[-empyre-] Grace Quintanilla

Mon Apr 15 12:15:39 AEST 2019

Hello everyone,

As we celebrate the legacies of Grace, Barbara, Carolee and Agnes, I want to make sure to give a shout out to the incredible organization that Grace Quintanilla nurtured in Mexico, Centro de Cultural Digital (https://centroculturadigital.mx/el-ccd) which she directed since its opening in 2012 and expanded into a formidable slice of Mexican cultural life. Being "the first governmental initiative in Mexico devoted to spread and cause the production of cultural projects that are born like consequence to live in a technological world" the CCD is a physical and virtual space that directs to the general public and devotes to investigate the cultural implications, social and economic of the daily use of the digital technology. It treats, besides, of a forum of communication, artistic creation and entertainment whose aim is to promote the consciousness of what means to live in a world where the individuals are, simultaneously, “users” and “creators” of digital culture."

Under Grace's leadership, the CDC has afforded opportunities for participants of all ages to experiment with and communicate through all forms of digital expression.  I was especially pleased when Grace partnered with the Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art by donating the DVD set, (Ready) Media: Hacia una Arqueología de los Medios y la Invencíon en México, set of 6 DVDs (Mexico City: Laboratoria Arte Alameda, 2010).  This unique collection documents public new media programming with adolescents and adults at Mexico City’s the Laboratoria Arte Alamedam, which provided something of a creative template as Grace and her colleagues developed the CDC.  The collection was featured in the Cornell exhibition, Signal to Code: 50 Years of Media Art, for which Grace came to celebrate the opening: http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/signaltocode/exhibition/globalmediaheritage/index.html

As was typical, although we invited her to present her own videos and CD-Rom artwork at the opening, she spent most of the time extolling the importance of providing the broader public with avenues for artistic expression.  While her artwork focused on family and memory, her tireless public service understood everyone to part of her digital family.

Happy spring (which finally arrived in Ithaca this weekend).

Tim

Timothy Murray
Director, Cornell Council for the Arts and Curator, CCA Biennial
http://cca.cornell.edu
Curator, Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art 
http://goldsen.library.cornell.edu <http://goldsen.library.cornell.edu/>
Professor of Comparative Literature and English

B-1 West Sibley Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, New York 14853

On 4/8/19, 5:35 PM, "empyre-bounces at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au on behalf of Timothy Conway Murray" <empyre-bounces at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au on behalf of tcm1 at cornell.edu> wrote:

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    Hi, everyone, before I share some thoughts about Grace later tonight, I'd like to open by thanking you all for sharing your admiration for Barbara Hammer.

    My last contact with Barbara, was already three years ago when she attended the opening of the exhibition, Experimental Television Center, etc., at Hunter College Galleries of Art, which I curated along with Sarah Watson and Sherry Hocking Miller.  We were delighted to be able to feature her marvelous piece, "TV Tart," in the show.  To our extreme delight, Barbara (who was already ill) insisted on remounting her installation of "TV Tart," for which she decorated a monitor as a candy tart, which framed the screening of her piece.  I mention this not only to celebrate her unfailing generosity to the media community but also to keep alive the active memory of her playful spirit.  

    I've been meaning to post this during the past week, especially because I had the pleasure of screening "TV Tart" last week for my Cornell video and new media art class.  It was so cool to see these young students responding to positively to this fun but very challenging piece.

    More later tonight after class, when I'm looking forward to sharing my fondness of the incredible Grace Quintanilla with you.

    Cheers,

    Tim

    Timothy Murray
    Director, Cornell Council for the Arts and Curator, CCA Biennial
    http://cca.cornell.edu
    Curator, Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art 
    http://goldsen.library.cornell.edu <http://goldsen.library.cornell.edu/>
    Professor of Comparative Literature and English

    B-1 West Sibley Hall
    Cornell University
    Ithaca, New York 14853

    On 4/8/19, 10:22 AM, "empyre-bounces at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au on behalf of Renate Ferro" <empyre-bounces at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au on behalf of rferro at cornell.edu> wrote:

        ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
        Welcome Tim Murray and Ana Valdes to our April Discussion: Between the Body, Memory, Screen and Culture.

        We have spent the first week of our discussion discussing the physicality of Barbara Hammer’s film, video, performance, and installation work.  Hammer, a lesbian artist, died of cancer March 16th just a few weeks ago.  For the remainder of the month we will pay tribute to other feminist artists who passed away recently, curator and new media artist, Grace Quintanilla from Mexico City, performance and video artist, Carolee Scheemann, and filmmaker Agnes Varda from France.  Like Hammer these artists have incorporated discourse, action, and the use of technology in their work to conceptualize their ideas.  

        We welcome –empyre- artists, curators, writers, historians, technologists and others to share with us narratives and recollections of how any of these artists may have influenced you.  We invite you all to post freely narratives, links to artistic work, or writings.  

        We welcome curator and writer, Tim Murray, who has known Grace Quantanilla for the last twenty or so years.  He not only curated her artistic work but also invited her to collaborate on conferences and forums held here in the US , Mexico, and in South America.  Tim, I know will also be able to address the work of the other artists as well, not only on the production of their work but on the process of archiving and cataloging artistic work.  

        We also welcome back Ana Valdes, a feminist, and ardent political activist.  
        Ana will share her own work with us, but also comment on the influences that these artists have had on her. Looking forward to this week. 

        Bios are below. Renate
        ___________________________________________________

        Timothy Murray (US) is Professor of Comparative Literature and English and Curator of the Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art in the Cornell Library. He is currently the Director of the Cornell Council for the arts and is curating the Cornell Biennial in fall, 2020. 
        A curator of new media and contemporary art, and theorist of visual studies and digital culture, he has been forging international intersections in exhibition and print between the arts, humanities, and technology for over twenty-five years. In addition to programming innovative series in video and cinema, he has been at the curatorial forefront of international exhibitions in digital and conceptual art. He staged the largest international exhibition of digital art created for CD-Rom, “Contact Zones: The Art of CD-Rom” (https://contactzones.cit.cornell.edu), which toured from 1999-2004 in the US, Canada, Mexico, France, with offshoots in Macau and Johannesburg. With Arthur and Marilouise Kroker, he curated and designed the conceptual internet art journal, “CTHEORY Multimedia” (http://ctheorymultimedia.cornell.edu), and, with Teo Spiller, he staged the first off-line internet art exhibition at INFOS 2000 in Slovenia. Most recently, he collaborated with Sarah Watson and Sherry Miller Hocking on “The Experimental Television Center: A History, ETC” at Hunter College Galleries in New York City and he curated “Signal to Code: 50 Years of Media Art in the Goldsen Archive” (http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/signaltocode/) in the Cornell Library and the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art. He founded the Rose Goldsen Archive in 2002, which since has grown into a leading international repository of electronic and digital art.  He serves as moderator of the -empyre- new media listserv since 2007. 

        Ana Valdes (UR) is a writer, art curator and social anthropologist born in Uruguay. She was a political prisoner for several years. She lived in Sweden where she became engaged in the Palestinian struggle for an independent state. Now she is working with a former inmate of Guantanamo writing a book and making a film. She is currently working on research with several Swedish and Uruguayan institutions on the issues of exile and the diaspora. This research will result in an upcoming exhibition and book. Ana has been a long-time participant of –empyre-soft-skinned space. 

        Renate Ferro
        Visiting Associate Professor
        Director of Undergraduate Studies
        Department of Art
        Tjaden Hall 306
        rferro at cornell.edu

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