July 19, 2008

PRESS RELEASE

DEAN PROJECT in collaboration with Y Gallery is pleased to present “Cringe” a five-part performance-based exhibition series curated by Cecilia Jurado

For the last installment in the series Nicolás Dumit Estévez presents “In His Shoes: The More i Honor You the More You Bless me”

On June 2007, Estévez journeyed from his home in the South Bronx to the Czech Republic to embody the religious symbol of its capital, the adored Infant of Prague. As such, he wore a hand-made interpretation of one of the seventy-plus vestments in His wardrobe to incarnate the Holy Infant in His worldly place of residence. But because current airline restrictions prevented Estévez from traveling in the vestments, he passed through Berlin, where he was ceremonially dressed as the Icon at a ceremony undertaken by curator Alanna Lockward prior to journeying on to Prague. On the journey back from the Czech Republic to Germany, the Infant was undressed at Arttranspoder, an art gallery, and he, Nicolás, returned to himself in preparation for traveling home to the US.

On December 20-25, a detailed account of the journey, entitled Induced Labor, was undertaken as part of the final phase of In His Shoes. This consisted of a five-day stay at an undisclosed cloistered monastery, where Estévez reenacted the embodiment as a way of inviting the Infant to manifest His spiritual as well as bodily experiences in writing. The disembodiment of the Child and Estévez’ own symbolic rebirth took place on the morning of December 25. A publication written by Estévez and published by Dean Project will document this experience.

This exhibition will serve as the platform for the launching of “Induced Labor,” Estévez’ publication documenting “In His Shoes.”  Furthermore, it will feature an audio collaboration between Estévez and Jonny Farrow.

Nicolás Dumit Estévez is an interdisciplinary artist who has exhibited and performed extensively in the US as well as internationally at venues such as Madrid Abierto/ARCO, IDENSITAT, LOOP, The IX Havana Biennial, The III International Theatre Festival of Santo Domingo, PERFORMA 05 and 07, Longwood Arts Project/Bronx Council on the Arts, Prague Quadrennial, The Queens Museum of Art, El Museo del Barrio, and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC), among others. His most recent work includes For Art’s Sake, a series of seven secular pilgrimages to seven museums in the New York metropolitan area, presented with LMCC and the Franklin Furnace Fund for Performance Art. Other projects include Thirty Two Letters to my Dentist, a publication launched at the Center for Book Arts in the spring of 2008 and Nocturns to be developed for EmergeNYC and the Hemispheric Institute at NYU. In September of the same year he performs and exhibits The Passerby Museum, an ongoing public intervention in collaboration with María Alós, at the Claremont Museum of Art in Los Angeles. Born in Santiago de los Treinta Caballeros, Dominican Republic. Estévez lives and works in the South Bronx.

Be prepared to cringe.
Considering the current state of the art market — an unlimited oasis and supply of commercial art goods ready to be exchanged in multiple venues around the world — Cecilia Jurado wondered, “What about those in search of a small piece of an artist’s soul and not merely their detritus?” The answer: five culturally critical performance artists who ask, “why not be critical of one’s own world? Art has thousands of followers and many creators, but let’s be honest, much of the world’s population lives fine without it.”

Some artists, while they agree with those who cringe at the art world and its financial excesses, still have a deep desire and love for art that stimulates, provokes, and makes them think. Larry Litt, Brina Thurston, Elena Tejada-Herrera, Noritoshi Hirakawa and Nicolás Dumit Estévez remind us that the unmediated and unrecorded performance experience cannot be acquired and collected.

This exhibition is a conversation about contemporary art and its arbitrary values; like gold, art is only valuable when someone is willing to pay for it. Yet the collecting of art has an intellectual and cultural status far superior to the crass collecting of gold. When considering the idea of collecting art the average man in the street cringes.

Each of the participants will present original first-time-exhibited work. These performers have a razor sharp attitude towards their subjects and they clearly display their opinions. Sometimes these opinions make us cringe as well.

DEAN PROJECT is located at the back right corner of the P.S.1 Museum in Long Island City