Fortunate Objects

Fortunate Objects: Selections from the Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Collectionis an exhibition that showcases familiar items—domestic and industrial, intimate and impersonal, private and public—that undergo radical conceptual and aesthetic transformations through the intervention of contemporary artists. In this exhibition, these objects become contingent, uncertain, expanded, and improbable while paradoxically growing more authentic as they connect the realms of art and everyday life.

The exhibition is organized into three sections: The Appropriated Object or the Assisted Readymade, The Surrogate Object or Object Constructed, and The Object Used.

The Appropriated Object or the Assisted Readymadeexplores the recontextualization of mass-produced, every day, and found objects, exemplified by works such as Ai Weiwei's Forever Bicycles(2003), Alexandre da Cunha's Made to Measure (Crutches) (2001-2003), Robert Chambers' Floor Flute (2003), Rafael Lozano-Hemmer's Standards and Double Standards (2004), and Moris' Carrito (plus three drawings)(2006).

The Object Used focuses on how various objects can ascribe new meanings and create fresh forms or themes that reflect or engage with their original references. Notable examples include Marina Abramovic's Rhythm O (1974), Priscilla Monge's Chalkboard series from 1999, Mona Hatoum's frottages of kitchen utensils, and Donna Conlon's Espectros Urbanos(2004). In this section, the identity of the object is transformed to acquire unexpected or unconventional meanings, proposing new uses and extending the life and boundaries of the object.

The Surrogate or Constructed Object highlights works that, through their creation or conceptual foundations, reference everyday items or mass culture. Featured works include Olafur Eliasson's Blue Double Kaleidoscope (2005), Damien Hirst's The Blood of Christ (2005), José Antonio Hernández-Díez's El Gran Patriarca (1993), Mateo López's Sleeping Box (2007), and Jon Kessler's Favela (1986). These pieces reimagine common objects, questioning conventions around veracity, authenticity, reality, and space, ultimately blurring the lines between art and life.

Artists

Marina Abramović, Guido Albi Marini, Marcela Astorga, Emilia Azcárate, Lothar Baumgarten, Robert Chambers, Donna Conlon, Horacio Coppola, Leo Correa, Alexandre da Cunha, José Damasceno, Geraldo de Barros, Olafur Eliasson, Leandro Erlich, Darío Escobar, Peter Fischli and David Weiss, Gaspar Gasparian, Thomas Glassford, Mona Hatoum, José Antonio Hernández-Diez, Damien Hirst, Jon Kessler, Gabriel Kuri, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Marepe (Marcos Reis Peixoto), Leo Matiz, Cildo Meireles, Priscilla Monge, Moris (Israel Meza Moreno), Vik Muniz, Gabriel Orozco, Stephan Pascher, Paulo Pires, Miguel Angel Ríos, Leyden Rodríguez-Casanova, David Rosenbloom, Lorna Simpson, Grete Stern, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Rubens Teixeira Scavone, Ai Weiwei.