primitive
rope-and-stick bridge sways above the courtyard of Albright’s
Center for the Arts, evoking an ancient civilization. One would expect
to see such a bridge in the pages of National Geographic, not here. The
figure of a woman — a simple, sturdy shape — stands balanced
midway across, halted in mid-journey. She is headless. But is she? Consider
that her head may be where her heart is, tucked safely
within her ample torso.
This installation, “Self Portrait,” by Mexican artist Laura Anderson-Barbata, is just one small part of “Mexico Illuminated/Iluminado,” a giant, multi-venue exhibition throughout Berks County sponsored by Albright College. It may, in fact, be the largest collection of Mexican contemporary art assembled anywhere outside of Mexico according to Chris Youngs, director of the Freedman Gallery and director-general of the exhibition.
But the woman on the bridge, with
her head where her heart is, makes a perfect metaphor for “Mexico
Illuminated/Iluminado” as
a whole. Through a sharing of visual art in all its aspects, this collection
has
built bridges between Mexico and the United States, between Mexican cities
and Reading, between the Mexican-American community and Albright College,
and among all the institutions in Berks County that have cooperated to
make this exhibition become a reality.
And art, as everyone knows, is where heads and hearts find a meeting place.
Four years in the making, “Mexico Illuminated/Iluminado” is exhibiting the works of 54 artists and two collectives (CACA, or Colectivo de Accion y Creacion Artistica, and LIPO, or La Irreversible Produccion Ordinario).
Because the Freedman Gallery does not have enough space for such a large collection, Youngs approached other galleries in the area, all of whom were enthusiastic about the idea, resulting in a county-wide effort.
The works are being exhibited from September 13 through November 23 in the Freedman Gallery, the Freedman Gallery Annex (a warehouse near the college), the Freyberger Gallery of Penn State Berks-Lehigh Valley College, the Hispanic Center of Reading’s downtown site at 645 Penn St., the Sharadin Gallery of Kutztown University, the Reading Public Museum, the Institute of the Arts in Wyomissing, Reading Area Community College, and the Berks Arts Council Pagoda Gallery — almost every cultural institution in the area.
“A lot of the artists are interested in social issues. When art starts to relate to life in a real way, it becomes more intriguing and more instructive.”
– Chris Youngs, Director of the Freedman Gallery
and Director-General of Mexico Illuminated
The overall $500,000 cost of the event was funded through grants, donations and in-kind services, from sources both public and private.
Youngs said the idea of having such an event occurred to him when he realized the large number of Mexicans who have moved into Berks County in recent years.
“I’m interested in addressing things that have to do with people in
the area,” he said, “so I felt it would be appropriate to think
about doing a Mexican art exhibition. And part of being a curator is having
an intellectual curiosity about things you don’t know — you
become a detective in the process.”
Part of that detective work involved making a trip to Mexico City four years ago with Dan Talley, director of Kutztown University’s Sharadin Art Gallery, Idalia Bernal, local Mexican artist and educator, and Robert Metzger, then director of the Reading Public Museum, to explore the contemporary art world there. “We determined from that first visit that there was a lot of interesting work there,” Youngs said.
“We were astounded by the artists and art community there,” added Talley. “In the United States people are very guarded and territorial about their work. In Mexico the opposite was true. Galleries would put us in touch with other galleries and artists, even those they didn’t represent. That sense of community is very rare... It’s been a learning and sharing experience for all the participants.” Since then, Youngs has made nine more trips, sometimes accompanied by others, seeing thousands of art works all over the country, visiting all the important galleries and hundreds of artists in their studios.
They discovered a thriving, highly sophisticated artistic community, whose work is very different from American contemporary art in two major ways: first, many of the artists in Mexico are not limited to one medium, as they often are here, and second, there is an emphasis on public, often socially and politically conscious art.