‘Dear Aliens, We are Ready’ – Professor David Cotterrell’s ‘Mazar, Texas’ exhibited at Galeria de la Ciudad, Mexico
Dear Aliens, We Are Ready – 09 April 2021 – 20 June 2021
Professor David Cotterrell‘s work, Mazar, Texas will be shown at the Galeria de la Ciudad, Tecate, Mexico. The exhibition, Dear Aliens, We Are Ready, curated by PASTOR PROJECTS, includes new and existing works by the artists: MARIEL MIRANDA (MX), DAVID COTTERRELL (UK), IRMA SOFÍA POETER (MX), GRO SARAUW (DK), ALEJANDRO ZACARIAS (MX), RYAN GANDER (UK), MÓNICA ARREOLA (MX).
To coincide with the exhibition, the director of Pastor Projects and curator of the show, Thomas Vann-Altheimer, with the support of LOOKING FORWARD and Empathy & Risk, will be in conversation with the artists for video interviews to be premiered during online live events in the second half of April 2021. The public programme will offer insights on the practice of the seven artists involved in the show.
In June 2021, Empathy & Risk, with the support of Sheffield Hallam University and the Global Challenge Research Fund will curate a three-part symposium, THE OTHER Dialogues, articulating inter-disciplinary debate exploring the limitation of international understanding that can be reinforced through distance. The three parts will relate to the topics of nationalism, labour, and gentrification. A press release with the program of the symposium and registration modalities will follow separately.
Images from the exhibition, critical texts, and contributions from THE OTHER Dialogues interdisciplinary symposium will be collated in a book published by Abismos Editorial & Empathy & Risk, edited by Carolina Lio and Sidharta Ochoa.
About Mazar, Texas
A large-scale, immersive work projected in a circular room, Mazar, Texas comprises footage shot by the artist in desert regions of the United States and Afghanistan. Cotterrell recorded journeys through Big Bend National Park in 2010 and Mazar-i-sharif in 2008 and, in 2014, stitched these together to create a cohesive, convincing vision of a desert that does not exist. The score accompanying the work is a mixture of the ambient sound recorded at both locations and the processed noise of a domestic UAD. Drones are known to both regions: in Afghanistan they carry lethal potential; in the United States they document illegal entry into the country.
Mazar, Texas takes some of its inspiration from the virtually identical creation myths surrounding the deserts of both Big Bend and Mazar-i-sharif, in which God, having made the world, realises there is a mass of material left over and throws the waste of his creation to the earth to make the desert.
Press Viewing:
Friday 09 April, 9:30AM – 1PM
contact info [at] pastor [dot] mx for details
Gallery Venue:
Galería de la Ciudad, Instituto de Cultura de Baja California
Pte. Ortíz Rubio s/n esq. Callejón Libertad, Centro CP 21400, Tecate, Baja California
Tel.: (665) 654 14 83
Gallery opening times:
Tuesday – Wednesday, Friday – Saturday: 10AM – 6PM / Thursday: 10AM – 10PM
Sunday: 11AM – 6PM; Closed Monday
Opening times may vary, please confirm via phone before visiting.
David Cotterrell is a Professor in Fine Art in the Art, Design & Media Research Centre (ADMRC) and Director of the Culture & Creativity Research Institute (CCRI) at Sheffield Hallam University. Follow him @davidcotterrell and on Instagram.