"Erick Meyenberg: The wheel bears no resemblance to a leg" on view at Americas Society, May 4 through July 22, 2017

NEW YORK, April 24, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The exhibition Erick Meyenberg: The wheel bears no resemblance to a leg is the end result of the artist's collaboration with members of the high school marching band, Banda de Guerra Lobos, at the Colegio Hispanoamericano in Mexico City. Meyenberg and the teenagers—together with curators, guest musicians, composers, costume designers, and a video production team—co-created choreographies, musical scores, and a series of performances that took the band through some of the city's most emblematic and politically marked sites: the Plaza de Tlatelolco, where striking university students clashed with the state in 1968; the Monumento a la Revolución, commemorating the Mexican Revolution of 1910; and the Forum Buenavista shopping center, symbolizing Mexico's embeddedness in transnational capitalism.

Meyenberg developed The wheel bears no resemblance to a leg (2016) over two years as a commission for inSite/Casa Gallina, the sixth edition of the public art project, inSite. The exhibition is co-organized by Americas Society and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, and is curated by Americas Society's Visual Arts Director and Chief Curator Gabriela Rangel and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts' Visual Arts Director Lucía Sanromán. A press preview and reception will be held at the Americas Society Art Gallery in New York City on May 3, 5:00 p.m., followed by a panel discussion. RSVP: [email protected]

Composed of a three-channel projection, flags, a relief sculpture, and archival materials, The wheel bears no resemblance to a leg takes its enigmatic title from the 1917 prologue to Guillaume Apollinaire's 1903 play Les mamelles de Tirésias (The Breasts of Tiresias). Meyenberg's project translates these sources into a critical stance toward normative pedagogical structures—here taking the form of uniforms, discipline, education, gender, the state, and symbols of nationhood—and a conception of the "surreal" not as an evasion of reality, but as an invitation to surmount other realities. Culminating in a synesthetic experience, The wheel bears no resemblance to a leg suggests the complexities of Mexican modernity.

The exhibition is accompanied by a forthcoming richly illustrated publication, which documents the process and performance of The wheel bears no resemblance to a leg and includes essays by Gabriela Rangel and Osvaldo Sánchez, as well as an interview with the artist by Lucía Sanromán.

The presentation at Americas Society of Erick Meyenberg: The wheel bears no resemblance to a leg is made possible by the generous support of the Panta Rhea Foundation and Genomma Lab Internacional. This program is also supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council. Additional support comes from AMEXCID, the Consulate General of Mexico, the Mexican Cultural Institute of New York, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

Visit as-coa.org/visualarts for more details on all public programs. 

Americas Society is the premier organization dedicated to education, debate, and dialogue in the Americas. Established by David Rockefeller in 1965, our mission is to foster an understanding of the contemporary political, social, and economic issues confronting Latin America, the Caribbean, and Canada, and to increase public awareness and appreciation of the diverse cultural heritage of the Americas and the importance of the inter-American relationship. Americas Society Visual Arts program boasts the longest-standing private space in the United States dedicated to exhibiting and promoting art from Latin America, the Caribbean, and Canada; it has achieved a unique and renowned leadership position in the field, producing both historical and contemporary exhibitions.

SOURCE Americas Society

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