BACK TO THE FUTURE
Artists: Christina Battle, Adán De La Garza, Cristina Ochoa, Dmitri Obergfell, and Sangree
Location: Casa Maauad | Mexico City
Collaborating Organization: Casa Maauad
ArtPlant and Casa Maauad are pleased to present Back to the Future, a residency and exhibition including artists Christina Battle, Adán De La Garza, Cristina Ochoa, Dmitri Obergfell, and Sangree. Back to the Future is an experiment in production.
Six artists from Denver, Colorado and Mexico City were invited to work together in the same studio in Mexico City for three weeks in order to create new work for a group exhibition. Themes of shifting history, dystopian conditions and fragmentation emerged as each artist created works developed from reevaluating their past practices including perceived failures and unfinished ideas. In fictional depictions of time travel the consequences of altering the past for the sake of the present are rarely predictable with oftenunintended consequences. Similarly the exhibition at Casa Maauad is both an exhibition and an experiment showcasing an exercise in collaboration, dialog and critical re-examination.
Residency Blog | Related Exhibition
THE ARTISTS
Christina Battle
b.Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Lives and works in Denver, Colorado, USA
Christina Battle is currently based in Denver, Colorado. Her works are often inspired by the role of official and non-official archives, our notions of evidence and explore themes of history and counter-memory, political mythology and environmental catastrophe. She has exhibited internationally in festivals and galleries including: The Images Festival (Toronto), the Festival du Nouveau Cinema (Montreal); The International Film Festival Rotterdam (The Netherlands); the Jihlava Documentary Festival (Czech Republic); the 2006 Whitney Biennial: “Day for Night” (New York); YYZ Artists’ Outlet (Toronto); White Box (New York); Deluge Contemporary Art (Victoria, BC), The Foreman Art Gallery (Sherbrooke, QC); MCA Denver; the Aspen Art Museum; Gallery 44 (Toronto); the Ryerson Image Centre (Toronto); and SOMArts (San Francisco). Christina is a contributing editor to INCITE Journal of Experimental Media and a co-conspirator of the media arts exhibition series Nothing To See Here in Denver.
Adán De La Garza
b. Tucson, Arizona, USA
Lives and works in Denver, Colorado, USA
Adán is a professional misnomer. Adán’s parents almost named him “Juan” but went with Adán because they were too concerned people would “slaughter the pronunciation.” The correct spelling of Adán De La Garza is Adán De La Garza (feel free to cut and paste). Adán is a founding member of the sound, video and performance art collective The Flinching Eye as well as a co conspirator at Nothing To See Here. Adán holds a BFA in Photography from the University of Arizona and an MFA in Interdisciplinary Media Arts Practices from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Originally from Tucson Arizona, Adán is currently based in Denver, Colorado and hates writing in the third person.
Cristina Ochoa
b. Bogotá, Colombia, 1976
Lives and works in Mexico City, Mexico
Dmitri Obergfell
b. 1986 USA
Lives and works in Denver, Colorado, USA
Mixed media artist Cristina Ochoa has shown her work actively since 2005 in her native country of Colombia and abroad. Her works have been included in museums, galleries institutions and independent spaces. She has shown her work in exhibitions at the National Artist Salon in Colombia in 2010, Chaos in Paradise, Centro Colombo Americano, Bogotá, (2010) Ex Teresa Arte Actual, México, 2011- 2012 Massimo Audiello Gallery 2012, Arte#Ocupa, Brasil 2013, Salón ACME, México 2012- 2013, Demasiado Futuro, Centro Cultural de España, México, 2013. FIFTY/FIFTY La Chimba, Buenos Aires, Argentina 2014. She is part of the exhibition, Una Linea de Polvo, curated by Santiago Rueda, traveling around Latin America, since 2012, working in the production and research of this exhibition in México 2014. She co-curatored Videotaquiza, with Santiago Rueda in 2014.
Dmitri Obergfell is an artist whose work explores currents that flow through historical, political and philosophical narratives. Appropriating symbols and objects across history and cultural backgrounds, his works reconstitute their meaning to describe contemporary ideological constructs. His works have been recently included in Thief Among Thieves at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver (2015), as well as an upcoming exhibition at the Gallery of Contemporary Art at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs (2015). Solo exhibitions of note include Yinfinity at Gildar Gallery (2015) and Visigoths (2013) at Upp Contemporary in Venice, Italy. He has previously exhibited at the Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, California (2014) the Parco Foundation in Treviso Italy and the Futura Centre for Contemporary Art (2013), Prague Czech Republic (2012) among other venues. Obergfell is currently a resident artist at RedLine Denver.
SANGREE
René Godínez Pozas
b. Mexico City, MX 1986
Carlos Lara
b. México City, MX 1985
Live and work in Mexico City, Mexico
SANGREE is an artistic collaboration between René Godínez Pozas and Carlos Lara. Their work can be defined as a straightforward transdisciplinary aproach to popular culture phenomena, art history, and some of the most fundamental human concerns. Some exhibitions where their work has been shown are: DARK KILLER DANCE NIGHT, 2011 at Casino Metropolitano (Mexico City) and also at Galería Planta Baja (Cuernavaca, Mexico); SANGREE en Alemania, 2011 at Mucharaum Kunstakademie Karlsruhe (Karlsruhe, Germany); Los Años Maravillosos, 2010 at Galería Central del Centro Nacional de las Artes (Mexico City); Dancing Circles, 2013 at No Space (Mexico City); Winter is coming, 2013 at Autjaus, Neter Proeyctos (Mexico City), Temporary Tattoo Studio at Biquini Wax (Mexico City, 2013), RING BELL, SUN, 21EARTH at YAUTEPEC Gallery (Mexico City, 2014). Their work has been published in magazines such as Art Review, Folio, Dazed Digital, Caviar Izquierda and Picnic.
ABOUT OUR COLLABORATOR
Casa Maauad, founded in 2010 by Mexican artist Anuar Maauad, is a non-profit, production-based, residency program in Mexico City. With a focus on contemporary art, Casa Maauad is unique within Mexico City. Our goal is to foster the creation of solid relationships between international artists and the local art scene. In order to do so, we encourages residents to establish fruitful exchanges through out their stay at the house on a one on one personal basis, as well as through the production and exhibition of their work.