Café Chalupecký: Pablo José Ramirez

Meeting the Universe (Halfway Through). An Immersive Curatorial Talk on Land, Borders and Black Holes

Guatemalan curator Pablo José Ramirez held a talk on the themes of the global politics of capitalism, accelerated consumption and the subversive capability of art in the contemporary world. The individual themes were reflected by the works and opinions of five artists from various parts of the world: Kathryn Elkin (UK), Jasmijn Visser (Netherlands), Adrian Balseca (Ecuador), Manuel Chavajay (Guatemala) and Javier Esteban Calvo (Costa Rica). These participated in the debate through a live video conversation.

Pablo José Ramírez (1982 Guatemala) is a curator, theorist and art critic currently based in London. Ramírez has published and edited in different catalogues, magazines and books such as Artishock, Coleccion Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, Arte GT 20/21- Harvard University. He has given talks at the CAA in New York; Temas Centrales 2, Costa Rica; ICI (Independent Curators International) New York; Parsons/New School, New York; Glasgow School of Arts, United Kingdom; Gasworks, United Kingdom, University of Montevideo, Uruguay; Arte Actual/FLACSO, Ecuador and Universidad de los Andes, Colombia. Some of his curatorial projects include: This Might Be a Place for Hummingbirds (Center For Contemporary Arts, Glasgow; UK, co-curator); The Transmodern Dictionary by Terike Haapoja (web-based); Guatemala Después, (co-curator, Parsons Gallery, New York); MUXU´X by Benvenuto Chavajay (Ciudad de la Imaginación, Guatemala); Materia Remota by Adan Vallecillo (MIN, Honduras) among others.

Photo: Radim Paluš

Show all photos (9)

hide photos

Curatorial Text

"The West is not in the West. It is a project, not a place."
Edouard Glissant

Contemporary capitalism is a system without borders. The cognition of accelerated consumption knows no nationalisms. Art creates its own geographies. The possibility of drawing other maps is a subversive and imaginative act of quantum resistance. Radical ecologies insist on creating life over the politics of the Nation-States, through systems of raving rizhomes that goes around the world: the universe has no borders.

While global politics re-organize themselves permanently, in relation to a free flow of capital, on the other hand, they affirm a borders´ delimitation through the colonial logics of national states, as a loop in time. Despite all that, life intends to affirm itself against xenophobia and necropolitics, permanently disrupting the surface of land, the complexities of earth and the limits of knowledge. The relation between day and night, light and darkness is one that bounds us in time. While in Mexico, one indigenous child is watching the sunset, the alarm of a business banker in Bangkok is ringing: time has no boundaries.

In this performative talk, we will address contemporary concerns related to the imposition between limits against the deep spirit of movement, chaos, nomadism and displacement, through the work of 7 artists from different parts of the globe. The event will take place simultaneously in different locations, where each artist will address its concerns in a casual way, through short Skype talks and in situ display of their works. Pursuing a group dynamic, artworks and transnational conversation will be held to create an atmosphere for the incubation of ideas.

Pablo José Ramirez