Contested Territories

Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Programs, Long Island, New York

Sept. 23, 2012 – Jan. 06, 2013

Curator: Miguel Amado

 

Contested Territories is an exhibition that explores the interaction of the city and society in an age of conflict. The rationale behind the exhibition is that the current disruption of the social order finds its locus in the urban space. These uneven geographies are the battleground for ideologies-from political, to ethnic to religious-and thus instantiate contested territories.

Contested Territories comprises two key narratives: on the one hand, New York’s ubiquity in the collective imagination as a location of discord; on the other hand, wall building as the physical embodiment of separation barriers. The works in the exhibition examine subjects that look at contention within the relationship between humans and culturally constructed land, including civil unrest and protest or gentrification and ghettoization.

The exhibition brings together a diverse group of artists from across the globe-Inbal Abergil, Danielle Adair, Francis Alÿs, Tania Candiani, caraballo-farman, Mounir Fatmi, Takashi Horisaki, João Louro, Carlos Motta, Celestino Mudaulane, Sreshta Rit Premnath, Nada Prlja, Rosana Ricalde, and Alejandro Vidal-whose output is informed by or is a response to discord, both historical and contemporary.

Miguel Amado is the curator of the Portuguese Pavilion at the 2013 Venice Biennial. He has been a curator for institutions such as Tate St Ives and Lisbon’s Fundação PLMJ. Other curatorial positions include New York’s Rhizome at the New Museum, the Abrons Arts Center and the International Studio & Curatorial Program. Amado has been a guest curator at institutions such as Lisbon’s Museu Colecção Berardo and events such as Frieze Projects at London’s Frieze Art Fair. He is an auditor at the Ph.D. Curatorial/Knowledge at Goldsmiths, University of London and a graduate of the MA Curating Contemporary Art at London’s Royal College of Art.

 

New York, September 2012