Eléctrica IC-11

Like an electrical spark, provoked by the flow between two opposite charges, Eléctrica IC-11 exhibition will open its doors next February 24 at 7pm at Instituto Cervantes New York. Spanish and American artists Itziar Barrio, Alina and Jeff Bliumis, Ryan Brennan, DETEXT, Mar Gómez, Alvaro Ramos, Edgar Serrano and Chavisa Woods will create site-specific installations, paintings, videos and a spoken word performances for Eléctrica IC-11. The show functions as a conduit for artists, writers and actors to grapple with ideas of cultural production, perception, difference and desire. The common ground is simply the reality of creative life in contemporary New York.

Eléctrica IC-11 is not only an art exhibition. It is the inaugural show of the Eléctrica series, an ongoing project highlighting interdisciplinary art projects produced in New York City in the context of Creating Convergence: Spain and the U.S Platform, a project devoted to the visibility, promotion and integration of Spain´s contemporary art and culture within the US.

Eléctrica IC-11 is also the launch show for Instituto Cervantes New York Open Yard Project.  Open Yard will activate the Instituto’s landmark Amster Yard through innovative art exhibitions highlighting New York-based emerging artists.

About Eléctrica

Eléctrica creates energy through the convergence of diverse human emotions and conditions. It’s an open field for multiplicity. The exhibitions and events will be an ongoing platform for various disciplines, languages and positions to intermingle and challenge our established modes of thinking and production.

Inspired by the notion of potential energy generated from two distinct sources, Eléctrica will present fresh art made in collaboration between artists, in tandem with other cultural producers. The works are site specific, and Eléctrica aims to reproduce itself in diverse spaces throughout the city as an unfolding series of exhibitions featuring the evolving process and dialogues of these collaborations. Eléctrica invites the public to experience works of art stemming from collaborations between artists and other cultural producers working together.

About Open Yard Project

The Open Yard Project is a new creative initiative launched by the Instituto Cervantes New York to promote, develop and implement creative multidisciplinary interventions and programs at the spaces of the Instituto Cervantes in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. The Open Yard Project aims to activate the unique space in and around its landmark Amster Yard building through the display of innovative proposals by new emerging talents in the arts through 2011. We will launch the program with the exhibition Eléctrica IC-11 on February the 24th and during the opening we will announce the following shows organized by invitation. After its inaugural 2011 program The Open Yard Project will function on the basis of an open call for proposals all year round with the idea of “invade” the spaces of the Instituto Cervantes New York building.

The exhibition Eléctrica IC-11 is part of the Armory Arts Week, a celebration of the city’s unparalleled artistic communities that takes place every year during the Armory Show days. This year the Armory Arts Week will take place March 3-6, 2011.

You can check the events list here: http://www.armoryartsweek.com/home/public-events/

Curators: Jodie Dinapoli and Ella Levitt

Organized by: Instituto Cervantes New York, Masmedios NYC

Sponsored by: Consellería de Cultura de la Comunidad Valenciana, Spanish General Consulate in NY, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia.

About Instituto Cervantes New York

Instituto Cervantes New York belongs to the Instituto Cervantes network of cultural centers. Instituto Cervantes is an institution that was founded by the Spanish government in 1991 to promote the Spanish language and Spanish and Hispanic-American culture.  The central head office is located in Madrid and in Alcalá de Henares ( Madrid), birthplace of the writer Miguel de Cervantes. Instituto Cervantes is present on five continents with more than 50 centers spread out across many different countries.

Our institution is also responsible for organizing the DELE exams- Diploma de Español como Lengua Extranjera - (Diploma in Spanish as a Foreign Language), as well as issuing official certificates and diplomas for the participants of our courses; organizing Spanish courses; organizing training courses for teachers; supporting Hispanists in their activities andencouraging cultural activities in collaboration with other organizations.

The work of Instituto Cervantes is directed by representatives from the academic, cultural and literary world within the field of Spanish and Hispanic-America.  In New york, the Institute collaborates with museums, galleries, theatres, publishing houses and other cultural institutions, as well as Spanish and Latin-American organizations.