By Caitlin Dover, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
A New Space for the South London Gallery
The MAP exhibition Under the Same Sun: Art from Latin America Today opens Friday, June 10 at the South London Gallery
(SLG), a contemporary art institution known for its innovative artist
projects, exhibitions and community engagement. The SLG has recently
been donated a former fire station
by an anonymous benefactor, and thanks to the support of UBS, the
ground floor of the building, which dates from 1867, will open for the
first time as part of Under the Same Sun. The gallery is
working with conservation and heritage experts to renovate the former
fire station, transforming it into a new, multipurpose contemporary art
center that will open fully to the public in 2018. Under the Same Sun
will be the first exhibition to have a dual presentation in SLG’s main
building and in the fire station’s ground-floor space. It’s a rare
chance to see groundbreaking artworks while also getting a first look
this beautiful and historically important building.
Circle in the Square
MAP artist Amalia Pica, whose work A ∩ B ∩ C (2013) is included in Under the Same Sun, will be staging a version of her performance Asamble (2015) on Saturday, June 11
in London’s Peckham Square. The artist, who grew up in a chaotic,
post-totalitarian period in Argentina’s history references the
challenges of self-organization by enacting the universal emblem of
gathering—the circle. This performance—first presented in the Plaza de
los Dos Congresos in Buenos Aires—takes place in a public space and
involves multiple untrained participants who form a single-file
procession that takes the form of a circle which never closes. This
meditative, repetitive choreography explores the universal challenge of
bringing people together and the circle as a charged symbol found in
social organization but also in visual art and architecture.
