Mario García Torres’s The Cordiality Paradox highlights Bertrand Russell’s paradox and Zeno’s second paradox of motion, two concepts essential to the foundations of mathematics. In the seemingly impromptu, redeeming story, the protagonist describes a series of recollections in which Russell’s and Zeno’s ideas are surreptitiously relayed. Performed live by Helmut Berger, this is the second of three monologues presented as part of the exhibition Mario García Torres: Illusion Brought Me Here. Program length: 30 mins.
Forget Aesthetics: Mario García Torres in Conversation with Aram Moshayedi
Mexico-based artist Mario García Torres uses video, photography, and sound to explore the boundaries between memory and truth, reality and fiction, linking back to the history of Conceptual Art. Here, interviewed by curator Aram Moshayedi, he discusses his first US survey show at the Walker Art Center (closing February 17), featuring 45 works created over the past two decades, as well as a new augmented reality installation titled Illusion Brought Me Here.
Fascist Charades: Kim Jong-un, Hollywood, and Mario García Torres
In reprising a 2005 film work—in which actors pantomime scenes from Kim Jong-il's favorite Hollywood movies—Mario García Torres decided to do the same thing with films beloved by the late dictator's son, with one twist: this 2018 edition would include a made-up list of Kim Jong-un's top films. Dylan Redford, the producer of García Torres's new Walker-commissioned film, considers this choice, examining the role of arbitrariness, spectacle, and absurdity in dictatorial tactics.
Illusion Took Us There: An Augmented Reality Diary
In May 2018, Mario García Torres invited 14 friends to a beach house in Puerto Escondido, Mexico, for an unspecified reason. Fueled by sun, surf, and mescal, the group learned that their task was to be photographed, the captured images to be transformed into 3D holograms to populate the augmented reality app accompanying Mario García Torres: Illusion Brought Me Here. Among them was Eduardo Donjuan, a screenwriter, producer, and sometimes comedian, who shares his diary of his days in Puerto Escondido.
Watch: Mario García Torres Opening-Night Performance
The opening-night celebration of Illusion Brought Me Here begins with a performance of the monologue I Am Not a Flopper, written by Mario García Torres and Aaron Schuster, performed by David Dastmalchian. Afterwards, the artist discusses his multifaceted practice in a lively conversation with exhibition curator Vincenzo de Bellis.
I Am Not a Flopper takes as its subject the name “Allen Smithee”—a pseudonym used by film directors in Hollywood who wish to disown a project, particularly when they were dissatisfied with the movie’s final version. In this monologue, a fictional Smithee elaborates on the complex relationships between his public persona and his long filmography.
Misinterpretation of the Senses: A Curator’s Look at Mario García Torres’s First US Museum Survey
"Imagine for a moment this is not an exhibition and these are not works of art," writes Mario García Torres of his Walker solo exhibition, "but rather objects that appear, randomly, out of negotiations between interests and desires," Curator Vincenzo de Bellis reflects on Illusion Brought Me Here and the negotiations and collaborations that brought it into reality.
