Atelier Talk | A Brief Discussion on Latin American Music — Viewing Abraham Cruzvillegas’s Works

Introduction

For Mexican artist Abraham Cruzvillegas, elements of music hold an important place both in his life and in his work. Cruzvillegas often imagines soundtracks for everyday activities, such as riding the subway, meeting friends, or visiting museums. In terms of his artistic practice, he considers the connections between his sculptural works and musical styles like symphony, folk, punk, and samba. Winsing Arts Foundation is honored to invite Tzu-Ying Lin, full-time associate professor and program director of the Music and Image Trans-disciplinery Program at National Taipei University of the Arts, as the keynote speaker for this expert lecture. The lecture will begin with a broad overview of Latin American musical culture and then focus on Cruzvillegas’ hometown, exploring representative Mexican musical styles and listening practices. It will also examine the musical references in the artist’s works, investigating the interplay between music and art in cultural expression, with the aim of providing audiences with a multidimensional exhibition experience.

In this exhibition, the Winsing Arts Foundation presents a series of sculptures and paintings by Abraham Cruzvillegas. His sculptural works, composed and stacked from collected readymades, reflect the concept of Autoconstrucción (self-construction) that Cruzvillegas has been developing since 2007. The works, appearing unfinished or improvised, resonate with Mexico’s history of development and its cultural landscape. Through the process of constructing these works, the artist interprets life and his surroundings, while also metaphorically exploring his own identity. Most of the works’ titles depict the artist’s state and daily activities at the time of creation. At times, they reference specific political or historical events, contemporary happenings during the creation period, or music.