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Cogâ•nate Collective: Regionalia – Reception + Public Programs

Cog•nate Collective: Regionalia
March 3 – June 17, 2018
Opening Reception: March 3 from 7-10pm
Public Programs: Listed Below

 

  • Virgin of Guadalupe and a red wagon

    Cogâ•nate Collective | Regionalia | 03 marzo 2018 – 17 junio 2018

  • a group of people viewing a wall installation for Regionalia
  • a person looking at a wall installation for Regionalia
  • A person looking at flyers for the talks happening in Regionalia
  • Child waking with a Protest Balloon from Regionalia

What does it mean to be a citizen? How can we enact citizenship in a region that is marked by transnational flows of bodies and cultures? How is political solidarity + social resilience established and/or expressed within transnational communities? What role can culture play in this process?

Since 2010, Cog•nate Collective’s work has sought to tease out some of these concerns in the context of the Alta/Baja California border region, a terrain where the political boundary between the United States and Mexico is contested and negotiated not just on a rhetorical level, but at the scale of the everyday. Since 2014, Santa Ana has served as a central node within this work, establishing a site from which to theorize the US/Mexico border not as a line or a wall, but as a region anchored by the comings and goings of citizens making Southern California and Northern Baja California their personal and collective home.

The objects in the exhibition showcase work created over the span of nearly 4 years that the artists have served as artists-in-residence at Grand Central Art Center, establishing numerous collaborations with residents, students and community groups in the region.

Cog•nate would like to thank Resilience OC, Manos Unidas Creando Arte, Chulita Vinyl Club Santa Ana, Cal State Fullerton Professor Karen Stocker, Manny Escamilla, Kate Clark, Omar Pimienta, Christina Sanchez, Jimena Sarno, Collective Magpie and the many other community collaborators that made this work possible.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Amy Sanchez Arteaga writes, teaches, and makes art about living as a transborder subject between the Californias. She received her MFA from UC Irvine with an Emphasis in Critical and Curatorial Studies. Her work has been published in KCET Artbound, Haunt Journal of Art, Campo de Relí­¡mpagos, and most recently in L.A. Collects L.A. – Latin America in Southern California Collections (Vincent Price Art Museum, 2018). In 2016, she edited the bilingual anthology Notes on the Occasion of the Celebration of the 20th Anniversary of the North American Free Trade Agreement (Ajonjoli Press, Tijuana).

 

Misael Diaz is a Southern California based cultural producer and educator. He received his MFA in Visual Art from UCSD in 2012. He has taught and presented widely on his work in public markets along the border between Baja and Alta California. He has served as a contributor to KCET’s Artbound, and most recently co-authored an essay in L.A. Collects L.A. – Latin America in Southern California Collections (Vincent Price Art Museum, 2018).

 

Cog*nate  Collective  has shown and presented at various venues nationally and internationally including the Ben Maltz Gallery at Otis College, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, the Craft and Folk Art Museum Los Angeles, Arte Actual FLACSO in Quito, and Organ Kritischer Kunst in Berlin. They have received awards from the Joan Mitchell Foundation (2016), Art Matters (2015), SPArt (2015), and NALAC (2014) for their work.

 

CONVERSATION SERIES
Throughout the exhibition, Cog•nate and Grand Central Art Center will be hosting a series of conversations around citizenship and belonging, central topics explored through the projects on view. For each conversation, the artists will propose a guiding question as a point of departure and invite local scholars, community members, musicians and activists to open the conversation with their responses and thoughts. Afterwards, they will open the conversation, inviting all those in attendance to share their own responses.

Saturday, March 3rd — Conversation #1
6-7pm
How do marketplaces help us make home? A conversation on Markets and (Be)Longing

Sunday, April 29th — Conversation #2
1-2pm
What does home sound like? A conversation on Music and (Be)Longing

Saturday, May 5th — Conversation #3
6-7pm
Whose streets? A conversation on Activism and (Be)Longing

Saturday, June 2nd — Conversation #4
6-7pm
Who do you root for? A conversation on Sports and (Be)Longing