SÃO PAULO.- With a body of video work that documents political environments in order to tackle ecological and social contemporary issues, Mexican artist Minerva Cuevas (Mexico City, 1975) is at the center of a major exhibition that will occupy Galpão VB from September through to December 2018.
Gathering six video installations and two slide projections, Dissidência (Dissidence) is the first solo show by Cuevas to be held in Brazil. Frequently appropriating the language of marketing and advertisement, many of her works engage with pop culture icons to re-frame and confront social relations, and the exploitation of natural resources.
“Galpão will be entirely occupied by video installations developed along Cuevas' research based career. Titled after one of Cuevas’s emblematic works, Dissidência serves to establish opposition and active contestation,” explains Gabriel Bogossian, who is co-curating the exhibition alongside Solange Farkas.
The show focuses on the confluence of art and political action, at a time marked by serious changes in legislation regarding the use of agrochemicals, deforestation of the Amazon and the demarcation of indigenous lands in Brazil.
“By exhibiting one of the most inventive and forceful artists in the Latin American political landscape, Videobrasil reasserts its commitment to the geopolitical debate. Cuevas’s work is especially informative about our context, given the similarities between Brazil and Mexico in several of the geopolitical aspects she approaches,” adds Solange.
Arranged in the space, works such as A Draught of the Blue (2013) and Donald McRonald (2003) suggest a latent possibility of revolt underlying everyday life.
Minerva Cuevas lives and works in Mexico City.
Some of her leading exhibitions include Feast and Famine, kurimanzutto, Mexico City (2015); Minerva Cuevas, Museo de la Ciudad, Mexico City (2012); Landings, Cornerhouse, Gallery 1, Manchester (2011); S.COOP, Whitechapel Gallery, London (2010); Minerva Cuevas, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; (2008); Phenomena, Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland (2007); On Society, MC Kunst, Los Angeles (2007); Egalité(2007), Le Grand Café–Centre d'art contemporain, Saint Nazaire (2007); Schwarzfahrer Are My Heroes, DAAD, Berlin (2004); Mejor Vida Corp, Tamayo Museum, Mexico City (2000).
Cuevas’s work has been part of group exhibitions in institutions such as the Museum Ludwig, Cologne (2016); Museo Jumex, Mexico City (2013); Kunsthaus Bregenz, Bregenz (2013); Musée d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris (mam/arc), Paris, France (2012); MUAC Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City (2011); KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2010); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2010); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco (2008) among others.
Cuevas has taken part in various Biennials, including the 4th Prospect New Orleans (2017); Liverpool Biennial (2010); 6th Berlin Biennale (2010); 9th Lyon Biennale (2007); Mercosur Biennial, Porto Alegre, Brazil (2007); 27th Bienal de São Paulo How to Live Together (2006); Tirana Biennale, Kompleksi-Goldi, Albania (2005); and 8th Istanbul Biennial (2003).
She attended the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas, UNAM (1997), the Edith-Ruß-Haus für Medienkunst Stipend residency, in Oldenburg (2004), the Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst DAAD, in Berlin (2003) and the Banff Center for the Arts residency in Alberta, Canada (1998).
