Marimba Imaginaria
The Spine of Music co-curators invited experts to discuss the artistâs legacy in the music and art scenes.
Speakers
MarÃa Alejandra Privado, Sociologist
Stefan Benchoam, Proyectos Ultravioleta
Sebastián Zubieta, Music Director, Americas Society (moderator and co-curator)
In a conversation with Diana Flatto and Sebastián Zubieta, co-curators of the Americas Society exhibition
JoaquÃn Orellana: The Spine of Music, experts spoke about the Guatemalan artistâs legacy in the music and art scenes. Laura Novoa opened the discussion talking about Orellana s formative period while a fellow at the CLAEM studio in Buenos Aires. Stefan Benchoam talked about how he approaches Orellanaâs work as a curator and the artistâs relationship with the contemporary art world. MarÃa Alejandra Privado presented on the complex historical context in which Orellana lived in Guatemala and the marimba s relationship with the country during its civil war
The Spine of Music.
Sonorimba, imbaluna, sinusoide, ululante. JoaquÃn Orellanaâs instruments have unusual names, formed by mixing the words that describe the shape created with the sound he is seeking. The Guatemalan composer could also be considered a sculptor by those who visit the exhibition
The Spine of Music, featured at Americas Societyâs through April 24. The exhibition puts Orellanaâs
útiles sonoros (âsound toolsâ) on display and reveals the interdisciplinary nature of his work.
When he began making his instruments, Orellana was âsolving a problem,â explains Diana Flatto, exhibition co-curator. During a fellowship at the preeminent Centro Latinoamericano de Estudios Musicales at the Instituto Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires, the composer was heavily influenced by electronic music, then in its infancy. But when, in 1969, he returned to Guatemala, the technology to create electronic music simply did not exist there.
In conversation with Aimé Iglesias Lukin, director and chief curator of Visual Arts.
About the artist
Amorales is a multidisciplinary artist who explores the limits of language and translation systems to venture into the field of cultural experimentation. He uses graphic production as a tool to develop linguistic structures and alternative working models that allow new forms of interpretation and foster collectivity. In his projects, Amorales examines identity construction processes, proposes a constant re signification of forms present in his work, and provokes a clash between art and pop culture. His research processes are complex; they are based in an ample repertoire of empirical methodologies to develop extensive projects that conjugate historical, cultural, and personal references. His practice expands to diverse media such as drawing, painting, sculpture, or collage; as well as performance, installation, animation, sound art, film, writing, among other non-traditional forma
JoaquÃn Orellana: The Spine of Music Orellanaâs radical practice combines innovation with a powerful social conscience, and ancestral techniques with avant-garde sensibility, writes Arte Al DÃa.
The first exhibition of the Guatemalan composerâs útiles sonoros (sound tools) in the United States. The exhibition, a collaboration between Visual Arts at Americas Society and Music of the Americas, presents these innovative instruments alongside the work of contemporary artists. On view through March 5, the exhibition is curated by Diana Flatto and Sebastián Zubietaâ¦
JoaquÃn Orellana is among the most influential living members of Latin Americaâs musical avant-garde. Born in Guatemala City in 1930, Orellana studied violin and composition at the National Conservatory of Music in Guatemala and was a fellow at the preeminent Centro Latinoamericano de Estudios Musicales (CLAEM) at the Instituto Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires.
Americas Society presents first U.S. show of Joaquín Orellana s útiles sonoros (sound tools)
Installation view. Photo: Alexander Perrelli
NEW YORK, NY
.-Americas Society presents Joaquín Orellana: The Spine of Music, the first exhibition of the Guatemalan composer s útiles sonoros (sound tools) in the United States alongside the work of contemporary artists. Orellana is a key figure for both music and contemporary art in Central America, and his show expands our exhibition program s geographic and disciplinary boundaries, said Director and Chief Curator of Visual Arts at Americas Society Aimé Iglesias Lukin.
The exhibition connects the musician s avant-garde sensibility with that of artists including Carlos Amorales, María Adela Díaz, Akira Ikezoe, and Alberto Rodríguez Collía, each of whom has spent time with the composer and created work related to his practice. Orellana s útiles are interdisciplinary by nature, existing as visual objects waiting to be activated