Public Programs And Events

Scroll down for a list of public programs.

“The past is always ahead of me,“ says Benvenuto Chavajay, a Mayan artist from Guatemala, reminding us that our experience of the past shapes the present and draws us into the future. Chavajay’s words invite us to rethink our relationship to notions of time, official histories, collective memory, and erasure.

Following 36 years of internal armed conflict fueled by U.S.-backed military regime(s) and a state of recurrent colonialism, Guatemala seems paralyzed in the midst of a fragile democracy and a volatile economy. Nevertheless, over the past two decades, artists, thinkers, and socially engaged practitioners in the Central American nation have developed inventive new spaces, collectives, and resourceful practices that challenge traditional ways to think and experience historic memory.

Guatemala Después is a collaborative curatorial project between The New School and Ciudad de la Imaginación (Quetzaltenango, Guatemala). It seeks to showcase artistic practices from Guatemala that reclaim suspended histories, reveal invisible injustices, and engage in dialogues that relocate our imagination of the present.

This exhibition emerged through a yearlong process of co-investigation, fieldwork, interviews, workshops, and an open call for proposals from artists in and outside of Guatemala. The outcomes showcase artistic investigations by multidisciplinary teams of nearly 40 artists, social scientists, and community activists, as well as influential works by established Guatemalan artists.

The artist collaboratives participating in the show include:

Vida y Memoria (Rogelio Can Gómez, Edgar Esquit, Beatriz Cortéz, and Víctor Hugo Ajquejay);

Justa memoria (Emmanuel Yac, Reyna Marisol Pérez Calderón, Josué Caleb Mendoza Camey, and Jesús Hernández);

Puntos co-existentes (Jorge de León, Nora Pérez, and Gerardo del Valle);

Placeres Subterráneos (Franco Arocha and Claudia Molina);

Memoria, historia en disputa (Flor de María Calderón Pérez, Francisco Sánchez, Daniel Xocop, Dulce Cabrera, Josué Abdias Otzoy Juvilajuj, and Sandy Hernández);

Sitio-Seña (Quique Lee, Iris Castillo, Andrea Monroy, and Paulo Chang);

Hipnosis (Regina José Galindo and Alfredo Ceibal);

¿Me escuchas? (Jessica Kairé and Daniel Perera);

La metamorfosis de la devaluación(Fernando Poyón, Angel Poyón, Angélica Lorenzo, and María Jacinta Xón);

¿Guatemala después? (Madelyn González, Jhonathan Gómez, and Jenny Dale);

El olvido que no sabe que es olvido (Yasmin Hage, Alejandro Flores, and Camilo A. Luin); and

Saturno: año 174 (Julio Serrano, Enrique Pazos, Julie Grajeda, and Irene Martínez).

Chirmol is a Guatemalan sauce made from smashed roasted tomatoes and spicy peppers; in oral culture to say chirmol is to speak about something chaotic, convoluted and complex, but which simply tastes delicious. The transnational collaboration between The New School and Ciudad de la Imaginación has turned into a “chirmol” of artistic energies and curatorial perspectives, reframing memory and the performance of urban agency while situating indigeneity and otherness, as reflected in Guatemala Después. We invite you to participate in this creative inquiry and make your own chirmol along the way.

Public programs:

March 6, 2015: Exhibit Preview Event: Celebrating Contemporary Guatemalan Art: Conversations with Artists & Curators (co-hosted by Independent Curators International). (Archived Livestream)

Thursday, April 9: Exhibit Opening Panel: Guatemala Después: Rethinking the Past, Reimagining the Now, John L. Tishman Auditorium, 63 Fifth Avenue, University Center, . (Archived Livestream)

Saturday, April 10: ¿Me escuchas? (Atol con el dedo) / Can you hear me? (Installation / Durational Performance) Aronson Gallery, 66 Fifth Avenue at 13th St.

April 15, 22, 29, 5:30–6:30 p.m.: Gallery Tours and Discussions with Curators/Artists, Aronson Gallery, 66 Fifth Avenue at 13th St.

April 19, 11:00–2:00 p.m.: Urban Codes, Crossings and Migration: A Public Walk, Aronson Gallery, 66 Fifth Avenue at 13th St.

April 21, 4:00–6:30 p.m.: Retelling Truth: Documentary Film as Witness and Evidence in Genocide Trials (Panel), John L. Tishman Auditorium, University Center, 63 Fifth Avenue,

April 25, 6:30–8:30pm: New Masculinities and Human Rights through the Visual Arts (Panel), Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Auditorium, 66 Fifth Avenue.

April 29, 5:30–7:30pm: Time, Memory, and Collective Practices through Guatemala Después (Closing), Aronson Gallery, 66 Fifth Avenue at 13th St.

**A list of all related PUBLIC PROGRAMS can be found here. (Adobe PDF)**

Presented by The School of Media Studies, The New School for Public Engagement and Ciudad de la Imaginación

Curators: Anabella Acevedo, Pablo José Ramírez de Leon, and Nitin Sawhney with curatorial support from Radhika Subramaniam
Curatorial Assistants: Alba Carrasco, Caroline Brendel, and Julian de Mayo Rodriguez
Production Assistants: Santiago Lucas, Nelesi Rodriguez, and Livia Santos

To learn more about the project visit: http://www.GuatemalaDespues.org

Gallery Hours
Open daily 12:00 noon - 6:00 p.m. and late Thursday evenings until 8:00 p.m.; closed on all major holidays and holiday eves. Admission is free.