Ximena
Cuevas
Ximena Cuevas and the Laboratory of Life
Artist in Residence, November 3-5
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Absorbed by the minutiae of the everyday, Cuevas calls her spirited
work a "laboratory of life," an experimental process,
personal in its origins but public in its scope. She looks upon
Mexico City with an eye that carefully scrutinizes the world
from the inside out, finding the secret whispers of individual
yearning as telling as the great urban tumult. Cuevas begins
with unadorned observations of mundane Mexican life, then reinvents
them through her forceful vision. She is preoccupied with the
implications of received behavior, with notions such as romance
and machismo — in other words, with the myths that charge
a culture.
As
artist in residence, Cuevas will present videoworks spanning
the early 1980s to the present, as well as a Free
First Thursday screening
of recent video art from Mexico City which she has selected for
the occasion. On Friday afternoon she will conduct a free salon centered on her artistic process, conceived especially for students
and
aspiring artists.
Half-Lies and Other Works
Directed by Ximena Cuevas (Mexico, 1983-2002)
Introduced by the Artist
Las Tres Muertes de Lupe (1984, 5:20 mins.) is a lusty and whimsical
meditation on Lupe Velez’s death which prefigures many
of Cuevas’s coming concerns. In a work produced a decade
later, torch singer Astrid Hadad dons the garments of mock martyrdom
in Corazon Sangrante (1993, 3:42 mins.). Medias Mentiras (1995,
37 mins.) is a plaintive pastiche that navigates the chaotic
whirl of contemporary Mexican culture. Cuevas’s daring
search continues in the phenomenal La Tombola (2002, 7:50 mins.)
as she infiltrates a trash talk show on Mexican television. Also
included: Antes de la Television (1983, 1:15 mins.) and Staying
Alive (2001, 3 mins.).
Wednesday, November 3, 2004, 7:30 pm
PFA
Beyond the Poseidon Adventure: Recent Work from Mexico City
Curated and Introduced by Ximena Cuevas
This program is about the transformation from reality to representation:
the mental representations we may have of our world; the lies
in our world which may be transformed into truths, or vice versa;
the very illusion of daily existence, in which simple things
alter a truth, shaking it to its foundations until it is transformed.
Works
by Artemio, Lorenza Manriquez, Miguel Calderon, Carolina Esparragoza,
F/X, Héctor Pacheco, Teresa Serrano,
Grace Quintanilla, Ricardo Nicolayevsky and Anonymous.
45
minutes. Spanish with English subtitles.
Thursday, November 4, 5:30 pm
Free First Thursday Screening
Tickets available at the PFA Theater starting at 4:30 pm
Sleepworld and Other Works
Directed by Ximena Cuevas (Mexico, 1998-2003)
Artist in Person
Operating like an encyclopedist of the everyday, Cuevas assembled
Dormimundo (Sleepworld) (1998-99, 29:14 mins.), nine short films
reflecting the rituals of delusion that occupy our time. This
is a grand catalog of discomfort which she locates in the artifice
needed to beautify and thus assuage daily life.
69 minutes. Spanish with English subtitles.
Thursday, November 4, 7:30 pm
Free First Thursday Screening
Tickets available at the PFA Theater starting at 4:30 pm
Salon with Ximena Cuevas
Join our artist in residence for an informal salon offered to
share insights about her particular artistic process. Based in
Mexico City, Cuevas worked in the film industry before abandoning
the commercial sector to make her own experimental shorts. Since
the early 1980s, she has amassed a substantial body of work noted
for its obsession with “the micro movements of daily life,” as
well as a cheeky social critique. Recently, Cuevas has expanded
her moving-image experimentation to include installation. A key
figure in Mexico City’s new media movement, Cuevas will
discuss her own work within the larger context of contemporary
Mexican culture.
Friday, November 5, 2004, 1:30 pm
Free Admission
PFA
