Public works

Doris Salcedo's Public Works

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• published: 27 Feb 2015
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The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago presents the first retrospective of the work of renowned sculptor Doris Salcedo (Colombian, b. 1958). In conjunction with the exhibition, the MCA produced a short film documenting Salcedo’s site-specific and ephemeral installations—works that either no longer exist or are otherwise impossible to display in the galleries of the museum—in order to establish their importance and contribution to her larger body of works. Salcedo grounds her art in rigorous fieldwork, which involves extensive interviews with people who have experienced loss and trauma in their everyday lives due to political violence. Rather than making literal representations of violence or trauma, however, Salcedo’s artworks convey a sense of an absent, missing body and evoke a collective sense of loss. The resulting pieces engage with multiple dualities at once—strength and fragility, the ephemeral and the enduring—and bear elements of healing and reparation in the careful, laborious process of their making. Doris Salcedo is cocurated by Pritzker Director Madeleine Grynsztejn and Curator Julie Rodrigues Widholm, with assistance from Curatorial Assistant Steven L. Bridges, and will be on view at the MCA from February 21–May 24, 2015. The exhibition travels to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, June 26–October 14, 2015, and the Perez Art Museum Miami, May 6–October 23, 2016. This documentary was made possible by generous support from the Stefan Edlis and Gael Neeson Foundation as part of the exhibition Doris Salcedo, organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Lead support for Doris Salcedo is provided by the Harris Family Foundation in memory of Bette and Neison Harris: Caryn and King Harris, Katherine Harris, Toni and Ron Paul, Pam and Joe Szokol, Linda and Bill Friend, and Stephanie and John Harris. Additional lead support is provided by Stefan Edlis and Gael Neeson, The Bluhm Family Foundation, Anne Kaplan, Howard and Donna Stone, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and Helen and Sam Zell. Major support is provided by The Chicago Community Trust; Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Colombia, Ministry of Culture of Colombia, and Embassy of Colombia in Washington DC; Barbara Bluhm-Kaul and Don Kaul; Paula and Jim Crown; Nancy and Steve Crown; Walter and Karla Goldschmidt Foundation; Liz and Eric Lefkofsky; Susana and Ricardo Steinbruch; and Kristin and Stanley Stevens. Additional generous support is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, Christie’s, Marilyn and Larry Fields, the Diane and Bruce Halle Foundation, Agnes Gund, the Kovler Family Foundation, Nancy and David Frej, Mary E. Ittelson, Lilly Scarpetta, Jennifer Aubrey, the Dedalus Foundation, Jacques and Natasha Gelman Trust, Ashlee and Martin Modahl, Lois and Steve Eisen and the Eisen Family Foundation, the North Shore Affiliate of the MCA, Carla Emil and Rich Silverstein, Jeanne and Michael Klein, Lisa and John Miller, Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Emily Rauh Pulitzer, Maria C. Bechily and Scott Hodes, the Barbara Lee Family Foundation, Jill Garling and Tom Wilson, Solita Mishaan, and Sara Szold. The artist’s galleries have also provided support to present the exhibition and catalogue: White Cube and Alexander and Bonin, New York. mcachicago.org