Investigate sculpture
Open call from April 7 to 18
Study sessions: April 25 to June 20 (Friday)
Sala Pública is a program that offers a space for consultation and dialogue around the collection of the Documentation Center of the Tamayo Museum. In each edition, a resident project is invited to explore and research the museum's archive, selecting materials to generate new readings and reflections as a way of diversifying the audiences that approach the museum's collection.
Investigate sculpture is a project of the independent publisher BLOQUE focused on exploring and reflecting on sculptural practice based on archives and documentation centers, socializing strategies to approach documentary history.
The Museum's Documentation Center and BLOQUE invite researchers, artists, curators, writers, historians and students interested in sculptural practice to be part of the study group Investigate sculpture. This project proposes to examine the narrative of collecting that originated the museum's collection, reviewing the historiography of the exhibitions and mapping the interventions in the museum's public spaces from a decidedly sculptural perspective.
Through on-site work sessions, including documentary review, expanded writing and spatial tours, Investigate sculpture proposes a collaborative effort to examine and continue thinking about sculpture in Mexico. The Museum's Documentation Center will be the space for reflection and discussion on the contents of its archive.
The program consists of four face-to-face work sessions, which will take place on a Friday of each month at the Documentation Center of the Tamayo Museum, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and will take place as follows:
First session: A look at the opening exhibition and the sculptural acquisitions made for the Tamayo Museum
Friday, April 25 | 11-14 h
In addition to contemplating an introduction to the equipment, program and definition of writing objectives, participants will approach the history of the Tamayo Museum based on its foundational collection. Based on monographic publications and historical documents protected in CENDOC, the figures of Rufino and Olga Tamayo as well as that of Fernando Gamboa will be reviewed based on their relationships with sculpture, promoting an exercise in imaginative speculation that fictions about the arrival of the works at the museum, as well as the inclusion and omission of artists in the collection.
Second session: Sculpture and sculptors. Key projects and artists to approach the sculptural phenomenon at the Tamayo Museum
Friday, May 23 | 11-14 h
The interpretation of the Tamayo Museum as a museological device will allow participants to learn about works, artists and exhibitions whose review facilitates an expanded approach to the sculptural phenomenon. Based on the exploration of catalogues, photographic archives and newspaper documents protected in CENDOC, relevant individual case studies such as Kosma Goeritz (1990), Louise Bourgouis will be reviewed. The Elegance of Irony (1996), Noguchi And The Figure (1999), among others.
Third session: Exhibit sculpture. Two exhibitions to approach the sculptural phenomenon at the Tamayo Museum
Friday, May 30 | 11-14 h
The interpretation of the Tamayo Museum as a museological device will allow participants to learn about works, artists and exhibitions whose review facilitates a
expanded approach to the sculptural phenomenon. Based on the exploration of catalogues, photographic archives and newspaper documents protected in CENDOC, two relevant collective case studies, Dialogues with Sculpture, will be reviewed. Tickets to The Collection (1999) and Something to stumble upon. Reflections on Contemporary Sculpture (2001). In addition, the most recent sculptural exhibition will be reviewed Archaic Futures, curated by Andrea Torreblanca.
Fourth session: The overflowing museum. Architecture as sculpture and Tamayo Park
Friday, June 20 | 11-14 h
In harmony with other contemporary art museums, the Tamayo Museum can be interpreted as an overflowing container whose interaction with the surrounding environment can be reviewed based on the sculptural phenomenon. Based on the exploration of catalogues, photographic archives and architectural documents protected in CENDOC, the museum object will be reviewed from its architectural conception to exhibit and preserve sculpture, as well as the works that have been located and moved in its proximity from its inauguration to the present day.
At the end of these sessions, editorial material will be developed and will be presented at the Public Room together with the members of the study group and will be published digitally for public access. The program will be coordinated by Janila Castañeda and Rodrigo Torres Ramos, editors of BLOQUE Mx, and accompanied by Saúl Quiroz, in charge of CENDOC.
Requirements to participate:
- Register on the form by attaching a letter of reasons and a brief curriculum summary.
- Registration form: https://shorturl.at/EORjn
- Space limited to eight participants.
- The results will be published on April 18, 2025.
They teach:
Janila Castañeda (Jalisco, 1990) is a writer, editor and curator specialized in spatial theory and sculpture. Since 2021, she has been director and editor of BLOQUE. In 2024, she was awarded the Young Creators System grant.
Rodrigo Torres Ramos (Mexico City, 1994) is an architect, researcher and curator whose work delves into the intersections between art and architecture in the context of Mexican modernity. Since 2023 he has directed Mirador Tlatelolco and in 2024 he joined BLOQUE as co-editor.
Saúl Quiróz (Mexico City, 1993) is in charge of the Documentation Center of the Tamayo Museum and a master's degree in Philosophy from the FFyL UNAM. Since 2019, he has been collaborating with this museum as a mediator and workshop operator, with a special interest in archival research and understanding the historical dimension of art and museums.