The Nasher Sculpture Center is pleased to reveal the plans for a newly commissioned sculpture by artist Lara Almarcegui that will be located in the Oak Cliff Gardens neighborhood in East Oak Cliff, and will be created in collaboration with Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity. The work is one of ten commissions for the Nasher’s 10th anniversary, city-wide exhibition Nasher XChange, which will be on view October 19, 2013 through February 16, 2014.
The project coincides with a recently announced Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity Blight Study it commissioned with the University of North Texas. Researchers created a new measurement tool that could help communities around the nation understand the cost of blight and build community support to tackle the issue to engage, empower, and transform the lives of low-income families and long-neglected communities.
Lara Almarcegui is a Spanish artist currently living in Rotterdam. Her work examines processes of urban transformation brought on by political, social, and economic change. She collects historical, geographic, ecological, and sociological data about vacant or abandoned areas in urban spaces that will inevitably change. Her art, intended to generate discussion on the past and future of a place, takes many forms including publications, installations, slide projections, documentary photography, cartography and tours
Almarcegui’s project for Nasher XChange, entitled Buried House, involves working with Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity to locate a house in Southeast Dallas already slated for demolition. After the demolition takes place, she will bury the house’s remains on the property, creating a sort of memorial site that nonetheless retains the buildings actual substance and providing a “free space” for reflection on the neighborhood’s past, present and future. The area has a history almost as old as Dallas itself. Originally the site of the first stop for stagecoaches headed out of Dallas for Central Texas, the crossroads became the small town of Lisbon, which was in turn annexed by the city in 1929.
“This project is a sculptural work that is about the construction that used to stand, the history of the house and how it was erected,” said artist Lara Almarcegui. “However, it’s not just about the house, but about the past of the terrain and the future of the terrain. It is a work about construction and urban development.”
Nasher XChange will extend the museum’s core mission beyond its walls and into Dallas’ diverse neighborhoods, alongside key community partners, to present advances in the rapidly expanding field of sculpture, raise the level of discourse on the subject within the city, and contribute to broader national and international conversations on public sculpture. As the only institution in the world exclusively dedicated to collecting, exhibiting, and researching modern and contemporary sculpture, the Nasher Sculpture Center is uniquely positioned to investigate this growing practice of sculpture in the public realm.
Almarcegui has participated in the Taipei Biennial, Gwangyu Biennial, LIAF Arts Festival, Svoelvaer, Sandretto Foundation, Sharjah Art Biennial, the Sao Paulo Biennial, Seville Biennial, Momentum, and the Nordic Festival of Contemporary Art, Moss. Solo exhibitions include the Gallery Ellen de Bruin Projects, Amsterdam; Sala Rekalde, Bilbao; Gallery Pepe Cobo, Madrid; Malaga Centre of Contemporary Art, Malaga; the FRAC Bourgogne, Dijon; and INDEX, Stockholm. Almarcegui represented Spain at the 2013 Venice Biennale. She has implemented numerous international projects, from the restoration of a market hall slated for demolition in San Sebastián to close studies of derelict lots in Rotterdam, Bilbao, São Paulo, Lisbon, and Amsterdam.
The Nasher has also commissioned Ruben Ochoa, Rick Lowe, Ugo Rondinone, Alfredo Jaar, Vicki Meek, Good/Bad Art Collective, Liz Larner, Charles Long, and Rachel Harrison to create works for Nasher XChange. Details about their works, including the locations of the installations, will be announced throughout the summer.
About Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity:
Seeking to put God’s love into action, Habitat for Humanity brings people together to build homes, communities and hope. Habitat for Humanity’s vision is a world where everyone has a decent place to live. Dallas Habitat believes that hard working individuals and families be provided the opportunity to live in thriving neighborhoods where hopes and dreams are realized for generations to come because poverty housing is socially, politically and spiritually unacceptable. Since 1986, Dallas Habitat has served over 1,200 low-income families using affordable homeownership as an anchor for hope, change, and stabilization resulting in an investment of approximately $139 million in more than 25 neighborhoods for families that pay over $1.7 million annually in property taxes in Dallas County. Dallas Area Habitat is the largest builder of single-family homes in the City of Dallas. For more information, visit www.dallas-habitat.org.
About the Nasher Sculpture Center:
Open since 2003 and located in the heart of the Dallas Arts District, the Nasher Sculpture Center is home to one of the finest collections of modern and contemporary sculptures in the world, the Raymond and Patsy Nasher Collection, featuring more than 300 masterpieces by Calder, Giacometti, Matisse, Picasso, Rodin, and more. The longtime dream of the late Raymond and Patsy Nasher, the museum was designed by world-renowned architect Renzo Piano in collaboration with landscape architect Peter Walker.
Hailed by the "USA Today" as one of the great sculpture gardens where art enhances nature, the roofless museum seamlessly integrates the indoor galleries with the outdoor spaces creating a museum experience unlike any other in the world. On view in the light-filled galleries and amid the landscaped grounds are rotating works from the Collection, as well as blockbuster exhibitions and one-of-a-kind installations by the most celebrated artists of our times. In addition to the indoor and outdoor gallery spaces, the Center contains an auditorium, education and research facilities, a cafe, and a store.
The Nasher brings the best of contemporary culture to Dallas through special programs designed to engage visitors, including artist talks, lecture programs, contemporary music concerts, educational classes and exclusive member events.
The Nasher Sculpture Center is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11 am to 5 pm and until 11 pm for special events, and from 10 am to 5 pm on the first Saturday of each month. Admission is $10 for adults, $7 for seniors, $5 for students, and free for members and children 12 and under, and includes access to special exhibitions. For more information, visit www.NasherSculptureCenter.org.
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