Talking to Action investigates contemporary, community-based social art practices in the United States and throughout Latin America while attempting to build a direct dialogue with artists and researchers across the hemisphere to discuss shared concerns. Talking to Action focuses on the collaborative, dialogically-based form of art making that is most often referred to as “social practice” with roots in public practice, community-based, participatory, relational and socially-engaged art. Consequently, the artists in Talking to Action explore a range of trans-disciplinary practices, blurring the lines between object making, political and environmental activism, community organizing, and performance.

The projects interrogate issues including migration and memory, critical mapping and cartographic practices, environmental issues and policies, gender rights and legislation, indigenous culture, racial violence and policing tactics and are often produced in collaboration with particular communities in rural or urban environments in politically charged contexts. The title, Talking to Action, underscores the discursive nature of these artists’ practices and their efforts to instigate greater public attention, community participation and political action towards such issues. The show will also travel to Arizona State University, with each additional venue including new artists relevant to their sites and spaces.

Artists include: Liliana Angulo (Bogotá, Columbia), BijaRi (São Paulo, Brazil), Bulbo and Galatea audio/visual (Tijuana, Mexico), Cog.nate Collective (Tijuana, Mexico and Southern California, US), Grupo Contrafilé (São Paulo, Brazil), Sandra de la Loza and Eduardo Molinari (California, US and Buenos Aires, Argentina), Dignicraft (Tijuana, Mexico), Etcétera (Buenos Aires, Argentina), Frente 3 de Fevereiro (São Paulo, Brazil), Colectivo FUGA (Otavalo, Equador), Maria Gaspar (Chicago, US), Clara Ianni and Débora Maria da Silva (São Paulo, Brazil), Iconoclasistas (Buenos Aires, Argentina), Kolectivo de Restauración Territorial (Gonzalo Cueto Vera, Jorge A. Olave Riveros, Cristian Wenuvil Peiñan) (Temuco, Chile), Suzanne Lacy (Wasco, California, US), Alfadir Luna (Mexico City, Mexico), Taniel Morales (Mexico City, Mexico), Andrés Padilla Domene and Ivan Puig Domene (Mexico City, Mexico), POLEN (Tijuana, Mexico), Pedro Reyes (Mexico City, Mexico), and Ultra-red and School of Echoes Los Angeles (California, US)

Talking to Action: Art, Pedagogy, and Activism in the Americas is curated by Bill Kelley, Jr., Curator and Lead Researcher with Karen Moss, Consulting Curator. Talking to Action is organized by Ben Maltz Gallery at Otis College of Art and Design as part of Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, and managed as a traveling exhibition by Independent Curators International (ICI). The exhibition and tour are made possible, in part, with the generous support of the Getty Foundation, PST: LA/LA presenting sponsor Bank of America, the ICI Board of Trustees and ICI’s International Forum. The presentation at SAIC has been organized by the Department of Exhibitions with curators Hannah Barco and Trevor Martin, and Graduate Curatorial Assistants Almudena Caso Burbano (MAAE 2019) and Carlos Salazar Lermont (Dual MA 2019). Image: Frente 3 de Fevereiro, Nou Pap Obeyi [No Vamos Obedecer / We Will Not Obey] action, 2015.

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Tags: Alfadir Luna, Andrés Padilla Domene, BijaRi, Bill Kelley Jr, Bulbo and Galatea audio/visual, Chicago, Clara Ianni, Cog.nate Collective, Colectivo FUGA, Cristian Wenuvil Peiñan, Débora Maria da Silva, Dignicraft, Eduardo Molinari, Etcétera, Frente 3 de Fevereiro, Gonzalo Cueto Vera, Grupo Contrafilé, Iconoclasistas, Ivan Puig Domene, Jorge A. Olave Riveros, Kolectivo de Restauración Territorial, Liliana Angulo, Loop, Maria Gaspar, Pedro Reyes, POLEN, SAIC, Sandra de la Loza, Sullivan Galleries, Suzanne Lacy, Talking to Action, Taniel Morales, Ultra-red and School of Echoes Los Angeles