French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908-1961) introduces the idea of phenomenology — perception on the ground of experience, which involves sensing and the senses— to the study of visual art in mid-twenty century. For him, phenomenology offers a mean for understanding subjectivity as mechanism to interconnect with what is around us. This concept is further revised in You Are Here, a group exhibition that brings together 13 artists, who despite different individual perspectives and approaches, each explore the relationship between space, time, and experience, and how they relate to the condition of art making.
Departing from this framework, You Are Here expands on the influence of the body as a center of perception and as a medium to reflect on existence. The artworks presented in this exhibition incite multi-disciplinary discussions and interrogations with diverse readings, involving further forms of awareness and themes—from the significance of experience as a shaper of memory, capture by Veronika Pausova, Cynthia Gutiérrez, Barb Smith and Megan Pahmier, to the relationship between bodily movement and spatial perception, as seen in Mario Navarro, Francisco Ugarte, Adrian S. Bara and Javier M Rodriguez´s work; from the interaction between energy and the material through electrochemical impulses and the exploration of the self, as presented in the works of Ricardo Gonzalez, Claudia Peña Salinas and Isa Carillo, to the role of technology as mediator of experience as it shapes the relation between the body and the senses, exemplified in the works of Peter Brock and Federico Perez Villoro.
You Are Here not only narrates aesthetic perceptions, but also phenomenological sensitivities, prompting the viewer to experience their space and time from different viewpoints. It is through the artists’ performance, painting, sculpture, drawing and installation, that they employ the corporeal foundation of the senses to question reality; their main object is to foster an engagement between the viewer and the gallery in which this exhibition is presented. The individual and reality, are powerfully overlapping, and the physical body is the very ground on which experience, including our encounters with objects and other humans in the world, takes place.
Artists in the exhibition: Megan Pahmier, Peter Brock, Ricardo González, Barbara Smith, Mario Navarro, Veronika Pausova, Isa Carrillo, Javier M Rodríguez, Federico Pérez Villoro, Francisco Ugarte, Cynthia Gutiérrez, Adrián S. Bará, Claudia Peña Salinas.