Parallel / Instituto Parallel by Jennifer Marman and Daniel Borins
March 28, 2015 – April 23, 2015 with opening reception on Saturday, March 28, 2015 at 7:30pm
Co-presented by Ed Video Media Arts Centre and Parallel Oaxaca
Parallel Oaxaca Gallery – José López Alavez esq Sto Tomás, Barrio Xochimilco, Oaxaca City, Mexico
Organized/Curated by Oliver Martinez Kandt and Scott McGovern
Over a production period in Oaxaca, Mexico, the artists have created a collection of artworks that include video, sculpture, and a large architectural intervention on the exterior of the gallery. Opening a negotiation within the community in the Barrio of Xochimilco Oaxaca, Marman and Borins have produced a sculptural alter ego to Parallel ́s building that places new geometric forms within its visual vernacular. Raising issues of urban growth, auto- construction and self-determined architecture, Instituto Parallel provokes questions and critiques pertaining to, uneven growth (within cities), institutional growth in the art world, and issues of stasis versus progress through the binaries of traditional values such as physical development leading to mass recognition.
The practice of Marman and Borins involves questions of museum modalities, interventions and social constructions, as well as the design of public space in the form of permanent public sculpture and integrated art, architecture, and landscape architecture. The exhibition Parallel / Instituto Parallel is a public intervention in the form of a temporary landmark, addressing the contradictions of a sometimes official / sometimes-unofficial D.I.Y. aesthetic of Mexico. The exhibition creates a productive debate that questions authenticity within the situational peculiarity that confines Oaxaca to a colonial architectural code. It does so in a place where individuals add at free rein to their dwelling spaces; creating ad hoc terraced expansions in the skyline, amongst a blend of traditional colonial styles, modernist buildings, tropicalismo hints, practical forms, and almost everywhere else the controlled chaos of auto-construction.
Parallel / Instituto Parallel is the latest project in an ongoing initiative by Ed Video to provide international outreach opportunities for Canadian media artists.
Many thanks to Gabriel Parniak for support and production assistance.
Spanish Text :
Parallel Oaxaca presenta una nueva colaboración con Ed Video Media Arts Centre (Canada): Parallel / Instituto Parallel de los artistas Jennifer Marman & Daniel Borins.
En un período de producción en Oaxaca, Mexico, los artistas han creado una serie de obras que incluyen video, escultura, y una intervención escultórica de gran formato en el exterior de la galería. Abriendo una negociación desde el interior del Barrio de Xochimilco Oaxaca, Marman & Borins han producido un alter ego escultórico al edificio de Parallel que plantea nuevas formas geométricas a la visualidad vernácula del Barrio. Realizando comentarios acerca del crecimiento urbano, auto-construcción y arquitectura determinada-personalmente,
La práctica artística de Marman y Borins comprende cuestionamientos de modalidades museísticas, intervenciones y construcciones sociales, así como el diseño de espacio públicos como esculturas permanentes y arte integrado, arquitectura y arquitectura de paisaje. La exhibición “Parallel / Instituto Parallel” es una intervención pública como una marca temporal, que menciona las contradicciones de una lo mísmo oficial que no-oficial estética DIY de Mexico. La exhibición crea un debate productivo hacia la autenticidad dentro de la peculiaridad que sitúa a Oaxaca dentro de un código de arquitectura colonial. Realizando el comentario dentro de un lugar donde los individuos suman a su voluntad espacios a sus lugares de vivienda, creando expansiones al horizonte urbano, junto a una mezcla de estilos tradicionales coloniales, edificios modernistas, indicios tropicalistas, formas prácticas, y casi en todas partes el caos controlado de una auto-construcción.
