Mexico City, 18 and 19 October, 1997
Curated by Esther Regueira
Artists: Chantal Akerman, Roberto Barandalla, Sophie Calle, Peter D’Agostino, Valie Export, Alonso Gil, Francis Gomila, Wendy Kirkup, Gloria Marti, Elahe Massumi, Pat Naldi, Yoko Ono, Antonio Perumanes, Juan Carlos Robles, Pedro G. Romero, Lotty Rosenfeld, Martha Rosler, Gregory Shepard, Nina Sobell, Virginia Villaplana, Bill Viola, Eduardo Yedlin
The video exhibition Pasarse de la raya presents some artists’ interest in exploring and questioning spatial limits, and their desire to cross walls and certain lines, although in a multidirectional way. Those spatial limits are not only geopolitical, but also psycho-geographical, individual, physical and mental, because it’s clear that displacement and deterritorialization are felt, suffered from and sometimes celebrated in both “places”. Some videos include images from the omnipresent closed circuit cameras installed everywhere in today’s environment, from supermarkets to museums. In others, the camera is an invading element or subversive instrument that intimidates, betrays and mocks controls, able to jump any line or barrier. On the other hand, some redefine and transform private actions into public information, offering us intimate rituals such as wrapping a shroud or preparing a body for burial, or giving voice and image to dreams, a state where no barrier exists. Pasarse de la Raya is presented as a song of coming and going, from private to public and from individual to communal, and vice versa.