Mario Garcia Torres
About the Artist
Born in 1975 in Monclova, Mexico, García Torres describes himself as a conceptual artist who makes work about the history of conceptual art. He uses several media—including photography, film, performance, and printed matter—to reprise or respond to past works of other artists. As he explains, “my work doesn’t really become a remake of the conceptual story but more like a second rehearsal.”
Cover Letter
Ed. of 5 + 2 AP
2011
17 colour 35 mm slides
Cover letter by Mario Garcia Torres consists of the restitution in slide form of a 35 mm film in which the artist himself assembles a bouquet of flowers. At the base of each frame inserted in each slide is a piece of the letter that he ideally addresses to the commission to appoint the new director of the Kunsthalle Bern. The cover letter is precisely the one typically attached to a resume when applying for a job. The artist is applying for the position of director based on the experience he gained through his artistic practice, which made him sensitive to the meaning and political implications underlying the way art is produced and exhibited.
We are confronted with a work that speaks of the art system, called into question by an artist who reinterprets some moments of contemporary art history (Bas Jan Ader, Martha Rosler) to 10bring attention to the social implications of the cultural policies conducted by public museums. A Mexican artist, from that southern part of the world, which prejudices associate more with the activity of a flower peddler than to with that of head of a prestigious cultural institution.
The artist presents himself in a poetic and sincere manner:«I have always thought... about the meanings and political implications hidden behind the ways in which art is produced and exhibited. I believe that this is fundamental knowledge for managing an institution like the Kunsthalle in Bern.»
The contradiction between the bourgeois symbol of the floral bouquet and the naïvety of a young Mexican artist applying for the position of director of an important European cultural institution aims to challenge the unfair hierarchies of the rigid art system.