Your Space is my Space (2017)

The work uses the context of the art fair to present a new art “space”, which is comprised of the bodies of three women. They wear white suites, simulating the white walls of an exhibition space. The artist (me) acts as a gallerist-artist, presenting her new space. The performers follow the gallerist-artist through the fairs, and upon request of the latter, the three women-walls create a one of three formations (wall, cube, line) while the gallerist-artist speaks with interested parties. The works on multiple levels, as it uses a pirate logic to enter into a space of economic and cultural exclusivity for the exhibitors. The performers enter into this space without questioning, as the project reads simply as a costume. The work questions intrinsically the role of costume, as implicit in the passing into the fair is the fact that the costumes do not read as art objects. Originally I had considered placing objects on top of the costumes, as an installation, to illuminate how costume can become an art object. I decided to keep the costume alone as the work, and to help people visualize such an installation through pure conversation. As a portable and mobile space, literally following the artist where she goes, the performance creates a metaphor for the importance of the independent space, a fundamental myth of the contemporary artist in Mexico City. This idea is complicated by being a space literally on top of the body of woman, and in the conversations in the fairs, I explained that this space was open to proposals by women artists. The acts as to pose questions about the relationship between costume and sculpture (here, as the decision to not work with objects but instead as a performative sculpture) and masquerade practices within contemporary art.