009); Il Aurait Bien Pu Le Promettre Aussi, Jeu de Paume, Paris (2009); Some Stories that Went Missing..., Kunsthalle Zurich (2008); Mario Garcia Torres, White Cube, London (2008). He has also participated in numerous important group exhibitions: 29th Sao Paulo Biennial (2010); Taipei Biennial, Taipei (2010); 8^th Panama Biennal, Panama (2008): Yokahama Triennial, Yokahama (2008); Biennale di Venezia, Venice (2007).