Kitchen Debate
curated by Paulina Ascencio
November 2–December 10, 2017
Opening reception: Thursday, November 2 from 6–8 PM
Talk with the curator and artists: Saturday, November 4 at 4 PM
Artists: Alejandro Almanza Pereda, Javier Barrios, Livia Corona Benjamin, Ana Bidart, Edgar Cobián, Debora Delmar, Cynthia Gutiérrez, Valentina Jager, Iván Krassoievitch, Enrique Lanz, Javier M. Rodríguez, Edgar Orlaineta, Chantal Peñalosa, Gabriel Rico, Marco Rountree, and Eduardo Sarabia
For immediate release:
Site95, Rawson Projects, and Regina Rex are pleased to announce their collaboration for Kitchen Debate, a group show of Mexican artists curated by Paulina Ascencio.
The exhibition takes its name from the infamous series of conversations between Richard Nixon and Nikita Khrushchev during the American National Exhibition in Moscow in 1959. The conversation started in the kitchen of a suburban model house that, allegedly, anyone in America could afford. As it developed into a brandish demonstration of domestic technology, the event was a watershed for consumerism culture in America, appealing to the increase of purchasing power of the average family, and the beginning of modern credit.
The trail of these ideas spread to Mexico as an aspirational way of living for middle class families, as it is portrayed in magazines, advertisement, and TV. Both the conversation and its aftermath are revisited almost sixty years later through the work of 16 Mexican artists. From a post-NAFTA conjuncture, from a society that has become suspicious of the “American way”, this Kitchen Debate considers post-war design, social housing crises, states of emergency, millennial dynamics, and access and distribution of goods.
Paulina Ascencio (Guadalajara, 1988) is an independent curator and researcher based in Mexico. She graduated with a degree in Philosophy and Social Sciences. She has participated in the residency programs of Kadist Foundation, San Francisco, and PAOS, Guadalajara. She has worked in exhibitions in Museo de Arte de Zapopan, Instituto Cultural Cabañas, and MURA, as well as in galleries and independent spaces. She is an alumni of the Curatorial Intensive program of Independent Curators International (ICI) in New Orleans. Her texts have been published in La Tempestad, Terremoto, and Harper’s Bazaar Art.
Rawson Projects and Regina Rex will function as a collection center for donations for the victims of 19S earthquake in Mexico. Winter is coming and there are still a lot of people living in shelters. If you would like to donate warm clothes and blankets, please bring them to the galleries by November 4 and we will ensure that those who need them most will receive them.
If you would like to donate money, the following organizations are recommended:
Cooperación Comunitaria to reconstruct the Isthmus of Tehuantepec
http://cooperacioncomunitaria.org/
Arte Reconstruir MX
https://www.facebook.com/ArteReconstruirMx/
Topos Brigade
Everything counts. Mexico needs your help.
For inquiries please contact the gallery at info@rawsonprojects.com or call 646 275 4701