JULIA CASTAGNO, "Chromosoma 23", 2000, Installation/Performance

MARTIN SASTRE, "Masturbated Virgin", 2000, Performance/Installation.

Catalog Available

In December Momenta presents an exhibition co-organized by Santiago Tavella and Fernando Lopez Lage, both artists and curators from Montevideo, Uruguay. Referencing such diverse popular culture figures as Coco Chanel, Britney Spears, and Paula Abdul, these artists will present installations combined with live performances and video. There will be a video screening of work by these artists at the gallery on Friday, December 8 at 8pm.

With a population of under three and a half million, Uruguay is one of the smallest countries in South America. Their current period of economic recession might explain why cable TV has only been recently introduced to the country. As Uruguay is flooded with images produced outside of its own cultural traditions these four artists produce work that reconfigure this excess of visual information to make sense of its disassociated context. Using humor and visceral imagery, the characters they create exist somewhere between the alienated viewer and the adoring fan, the popular culture icon, and the all-too-human celebrity monster.

In her performance/installation titled "The 23rd Chromosome", Julia Castagno reinterprets the Chanel logo, with a quasi-scientific twist. Her uncanny impersonation of this revolutionary designer is marred by the artist's levitation/strangulation. Simultaneously, Castagno espouses beauty tips and words of wisdom uttered by the late designer.

Paula Delgado's performance and installation titled "Candy's Among Us" presents the ultimate Stepford hostess. Blond, buxom and beautiful, she dutifully offers traditional Uruguayan treats while fawning over her North American guests. Candy eagerly capitulates to the New York art world's desire to see her as a symbol of the exotic.

DANIEL UMPIERREZ , "Paula Abdul Takes a Shower", 2000, Performance/Installation.

PAULA DELGADO, " Candy is Among Us", 2000, Duraflex

Martin Sastre plays himself as a celebrity artist profiled on E! Entertainment. Lacing together appropriated footage from E! as it airs in Uruguay and photographs from his family album, he creates an all too familiar tale of his rise and fall in celebrity status. This purposefully naive pseudo-documentary includes advertisements and previews of upcoming shows.

In Daniel Umpierrez's contribution, "Paula Abdul Takes a Shower", the artist impersonates the somewhat has-been vocalist singing, "Rush, Rush". This piece follows a TV-logic where nothing of what is shown on-screen is aimed at in-depth scrutiny, but merely at instant exploration/exploitation. The observer stands facing an amplified, insignificant act.

Special thanks to Liselot van der Heiden for helping us both in Uruguay and New York and to Ruth Kahn for her hospitality.