I first discovered Pablo Helguera when I came upon his book, The Pablo Helguera Manual of Contemporary Art/ Style in a museum giftshop. I found it charming and witty, if rather poorly edited, and, imagining he needed a better editor, I decided to look him up and offer my services. I found him on facebook, mind you and, I found that he was a very serious artist with some very ambitious artistic goals. So heavy seemed his agenda, that I was intimidated and did not offer my services.
After friending him and communicating a little, I found that he was putting together an incredibly audacioius book of cartoons about the artworld. The book, Published in 2009, is ARTOONS and it is a perfect gem. There will be a sequel.
Mr. Helguera has, in fact, published many books, produced numerous lectures and essays, put on many ambitious performance and interdisciplinary art shows, and is, in fact, an all around artist’s artist.
His latest endeavor, which he posted today on facebook, is The Juvenal Players, Helguera’s latest experiment with merging performance art and theatre. Taking his marching orders from Juvenal, who’s satire exposed the hypocracies of Roman society and politics, Helguera’s play seeks to “interrogate our current cultural, political, and social moment and the role of art-making within it.”
The Juvenal Players makes it’s New York premier on Friday, April 23rd at the Kitchen, 512 West 19th Street. Tickets: $10
See the listing on the Kitchen site
Reality and Performance Collide at The Kitchen
–Encore Magazine
LINKS:
The Art Machine 