Mario García Torres

Arte Abierto presents the closing of the exhibition Cositas by Mario García Torres in which he presents a series of aesthetic devices that take up and reinterpret images from popular culture, art and everyday life.

More than an exhibition, it is a conceptual and audiovisual experience that addresses, critically and humorously, the consumption of images, the communication of current information, the relationship with art and the diffusion of content in the present. In Cositas, García Torres' first solo exhibition outside the conventional art spaces, he takes the interests that have guided his practice towards the encounter and fascination with popular culture, mass entertainment and everyday life, taking advantage of the particularities and complexities of the place that hosts it.

Conceived especially for Arte Abierto, the proposal took as its starting point the context in which the exhibition space is located, situated in the Plaza Artz Pedregal, as well as the audiovisual and sensorial spectacles that in recent years have been offered in Mexico as immersive cultural experiences. Based on this idea, García Torres presents 6 works that take as a reference a world-famous comic character -that this year becomes an image in the public domain-, the song of a popular rock band from the 80s, the aesthetics of the photocopier as a pictorial practice, and memes and videos that today form part of our collective imaginary due to their viral circulation on social networks.

With this project, the artist plays with the idea of audiovisual experiences aimed at mass audiences, taking into account the particular context in which Arte Abierto finds itself.

In this way, Cositas invites us to question the dynamics of consumption today, our role as spectators and co-creators of meaning, and the coincidences that exist between images and everyday life: How is it that the fall of a child can be as relevant as a historical event? How does a famous comic character allow so many stories to be remembered? How can a meme be recreated so many times, becoming increasingly viral for different generations and social spheres? How do these images impact and change language? Or, more importantly, who creates the images, who defines the concept or who gives them meaning? Thus, through a game marked by intuition, suspicion, mystery and humour, Cositas addresses the relationships that exist between reality and the perception of our everyday life, the collective imaginary and individual memory, as well as the absence and presence of our thoughts.

Mario García Torres (Coahuila, 1975) Conceptual art plays a decisive role in his work, as he investigates little-known stories and novel narratives, as a compendium of strategies, as he explores the different possibilities of his languages or as a form of critical thinking about the art world, constantly questioning the functioning of its elements.

Trained at the Universidad de Monterrey (UDEM) and the California Institute of the Arts, he develops his practice in media such as video, installation, photography, painting, sound, performance and, recently, augmented reality. He is considered one of the most internationally recognised Mexican artists. His individual works include La poética del regreso (MARCO, 2021), Illusion Brought Me Here (Walker Art Center, 2019), Caminar juntos (Museo Tamayo, 2016), ¿Alguna vez he visto la nieve caer? (Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, 2010), among others. Collectively, her work has been part of the XIII FEMSA Biennial (Zacatecas, 2019), the 13th Sharjah Biennial (United Arab Emirates, 2017), Manifesta 11 (Switzerland, 2016), the 8th Berlin Biennale (Germany, 2014), Documenta 13 (Germany, 2012), and the 52nd Venice Biennale (2007), to name a few. His work forms part of the collections of international museums such as the MoMA in New York, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Tate Modern in London, as well as the Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo, the Museo Tamayo and the Museo Amparo, the latter three in Mexico.

Recovery fee $40.00 mxn

— Arte Abierto