Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (cifo) Launches a New Exhibition Space
December 2005 Presenting Two Exhibitions From The Ella Fontanals Cisneros Collection
From December 3, 2005 to February 3, 2006, the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (cifo) will celebrate the inauguration of Miami’s newest presenting art space with two specially curated exhibitions drawn from the Ella Fontanals Cisneros Collection. Originally built in 1936, the warehouse that will be cifo’s exhibition space, located at 1018 North Miami Avenue in the region’s burgeoning arts and entertainment district, has been redesigned by Rene Gonzalez Architect to humanize the urban landscape of Downtown Miami’s warehouse district. The cifo launch will coincide with the latest chapter of Art Basel Miami Beach, one of the world’s premier art festivals.
Two exhibitions are being organized for the launch and are being curated from the Ella Fontanals Cisneros Collection, an important collection of international, contemporary photography and video. “Beyond Delirious: Architecture in Selected Photographs from the Ella Fontanals Cisneros Collection” offers an incisive overview of developments in contemporary photography, and “Indeterminate States: Video in the Ella Fontanals Cisneros Collection” provides an excursion into the mysterious in contemporary video art. The highly regarded curators and critics, Christopher Phillips and Michael Rush, organize the exhibitions respectively.
Ella Fontanals Cisneros, cifo’s founder, presented the architect Rene Gonzalez with the mission of establishing a welcoming place in an otherwise austere urban landscape. The resulting gallery space is intended to foster exchanges between the Miami and global art communities. Its façade is conceived in contradiction to the white and concrete clad exteriors of most art institutions, while the interior gallery space is a reductive, flexible box designed for the display of contemporary art. For the exterior, the firm Rene Gonzalez Architect manipulates natural patterns of multi-colored glass Bisazza tiles to create a façade that depicts a bamboo jungle. The patterns on the facade activate the ground plane with a parking lot planted with weeping ficus and bamboo.
The inaugural exhibitions: Contemporary photography and video art
cifo’s program of exhibitions is intended to provide access to art from the Ella Fontanals Cisneros Collection. cifo opens its space to present challenging contemporary art exhibitions from the Ella Fontanals Cisneros Collection, cifo’s own artist-in-residence program, as well as emerging contemporary artists. The exhibitions drawn from its resources are organized thematically by curators known for their ongoing work in a variety of disciplines, demonstrating the highest standards of collecting and curatorial vision. Curated by Christopher Phillips, whose background includes curator at the International Center of Photography, New York, former Senior Editor of Art in America, as well as Professor at Bard, “Beyond Delirious: Architecture in Selected Photographs from the Ella Fontanals Cisneros Collection” explores in what ways some of today’s leading artists and photographers explore the contemporary built environment. A separately conceived, independent and parallel exhibition organized by Michael Rush, both an award winning theatre and video artist as well as former Director and Chief Curator of the Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art, “Indeterminate States: Video in the Ella Fontanals Cisneros Collection” explores in what ways the works of selected contemporary video artists occupy indeterminate states, both physical and psychological, that are similar to those in our own lives.
“Beyond Delirious: Architecture in Selected Photographs from the Ella Fontanals Cisneros Collection”
Varying in scale from intimate to monumental, and ranging in mood from coolly objective to poetically expressive, the works included in “Beyond Delirious” examine architectural spaces as a reflection of the cultural life of our times. The artists include such established figures as Edward Ruscha as well as leading younger contemporaries, Uta Barth, Olafur Eliasson, Carlos Garaicoa, Andreas Gursky, Sabine Hornig, Ryuji Miyamoto, Gabriel Orozco, Thomas Ruff, Doris Salcedo, Thomas Struth, Hiroshi Sugimoto, and Massimo Vitali.
According to the exhibition’s curator, there is a growing artistic awareness that architecture often mirrors the public aspirations and private preoccupations of today’s society. Domestic, institutional, and industrial environments are called on to serve as stage settings for the rituals and ceremonies that structure our lives. Even though they display an extraordinary technical virtuosity, these works have been made not by professional architectural photographers but by visual artists attuned to the ideas of contemporary urbanists, cultural historians, and psychoanalysts, shaped by the artists’ knowledge that every built space embodies a distinctive world-view. Recent acquisitions in photography included in the show are works by Olivo Barbieri, Stan Douglas, Sze Tsung Leong, Stephan Pascher, Heidi Specker, Wang Qunsong, Sharon Ya′ari, Tsukasa Yokozawa, Yang Zhenzhong, and Shi Guorui. For additional information on “Beyond Delirious” see exhibition backgrounder.
“Indeterminate States: Video in the Ella Fontanals Cisneros Collection”
“Indeterminate States” curator Michel Rush observes that the history of video art is bound with the history of cinema and television. For this exhibition, Rush has selected videos drawn from the Ella Fontanals Cisneros Collection that are more suggestive than concrete, in a way more “abstract.” Rush writes that these works are best understood as ‘indeterminate,’ or mysterious. The video art included in “Indeterminate States” represents that sensibility.
Rush observes that many of the earliest practitioners of video art in the late 1960s and 70s were activists drawn to the mass appeal of video technology as an alternative to commercial television. Others, mostly sculptors, like Bruce Nauman and Richard Serra, saw video as an extension of their artistic practice. These artists, grounded in “process” and the growing influences of conceptualism, extended to video the same preoccupation with perception that they exercised in their sculpture. In the earliest years of video art, “performance” became a close companion to conceptualism. The body of the artist, central to the “process” of making art,” became, and continues to be, a material in art making, attaining equal status with any paint, acrylic or metal. Among participating artists are Bill Viola, Ana Mendieta, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, William Kentridge and Melanie Smith. Recent acquisitions in video included in the show are by Francesca Woodman, Marina Abramovic, Julian Rosenfeldt, Chantal Akerman, Kutlug Ataman, Song Dong and Tim Hyde. For additional information on “Indeterminate States” see exhibition backgrounder.
About the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (cifo)
Ella Fontanals Cisneros has committed her efforts and resources to the promotion and understanding of international contemporary art in Florida, and of art from Latin America in the world. In 2002, Ms. Fontanals Cisneros and her family established the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (cifo) to foster cultural exchange within the visual arts. A not-for-profit organization, cifo supports emerging and mid-career contemporary multidisciplinary artists from Latin America and of Hispanic descent, whose innovative work challenges the boundaries that define contemporary art today.
A distinguished collector and patron of the arts, Mrs. Fontanals Cisneros has developed three distinct art programs. They are cifo, a foundation that promotes contemporary artists from Latin America, including a residency program, and the new exhibition space; Ms. Fontanals Cisneros’ personal collection, the Ella Fontanals Cisneros Collection, selections from which will be on display at cifo’s new exhibition space; and, the support of MAC, a museum of contemporary art she founded in Miami in 2003.
- The cifo Residency Program was launched in November 2004 to offer a studio program to contemporary multidisciplinary artists of Latin America and Hispanic descent not living in the United States. The project focuses on the discovery and support of emerging and mid-career artists whose work challenges established boundaries and the categories that define contemporary art today. The program provides studio and living space in Miami, for periods of two months for artists to work without distraction in a supportive environment that promotes creativity, experimentation, and intellectual exchange.
- In the early 1970s, Mrs. Fontanals Cisneros started to build what has become an important, internationally significant art collection. A private initiative, today the Ella Fontanals Cisneros Collection focuses on international contemporary art with an emphasis on photography, video art, and the abstract geometric traditions of art in Latin America. As a resource, the collection will be presented publicly in its diverse facets through the expertise and creativity of curators as they organize unusual and innovative exhibitions for the new cifo exhibition space, offering challenging perspectives on contemporary art.
- In 2003, Mrs. Fontanals Cisneros established Miami Art Central (MAC), a not-for-profit institution dedicated to the support and encouragement of international contemporary art and culture. MAC is an alternative, experimental space for the arts in Miami’s thriving art community. Its main purpose is to stimulate an active dialogue concerning contemporary art, and to this end develops exhibitions and education programs that reflect the interests of the South Florida community. It intends the integration of a strong exhibition schedule with public programs incorporating the visual arts, music, film, literature and the performing arts.
cifo: Board of Directors:
The members of the Board of Directors include members of the Cisneros family and prominent figures in the arts. They are Ella Fontanals Cisneros; Mariela Cisneros-Mestre; Marisa Cisneros-Rizzon; Anilu Gomez, a niece; Lisa Phillips, Henry Luce III Director, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; Manuel Gonzalez, independent art advisor; Solita Cohen de Mishaan, collector of contemporary Latin American art; Alfredo Triff, senior lecturer on contemporary art University Miami; and, artist Guillermo Kuitca. The Foundation’s Director is Cecilia Fajardo-Hill.
About Ella Fontanals Cisneros
For the last 30 years Ella Fontanals Cisneros has been involved in the creation of innovative technological initiatives. By the late 1980s, she had formulated a vision of what communications technology could achieve, researching and creating tools to implement virtual private networks for the use of the non-profit and the private sectors simultaneously.
Mrs. Fontanals Cisneros founded The Together Foundation to promote the use of communications as a tool for a better understanding between nations and people in 1989. In 1991 She was responsible for connecting the United Nations and its member nations through one of the first Virtual Private Networks. In 1992 The Together Foundation successfully connected 10 district schools in Colorado through a VPN, promoting the interaction of students through computers. In 1990, The Together Foundation Venezuela was founded for the benefit of educating homeless children. In 1995 Mrs. Fontanals Cisneros founded Together Networks, the first Internet Service Provider in the state of Vermont, becoming the largest ISP in Northern New England, going public in 1999.
Mrs. Fontanals Cisneros is a board member of numerous non-profit organizations. They include the International Women's Forum, the Miami Art Museum, the Miami Performing Arts Center, and the Cintas Foundation. She is a member of U.S. acquisition committee of the Tate Museum. Recipient of the 2003 Spectrum Philanthropy Award by the American Red Cross, and the 2004 Premio Ponds for Art and Culture, Mrs. Fontanals Cisneros is an investor in the fields of telecommunications, the sugar industry, and glass manufacturing. She is the CEO of EFC Holdings, a Florida corporation dedicated to the construction of luxury homes and other real estate projects, primarily in Florida.
cifo Director/ Curator is Cecilia Fajardo-Hill, a British/Venezuelan art historian and curator of contemporary art. She was general director of Sala Mendoza, an alternative space for contemporary art in Caracas, Venezuela, between 1997 and 2001, and has curated and organized numerous exhibitions of emerging artists in Venezuela. They include Alexander Apóstol, José Antonio Hernández-Diez, and Javier Téllez; as well as solo shows of internationally recognized artists such as Laura Anderson, Candice Breitz, Susan Hiller, Mona Hatoum and Steve McQueen. Fajardo-Hill has written about the work of Mona Hatoum, Laura Anderson, Jimmie Durham, José Bedia, Miguel Angel Rios and Carlos Capelán, and on contemporary art and artists from Venezuela and Latin America. She has a Ph.D. in art history from the University of Essex, England, and an MA in 20th Century Art History from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London.
Location and hours:
Opening December 2, 2005, 9:00 am – noon
Public hours during Art Basel:
December 2 – December 5, 2005,
9:00 am – noon
December 6 – December 11, 2005
10:00 am – 4:00 pm
Exhibition dates
December 2, 2005 – February 4, 2006
Regular hours
Friday and Saturday
10:00 am – 4:00 pm
and by appointment
1018 North Miami Avenue, Miami 33136
305-455-3380
e-mail: info@cifo.org
www.cifo.org
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Media Contact:
Manuela Fonseca
Marketing Coordinator
305.455.3380
mfonseca@efcholdings.com
