LA

ESCUELA___

To rethink the legacy of the Venezuelan-German artist Gego and her historical significance from a contemporary context, LA ESCUELA___, Fundación Gego and Sala Mendoza invite artists and researchers to participate in Collective Reticulárea: Communal Cartographies. This participatory project conceived by artist Miguel Braceli, proposes to build a meeting and learning space around collaboration, weaving networks, and the affective bonds between art and the territory, addressing issues of diasporas and migration.

Collective Reticulárea contemplates the activation of participatory projects with university students in Caracas, an educational program aimed at teaching artists, and the creation of an international collaborative network for activating Gego's Reticulárea as a collective structure. Curated by Fundación Gego and Stefanie Reisinger, the project is part of a commemorative program in the 30th anniversary of Gego’s passing, developed jointly by La Escuela___, Fundación Gego, Sala Mendoza, and the Goethe-Institut Venezuela, in collaboration with a network of Venezuelan artists and students of the Taller X of the School of Architecture of the Central University of Venezuela. A key figure for twentieth century geometric abstraction, thanks to her contributions to the study of form in space, in this project, her work is understood through the lens of learning and collaboration.

Reticulárea is one of Gego’s most representative works, for concretizing her research on spatial experience and drawing in the void. It consists of the spatial development of joints between linear pieces that, when assembled together, form an immersive whole: the design of a system of edges with a flexible node capable of generating a rhizomatic structure of an endlessly expansive nature. The idea here is to “approach the node as a design object, but also as an exchange space as a way of creating relationships in the context of displacements and diasporas; this allows us to learn from Gego's expansive work, to redimension the Reticulárea as a political communal territory through the link,” Braceli explains. The project hopes to build a different cartography of the continent, where geopolitical borders are now replaced by bridges, flows, and exchanges that draw a new network.

La Ecuela___, Fundación Gego, Sala Mendoza, and the Goethe-Institut Venzuela invite all people interested in participating in this celebration of Gego's work, to collaborate by sending module-pieces to the various collection centers located in Latin America, Europe, and the United States. These will be shipped to Caracas, Venezuela, where they will be integrated into a spatial installation in homage to the Reticulárea. The sum of all these different pieces will give shape to the Collective Reticulárea, to be installed at Sala Mendoza. The exhibition will open in March 2024, along with an educational program around Gego, her work, and the relevance of her legacy for the history of art in Venezuela and Latin America.

The call invites people whose artistic, pedagogical, or research practices are nourished by or address the work of Gego. In this way, the project seeks to map contemporary legacies of the artist in Latin America, as well as to create a cartography of contemporary practices. A network of Venezuelan artists living abroad will offer their studio spaces as collection centers for the pieces-modules, which will later be shipped to Caracas for assembling. Esperanza Mayobre, Lucía Pizzani, Jaime Gili, Elías Crespin, Fabiola Arroyo, María Antonia Rodríguez, Beto Gutiérrez, Valentina Alvarado, Augusto Gerardi, Miguel Braceli, Andrés Michelena, Lenin (Federico) Ovalles, Elisa Bergel Melo, Camilo Barboza and Gabriela Quero are collaborating with their studios to receive pieces in Latin America, Europe and the United States, while the Goethe-Institut Venezuela will receive the contributions in Caracas. The pieces will be received from December 1, 2023, through February 15, 2024.

To participate, individuals or groups must contribute by making at least one module (a three-dimensional piece with a triangular base from the union of its edges, capable of linking and growing in different directions). The pieces should measure approximately 30 centimeters and can be made of any material that can build a line, provided that they can be folded or disassembled, and can fit into a double letter-sized envelope (A3).

People interested should fill out a digital form, where they will find instructions on how to develop the pieces-modules, and share information about their artistic or research projects.

Collective Reticulárea is proposed as an installation lasting the time of the exhibition, with all contributions received being understood as donations to an ephemeral project. After the closing of the exhibition, the work will be disassembled and the materials sorted, to be distributed as donations to the public schools participating in the educational project in Caracas. In this way, they will be able to continue exploring pedagogical exercises around spatial practices.

Participants should either physically deliver or mail their pieces in double letter sized envelopes (tabloid, A3) to their nearest collection center. The pieces must be folded or disassembled in order to be sent through envelopes. Only one envelope per participant will be accepted.

“Gego was always a visionary, her Reticulárea was built with the hope of new and open forms of space that knew no hermetic borders,” comments Stefanie Reisinger. Through this work, the project also alludes to Gego’s own condition as a German immigrant in Venezuela. Collective Reticulárea weaves a living network of people, practices, and research that speak of hemispheric diasporas, flows, and mobility.

This collaborative dynamics also articulates the working of the entire platform. Therefore, La Escuela___ grows as it broadens and strengthens international bonds through collective learning experiences at the crossings of arts and education. The joint founders of La Escuela___ are the artist and educator Miguel Braceli and the international nonprofit foundation Siemens Stiftung. It is based on Siemens Stiftung’s experience with co-creation programs and artistic interventions across Latin America and the artistic and educational works of Miguel Braceli in public spaces.

Click here to learn more about how to participate and the collection centers. Stay posted on Gego's commemorative program by subscribing to the newsletter.