The Hybrid State

Dates

November 2 - January 25 1991

Artists

Ida Applebroog
Luis Camnitzer
Juan Downey
Jimmie Durham
Ming Fay
Guillermo
G—mez-Pe–a
Nancy Grossman
David Hammons
Jerry Kearns
Juan S‡nchez
Anton van Dalen
Cecilia Vicu–a
Ursula von Rydingsvard
Krzysztof Wodiczko
Martin Wong

Exhibition

   The Hybrid State is an exhibition in which the artists' conceptions are revealed through the curator's installation of each work, providing a commentary on the different margins of culture. Curated by Jeanette Ingberman and Papo Colo, the installation of each artist's work is a portrait homage to that artist and a dynamic curatorial archive of each artist's ideas. The Hybrid State exhibition introduced the conceptual basis of Parallel History.

Publication

   A documentary catalog for The Hybrid State exhibition contains statements by the artists and texts by Luis Camnitzer, Papo Colo, Joshua Dector, Jimmie Durham, Guillermo Gemez-Pea, Celeste Olaquiaga, Cecilia Vicu–a, Krzysztof Wodiczko and Warren Niesluchowski.

The Hybrid State Films

   The Hybrid State Films was a two-week festival which showcased recently produced independent films and videos about the hybrid cultures of migrants, exiles, and the burgeoning postcolonial communities in the United States, Canada, Africa and Europe. These features and shorts from around the world offer a range of interpretations of life in places where "first," "second" and "third" world intersect, and where cultures meet, synthesize and are continuously transformed. The project was conceived by Papo Colo and curated by Coco Fusco. It was presented at Anthology Film Archives

   Surveying the work of over twenty-five artists, The Hybrid State Films examined how independent film and video makers in many parts of the world are coming to terms with the significant demographic and social phenomena of the post-WWII period: the cultural hybridization that results from the shifts in population, the restructuring of national boundaries brought about by the Cold War, the decline of colonialism, and the massive move of peoples between the north and the south.

Parallel History

   Parallel History is an inter-disciplinary program conceived and produced by Exit Art to investigate the cultural responses to a more developed and conscious social reality. Parallel History examines the ways that cultures influence each other to become another transformation of those cultures - what we call the 'hybrid state' - a transmutation which provokes another dimension in an artist's work. Parallel History points to the reality that there is no longer a mainstream view of American art culture, with several 'other', lesser important cultures surrounding it. Rather, there exists a 'parallel history', which is now changing our understanding of our transcultural society.

   Parallel History is a year-long series of exhibitions, publications, film screenings, literature and performance programs, and artist talks. Parallel History encompassed The Hybrid State exhibition, The Hybrid State Films, November 6-17, 1991, presented at Anthology Film Archives, and Speaking Tongues, the first in a literary and performance series, January 17-18, 1992.

Publication

   An extensive catalog for the presentation contains essays by Cameron Bailey, Daryl Chin, Miriam Rosen, Coco Fusco, and Papo Colo and program notes.

Exhibit Archive | 91-92 Calender