Illusion Brought Me Here is the first international mid-career survey exhibition of Mexican artist Mario García Torres (Monclova, Mexico, b. 1975). Working in a diverse range of media such as video, installation, photography, sculpture, and sound, the artist creates environments that delve into the obscure narratives and aspects associated with conceptual from the 1960-70s.
García Torres juxtaposes facts with fictional histories and documental narratives to foreground the divisive tension between truth and fiction. Conceptual strategies such as appropriation, reenactment, repetition, among other aspects are employed to challenge the boundaries contained within memory and the limitations of historical accounts.
Illusion Brought Me Here takes a radical approach to the traditional retrospective. A newly commissioned sound piece—a soundtrack compilation of all of García Torres’s media-based works to date—creates the framework for the exhibition, which features a comprehensive selection of 35 artworks and site-specific installations spanning over the past 20 years from 1998 through 2018.
The show is organized by the Walker and copresented with WIELS, Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels. It will be accompanied by the first publication to survey the artist’s work, co-produced by the two institutions and published by Walther König, Köln.
Illusion Brought Me Here opens at the Walker Art Center Thursday, October 25, 2018 through Sunday, February 17, 2019 in the Target and Friedman Galleries.
Curated by Vincenzo de Bellis, Curator, Visual Arts, with Fabián Leyva-Barragán, Curatorial Fellow, Visual Arts.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Mario García Torres (b. 1975, Monclova, Mexico) received his MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in 2005 and currently lives and works in Mexico City. García Torres’ solo exhibitions have taken place around the world at institutions such as the Venice Biennale, Italy (2007), Documenta 13, Kassel, Germany (2012), the Mercosul Biennial, Porto Alegre, Brazil (2013) and the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2014). He is the recipient of the 2007 Frieze Cartier Award for emerging international artists.
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