Potluck Chat: Jorge Rojas

Hi everyone,

This week we’ll be talking with Jorge Rojas about his work that connects online worlds and people in real space.

Jorge Rojas: My space(s) and Low Lives

My Space project:
http://www.jorgerojasart.com/ (Works > Projects)

Low Lives project:
http://labotanica.org/blog/?page_id=782

Jorge Rojas’s “My space” project series creates environments where communicative and social encounters can occur. “My space” is an ongoing project in which the public is invited to participate in a series of interactive, community building projects. The projects incorporate new media, installation, mixed media and performative action to explore the intersection of technology-based communication, artistic interaction and daily life.

“My space: Guadalajara” took place in a storefront window of an art museum in Guadalajara, Mexico and involved over 800 visitors collaborating on paintings.

“My space: Politico” was featured at the Five Myles Gallery in Brooklyn, NY in September through November, 2008. Visitors were interviewed regarding their political views about the elections.

“My space: Bronx” was a twelve hour collaborative painting that encompassed the entire surface of the Blue Bedroom art space.

“My space: West Chicago” was a weeklong community-building project at the West Chicago City Museum and involved new media, installation and several community murals.

“My space: Miami” was a weeklong interactive performance in which the artist built a large cardboard box inside a gallery where he lived, worked, slept and ate for a week, interacting with the public at the gallery during regular hours and online through a 24/7 live video broadcast.

Jorge recently curated “Low Lives” a one-night exhibition of live performance-based works transmitted via the internet and projected in real time at three venues in the U.S.: FiveMyles, Brooklyn; Diaspora Vibe Gallery, Miami; and labotanica, Houston in partnership with Project Row Houses. Low Lives examines works that explore the potential of performance practice presented live through online broadcasting networks. These networks, though seldom utilized for performance art, provide a new alternative and efficient medium for presenting and viewing performances. Low Lives embraces works with a lo-fi aesthetic such as low pixel image and sound quality, contributing to a raw, DIY and sometimes voyeuristic quality in the transmission and reception of the work. The artists and artist collectives participating in this exhibition transmitted their performances from countries including Argentina, Austria, Canada, England, France, Germany, Macedonia, Mexico, United States, Vietnam and Wales.

Biography:
Jorge Rojas is a multidisciplinary artist, artist educator and curator whose work centers on the creation and processes involved in artistic production. Rojas uses both traditional and new media as well as performative elements to investigate communication systems and the effect of technology on artistic production, social structures and communities. He studied Art at the University of Utah and at Bellas Artes- El Nigromante in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, where his primary focus was on painting and sculpture. Rojas’ works have been exhibited across the United States, Mexico and India, and are included in numerous private and public collections including The Mexican Museum in San Francisco and Museum of Latin American Art (MoLAA) in Long Beach, California. Rojas currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. He was born in Morelos, Mexico.

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See you all Then!

Join us every Tuesday night – in person, or on Skype, skypename: ‘basekamp’
If you come to the potluck in person, be sure to bring a dish :)
(basekamp space: 723 Chestnut St, 2nd floor, Philadelphia usa)