THE PARTICIPATION PROJECT
ARTISTS, COMMUNITIES AND CULTURAL CITIZENSHIP

Dialogues on Art: A Discussion and Tertulia with Pepón Osorio, Visual Artist

On Thursday, July 17, 1997, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m., a group of 90 individuals gathered at Self-Help Graphics in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles for an evening of dialogue with the acclaimed artist Pepón Osorio. Artists affiliated with the community arts program at Self-Help Graphics comprised the majority of an audience that also included individuals interested in installation and visual art in general and those interested in Latina/o art in particular. Also present were several individuals who work in the Boyle Heights Community.

Osorio first presented a slide lecture on his work, demonstrating and discussing the ways in which his work has been affected by the community in which he lives and how his work, in turn, has affected this community. Osorio then participated in a tertulia (an artist-to- artist, artist-to-community dialogue) among those present on the intersections between art and social/community issues followed by an informal reception. Participants in this event laughed and clapped at the ways in which Osorio has managed to combine serious cultural critique with the humor essential to survival in the installations he has created. Several audience questions and comments focussed on the relationships between artists and the marginalized communities in which they live and work. Pepón Osorio's exhibit, Badge of Honor, opened in Los Angeles on July 19, 1997, and runs through September 6, 1997, at the Otis Gallery. Badge of Honor creates two rooms--one a prison cell, the other a young boy's room--in which videotaped messages from an actual imprisoned father to his young son and from the son to the father explore the responsibilities, dilemmas and difficulties that each faces. As is true of much of Osorio's art, Badge of Honor responds to the experiences of urban Puerto-Ricans in the Northeast, creating a dialogue within the community.