Contact: Lauren Van Natten
T. 212 660 7102
lvannatten@elmuseo.org
For Immediate Release
HÉCTOR MÉNDEZ CARATINI.
THE EYE OF MEMORY: THREE DECADES, 1974-2003.
On View at El Museo del Barrio
June 10 – September 10, 2006
Press and Members’ Reception: Friday, June 9, 2006
6:00 – 8:00 p.m.
New York, NY – May 2006 –- El Museo del Barrio, New York’s premier Latino and Latin American cultural institution, will present Héctor Méndez Caratini. The Eye of Memory: Three Decades, 1974 – 2003 from June 10 – September 10, 2006 . Organized by the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, and c urated by Ricardo Viera of the Lehigh University Art Galleries, selections from this traveling exhibition present Méndez Caratini’s 30-year trajectory of photography and videos. Méndez Caratini, born in 1949 in San Juan , is acclaimed for his examination of historical changes and the cultural heritage of the Caribbean. With an anthropological aim, impeccable creative technique, and strong sense of documentary and poetry, Méndez Caratini addresses artisans at work, religious devotion and ritual, social interactions and political struggle within the context of Latin America.
Héctor Méndez Caratini. The Eye of Memory: Three Decades, 1974 – 2003 will present approximately 50 photographs, both black and white and color, as well as seven of the artist’s video works presented as a continuous loop. Illuminating what Viera refers to as “visual magical realism,” the work of Méndez Caratini preserves the folkloric traditions and cultural memory of the people of Puerto Rico, of the Dominican Republic , and of other nations’ communities of Indo-American ancestry. The exhibition is divided into 13 series, ranging from documentary photographs of rock engravings preserved from the Taíno tribes originally inhabiting the Antilles to images that chronicle the peaceful civil disobedience movement in Vieques.
Visually interpreting the Afro-Caribbean religious rituals that celebrate a syncretism of Catholicism with African deities, Méndez Caratini captures the diverse, converging elements that define the hybrid identities of the Americas. Renowned for his color photographs of carnival costumes and masks at folk festivals in the Puerto Rican towns of Hatillo, Ponce and Loíza, he also focuses upon other popular traditions such as the improvised dances of the bomba or the festive occasion of the pig roast. Other series reveal Méndez Caratini’s efforts to preserve the natural environment in his beautiful botanical studies of flora or his renderings of the mystical mountain scenery of Jayuya, the region whose name signifies “land of the dead” in the Taíno language.
Héctor Méndez Caratini holds a Bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences from the University of Puerto Rico. He has studied with Ricardo Alegría at the Centro de Estudios Avanzados de Puerto Rico y del Caribe, in San Juan, and exhibited throughout the Americas and in Europe at institutions including La Casa de América, Madrid; Centre d’Art Georges Pompidou; Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana; Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City; and the New Museum of Contemporary Art. The recipient of several grants from The Puerto Rican Foundation for the Humanities/National Endowment for the Humanities, San Juan, Méndez Caratini is represented in the collections of El Museo del Barrio, New York; Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas; and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Support for Héctor Méndez Caratini. The Eye of Memory: Three Decades, 1974 – 2003 has been generously provided by Fundación Voz del Centro and Ángel Collado Schwarz. Media sponsors for this exhibition are The New York Times’ Community Affairs Department and Univision 41/Telefutura 68.
About El Museo del Barrio
El Museo del Barrio is New York ’s leading Latino cultural institution, representing the diversity of art and culture in the Caribbean and Latin America. As the only museum in New York City that specializes in representing these cultures, El Museo continues to have a significant impact on the cultural life of New York City and is a major stop on Manhattan ’s Museum Mile on Fifth Avenue . El Museo was founded in 1969 by a group of Puerto Rican educators, artists, parents and community activists in East Harlem ’s Spanish-speaking El Barrio, the neighborhood that extends from 96 th Street to the Harlem River and from Fifth Avenue to the East River on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
El Museo’s varied permanent collection of 6,500 objects from the Caribbean and Latin America includes pre-Columbian Taíno artifacts, traditional arts, twentieth-century prints, drawings, paintings, sculptures and installations, as well as photography, documentary films and video. Through the sustained excellence of its collections, exhibitions, publications and bilingual public programming, El Museo reaches out to diverse audiences and serves as a bridge and catalyst between Latinos, their extraordinary cultural heritage, and the rich artistic offerings of New York City.
El Museo del Barrio is located at 1230 Fifth Avenue between 104th and 105th Streets and may be reached by subway: #6 to 103rd Street station at Lexington Avenue; #2, #3 to Central Park North/110 th Street station or by bus: M1, M3, M4 on Madison and Fifth Avenues to 104th Street; local crosstown service between Yorkville or East Harlem and the Upper West Side in Manhattan M96 and M106 or M2. Museum hours: Wednesday – Sunday, 11AM to 5PM. Closed on Monday and Tuesday. Suggested museum admission: $6 adults; $4 students and seniors; members and children under 12 accompanied by an adult enter free. To learn more about El Museo, please visit our website at www.elmuseo.org or call 212-831-7272
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