Novo Museo Tropical
Installation image of a mural by Minerva Cuevas.
TEOR/éTica proudly presents Novo Museo Tropical, a curatorial project by Pablo León de La Barra.
July 21–September 16, 2012
Novo Museo Tropical is a “museum without walls” that centers on a historiographical chart shaped like a bunch of bananas, created by León de La Barra. The bananas bear the names of a range of significant artists, artworks, and avant-garde movements that are part of the artistic and visual field of Latin America.
For TEOR/éTica, the Novo Museo Tropical features a number of artworks, architectural perspectives and archival material that address the economic and political exploitation, fantasy and exoticism associated with banana plantations in different contexts. In addition, a museum-designed micro-climate showcases videos, films, texts and works in various formats by other artists and filmmakers who make up this “banana encyclopedia”.
Novo Museo Tropical is a first approach toward building a new art history. It is an attempt to create an expanded field for tropical manifestations, which de-localizes it from any geography. In other words, as León de la Barra’s Manifesto says, “Being Tropical is not about location, it’s about attitude”.
Novo Museo Tropical is a curatorial project funded by TEOR/éTica, Costa Rica. Pablo León de la Barra’s research fellowship is funded by Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros.
Visit the website here for regular updates on León de la Barra’s research trip or contact Sofía Olascoaga at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) for more information.
About the Author
Pablo León de la Barra is an exhibition maker, independent curator, researcher, editor and blogger, and holds a PhD in History and Theories from the Architectural Association, London. He has curated, among other exhibitions, To Be Political it Has to Look Nice (2003) at apexart and Art in General in New York; PR04 Biennale (2004, co-curator) in Puerto Rico; George and Dragon at ICA (2005) at the ICA-London; Glory Hole (2006) at the Architecture Foundation-London; Sueño de Casa Propia (2007-8, in collaboration with Maria Ines Rodriguez) at Centre de Art Contemporaine-Geneve, Casa Encendida-Madrid, Casa del Lago-Mexico City, and Cordoba, Spain; This Is Not America (2009) at Beta Local in San Juan, Puerto Rico; Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, Yucatan and Elsewhere (2010) at the CCE in Guatemala; To Know Him Is To Love Him (2010) Cerith Wyn Evans at Casa Barragan, Mexico City; Incidents of Mirror Travel in Yucatan and Elsewhere (2011) at Museo Tamayo, Mexico City; Bananas is my Business: the Southamerican Way (2011, co-curated with Julieta Gonzalez) at Museu Carmen Miranda, Rio de Janeiro; MicroclimaS (2012) at Kunsthalle Zurich. León de la Barra has written for publications including: Frog/Paris, PinUp/New York, Purple/Paris, Spike/Austria, Wallpaper/London, Celeste/Mexico, Tomo/Mexico, Rufino/Mexico, Ramona/Buenos Aires, Arte al Dia/Miami, Metropolis M/Amsterdam, Numero Cero/Puerto Rico. He has participated in numerous international symposiums and conferences and is editor of his blog Centre for the Aesthetic Revolution.
Located in San José, Costa Rica, TEOR/éTica is a non-profit, independent, private project dedicated to the investigation and promotion of contemporary art practices from Central America and the Caribbean. TEOR/éTica’s endeavors can be grouped into four major categories: exhibition production, at both national and international levels; the promotion, documentation and support of regional artists; a strong editorial project (40 bilingual publications); and the organization of conferences and symposia. Throughout its existence, TEOR/éTica has created an international cultural network and has gained recognition for generating new ways of thought. Virginia Pérez-Ratton (1950–2010), a Costa Rican curator and investigator, founded the project in 1999.
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