A project by Pia Rönicke
About the project
Throughout her career as an artist, Pia Rönicke (Roskilde,
Denmark, 1974) has researched historical archives mainly
linked to architectural, urban and modern design projects.
Rönicke’s films, installations, videos and photographs
explore the influences and interrelations between these
cities’ environments and the individuals living in them.
Rönicke’s project displayed in the Museo Tamayo combines
artworks about research on the buried history of the Chávez
Ravine community in Los Angeles, starting with the
installation Scanning Through Landscapes (2008-2010)
and continued in the film Aurora (2012).
Chávez Ravine was an urban settlement largely inhabited
by descendants of Mexican immigrants. In 1949, the Los
Angeles government negotiated the purchase of the houses
from the owners, who would receive a new home after the
urban regeneration process was finished. But the plans
were abandoned, leaving many of the members from this
community homeless. In 1960 the area was converted into
the stadium for the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team.
Nevertheless, the residents who remained in the
neighborhood tried to resist eviction; Aurora Vargas was
one of the last residents who refused to abandon her house,
which led to her imprisonment in 1959.
The installation Scanning Through Landscapes in the
Museo Tamayo consists of a double slide projection. The
images show the Chávez Ravine settlement from the 1940s
until the present day; plans and sketches by the architects
Richard Neutra and Robert Alexandre—in charge of the
failed architectural regeneration project—as well as eviction
records of the last residents, including that of Aurora Vargas.
Aurora is a film based on archive documents, excerpts from
other films and television broadcasts, newspaper articles
and interviews with former residents of Chávez Ravine.
These all combine to create a narrative that takes place at
an indefinite time between 1959 and 2012; the boundaries
between fiction and reality are blurred as the documents
and facts are presented within an imaginary structure.
Works
Aurora, 2012
Double projection 33 minutes, 16 mm film transferred to HD
Scanning Through Landscapes, 2008-2010
Double slide projection
Elysian Dream, 2002
Double monitor 10 minutes 30 seconds
Concepts
Project: in the Museo Tamayo, unlike a solo or individual
exhibition, this format is created around a single artwork
or specific research project, normally by invitation from
the museum and intended for a specific space within the
institution or developed through a research grant.
Installation: refers to a type of artwork in which the artist
makes use of the exhibition space and context as part of
the composition, employing a variety of artistic materials
and media. Installations can be temporary or permanent and
the spectator can often pass through them.
Artistic research: a discipline developed in the past decade
to produce artworks, fiction, theories and new areas of
knowledge. Using research methods, this practice of creating
art draws on other disciplines such as science, history,
sociology, psychoanalysis or pedagogy.
About the artist
Pia Rönike (Roskilde, Denmark, 1974). Lives and works in
Copenhagen. Studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine
Arts and at the California Institute of the Arts. Participant
in numerous individual and collective exhibitions. Her solo
exhibitions include Dream and Action Find Equal Support in
It, gb agency, Paris (2012) and Andersens Contemporary,
Copenhagen (2011); Rosa’s Letters, Goloss, Copenhagen
(2010); Scanning Through Landscapes, Walden Affairs, The
Hague, Netherlands (2010); Facing-An Usual Story from a
Nameless Country, Montehermoso, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain
(2009). With Jacob Fabricius and Elisabeth Jorgensen,
Rönike co-founded Appendiks, a space for art, visual culture,
with a book store and an office in central Copenhagen that
publishes art books and audiovisual materials.
Ideas to consider
• How do you use the architecture around you?
• How do you think it relates to the public policies
in your city?
• How does it affect your emotions?
• Thinking about historical stories, where do you think the
limits between fiction and reality are?
Education program
Workshops
Ask at the museum reception for this exhibition’s workshop
Montaje sobre recuerdos
For the general public
Learning Space
Tuesday to Friday: 10:00 am – 14:00 pm
Saturdays and Sundays: 12:00 pm – 16:00 pm
Guided Visits
For the general public, special and school groups
With prior reservation
School Visits
Guided visits to the exhibitions for nursery, primary, junior
and senior-high school and university students
Tuesday to Friday, 10:00 am –12:00 pm
Duration: 30 – 40 minutes
Small fee to cover costs
For reservations, contact: educacion@museotamayo.org
Public program in parallel to exhibition
For more information, please check the schedule at:
www.museotamayo.org
A project by Pia Rönicke
December 11, 2012 – February 19, 2013
Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo
Paseo de la Reforma y Gandhi s/n
Bosque de Chapultepec
México, D.F. 11580
T (52 55) 52 86 65 19/29
www.museotamayo.org
Opening Times
Tuesday to Sunday
10:00 am - 6:00 pm
Admission Fees
$19.00 pesos
Free entry for students, teachers,
senior citizens with valid ID
Free entry on Sundays
Images credits
Front and back:
Scanning Through Landscapes
archive, 2008-2010
Inside:
Stills of Aurora, 2012
All images:
Courtesy by Pia Rönicke
Credits
Curator
Magnolia de la Garza
Curator assistant
Ximena Amescua
Museography
Rodolfo García
Design
Lídice Jiménez
Audiovisual Department
Jacobo Horowich
Registrar
María Marines
Liliana Martínez
Education
Mónica Amieva
Editor
Arely Ramírez Moyao
Communications
Amanda Echeverría
Beatriz Cortés
Pilar Altamirano