This exhibition is conceived of as a platform for self-criticism. Intended to question the belief in the value of artistic creation, I Use Perfume to Occupy More Space presents three artistic projects, two artworks from the Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil Collection, as well as a selection of videos by five artists. It is a montage that intermingles such works with commercial products from museum stores, books, movies, television cartoons, as well as press releases and advertisements. These projects and materials set in motion a self-critical mechanism that questions the artist's persona and the roles that are played in the art world, as it also elicits a reflection on themes such as clichés about romantic and bohemian artists, the power of creation and the status it obtains, the moral legitimacy of art, the critical evaluation of discourses, talent, and creativity, the responsibility of contemporary artists, the art market, and the institutionalization of art, among others.
Rather than solely representing a collection of works organized under a given theme or through the scope of current prevailing tendencies, this exhibition is conceived of as a space that invites examination, contemplation of the structures that exist beneath the art world. The artistic projects that are part of this exhibit are the result of sociological procedures that lead to document compilation and to the gathering of common and commercial objects, which addresses the media utilized to construct the artistic persona, to inspect the nature of the roles played in the art world, and the value of the work that such a world produces.
The perfume metaphor refers to the institutionalization of art. From the advent of so-called post-modernity and the celebratory attitude it promoted, it became common to accept that, artistically speaking, anything goes. If anything can become a work of art, then anyone can be an artist. Nevertheless, an institutional seal of approval is necessary for the occurrence of such a deviation. What is it that turns a common object into a work of art or into an aesthetic experience that stands out? Perfume, then, represents the faculty we customarily confer on the change of status that is caused by the designation of something as art: namely, when an object is presented as the artifice of an elevated experience, or also when the value of an artistic expression is bestowed upon a banal experience.
With the institutional advent of the processes of art, contemporary artists began to conceive of novel facets and ways to understand their work and the meaning behind their creations. Among art professionals, only a few continue to believe in the romantic myths of the illuminated artist who constructs metaphysical truths. This new attitude is evidenced in works that convey ironic points of view on this romantic belief of the artistic persona and the value of artistic work. Likewise, evaluations by critics and the role of curators have been similarly affected by these new self-critical dynamics that place validation criteria under scrutiny. At present, the contemporary artist is seen more as a sort of sui generis researcher who, relying on processes or models of hybrid or heterogeneous knowledge, takes on a socio-professional role – sometimes critical or self-critical – as he/she on occasion also plays the role of the ironist, but seldom adopts that of the misunderstood romantic isolated from the world. Although there are always exceptions!
While the belief on the power of the artist in other periods implied the recognition of his/her geniality and innate talent, today it appears that this role retreats into its ability to understand the institutionalism of art: namely, the rationality of the models of production, presentation, distribution, and validation that constitute the visibility of the artistic. This change from the regimen of the object to that of the procedure can be explained, on the one hand, as a consequence of practices stemming from the Dadaist ready-made of the 1960s, and on the other, as a response to internal processes in the art world.
The enunciation I Use Perfume to Occupy More Space must be understood as a query on the sociability rituals through which the confection of artistic institutionalism takes place.


Daniel Andujar/Rogelio López Cuenca

The Art of Seduction, 2008

Archivo fotográfico

Proyección video, DVD

Video Monitor, DVD

Medidas variables
John Bock

Dandy, 2006

Proyección película, DVD, 59”

Ximena Cuevas

Contemporary artist, 1999

Proyección video, DVD, 5’’
Carles Congost

That’s my Impression!, 2001

Proyección video, DVD, 8’’
Paul MacCarthy

Painter, 1995

Proyección video, DVD, 50’’
Gabriel Acevedo Velarde

Escenario, 2005

Video, DVD, loop
Dustin Ericksen/Mike Rogers

Cups, 1996-2008

Documentación del proyecto: fotografía

Julieta Aranda

Real Art, 2004-2009

Documentación

Video 9’’

Resumé of Willi Kautz, curator of the exhibition

Willy Kautz is a professor of philosophical aesthetics and a contemporary art curator. He was associate curator at the Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo from 2001 to 2004. His participation in exhibits include that of as co-curator of the exhibit Algo con que Tropezar: Reflecciones en Torno a la Escultura Contemporánea (Something to Stumble With: Reflections on Contemporary Sculpture) at the Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo in Mexico City (2001), Fantasmofísica (Phantom-Physics) at the Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo in Mexico City (2001), Cuasi-Corpus. Arte concreto y neoconcreto de Brasil (Cuasi-Corpus. Concrete and Neo-Concrete Art in Brazil) at the Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo in Mexico City and at MARCO in Monterrey, Mexico (2002), Gordon Matta-Clark: Proyectos Anarquitectónicos (Gordon Matta-Clark: Anarchitectonic Projects) at the Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo in Mexico City (2003), Mira Schendel. Continuum Amorf (Mira Schendel. Amorphous Continuum) at the Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo in Mexico, City and at the  MARCO in Monterrey, Mexico (2004), Simplesmente Elas Exalam at the Leme Gallery in São Paulo, Brazil (2005), the curatorship of the exhibition I Am He As You Are He As You Are Me and We Are All Together at the Central de Arte in Guadalajara, Mexico (2005), co-curator of  New Media Art and Video Internacional Festival Transsitio_MX 01, Imaginaries in Transit: Poetics and Technology at the Centro Nacional de las Artes in Mexico City (2005), and Deshechos (Waste) at the Casa del Lago, UNAM, in Mexico City (2006).

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