Erick Meyenberg “The wheel bears no resemblance to a leg”

Americas Society

[Image: Erick Meyenberg "The wheel bears no resemblance to a leg" (video still), (2016) Courtesy of the artist.]

This event has ended.

Curated by Gabriela Rangel and Lucía Sanromán

The exhibition Erick Meyenberg: The wheel bears no resemblance to a leg is the end result of the artist’s collaboration with members of the high school marching band, Banda de Guerra Lobos, at the Colegio Hispanoamericano in Mexico City. Meyenberg and the teenagers—together with curators, guest musicians, composers, costume designers, and a video production team—co-created choreographies, musical scores, and a series of performances that took the band through some of the city’s most emblematic and politically marked sites: the Plaza de Tlatelolco, where striking university students clashed with the state in 1968; the Monumento a la Revolución, commemorating the Mexican Revolution of 1910; and the Forum Buenavista shopping center, symbolizing Mexico’s embeddedness in transnational capitalism.

Meyenberg developed The wheel bears no resemblance to a leg (2016) over two years as a commission for inSite/Casa Gallina, the sixth edition of the public art project, inSite. The exhibition is co-organized by Americas Society and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, and is curated by Americas Society’s Visual Arts Director and Chief Curator Gabriela Rangel and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts’ Visual Arts Director Lucía Sanromán. A press preview and reception will be held at the Americas Society Art Gallery in New York City on Wednesday, May 3, 5:00 p.m., followed by a panel discussion with the artist and the curators. RSVP: mediarelations@as-coa.org

Composed of a three-channel projection, flags, a relief sculpture, and archival materials, The wheel bears no resemblance to a leg takes its enigmatic title from the 1917 prologue to Guillaume Apollinaire’s 1903 play Les mamelles de Tirésias (The Breasts of Tiresias). Meyenberg’s project translates these sources into a critical stance toward normative pedagogical structures—here taking the form of uniforms, discipline, education, gender, the state, and symbols of nationhood—and a conception of the “surreal” not as an evasion of reality, but as an invitation to surmount other realities. Culminating in a synesthetic experience, The wheel bears no resemblance to a leg suggests the complexities of Mexican modernity.

The exhibition is accompanied by a forthcoming richly illustrated publication, which documents the process and performance of The wheel bears no resemblance to a leg and includes essays by Gabriela Rangel and Osvaldo Sánchez, as well as an interview with the artist by Lucía Sanromán.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Erick Meyenberg (b. 1980, Mexico City) works at the intersection of drawing, collage, video, data analysis, and sound. The artist studied visual arts at the National School of Fine Arts (ENAP) in Mexico City. In 2009, he was a guest student at the Berlin University of Arts (UdK), under the guidance of the German artist Rebecca Horn. His work received the honorable mention Centennial Award at ZONA MACO in 2011. Solo exhibitions have included Un Futuro Anterior (An Anterior Future), Laboratorio Arte Alameda, Mexico City and Aspirantes (Aspirants) for Proyecto Líquido, Mexico City (2016); The Return of the Dinosaur, Museo Universitario del Chopo, Mexico City (2014), Back to the Present, Arróniz Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City (2011), Das ist kein Fleisch, International Festival of Lights (FILUX), Laboratorio de Arte Alameda, Mexico City (2013), and Labor Berlin 2: Erick Meyenberg. Étude taxonomique-comparative entre les castes de la Nouvelle Espagne et celles du Mexique contemporain, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2010).

The presentation at Americas Society of Erick Meyenberg: The wheel bears no resemblance to a leg is made possible by the generous support of the Panta Rhea Foundation and Genomma Lab Internacional. This program is also supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council. Additional support comes from AMEXCID, the Consulate General of Mexico, the Mexican Cultural Institute of New York, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

The video piece The wheel bears no resemblance to a leg was commissioned by inSite/Casa Gallina, 2014–16, and curated by Osvaldo Sánchez and Josefa Ortega. The production in Mexico City was made possible through the generous support of Cámara de Diputados (México), Secretaría de Cultura (México), and Fundación Jumex Arte Contemporáneo.