Press release LA LOTERIA

INTERNATIONAL ART EXHIBIT September 10 - October 22, 2011

New York Opening Reception: Saturday, September 10, 2011 / 6-10 pm

Observatory: 543 Union Street (at Nevins), Brooklyn, NY 11215

Borderline Projects is pleased to announce the opening of La Loteria Art Exhibit. This show will feature the work of 29 artists from 11 countries, who drew inspiration from the symbolism, style, characters, themes and other aspects of La Loteria Mexicana to create their pieces. About the Show The idea behind this exhibition was to use the images of La Loteria Mexicana as a matrix that helped generate dialogues, intersections, and points of encounter. We have invited artists from all origins and disciplines to adapt, pay homage, adopt or desecrate La Loteria. This exhibition seeks to open a liminal space, a border-zone where it can be possible to explore

our differences together. La Loteria is a game that uses a deck of cards illustrated with figures that represent everyday objects, plants, animals, mythical creatures and other characters. The origins of this game go back to 16th century Italy, where most of the lottery games (such as Bingo, the Lotto, etc.) were born, and where the first decks of playing card, including the Tarot, were introduced into Europe. The specific origins of the La Loteria Mexicana deck of cards are uncertain. The deck most commonly used today dates back to the 19th century, and was made popular by the French entrepreneur Clemente Jacques. These images are part of the collective imaginary of Mexican communities in Mexico and abroad. The potential of games of chance to produce an interpretative or symbolic relationship with reality has been discussed by many authors, such as Italo Calvino and Carl C. Jung. Calvino used the Tarot as an interpretative matrix from which he generated a series of intertwined stories in his book The Castle of Crossed Destinies. On the other hand, Carl C. Jung explored the I Ching's potential to help establish contact with the most profound layers of the unconscious mind, both from a therapeutic and a personal point of view. Lotería Aumentada App

We are happy to announce the release of the "La Loteria Aumentada" App during the opening reception of La Loteria Art Exhibit. "La Loteria Aumentada" is an augmented reality public art project by John Craig Freeman, a public artist with over twenty years of experience using emergent technologies to produce large-scale public work at sites where the forces of globalization are impacting the lives of individuals in local communities. Built for smart phone mobile devices, this project will allow visitors to Observatory to see an entire deck of La Loteria cards floating and spinning in space throughout the gallery and spilling out into the surrounding neighborhood. The public will be able to simply download and launch the project and aim their deviceʼs cameras at the surrounding area. The application uses geolocation software to superimpose the cards at precise GPS coordinates, enabling the public to see them integrated into the physical location as if they existed in the real world.

The Artists Josephine Coy (UK) / Yvianna Hernández (US) / Jeanne Sturdevant (US) / Tara Kathleen (UK) / David Trullo (Spain) / Richard Meyer (US) / Maria Liebana (US) / Elena Rodz (US)/ Enrique González (Mexico) / Patricia Espinosa (Mexico) / Shannon Daugherty (US) / Beatriz Albuquerque (Portugal) / Fay Torresyap (US) / Saredt Franco (Mexico) / Ted Enik (US) / Laura Conde (Mexico) / Art Garcia (US) / Sanaa Khan (Pakistan) / Raúl Mirlo (Mexico) / Giselle Elías (Mexico) / Stephane Eck (France) / Tomás Hache (Mexico) / Chocolate Habanero Arts Collective (Mexico) / Cynthia H. Hsieh (China) / Ral Veroni (Argentina) / Fabian Debora (US) / Clari Netzer (Israel) / John Craig Freeman (US) / Chiara Cola (Italy) About Borderline Projects Borderline Projects is the brainchild of Mexican writer and researcher Salvador Olguin. The different projects and events that it promotes revolve around the notion of liminality, and are dedicated to explore interdisciplinary encounters, as well as imaginative investigations. Borderline Projects is interested in the limits of experience: the limits between art and science, imagination and technique, the intimate and the collective.

Salvador Olguin was born in Monterrey, Mexico. He holds a MA in Humanities and Social Thought from New York University. His work explores the relations between images, language and knowledge. He

has a fascination for postmortem photography, gnosticism, astronomy and posthumanism. In 2010 he received the Carmen Alardin Poetry Award granted by The Mexican National Council for Culture and Arts (Conaculta), for his book La Carabela Portuguesa. Since 2011, Mr. Olguin has been a member of Observatory, an art and events space located ine the Gowanus Art Complex in New York City. Observatory has become a home for Borderline Projects, and a place where most of its events will be hosted. For more information, please email info@borderlineprojects.com Borderline Projects www.borderlineprojects.com Subscribe to our Press Mailing List