Collectorspace presents The Savage Detectives at the Cervantes Collection, featuring Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster’s Untitled (Bolaño) (2011). In this work, Gonzalez-Foerster places a copy of Roberto Bolaño’s The Savage Detectives (1998) on a pile of sand, stacked in a corner of the exhibition space, and leaves open the two pages that include a triplet poem, including a straight, wavy, and a broken line. The sand underneath the book does not denote a locational specificity, but rather suggests the author’s relationship to a landscape. The landscape also materializes an image from the book, as the wavy line reappears on the sand. Gonzalez-Foerster thus creates a habitat for The Savage Detectives, treating it as a literary text, a visual image, as well as a living being.

Untitled (Bolaño) reflects collector Cesar Cervantes’s interest in artworks that are connected to time, history, and the concept of ready-made. Based in Mexico City, Cervantes started off by collecting modern Mexican masters, but eventually shifted his attention to works by contemporary international artists. He later began to revisit conceptual works from the 1960s and 1970s, questioning the existing readings of contemporary artistic production. He now contemplates a question rarely discussed: when to stop collecting?

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Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster (b. 1965) lives and works in Paris and Rio de Janeiro. Recent solo exhibitions include: Cloud Illusions I Recall (a collaboration with Cerith Wyn Evans), Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2013); T.451, Tensta Konsthall and the Asplund’s library, Stockholm (2012); chronotopes & dioramas, Dia Art Foundation, New York (2009); and TH.2058 The Unilever Series, The Turbine Hall, Tate Modern, London (2008). Selected upcoming and recent group shows with participation of the artist: Montreal Biennale, Montreal (2013); ELLES, CCBB RJ, Rio de Janeiro (2013), and Stage it! (Part II), Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2013).

Cesar Cervantes is a collector and patron of contemporary art based in Mexico City. The Cervantes Collection began by focusing on early works by On Kawara and Gabriel Orozco. The Collection includes numerous conceptual works from the 1960s and the 1970s by artists such as Alighiero Boetti and Robert Filliou, as well as more recent pieces by Bernadette Corporation, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Jimmie Durham, Claire Fontaine, Daniel Guzmán, Damián Ortega, and Rirkrit Tiravanija.

collectorspace would like to thank the artist and the collector for participating in this presentation. Special thanks to Mari Spirito, Rocio Gordillo, Philip Dolin, and Esther Schipper, Berlin for their support, advice, and contributions.

Photograph: Sebastiano Opellion
Courtesy of the artist, Esther Schipper, Berlin, and Cesar Cervantes Collection.

Collectorspace presents The Savage Detectives at the Cervantes Collection, featuring Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster’s Untitled (Bolaño) (2011). In this work, Gonzalez-Foerster places a copy of Roberto Bolaño’s The Savage Detectives (1998) on a pile of sand, stacked in a corner of the exhibition space, and leaves open the two pages that include a triplet poem, including a straight, wavy, and a broken line. The sand underneath the book does not denote a locational specificity, but rather suggests the author’s relationship to a landscape. The landscape also materializes an image from the book, as the wavy line reappears on the sand. Gonzalez-Foerster thus creates a habitat for The Savage Detectives, treating it as a literary text, a visual image, as well as a living being.

Untitled (Bolaño) reflects collector Cesar Cervantes’s interest in artworks that are connected to time, history, and the concept of ready-made. Based in Mexico City, Cervantes started off by collecting modern Mexican masters, but eventually shifted his attention to works by contemporary international artists. He later began to revisit conceptual works from the 1960s and 1970s, questioning the existing readings of contemporary artistic production. He now contemplates a question rarely discussed: when to stop collecting?

**

Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster (b. 1965) lives and works in Paris and Rio de Janeiro. Recent solo exhibitions include: Cloud Illusions I Recall (a collaboration with Cerith Wyn Evans), Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2013); T.451, Tensta Konsthall and the Asplund’s library, Stockholm (2012); chronotopes & dioramas, Dia Art Foundation, New York (2009); and TH.2058 The Unilever Series, The Turbine Hall, Tate Modern, London (2008). Selected upcoming and recent group shows with participation of the artist: Montreal Biennale, Montreal (2013); ELLES, CCBB RJ, Rio de Janeiro (2013), and Stage it! (Part II), Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2013).

Cesar Cervantes is a collector and patron of contemporary art based in Mexico City. The Cervantes Collection began by focusing on early works by On Kawara and Gabriel Orozco. The Collection includes numerous conceptual works from the 1960s and the 1970s by artists such as Alighiero Boetti and Robert Filliou, as well as more recent pieces by Bernadette Corporation, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Jimmie Durham, Claire Fontaine, Daniel Guzmán, Damián Ortega, and Rirkrit Tiravanija.

collectorspace would like to thank the artist and the collector for participating in this presentation. Special thanks to Mari Spirito, Rocio Gordillo, Philip Dolin, and Esther Schipper, Berlin for their support, advice, and contributions.

Photograph: Sebastiano Opellion
Courtesy of the artist, Esther Schipper, Berlin, and Cesar Cervantes Collection.