Maria Ezcurra's "Pinned Down" project to show at articule
Maria Ezcurra, Artist-in-residence with our Department of Integrated Studies in Education, will have her Pinned Down installation displayed Wednesday, September 23rd at Montreal art gallery articule this week.
Maria Ezcurra's project Pinned Down (or how to keep hiding thousands of needles in a haystack) is a collective action-installation articulated around a construction made of 100,000 needles and created in situ for this occasion. Joining Ezcurra in the performance, the public will be invited to choose a pin and to receive a black ribbon from the artist. This special project will take place at articule on a very significant date, the one-year anniversary of the mass kidnapping and murder of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Teacher's College in Mexico, aiming to catalyze a reflection on the many complex forms of violence unfolding in Mexico and, also more broadly, across Latin America.
The 100,000 needles used for this event reference the number of people who have been killed and disappeared in Mexico over the last decade in the name of the so-called "Drug War". For Ezcurra, this collectively constructed stack materializes the numbering that dehumanizes death while affirming the complex ties that link political struggles throughout the Americas as well as shape personal decisions in the face of social issues. In that sense, this intervention operates also as a reminder asserting that indifference is another form of violence.
Born in Argentina and raised in Mexico, Maria Ezcurra currently lives in Montreal. A recipient of many prestigious awards, including the Fulbright-Garcia Robles Scholarship and the FRQSC award, Maria Ezcurra is also a member of the National System of Art Creators (SNC) in Mexico. She has taught art in a number of universities and schools over the past 15 years and is currently artist-in-residence at the Faculty of Education of McGill University.
Pinned Down will show Wednesday, September 23rd, from 12:00 - 18:00 at articule, 262 Fairmount O., Montreal.