We are all familiar with the empty billboard. These sentinels loom over us, silently urging us to bring them back to life. In Mexico, unused billboards are plastered with the title disponible, translating to mean both available and potentially changeable or disposable. If only the owners were aware how profound that word can be. Disponible succinctly expresses the country’s continual battle to successfully negotiate social and economic advancement in the wake of globalization.
“Disponible: A Kind of Mexican Show” gathers 8 of Mexico’s most relevant contemporary artists as they query cultural and social issues within their home country. Social critique and witty design solutions are two frequently reoccurring inclinations in today’s contemporary art scene, and the artists of “Disponible” are looking to examine the complex relationship between these two strategies in reaction to the complicated issues inherent in modern Mexican life.
The show will open today, September 13th, in various locations throughout the School of The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, including the Barbara and Steven Grossman Gallery, Mrs. E. Ross Anderson Auditorium and the outdoor courtyard, and will be running until November 19th, 2011. For more information, visit www.smfa.edu/exhibitions.