An Expedition to the threshold

An Expedition to the threshold. 

By Abdel Hernandez San Juan

An Expedition to the threshold is an experimental book of anthropology and ethnography conceived, composed and written by abdel Hernández San Juan in Houston, Texas 1997 a few months after the end of a letlee Curatorial practices of seven exhibits he presented at rice university cocurated with Surpik angelini. 

The book is an experimentalist philosophical and conceptualist exploration Hernández written discussing a conjuntion of three things at the same time 

1 an anthropology of contemporary western art (the book itself as his author book on art, 

2- A posmodern ethnography in writting (his book itself as an author book of ethnography wirting)

3- his discussion throught the book of three contemporary art exhibits made in response and as result of a workshop directed by Abdel focussed around the question of doing contemporary art exhibits asking the question on the relation between art and anthropology, installed ethnography by Juan Carlos Rodríguez, Pyche ethnography reports by Surpik angelini and arguing with betara desa by Juan José Olavarría and Ernesto leal.

The book explore the literary posibilities of the concept of alegory defining the workshop abdel díd and directed in Caracas with the artists as an ethnographic expedition, instead of understanding Expedition as a travél throught exotical cultural lands geographies, the book defines the relation between questions and answers, purposiveness and result,s and the period of time dedicated to solve the question as an Expedition using the allegory of navegatión both throught the ciberspace as well as throught the imaginary Journey of the six months workshop making the exhibits and developing the dialogues under the film camera to build a logical yuxtaposition of fragments of memories of the dialogues as an evocation instead of a representación of the often lost process of dialogues so superposing and yuxtaposing the relation between writing and the visual in between three temporalities, 

the temporality of rice anthropology after the facts during the mid 97 after the spring, 

the temporality of the exhibits in campus to the viewers 

and the temporality of the dialogues in caracas

the book discuss two posibilities of ethnography, 

the book itself as a conceptual writing/visual ethnography

and the theorization of Surpik psyche ethnography report modalities, Juan Carlos Rodríguez posmodern prist modality and arguing with betara desa modalities