Media Release
Newly commissioned work by Teresa Margolles
to be premiered at 2012 Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art
Teresa Margolles is creating new work responding to the recent riots in English cities as part of a Production Residency at the Glasgow Sculpture Studios (GSS). The Mexican artist, whose visceral installation was one of the most striking and emotive pieces at the 2009 Venice Biennale, was developing work focusing on a recovered photographic archive of over 4,000 images of Ciudad Juárez from the 70s and 80s, when events overtook her.
Margolles travelled to London to document the aftermath of the riots both in photographic form and through the collection of debris. Arriving back in Glasgow she has developed a number of new works including performative actions in public spaces in Glasgow and Edinburgh using newspaper headlines that document media and public responses to the riots.
This new work, along with her research into the historic Luis Alvarado photographs of a town that today is infamous as the one of the murder capitals of the world reflects on the idea that all places have a story of suffering etched into their past. It will form the first exhibition in Glasgow Sculpture Studios new premises in The Whisky Bond at Spiers Locks shown as part of the 2012 Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art.
"The impact of Margolles' work still haunts me today, years after encountering it at the 2009 Venice Biennale. She presented new work, entitled 'What Else Could We Talk About?' which included an action that took place, daily, where the pavilion floors where being mopped with a mixture of water and blood from murdered people in Mexico."
Amy Sales
Margolles' GSS Production Residency has been supported by Creative Scotland and the Henry Moore Foundation and with a Wellcome Trust Arts Award.
Since the inauguration of the Production Residency programme GSS have invited Beagles & Ramsay (2008-09) Siobhán Hapaska (2009-10) Jimmie Durham (2010) and Christine Borland (2010-11), and co-commissioned new work with a wide range of national and international partners and funders including Creative Scotland, Henry Moore Foundation, Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art. This programme is curated by Amy Sales, Head of Programme.
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Notes for Editors
Teresa Margolles
"With a minimalist artistic vocabulary, executed in highly emotional and ethically charged materials,Teresa Margolles manages to sharpen her view of death and conditions in Mexico with radical compression and concentration."
Rein Wolfs
International artist, Teresa Margolles (b. 1963 Culiacán, Mexico) lives and works in Mexico City, Mexico. For the next three-months Margolles will live and work in Glasgow, Scotland to undertake the next Glasgow Sculpture Studios Production Residency, funded by Creative Scotland, Henry Moore Foundation and The Wellcome Trust.
Margolles studied art and communication sciences at the National University of Mexico followed by a diploma in forensic medicine. She is one of the founders of the group SEMEFO (Servicio Médico Forense/Forensic Medicine Service). Recent solo exhibitions include Frontera at Kunsthalle Fridericianum in Kassel and Museion Bolzano 2011,Los Herederos, Peter Kilchmann Zurich 2009, and En Lugar de los Hechos - Anstelle der Tatsachen Kunsthalle Krems 2008, 127 cuerpos, Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen Dusseldorf 2006, Caída Libre/Chute libre Frac Lorraine, Metz 2005, Muerte sin fin, Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt Main 2004 and The Shroud, Kunsthalle Wien Vienna 2003. Margolles has presented work at Manifesta7 Bolzano 2008, the Liverpool Biennale 2006, the Prague Biennale 2005 and 2003 and the Gwangju Biennale 2004. In 2009 she represented Mexico at the 53rd Venice Biennale presenting What Else Could We Talk About?
Since belonging to the group SEMEFO, whose name is derived from the forensic medical service, Margolles has chosen as her atelier, first the morgue and the dissecting room, and more recently, the violence-ridden streets of Mexico. These are places of death but also places which bear witness to social unrest. Margolles works not so much directly with the remains of bodies but rather with the traces of life, with shrouds, burial and memory, and with the way a violent act shatters human networks and affects them in various levels.
Glasgow Sculpture Studios is "a unique centre for research, production, presentation and the dissemination of contemporary sculptural practices,"
Founded in 1988, Glasgow Sculpture Studios (GSS) has played a key role in the development of the artistic community, which has put Glasgow on the international map. Offering studio space for residents and production facilities for artists from Glasgow and beyond, GSS has supported the creation of work seen in exhibitions across the globe. Among the current 50+ studio holders are Turner prize nominee, Nathan Coley, Alex Frost, David Shrigley, Calum Stirling, Smith/Stewart, Stephen Hurrel, and many of the artists who have represented Scotland at the prestigious Venice Art Biennale including Claire Barclay.
The Public Programme is curated by Amy Sales to reflect the diverse range of approaches to contemporary sculpture and Glasgow as a centre for the production and exhibition of internationally significant visual art.
