Vienna’s Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (TBA21) is hosting an exhibition from June 17 to November 20 in which Mexican artist Mario García Torres reconsiders his own work in terms of the ongoing global migrant crisis.Featuring works by the artist drawn from the TBA21 collection, as well as a new film commission, “An Arrival Tale” will explore these in terms of new emerging contexts. As the gallery explained in a press release, they intend to “detach […] the works [...] from their original contexts and descriptions,” considering them “as a collection of narratives and artistic experiments open for reinscription.”Specifically, the works will be reinscribed as part of the space’s continued “engagements with the contemporary refugee crisis and, more generally, within the condition of continuous global migration and displacement.” In practice, this means a work like “Tea,” 2013 — Torres’ film essay about Alighiero Boetti and the potential of him owning a Kabul guesthouse — here becomes a piece about both Boetti and Torres’ roles as migrants within their relative countries, with Torres' visit to Afghanistan to see this guesthouse acting as a metaphor for the movements of people from one country to another. This exploration of Boetti and his place in Afghanistan during the Second Gulf War also reappears in another work featuring in the exhibition, entitled “Share-e-Nau Wanderings.”Also showcased in the exhibition is “Sounds Like Isolation to Me,” a collaboration with composer Nils Frahm originally made for the 8th Berlin Biennale in 2014. This work is about American composer Conlon Nancarrow, a migrant to Mexico. This piece is joined by “Open Letter to Dr. Atl,” 2005, a video tribute to the eponymous Mexican painter.“Mario García Torres: An Arrival Tale” runs from June 17 through November 20 at Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary.
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