ARTIST STATEMENT:
"Duende is a word with no direct translation to another word: it takes a few words, the mention of a poet, and allusions to the diabolical to make the idea known to a non-Spanish speaker. I first encountered the word while reading about Federico Garcia Lorca’s life. I thought of it then as a kind of vibration, an energy or an emotion we feel as we create. In language it could be the phonic that makes words come together as song. And in architecture? Could a building have duende?
In researching the history of the location of Instituto Cervantes, I learned of the way the buildings were dismantled, the ground excavated and the structure carefully rebuilt to become a more structurally sound Amster Yard. I imagine this process as an archeological one, with specialists documenting each brick, separating this one from that one, and cleaning off the mortar that once made the bond between each element".
ARTIST BIO
Born in Albany, New York Beck earned an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin and a Master of Architecture degree from Tulane University. He also attended the Glasgow School of Art. Beck’ s large scale installations have most recently been shown in New York and Texas. Visitor Center, presented through the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Swing Space Program, opened in 2009 at the South Street Seaport Museum. In 2010, Beck continued his Center Series with Migration Center at the Lawndale Art Center in Houston and Capture at Second Floor Gallery in Marfa, Texas. In June 2010, he began a permanent installation on 5 acres of land in the Chihuahuan Desert near Terlingua, Texas. Beck’ s work has been reviewed in the New York Times, The New Yorker, Village Voice and the Austin Chronicle. His work is included in the Judith Rothschild collection of contemporary drawings at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), New York.
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