黑料不打烊

Yoshua Okon's video installations are built on improvisational narratives created by the artist and his collaborators, mostly non-actors willing to participate in a game of social chance that may easily spiral out of control. Centered around emotionally charged expressions of power and contemplations of fear, death, sex and nationhood, these works provoke viewers to consider questions of social conduct and the behavior of individuals within systems of social restraint. Ok贸n further challenges viewers to question their own attitudes towards power, ethics and prejudice, particularly as they relate to class and race. Maintaining a belief that humanity holds within its grasp a complex web of fears and desires, Ok贸n places psychological violence on the stage with absurdity and humor. The rather serious antics that unfold yield to audience reactions of shock or disbelief, while at the same time providing a space to laugh at one's own frailties. Ok贸n's works are both performative and interactive, in that they are not complete without the participation and complicity of the audience as they react to what they experience on screen.

Among the works included in the exhibition are Bocanegra (2005-2007), in which Ok贸n collaborated with a group of Nazi enthusiasts who dressed up in vintage uniforms and were recorded in a variety of orchestrated situations; Canned Laughter (2009), a simulation of a maquiladora (a factory on the northern border of Mexico) that "cans laughter," juxtaposing the spontaneity of emotion with the grim realities of contemporary industry; House Meister (2008), in which a man comes out of a mouse-hole-like opening in the wall and crawls on the ground hissing and growling; Hipnostasis (2009), a collaboration with Raymond Pettibon which explores the subculture of old hippies and beach bums from Venice Beach; and Rusos Blancos (White Russians) (2008), a collaboration involving a family and residents of a remote desert area in California who rehearse performances for invited spectators. No Blog Yoshua OkonYoshua Okon was born in Mexico City and currently lives and works in Mexico City and Los Angeles. While his primary medium is video, Ok贸n considers himself a performance artist, as his work documents invented scenarios created for the camera in collaboration with invited participants. Interested in the tension between artificiality and the hyper-reality, Ok贸n鈥檚 work reveals the dissolution of the boundaries between public and private, external and internal that occurs once the camera is turned on. In 1994, Ok贸n and Miguel Calderon founded the internationally acclaimed 鈥淟a Panader铆a,鈥� a vibrant, non-profit, artist-run space in Mexico City that has become a model throughout Latin America.