The IV Poly/Graphic San Juan Triennial: Latin American and the Caribbean
Displaced Images / Images in Space
October 24, 2015–February 27, 2016
Curators: Gerardo Mosquera (Chief Curator), Vanessa Hernández Gracia and Alexia Tala
Following the Triennial’s fundamental tenet of exploring an expanded and inclusive notion of the graphic image, this IV edition will explore the displacements of this image and its exit from its traditional supports to the gallery space and to the public realm.
It has been said that we live in the age of the image, and this age is also that of the displaced image. The current ubiquity of images has led to their multiple transformations. These shifts have occurred in many ways: images move and transform between worlds, techniques, media, contexts, and cultures. They are appropriated and re-signified, while being recycled for new uses, sometimes being quite dissociated from the operations for which they were originally conceived.
The IV Triennial will examine the formal and conceptual displacements of the graphic image between different fields, media, backgrounds, senses, and specially, its exit to the three-dimensional space, with emphasis on installations. It will do so through the work of artists from Puerto Rico, Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as Latino artists from the USA. Some of the artists who have been already confirmed are Rosenda Álvarez Faro and the artists collective Engravers by Engravers, Carlos Amorales, Francisca Aninat, Myrna Báez, Fernando Bryce, Waltercio Caldas, Luis Camnitzer, Tania Candiani, Lourdes Correa-Carlo, Eugenio Dittborn, Paula Dittborn, José Iraola, Voluspa Jarpa, Ivelisse Jiménez, Leandro Katz, Lucía Koch, Ricardo Lanzarini, Nicola López, Claudia Martínez Garay, Vik Muniz, Mônica Naljdor, Jesús Bubu Negrón, José Ortiz-Pagán, Rosângela Rennó, Verónica Rivera, Nicolas Robbio, Graciela Sacco, Rosemberg Sandoval and Edra Soto.
The IV Poly/Graphic Triennial has been conceived as a constellation of exhibitions, programs, events and publications. Visiting exhibitors, Puerto Rican artists and special guests will give workshops as a key part of the Triennial’s main program. An international colloquium on the contemporary image will be conveyed, and its lectures will be gathered in a volume. A substantial catalogue will also be published, and a web page will be hi as a forum for information and discussion.
Besides taking place in its traditional venues at ICP’s halls in the Arsenal de la Marina and Casa Blanca, the IV Triennial will also involve various museums in San Juan, such as Puerto Rico’s Museum of Contemporary Art, the San Juan Art and History Museum, Puerto Rico’s Art Museum, and the Museum of History, Anthropology and Art. For the first time, this edition will also expand beyond Puerto Rico’s capital city to the Caguas Art Museum, the Ponce Art Museum, and the Dra. Josefina Camacho de la Nuez Museum and Humanistic Studies Center at the Turabo University in Gurabo.
Likewise, many cultural institutions, galleries and alternative spaces across the island will organize exhibitions in salute to the Triennial. Alternative spaces: 20/20, 2bleó, Área: lugar de proyectos, Casa Ruth Hernández Torres, and Recinto Cerra. Galleries: Agustina Ferreyra Gallery, Art Lab, Casa Cortés, Francisco Oller Gallery at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, Galería de Arte at the Sacred Heart University, Roberto Paradise, Walter Otero Contemporary Art, and Yemayá Gallery. Other institutions: Art Students League, Beta Local, Dr. Pío López Museum at the University of Puerto Rico, Cayey, and the School of Fine Arts of Puerto Rico.
The San Juan Poly/Graphic Triennial is an international cultural event sponsored by the Government of Puerto Rico, directed by the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture and coordinated by the ICP’s Visual Arts Program. Created in 2004, the Triennial promotes experimentation in the graphic arts, while proposing a unique curatorial theme and stimulating the combination of traditional printmaking along with contemporary practices.
Image: Engravers by Engravers, a group of artists lead by Rosenda Álvarez Faro, Puertorrican Master Printers, 2014. Street mural, Old San Juan, Puerto Rico. Photo: Vanessa Hernández Gracia. Courtesy IV Poly/Graphic San Juan Triennial.