Monday May 13th 2019, 6.30 pm – 8 pm at Cecilia Brunson Projects
The artist will be in conversation with curator Pablo José Ramirez about her practice and research into themes of the body, violence and transformation in Mesoamerican cultures and its possible relations to the present.
Pizzani's new body of work has been developed over the last two years and from her recently completed residency at the Marso Foundation in Mexico.
The title, ‘Coraza’ (translated – ‘armour’), references the ceremony to the Aztec god of rebirth, Xipe Totec. As part of the ritual to celebrate the start of the corn cropping season, Aztec priests would peel the skin from defeated warriors before donning their flayed skins. Pizzani became fascinated by the ancient ceremony, and this exhibition is her parallel exploration into regeneration, transformation and metamorphosis through ceramics, photography, installation, collage and video.
Pablo José Ramirez: is a curator, art writer and cultural theorist. He has published extensively and has been member of different curatorial advisory boards and juries for institutions such as the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MADC), Gasworks, The Visible Award (Cittadellarte – Fondazione Pistoletto and Fondazione Zegna) and Teoretica. Ramirez has recently curated exhibitions for institutions and art spaces such as Display (Prague, 2018); the Museum for National Identity (Tegucigalpa, 2017); the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, Parsons School of Design (New York, 2015); the Center for Contemporary Arts, CCA (Glasgow, 2014) among others. Ramirez is the former Artistic Director of Ciudad de la Imaginación (2010-2014) and in 2015 he co-curated with Cecilia Fajardo-Hill the 19th Bienal de Arte Paiz: Trans-visible. Ramirez is the recipient of the 2019 ICI/CPPC Travel Award.
