Farsites: Urban Crisis and Domestic Symptoms in Recent Contemporary Art
August 27 through November 13, 2005

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SAN DIEGO/TIJUANA—inSite/ Art Practices in the public Domain, the binational network of contemporary arts events and actions, together with the San Diego Museum of Art and the Centro Cultural Tijuana, presents Farsites: Urban Crisis and Domestic Symptoms in Recent Contemporary Art. Opening to the public Aug. 27 and on view through Nov. 13, 2005, the two-city exhibition marks the first time inSite has included a museum-based exhibition in its programming, as well as the first time the two largest visual arts institutions in the binational region have collaborated.

Curated by Adriano Pedrosa, who is based in São Paulo, Farsites brings together more than 50 artists from the Americas, as well as Europe and Africa who work in a range of media, from photography to installation. Although a few works present the urban site as a map or overall network, many focus on the moments when these systems fail or fall short. In any city there are conditions that resist the collective desire for a clean, efficient appearance or modernization. These moments are symptoms of neglect and abandonment, and sometimes citizens construct alternatives to cope with this uneven development.

"The San Diego Museum of Art is privileged to participate in this global survey of cutting-edge contemporary art practice. The goals of inSite_05 mesh neatly with our own collaborative ambitions for San Diego to serve as a center for museum-generated knowledge. Drawing upon the combined talents of the inSite team, our colleagues at CECUT, and the staff here at SDMA, we are aiming to present something memorable for a broad audience. San Diego and Tijuana will be exciting destinations this fall as a result of both unique teamwork and creative curatorship," says the San Diego Museum of Art's executive director, Derrick Cartwright.

Several artists in particular delve into the visual texture of cities through photography by focusing on the urban landscape (Geraldine Lanteri, Catherine Opie, Dean Sameshima, Gabriele Basilico, Thomas Struth, Eduardo Consuegra, Sean Snyder, and Armando Andrade Tudela). Others, including Rita McBride, Pedro Cabrita Reis, and Adriana Varejao, create works that operate as interpretations of architecture as fragments or ruins.

Another group of artists, including Rochelle Costi, Robert Gober, and Félix González-Torres, address the second part of the exhibition's title where the tensions and conflicts of a city are shifted to the domestic space. Visitors to Farsites will find themselves in a new relationship to functional domestic objects in works such as Damian Ortega's sculpture of chairs, Doris Salcedo's attached furniture, or Carlos Garaicoa's paper and light structure. Ultimately, traces of the human body surface through evidence of use, in the streets, buildings, and furnishings that make up the public and private aspects of the city.

There are also several artists who engage with the city through direct action, as participants in the ever-changing and shifting culture of urban life. At Eloisa Cartonera, an alternative publishing house, artists and writers collaborate with cartoneros (collectors and vendors of used cardboard) to create original books, and Taller Popular de Serigrafia installs a printing press on the street during popular protests and creates specific images for each event. Both groups are based in Buenos Aires and emerged out of the economic collapse that took place in Argentina in late 2001.

In addition to presenting a broad assortment of engaging artworks, each of five adjunct curators—Santiago García Navarro, Julieta González, Betti-Sue Hertz, Ana Elena Mallet, and Carla Zaccagnini—have created a documentary project about a crisis in the urban infrastructure of a particular city. Subjects include the Palermo Viejo Assembly, a popular people's organization in Buenos Aires; architect Mario Pani's Tlatelolco Housing Project of 1961 and its importance in the history of Mexico City from 1968 to 1985; the tunnels, bridges, and viaducts of São Paulo; the changing face of the Avenida Libertador in Caracas; and the New York City blackouts of 1965, 1977, and 2003.

Farsites: Urban Crisis and Domestic Symptoms in Recent Contemporary Art is one of the four major components of inSite_05. The others are:

1. Interventions - commissioned artists' interventions in public spaces developed through a process of co-participation with communities on both sides of the border;
2. Scenarios - commissioned projects in less established practices, including online events, a live sound and video event, and a mobile archive;
3. Conversations - a series of lectures, workshops and dialogues with artists, curators and leading practitioners from a diverse variety of fields designed as a forum for debate and theoretical reflection.

inSite is dedicated to promoting the cultural vitality of the binational region through the investigation and activation of urban space. Located at the world's busiest land border crossing — where an estimated 132,000 persons cross "legally" every day and where the trade is estimated to be $5 billion annually — inSite fosters, enlivens and enhances cross-border communication and collaboration through a wide-ranging program that features public art interventions, on-line actions, a two-city museum exhibition, lectures, conversations, and performances.

The exhibition will be located concurrently at the San Diego Museum of Art and the Centro Cultural Tijuana.

Exhibition hours at the San Diego Museum of Art
Tuesday - Wednesday & Friday-Sunday: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Thursday: 10 a.m. - 9 p.m.
Address:
1450 El Prado, Balboa Park
Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 122107
San Diego, CA 92122-2107
General information: (619) 232-7931
Facsimile: (619) 232-9367
Website: www.sdmart.org

Exhibition hours at the Centro Cultural Tijuana
Tuesday - Sunday: 9 a.m. - 8 p.m.
Address: Avenida Paseo de los Héroes y Mina
Zona Río, Tijuana
General information: (52.664) 687-9650
Website: www.cecut.gob.mx

Anyone interested in learning more about this exhibition and all of the other inSite_05 project components should visit www.insite05.org.

Farsites is made possible by generous grants from Fundación Televisa, Fundación Jumex, The San Diego Union-Tribune, The San Diego Foundation, and The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Trust.

The historic San Diego Museum of Art provides a rich and diverse cultural experience for more than 400,000 annual visitors. Located in the heart of beautiful Balboa Park, the Museum's nationally renowned collections include Spanish and Italian old masters, South Asian paintings, and 19th- and 20th-century American paintings and sculptures. In addition, the Museum regularly features major exhibitions of art from around the world, as well as an extensive year-round schedule of supporting cultural and educational programs.

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