Los subrogados | Les substituts

 Los subrogados | Les substituts [The Surrogates] brings together eight performance artists, four in Mexico City and four in Montréal. Each artist was invited to create or re-create a work that would be performed simultaneously by a delegated artist in the other city. The fact that it is easier today to access video documentation – and especially the opportunity for real-time broadcast of performances on various electronic platforms – is transforming both how artworks are manifested and how they are received and interpreted. This event offers a reconsideration of performance from the point of view of its new, contradictory dimension: while it seems less and less necessary for spectators to physically travel in order to attend the production of an artwork, artists are more and more encouraged to constantly be on the road to participate in residencies, festivals, biennales, and other events. The famous statement by Mladen Stilinović, “An artist who cannot speak English is no artist,” could today be updated as “An artist who doesn’t travel is no artist.” The Surrogates interrupts this economy based on the long-distance movement of bodies by offering a new way to apprehend presence at a live performance, thanks to exchanges and mutual trust among artists, without having to voyage to the other latitude.

Co-presented by the Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC) and the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (MAC), in collaboration with Darling Foundry, Los subrogados | Les substituts was organized by Véronique Leblanc, guest curator at the MAC et Alejandra Labastida, assistant curator at the MUAC, Mexico City, with the complicity of the artists