an experimental workshop for art and anthropology

 An experimental workshop for art and anthropology

By abdel Hernández San Juan and Surpik angelini

An experimental workshop for art and anthropology was produced and directed by abdel Hernández San Juan and Surpik angelini in Caracas 1996, this workshop consisted in a modality of cultural production of a curatorial practice adressed to build 7  exhibits by a convocatorial method asking to the choiced participants to proposes an exhibit affording the issue of the relation between art and anthropology free to which the cultural production consisted about providing the participants theoretical análysis on currents social sciences, each participant was convocated to react with a higly sited proposal toward a dialogue.

The experience have two precedents, a curatorial project of venezuelan contemporary art conceived by abdel as curator at mavao (Alejandro Otero museum of visual art), when the issue in question was to present exhibits on the relation between the high art museum and the distributional food market of coche as a community that surround the museum, one of the rooms anticipated at the curatorial project focussed as social science methodologies exploration evolving studies of markets spatialities which abdel later developed alone.

This one room was choiced from the general project as the basis to a later more litlee and límited versión to do the workshop, another earlier precedent in a remote past was abdel projects of social science in Urban and rural communities in Cuba 1988 (pilón), 1990 (hacer), the result of this workshop consisted in the 7 exhibits abdel and Surpik presented as co-curators at rice university campus exhibits spaces, rice media center gallery and lobby, farish gallery, Hamman Hall and back yard sewall Hall, the modalities explored in this cases evolved several major characteristics

1-highly propositionals thematically convoqued and higly sited/convoqued exhibits conceived toward dialogue

2- 7 modalities in response to abdel general curatorial project proposal of unwriting the art institutional inscription to reinscribe, recodify or rewrite it in term of museography language, spatiality

3-7 well diferienced modalities of antiart very sited convoqued proposals resulted from it

A)-antiart modality 1: the use of art to do self cultural research of biography in cultural memory and identity resonances ( Surpik angelini) unwriting the exhibits spatial codes to reinscribe it with a practice of self research, " pyche ethnography reports"

B)-antiart modality 2: the use of art to diagnosis the art institution reactions to the work presentation by using it as an inventary of reactions, "mental massage: currículum vitae", (Lázaro Saavedra), rice media center

C)-the use of art to do social work at the barrier community, installed ethnography of the barrio, (Juan Carlos Rodríguez), rice media center

D)--the use of art to illustrate how cultural representations áre always inventions as how it is often made from the unknow, (Juan José olavarria and Ernesto leal), arguing with betara desa, farish gallery

E)--the use of art to comment issues of vernacular culture, alejandro López, Hamman hall

F)--the use of art medias such as installations to explore a museography of anthropology on the Urban popular markets of venezuela and it's folklore culture, proposing a work for the analysis of culture, art medias as means to do social science research. Abdel Hernández San Juan and Fernando calzadilla, the market from here, back yard sewall hall

The serie of exhibits were presented to the public from february 13 to aphril 16 ending the spring

Stephen a tyler and gregory Bateson we're quoted mentioned inside the works

Major referential bibliography to seize the results áre currently some of the abdel Hernández San Juan current essays and books, Thomas mc evilley lecture on the exhibits at the rice media center, Thomas mc evilley publication at art in américa on the exhibits 1998, Stephen a tyler paper evocation: the unwriteable/a response to abdel Hernández San Juan