THE PARTICIPATION PROJECT ARTISTS, COMMUNITIES AND
CULTURAL CITIZENSHIP
Dialogues on Art: A Discussion and Tertulia with Pepón Osorio,
Visual ArtistOn 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.
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