For almost ten years CasaMario operated from a physical space in the old town of the Uruguayan capital, where they programmed exhibitions, seminars and other public events which would often spread through the city. Moreover, the porous structure of the organisation allowed them to become a resource for different grassroots initiatives, hosting communal meals and neighborhood assemblies.
In 2021 CasaMario presented a detailed plan to the municipality, proposing the activation of an abandoned 1200 square meters hangar. The new cultural center was conceived as an institutional experiment of sorts, run collectively by several local groups following a horizontal and participatory logic. When that plan finally fell through, CasaMario decided to scale down. Instead they presented Sala de pruebas [Testing room], a series of residencies and performative actions taking place in a 1:10 scale model based on the post-industrial building. Ultimately, Sala de pruebas employed artistic languages to enhance a coral reflection on urban development and the right to the city.
testing elsewheres carries the echoes of that experiment, one which had to imagine its own elsewhere in order to take place. The work of the four artists featured in this exhibition sketch poetic topographies and critical cartographies, hinting at dissident ways of relating to the spaces we inhabit.
Kilde:
Collega
Collega