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un ArtE colAborAtivo dEsdE El imAginArio cotidiAno | CoLLABoRAtIvE ARt FRoM thE IMAGInARY oF thE EvERYDAY
La obra de esta artista transnacional serpentea entre distintos proyectos y pases, abordando temas como la comunidad, la tecnologa y la comunicacin, para crear un corpus reflexivo de entorno a nuestra cada vez ms global sociedad. The work of this transnational artist winds between different projects and countries touching on subjects such as community, technology and communication in order to create a reflexive corpus of art around our increasingly global society.
Por Paola Mosso, periodista Fotografas cortesa de Aleksandra Mir

Aleksandra Mir

n paraguas gigantes recorriendo la ciudad. Postales de los afluentes de agua ms hermosos del mundo repartidas por Venecia. Pelculas de Hollywood sobre desastres exhibidas para los cesantes. Fanzines con fotografas de un punk que, luego de pasar por la milicia, se convirti en guardia de seguridad de una Escuela de Arte. Nombres novelescos como Exile on Main Street dados a las calles de Tokio. Incluso la campaa por devolver, por un ao, una majestuosa escultura de Freddie Mercury a Londres, a un ao de su exilio en Montreux. Lo menos que se puede decir del trabajo de Aleksandra Mir (1967) -artista nacida en Polonia con ciudadana sueca y estadounidense, que ha vivido en lugares como Ciudad de Mxico, Palermo y Londres-, es que es heterogneo, social y colaborativo. Sus proyectos suelen ser interactivos y dibujan sus intereses en la tecnologa, religin, medios de comunicacin y el espacio con argumentos reflexivos sobre la representacin social en el mundo actual, con particular nfasis en la globalizacin. Aleksandra construye su obra desde el imaginario del da a da, traducindolo a proyectos, performances y publicaciones. Ha sido parte de numerosas exposiciones y proyectos colectivos e individuales en destacados museos, galeras y espacios independientes como Whitney Museum of American Art, Guggenheim Museum (Nueva York), Mary Boone Gallery (Nueva York) y Localismos (Ciudad de Mxico). Tambin particip en La Biennale di Venezia (2009) y Whitney Biennial (2004), y su trabajo ha sido incluido en importantes colecciones pblicas como en Tate Modern (Londres) y Kunsthaus (Zrich). Actualmente,

giant umbrella walking around the cities. Postcards of the most beautiful rivers in the world scattered around Venice. Hollywood disaster movies screened to the unemployed. Fanzines containing the life story of a punk that, after doing military service, becomes a security guard at an art school. Novel streets names like Exile on Main Street given to Tokyo. Even a campaign to return to London, a majestic sculpture of Freddie Mercury for one year from its exile in Montreux. The least that can be said of the work of Aleksandra Mir (1967), a polish-born artist, who has a dual Swedish-American citizenship and has worked and lived in places like Mexico City, Palermo and London, is that it is heterogeneous, social and collaborative. Her projects are usually interactive and outline her interests in technology, religion, communications and space using reflexive arguments about social representation in the world of today, with a particular emphasis on globalization. Aleksandra constructs her work with the imaginary of the everyday, translating it to projects, performances and publications. She has participated in countless exhibitions and collective and individual projects in renowned museums, galleries and independent spaces such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Guggenheim Museum, Mary Boone Gallery (New York) and Localismos (Mexico City). She has also taken part in La Biennale di Venezia (2009) and the Whitney Biennale (2004), and her work are in important public collections such as at the Tate Modern (London) and Kunsthaus (Zurich). Currently, her work , her work is

"SALE", performance, Antarctica, 2005. Documentation: Collection of the artist.

su obra se presenta en ArtandPress, Martin-Gropius-Bau (Berlin) y Print/Out en el Museum of Modern Art (New York). Tambin presentar su proyecto Freddie on the Plinth en Wide Open School, The Hayward Gallery (Londres), este verano.Aleksandra Mir recibi su BFA en el School for Visual Arts (Nueva York, 1992) y entre 1994 y 1996 estudi antropologa cultural en el New School for Social Research (Nueva York). Lo que an me conecta con la antropologa, de manera formal, son probablemente mis mtodos de investigacin e involucramiento con el lugar, el trabajo en terreno, dice. A veces tu obra se transforma en una especie de experimento social como por ejemplo, The Big Umbrella-. Qu es lo que ms te interesa, la relacin entre la sociedad y la pieza de arte, o el proceso de creacin?, O ambas? Mi obra no es de ninguna forma vanguardista. Puede que yo piense que estoy reinventando la rueda, pero siempre ser algo experimental en el sentido de que siempre me lleva a una nueva experiencia. Gasto mucho tiempo y recursos preparando cada obra, pero el resultado esta siempre al alcance de la mano. The Big Umbrella es una escultura hecha meticulosamente a mano, de un paraguas muy grande que puede cobijar de la lluvia a una gran cantidad de personas pero que tambin puede hacer que un portador solitario se vea muy slo. Lo us de utilera en una performance que desarrollaba su propia narrativa a medida que recorra con l un nmero de locaciones, desde el tropical Martinique al helado Dresden. La obra es pattica, fue un fracaso en muchas maneras: no quera llover y las personas se asustaban con l. As es que refleja el fracaso de crear una comunidad, las fallas de la vida familiar y del turismo. An con las mejores y ms utpicas de las intenciones, las cosas no siempre salen como planeadas y es algo de lo que me gusta conversar o dejar espacio para ello. Piensas que al referirte a elementos de la cultura pop, o elementos cotidianos paraguas, trofeos, retratos familiares-, tu obra se acerca a una audiencia masiva, en contraposicin a las otras formas de arte que son ms hermticas y abstractas? Hago arte sobre cosas que estn disponibles y frente a m, y como tal, asumo que tambin lo estn para otros. He hecho muchas obras sobre peridicos y medios. Hay un linaje histrico de artistas que han usado la prensa, pero mi punto de entrada es mucho ms prosaico que eso. A mis 11 aos tena una ruta de distribucin de diario, mucho antes de que supiera lo que el arte es. Conozco el peso y olor de un peridico recin impreso entregado a las 5 de la maana. Comenc a hacer mis propios boletines de noticias alrededor de esa poca, y en este proceso aprend tcnicas simples de reproduccin y encuadernado, de fotografa y periodismo. Tengo una relacin muy tctil con las cosas sobre las que hago arte, no necesariamente una terica o histrica, aunque de alguna manera, esas cosas siempre dan resultados retroactivamente.

exhibited at ArtandPress, Martin-Gropius-Bau (Berlin) and Print/Out at the Museum of Modern Art (New York). She will also present her project Freddie on the Plinth at the Wide Open School, The Hayward Gallery (London) this summer.Aleksandra Mir recieved her BFA at the School for Visual Arts (New York, 1992) and between 1994 and 1996, she studied cultural anthropology at the New York School for Social Research (New York). What still keeps me formally connected with antropology, are probably my research methods and my involvement with the place, the field work, she says. Sometimes your artwork becomes a sort of social experiment like, for instance, The Big Umbrella (2004) What is your main interest: the relationship between the society and the piece of art, or the process of creation? Or both? My work is not avant-garde in any way. I may be reinventing the wheel as far as I know, but it is always experimental in the sense that I am always taking myself through novel experience. I spend a lot of time and resources preparing every work, but the outcome is always up for grabs. The Big Umbrella is a meticulously hand crafted sculpture of a very big umbrella that can shield a large number of people from the rain, but it can also make a solitary bearer look very lonely. I used it as a prop for a performance that spun its own narrative as I walked around with it in a number of locations, from tropical Martinique to chilly Dresden. The work is pathetic; it failed on so many levels: it wouldnt rain and people would be scared of it. So it reflects the failure of building a community, the failures of family life and of tourism. Even with the best and utopian intentions, things dont always work out as anticipated and it is something that I like to talk about and to leave room for. Do you think that by referring to pop culture elements, or everyday elements umbrellas, trophies, family pictures, your work gets closer to a mass audience, as opposed to other forms of art that are more hermetic and abstract? I make art about things that are available and in my face, and as such, I assume they are to others. For example, I have made a lot of works about newspapers and the media. There is a historical lineage of artists who have used the press, but my entry point is much more prosaic than that. I had a paper route when I was 11, long before I knew what art even was. I know the weight and the smell of a freshly printed newspaper batch at 5 in the morning. I started making my own zines around that same time, and I learned simple reproduction and binding techniques, photography and journalism in the process. I have a tactile relation with the things that I make art about, not necessarily a theoretical or historical one, although somehow those things always fall into place retroactively.

"the Big umbrella" (Dresden), performance, 2004, c-print, 100 x 74 cm. , 2004: Galerie Laurent Godin, Paris.

En muchas de tus obras has tomado el camino del arte colaborativo. Qu ganas como artista con este enfoque?, Diras que esto viene de tus estudios en sociologa? Encuentro que es muy aburrido estar sola con mi obra; es tan simple como esto. As que yo dira que es ms social que sociolgico. Si no fuera desafinada, estara probablemente en una banda. Pero el arte visual es por naturaleza ms solitario que la msica, as es que hago lo que puedo para estar menos sola invitando a otros a participar en partes o si no trabajo en proyectos de otras personas. Desarrollar un proyecto donde la autora se comparte de igual manera es probablemente lo mas difcil pero puede ser un gran xito. En tu obra, usas constantemente smbolos de poder, como trofeos, cohetes o imgenes catlicas o igualmente, el concepto de victoria como en First Woman On the Moon (1999) . Qu es lo que buscas, la reflexin, la irona o la crtica de las estructuras sociales que se generan alrededor del poder? Son todas esas cosas. Crec en Suecia durante los aos 70 y pareca que estbamos viviendo el momento ms radical y en el pas ms radical del mundo. Si lo recuerdas, Suecia era el estado modelo. En l nos alimentaban una extraa mezcla de crtica izquierdista con un consumismo creciente. Las pelculas de Disney eran consideradas como propaganda capitalista y solo las mostraban en navidad, lo que, por supuesto, aumentaba el deseo de verlas. As es que para los aos 80 nos habamos saturado genuinamente de estas contradicciones, representando una generacin aptica. Recuerdo a mi profesora de secundaria llevando a un grupo de nosotros, adolescentes indiferentes, al edificio de la municipalidad local y dicindonos que todos debamos ejercer nuestro poder democrtico para poder ver un registro pblico. First Woman On The Moon lacnicamente reconoce el hecho de que ninguna mujer ha estado en la luna y luego me da el poder como artista de escenificar la versin imaginaria y preguntarme, por qu no?, y si fuera as? A veces, no me interesa mucho la poltica, dudo tener algn tipo de influencia, mientras que en otras ocasiones es emocionante apuntar a cambiar un monolito. Al poner a una mujer en la luna antes del fin del milenio, mi objetivo no era hacer historia del arte, sino historia del mundo. Si buscas en Google First Woman on the Moon, hoy en da aparece mi nombre, lo que es ridculo. Realmente me pregunto quin ser. Apuesto a que ser una chica china. Estar frente a la estatua es como si oyeras al pblico gritando, dijiste sobre la estatua de Freddie Mercury de la escultora realista socialista Irena Sedlecka. En tu obra Freddie on the Plinth Cmo podemos comparar a las masas que estuvieron frente a esculturas anteriores de socialistas hechas por Irena y las que estn frente a sta? Cmo podemos asociar a un icono del rock con un cono del socialismo? Cuando le pregunt a Irena si tena algn problema con representar a

In many of your works you have taken the path of collaborative art. What do you gain as an artist by using this approach? Would you say that it has its roots in your sociology studies? I find it boring to be alone with my work; it is as simple as that. So more social than sociological, I would say. If I werent tone deaf, I would probably be in a band. But visual art is more solitary than music by nature so I do what I can to make it less lonely by inviting others to participate in parts or I work on other peoples projects in turn.To develop work where authorship is equally shared is probably the most difficult but can be very successful. You constantly use symbols of power in your work, such as trophies, rockets or catholic imagery or, similarly, the concept of "victory" as in First Woman On The Moon (1999). Are you looking for a reflection, irony or criticism of the social structures generated around power? It is all those things. I grew up in Sweden of the 70s, and it seemed we were in the most radical moment and in the most radical country on earth. Sweden was the model state if you remember. In it, we were fed an odd mix of leftist critique with a blooming consumerism. Disney movies were seen as capitalist propaganda and showed to us only at Christmas, which of course only increased our thirst for them. So by the 80s we had become genuinely saturated with these contradictions and rendered an apathetic generation. I remember my high school teacher dragging a bunch of us blas teenagers to our local city hall and demanding that we all exercise our democratic power to ask to see a public record. First Woman On The Moon laconically acknowledges the fact that no woman has been to the moon, then grants me the power as an artist to stage the imaginary version and to ask myself, "Why not? And what if"? Sometimes I really cant be bothered with politics, I doubt I have any influence at all, while in other cases it is a thrill to aim at shifting a monolith. By putting a woman on the moon before the end of the millennium, I was not aiming at art history, but world history and JFK who put a man on the moon before the end of the decade (the 60s). If you Google First Woman on the Moon, still today, only my name comes up, which is ridiculous. I really wonder who she will be. My bets are on a Chinese girl. Facing the statue, it is as if you can hear the crowds screaming, you said about socialist realist sculptor Irena Sedleckas depiction of Freddie Mercury in your work Freddie on the Plinth (2011-). How can we compare the masses that faced previous sculptures of socialist heros made by Irena, and the ones that face this one? How can we associate a rock icon with a socialist icon? When I asked Irena if she had any problems depicting Freddie Mer-

"Plane Landing in Switzerland", July 4-5, 2008. Event: Flughafen zurich; commissioned by Galerie Laurent Godin, Paris, and Kunsthaus zurich, c-print 176 x 122 cm. , 2008: Galerie Laurent Godin, Paris.

Freddie Mercury en una pose victoriosa en el Wembley Stadium, pestae y dijo que haba hecho tantos brazos alzados durante el periodo socialista que desde el punto de vista escultrico eran todos iguales. Pero sera demasiado fcil dejarlo as no ms. La obra de Irena ejemplifica no slo una serie de gestos y posturas polticas, sino una narrativa, y la suya es una increble historia de vida. He escrito sobre como ella se form bajo una educacin clsica rigorosa y de cmo creci y madur como artista, mujer, esposa y madre. El drama la sigue en su camino durante casi un siglo de geografa europea, como si se moviera literalmente bajo sus pies. Destacan las decisiones que toma voluntariamente y las que se ve obligada a tomar para mantener a sus hijos y al mismo tiempo seguir haciendo arte. Lo que hace este proyecto tan fascinante y a ella como persona tan llamativa, es la gracia que tiene para manejar todos estos umbrales. Siempre me he sentido atrada por las personas que demuestran este tipo de complejidad y que estn dispuestas a compartirla con tanta claridad de mente y sin vergenza. La habilidad y talento que maneja Irena obviamente se ha perdido con mi generacin, que madur en la era del conceptualismo, minimalismo y ready-mades. Parece que incluso perdimos completamente la habilidad de mirar y de juzgar la obra figurativa. Quera dar un pequeo remezn a nuestra inversin en el arte figurativo proponiendo que ms personas vean esta estatua y traerla desde Montreaux, donde fue enviada despes de que Londres la rechazara. Al mismo tiempo, mi propio trabajo es acerca de vacos, por lo que mientras ms tiempo permanezca ese espacio vaco en el Zcalo de la plaza Trafalgar y mientras ms tiempo Freddie est en el exilio, mientras esta historia circule, ms potentes se vuelven todos estos factores. Se que estars exhibiendo en una exhibicin colectiva en la sala Gasco en Santiago en la que Andrea Pacheco es la curadora. Podras explicar que es lo que planeas exhibir en No es chiste? El ao 2005 viaj a bordo de un barco cientfico que naveg de Ushuaia a la Antrtica, regresando por la Patagonia y pasando por el Estrecho de Magallanes va Punta Arenas y hasta Buenos Aires, donde desembarqu. La parte del viaje a la Antrtica fue una invitacin de Pierre Huyghe, quien estaba filmando una pelcula muy ambiciosa en el barco y que generosamente invit a algunos amigos artistas a acompaarlo sin ningn compromiso u obligacin. Me entretuve haciendo gestos efmeros, como cuando me paro encima de un pequeo iceberg que podra haberse dado vuelta en cualquier momento. SALE (2005) es un tributo a las bolas de nieve de David Hammons (el artista realiz una performance en 1983 donde venda bolas de nieve en la calle con un precio de acuerdo a su tamao) actualizado, a escala global y segn los temas medioambientales del momento. Fui totalmente ciega al peligro y arriesgu mi vida por hacer una tonta actuacin pero en ese momento me pareci una buena idea y sirvi para rerse. www.freddieontheplinth.co.uk/

cury in a victorious pose at Wembley Stadium, she blinked and said that she had created so many raised arms in the socialist period that from a sculptural point of view, they were the same. But it would be too easy to leave it at that. Irenas work exemplifies not just a series of (contradictory) political positions or gestures, but a narrative, and hers is an incredible life story. I have written about how she was formed under her rigorous classical training and how she matured and aged an artist, woman, wife and mother. The drama follows her journey through nearly a century of European geography, as it is literally shifting under her feet. It highlights the decisions she voluntarily makes, and the ones she is forced to take to support her children whilst keep making art. What makes the project so compelling and her person so appealing is her grace in managing all these thresholds. I am continuously drawn to people who display this kind of complexity and who are willing to share it with such clearheaded logic and without embarrassment. The craft and talent that Irena is in command of is obviously lost on my generation, which came of age in the era of conceptualism, minimalism and ready-mades. It seems we have even lost the ability to look at and to judge figurative work altogether. I wanted to shake up our investment in figurative art a little by proposing for more people to see this statue and bring it back from Montreux where it was sent after its rejection in London. But, at the same time, my own work is about voids, so the longer there is an empty space on that Plinth in Trafalgar Square and the longer Freddie is in exile, while this story is being circulated, the more potent all those factors become. I noticed that you are exhibiting in a group show curated by Andrea Pacheco at Sala Gasco in Santiago. Could you explain what are you planning to exhibit in No es chiste (Its no joke)? In 2005 I was on a scientific vessel for six weeks that sailed from Ushuaia to Antarctica, back through Patagonia and the Strait of Magellan via Punta Arenas and up to Buenos Aires where I disembarked. The Antarctica leg of the journey was by an invitation Pierre Huyghe, who was shooting a very ambitious film on the boat and who generously invited a few artist friends to join him with no directives or obligations. I entertained myself with small ephemeral gestures, one where I stand on a small iceberg that could have flipped around at any point. SALE (2005) is a nod to David Hammons snowball pieceb (the artist made a performance in 1983, where he sold snowballs on the street, priced according to size), updated, on a global scale and according to current environmental concerns. I was oblivious to the danger and risked my life for a silly performance but it seemed like a good idea and made for a good laugh at the time. www.freddieontheplinth.co.uk/

"First Woman on the Moon", August 28, 1999. Event: Wijk Aan zee, the netherlands; commissioned by Casco, utrecht, the netherlands. video stills: Collection of the artist, Mary Boone Gallery, new York, Galerie Laurent Godin, Paris, Galeria Joan Prats, Barcelona.