Jota Castro & Minerva Cuevas: “Art as Activism/Activism as Art”
Jota Castro is a contemporary artist who explores themes of social and political conflict through the mediums of photography, sculpture, video and installation. Minerva Cueves' socially engaged practice encompasses a range of strategies and media including film, installation, performance, and site-specific public intervention.
Cost
Free
Website LocationOCAD University 100 McCaul St. Auditorium, Room 190
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Jota Castro
Minerva Cuevas
Co-Presented by Latin American-Canadian Art Projects (LACAP) and the Office of the President, OCAD University
JOTA CASTRO was born in Yurimaguas, Peru and currently lives in Brussels, Belgium. Jota Castro is a contemporary artist who explores themes of social and political conflict through the mediums of photography, sculpture, video and installation. He curated and participated in the event collateral to the 55th Biennale of Venice 2013 Emergency Pavilion: Rebuilding Utopia, took part in the collateral event to the 54th Biennale of Venice I Miss My Enemies, curated by Oxana Maleeva, and the 53rd Biennale of Venice 2009, The Fear Society, Pabellón de la Urgencia. He also participated in the Biennale of Tirana, Prague and Kwangju, Korea winning the award at the latter in 2004. Castro’s most recent exhibitions include: Gemutlichkeit, at Galleria Umberto di Marino (2013); Trame curated by Massimo Minini, Stefano Raimondi, Mauro Zanchi, in the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, Bergamo; Tell me whom you haunt: Marcel Duchamp and the contemporary readymade curated by Mario Codognato, Blain Southern, London; solo exhibition Austerity Über Alles at Galerie Barbara Thumm, Berlin; Una Storia Contemporanea, Galleria Massimo Minini, Brescia; I West End? Museum on the Seam, Jerusalem; among many others. In 2011, he curated Dublin Contemporary Terrible Beauty: Art, Crisis, Change & The Office of Non-Compliance, along with Christian Viveros-Fauné. Jota Castro is a political science graduate, former student of the College of Europe in Bruges who worked for the UN and the EU. He has devoted himself completely to contemporary art for the past 17 years.
MINERVA CUEVAS graduated with a BFA from the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma, Mexico City in 1997. Her socially engaged practice encompasses a range of strategies and media including film, installation, performance, and site-specific public intervention. One of Cuevas’s best-known works is the long-term project Better Life Corporation (Mejor Vida Corp., 1998– ), which evolved from her public interventions in Mexico City. Part pseudo-corporation, part non-profit organization, the project revolves around a website that offers a range of public services including the provision of special bar codes to reduce the cost of food items at supermarkets, personalized fake student ID cards, and free phone calls. Cuevas has had major solo exhibitions at the Vienna Secession (2002); DAAD Galerie, Berlin (2004); Casa del Lago, Mexico City (2006); Kunsthalle Basel (2007); Le Grand Café – Centre d’art Contemporain, Saint-Nazarie, France (2007); Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands (2008); Whitechapel Gallery, London (2009); Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City (2010); Cornerhouse, Manchester (2011); and Museo de la Ciudad de México (2012). Her work has also been included in group exhibitions at Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City (1998); Hayward Gallery, London (2000); Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent (2001); MoMA PS1, New York (2002); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2003); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2008); Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (2010); and the Modern Art Museum of Forth Worth (2013). Cuevas’s work was also included in the Istanbul Biennial (2003); São Paulo Biennial (2006); and Mercosul Biennial, Porto Alegre, Brazil (2007). She received grants from the Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD) in 2003 and the Fondo Nacional para cultura y las Artes in 1999. Her work is held in the collection of the Tate, UNAM, Mexico City and Van Abbé Museum, Eindhoven.
Moderated by Gerardo Mosquera.
Cost
Free
Website LocationOCAD University 100 McCaul St. Auditorium, Room 190
Co-Presented by Latin American-Canadian Art Projects (LACAP) and the Office of the President, OCAD University
JOTA CASTRO was born in Yurimaguas, Peru and currently lives in Brussels, Belgium. Jota Castro is a contemporary artist who explores themes of social and political conflict through the mediums of photography, sculpture, video and installation. He curated and participated in the event collateral to the 55th Biennale of Venice 2013 Emergency Pavilion: Rebuilding Utopia, took part in the collateral event to the 54th Biennale of Venice I Miss My Enemies, curated by Oxana Maleeva, and the 53rd Biennale of Venice 2009, The Fear Society, Pabellón de la Urgencia. He also participated in the Biennale of Tirana, Prague and Kwangju, Korea winning the award at the latter in 2004. Castro’s most recent exhibitions include: Gemutlichkeit, at Galleria Umberto di Marino (2013); Trame curated by Massimo Minini, Stefano Raimondi, Mauro Zanchi, in the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, Bergamo; Tell me whom you haunt: Marcel Duchamp and the contemporary readymade curated by Mario Codognato, Blain Southern, London; solo exhibition Austerity Über Alles at Galerie Barbara Thumm, Berlin; Una Storia Contemporanea, Galleria Massimo Minini, Brescia; I West End? Museum on the Seam, Jerusalem; among many others. In 2011, he curated Dublin Contemporary Terrible Beauty: Art, Crisis, Change & The Office of Non-Compliance, along with Christian Viveros-Fauné. Jota Castro is a political science graduate, former student of the College of Europe in Bruges who worked for the UN and the EU. He has devoted himself completely to contemporary art for the past 17 years.
MINERVA CUEVAS graduated with a BFA from the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma, Mexico City in 1997. Her socially engaged practice encompasses a range of strategies and media including film, installation, performance, and site-specific public intervention. One of Cuevas’s best-known works is the long-term project Better Life Corporation (Mejor Vida Corp., 1998– ), which evolved from her public interventions in Mexico City. Part pseudo-corporation, part non-profit organization, the project revolves around a website that offers a range of public services including the provision of special bar codes to reduce the cost of food items at supermarkets, personalized fake student ID cards, and free phone calls. Cuevas has had major solo exhibitions at the Vienna Secession (2002); DAAD Galerie, Berlin (2004); Casa del Lago, Mexico City (2006); Kunsthalle Basel (2007); Le Grand Café – Centre d’art Contemporain, Saint-Nazarie, France (2007); Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands (2008); Whitechapel Gallery, London (2009); Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City (2010); Cornerhouse, Manchester (2011); and Museo de la Ciudad de México (2012). Her work has also been included in group exhibitions at Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City (1998); Hayward Gallery, London (2000); Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent (2001); MoMA PS1, New York (2002); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2003); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2008); Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (2010); and the Modern Art Museum of Forth Worth (2013). Cuevas’s work was also included in the Istanbul Biennial (2003); São Paulo Biennial (2006); and Mercosul Biennial, Porto Alegre, Brazil (2007). She received grants from the Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD) in 2003 and the Fondo Nacional para cultura y las Artes in 1999. Her work is held in the collection of the Tate, UNAM, Mexico City and Van Abbé Museum, Eindhoven.
Moderated by Gerardo Mosquera.
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