Angel Nevarez & Valerie Tevere

Touching From A Distance
2008
2 channel video installation
With the participation of Mariachi Ciudad de Guadalajara (interpreting Joy Division’s 1979 song “Transmission”) / February 01, 2008 – Plaza de la Liberación, Guadalajara, Jalisco, México

Touching From A Distance focuses on the fragmentation of public space and the varying uninhibited actors simultaneously occupying the space of Plaza de la Liberación in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico at a particular moment ­­­– yet, all the while, touching from a distance in their constituent interests and concerns. While a traditionally dressed Mariachi band* interprets Joy Division’s 1979 New Wave era song Transmission, a protest against the inefficient use of regional public funds is taking place. The work vacillates between the spatial simultaneity of performance, protest and use of the public space, looking at Plaza de la Liberación as a stage and locale for enunciative acts and musical contravention.
*(Mariachi bands are traditional Mexican bands with their origins coming from the state of Jalisco, México)

Angel Nevarez and Valerie Tevere are the founders of neuroTransmitter, a collaboration that, since 2001, has fused conceptual practices with transmission, sound production, and mobile broadcast design. Specific interests lie in the examination of historical moments of resistance associated with the medium of radio, the re-articulation of radio programming, and in considering new possibilities for the broadcast spectrum as discursive public space. Recent projects and solo exhibitions include: The FM Ferry Experiment, the Staten Island Ferry, NYC; WUNP, unitednationsplaza, Berlin, Germany & Mexico City, Mexico; Museo Raúl Anguiano, Guadalajara, Mexico; Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA. Nevarez and Tevere have shown their work, lectured, performed, and broadcasted at The New Museum, NY; viafarini, Milan, Italy; Centre d’Art Passerelle, Brest, France; Govett Brewster Museum, New Plymouth, NZ; Eyebeam, NY; Museu da Imagem e do Som, Sao Paulo, Brazil; the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at the New School; the Radio Lab at Bauhaus University, Weimar, Germany; among others. Nevarez is an artist, DJ and musician. Tevere is an artist and Associate Professor of Media Culture at the College of Staten Island, CUNY. www.neurotransmitter.fm