As a Satellite Space: Backyard

Backyard, a project of the artist-run center Muro Sur (Santiago, Chile), consisted of an exhibition and public intervention inspired by the notion of Latin America as the “backyard” of the United States. The participants included Chilean artists regularly featured in Muro Sur’s exhibition schedule, in addition to other invited writers, critics, and cultural producers. Backyard was part of As a Satellite, a program with independent cultural initiatives in Latin America, Canada, and the Caribbean.

One of the points of reflection for both the exhibition and the newspaper Backyard, distributed in various locations throughout New York City, was the coincidence of the two “elevenths” of September: New York 2001 and Chile 1973. Muro Sur’s project focused on this emblematic coincidence in terms of how these two events had affected and would continue to affect history, collective memory, and individual histories.

Muro Sur’s project raised a number of questions pertinent to the cultural impact of these events: What was the role of art and how could art shape and represent current events of such power and historical significance? What was the relationship between art and politics? How could artists create symbols that were not illustrative, allegorical, or demagogic?

As a Satellite was a program with independent cultural initiatives in Latin America, Canada, and the Caribbean, which consisted of positioning Americas Society as their satellite for the production of exhibitions and event-based projects in New York. An independent cultural initiative was defined as an organization run by a collective of artists or by other types of cultural workers, such as curators and critics, and could include non-profits, exhibition spaces, publishing groups, web-based organizations, and other forms of collective practices.

Participating Artists:
The participating artists of Backyard were either part of Muro Sur or were regularly featured in their exhibition program: Máximo Corvalán, Claudio Correa, Gonzalo Díaz, Nury Gonzalez, Ignacio Gumucio, Josefina Guilisasti, Voluspa Jarpa, Rodrigo Merino, Bernardo Oyarzún, Lotty Rosenfeld, and Ximena Zomosa. A video selection, curated by artist Néstor Olhagaray, included the work of: Claudia Aravena, Guillermo Cifuentes, Rodrigo Flores, Gonzalo Rabanal, and Enrique Ramírez.

The Backyard newspaper was available at the following locations:

Americas Society
680 Park Avenue
New York, New York 10021
T. 212.277.8361
http://www.americas-society.org

16 Beaver Group
16 Beaver Street, Fifth Floor
New York, New York 10004
T. 212.480.2093
http://www.16beavergroup.org

192 Books
192 10th Avenue
New York, New York 10001
T. 212.255.4022
http://www.192books.com

Art Resources Transfer, Inc.
210 11th Avenue, Suite 403
New York, New York 10001
T. 212.691.5956
http://www.artretran.com

^{As a Satellite was made possible through the generous support of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Additional support was provided by the Elliott Family Foundation. As a Satellite media sponsors include: Art Nexus, Parachute, Latin Arte, Arte al Dia, and Latinarte.com.}

Galería Muro Sur Artes Visuales was a non-profit, artist-run center founded in 1998. Its 2002-03 programs were sponsored, in part, by the Prince Claus Fund, Netherlands.

Installation views: As a Satellite Space: Backyard. Americas Society 2003.