LECTURE 9

Title
Global Projects

Audience:
To anyone interested in analyzing why it is interesting and important to undertake cultural projects of a global nature.

Subject matter:
The first thought crossing one’s mind is that we live in an age of globalization and as a result, now is the time to undertake global projects. In fact, this age makes it possible for these projects to be simpler to carry out, to help produce forums of cultural exchange inviting a dialogue that earlier would have been difficult to have. This lecture attempts to analyze what determines the interest and importance of fostering this type of cultural exchange.

We examine the Heresies project as an example. This project proposed to: produce an Internet database with the more than 300,000 photos that Pedro Meyer has produced throughout his career. Twenty curators were invited to choose a theme. They edited and curated a selection that made it possible to better understand diverse subjects in Meyer’s work. From these curated sections, about 1000 photos were chosen, which were offered to 60 museums that were invited to participate. Each museum could choose between 10 to 100 images, depending on the space they had available. These photos were printed in Pedro Meyer’s studio in Mexico City and were sent to the museums. They will frame and exhibit them, and later will add them to their respective collections.

Heresies is a fairly large retrospective, the largest ever on a single photographer. It will be exhibited in 60 museums on four different continents, in ten countries in Latin America, six in Asia, six in Europe and Australia. This exhibition will be displayed in 23 countries that will make it possible to see Meyer’s work, much of which has not been published. In addition, the idea is to encourage an ongoing dialogue on many subjects important to photography.

What is interesting about this project is that its development was made possible thanks to the Internet. Through pedromeyer.com, many elements were organized online and others by phone or e-mail. None of the curators from museums, and not even Pedro Meyer himself, had to travel to meet or organize the project.

It is remarkable to analyze how the vision of a Mexican photographer will reach 22 countries making it possible to discuss the extent of similarities and differences between cultures. Taking into account that photography is a global medium and that Mexican photography employs tools with technologies from other countries, the medium records a way of seeing, that of photographer, and a way of being, that of the photographed. What is interesting is what is communicated and how different cultures understand this.

Heresies makes it possible to propose the idea of projects that may be carried out at the same time in different geographical locations to see what happens, what dialogue is generated, what learning is contributed to the public, the photographer, and the museums. It is a project that makes us consider how technology can be used to bring distant and distinct individuals and places into play, it spurs us to think that now nothing is far away.

Zonezero.com is another example of a global project in another style. Because it is on the Web, it generates an ongoing visual and written dialogue between individuals of highly diverse cultural backgrounds that is always alive and timeless.

We live in an age inviting us to engage in dialogue stemming from technological advances. The other is no longer the neighbor, but rather the other I don’t know; I can’t imagine how he lives and thinks, but I have the possible key to recognizing him and myself through him by means of technology. The media encourages us to see we are all different, while inviting us to celebrate this difference. It also invites us to see we are all the same in some ways and to celebrate that as well.

Duration:
About an hour.

Speaker Profile:
A historian, researcher, curator or photographer.

Materials:
A video projector and computer, depending on the speaker’s needs.