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Aquí Estoy/Here I Am: The Site-Specific Arts Installation Inaugurates Queens Theatre in the Park's JPMorgan Chase latino Festival 2004

Claudia Vieria (Brazil) and Karlos Carcamo (Salvador-US), Visual Artists Featured from July 28 through August 8

Aquí estoy / Here I Am
presents Latino artists working with issues of identity through reconsideration and reinterpretation of their immediate surroundings” explains curator Monica Ramirez-Montagut.  She adds, “talking about identity does not necessarily imply portraying images of Latinos or Latinas, but rather, their reflections and thoughts about self-awareness of their position in the world.”  This exhibit, which is part of the 8th JPMorgan Chase Latino Cultural Festival, will be open to the public from July 28 to August 8 at Queens Theatre in the Park (QTP).

QTP commissions visual artists annually to create pieces that touch upon key aspects emerging from the diversity of Queens Latino population.  The goal behind integrating the visual arts into the festival is to, in Claudia Norman’s words, “showcase multimedia works, by Latin American and Latino artists, that broaden the window through which we perceive the cultural richness of Latinos in the United States.”  This year’s featured artists, Claudia Vieira (Brazil) and Karlos Cárcamo (Salvador-U.S.), explore the same subject in very different ways.  Through the use of a single line running along the space’s inner architecture, Claudia Vieira invites viewers to reflect on the space they inhabit at the moment, in this case Queens Theatre in the Park, and the experience of being truly present in the world, an existential approach to the “Here I Am”.  Karlos Cárcamo uses found objects and popular culture paraphernalia to draw attention to one’s immediate external surroundings and to themes affecting our communities.  His Baseball Caps and Jackets pays homage to the diversity of Queens population and invites spectators to identify with the objects and take pride in their respective situations, in other words proclaiming: “Here I Am.”  Both artists affirm their place in the world through their artistic practice.

Aqui estoy / Here I Am is curated by Mónica Ramírez-Montagut. She completed her doctorate and master’s in Barcelona and received a degree in architecture in Mexico City.  Ramírez-Montagut has lectured at international conferences with her research on Belgian conceptual artist Marcel Broodthaers.  She was director of Carlos Taché Gallery in Barcelona and Assistant Curator of The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, CT.  She was an art consultant at Arts International in New York and works as an independent curator specializing in the work of young artists who are making a name for themselves in their respective fields.


What: Opening reception. Free and open to the public
Where:
Main Lobby - Queens Theatre in the Park
When: July 28, 2004. 6:30 to 8:00 pm.
Exhibition times: July 28 to August 8. Tuesdays to Saturdays from 12:00 pm to 6:00 pm


CLAUDIA VIEIRA

Claudia Vieira integrates her drawings into the architecture of a specific site. For Claudia, drawing is not the sketch of an idea or the representation of an object, but rather, it is an important human activity that involves both, physical and mental efforts. The physical effort needed to reach out to those far away corners and draw on them, renders the composition as an extension of the body’s physicality. The mental effort needed to focus and concentrate on the only task of drawing a line requires a moment of absolute presence, an instant of total existence. This line is the human mark left after that moment when life is lived to its fullest, mind and body. This line denies the possibility of living a moment without its acknowledgement. For Claudia these drawings are her way of being aware of the present and in true contact with reality. For the spectator they are compositions that make visible the pass of time and are also the proof of moments lived to their fullest.

Claudia’s drawings are another skin of architecture, a more organic one that brings awareness to the spatial surroundings and recognition of a self-positioning in the world. This new wrap forces the spectator to look around, recognize his or her own immediate surroundings and experience a fluid process of self-awareness: here I am.

If within this recognition exercise Queens Theatre in the Park and the JPMorgan Chase Latino Cultural Festival are to be considered, the result has several implications. One is to acknowledge an event that is custom made for the Latino community of Queens, a strong component of the most diverse community in the world. Another, accentuated by Claudia’s work, is the acknowledgement of the outstanding architecture that hosts such an event. Queens Theatre in the Park is an architectural jewel built in 1964 by Philip Johnson, one of the most important architects of modernity.


KARLOS CARCAMO

ager. From Hip Hop culture he learned to sample, that is, to take elements or found objects from the streets and use them as a starting point to create something new, but still related to the original source. For Baseball Caps and Jackets, Karlos used newspapers he found (in different languages) in his old neighborhood in Queens and made caps and jackets out of them. The newspapers of such a diverse community are in fact the “fabric” with which America’s society is constructed.

A community of great diversity such as this one is what Karlos believes truly founded the American identity. In this sense, the caps are metaphors for an identity that “informs” and “uniforms” him. The newspaper “informs” him about local community issues. The cap “uniforms” him, allowing others and himself to be identified as part of that specific community. Karlos also links the caps to what he believes is the ultimate American pastime: baseball, and in that sense, Karlos’ Baseball Caps are a melting pot for the “Latino” and “American” identities.

For Karlos, the jackets he sews are also an example of an American identity based on the working class. Karlos is referring specifically to the workers of the garment industry mainly composed of immigrants. The jackets are a reminder of the importance of the immigrant labor force in America. If Karlos were to wear his newspaper jackets, he would metaphorically be wearing the local complexities printed on the pages. His garments would reflect the everyday life of a working community such as this one. For Karlos the construction of these jackets represents what the Queens community contributes to the American identity: hard working people.

Baseball Caps and Jackets are a reflection on the importance of the diversity of the Queens community. They encourage the viewer to recognize himself or herself in them, feel a sense of pride and exclaim: here I am.



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