NEW MATH M I C H A E L S T E V E N S O N
About the Project Michael Stevenson s work is the product of artistic research that makes unusual connections between history, economics, politics and mathematics, to create fictions based on the facts and characters he has studied; he uses various media such as installations, video, sculpture and drawing. New Math can be viewed as the introduction to new character in the investigations by Stevenson. The video Introducción a la teoría de la probabilidad (Introduction to Probability Theory) works as the conclusion of his research into Mohammed Reza Pahlevi, the last Shah of Iran, and at the same time incorporates a new figure into his work: José de Jesús Martínez, alias Chuchú. The exhibition delves into various theories put forward by Chuchú, a mathematician, philosopher, pilot, professor, and General Omar Torrijos bodyguard and right-hand man. General Torrijos, after a military coup, governed Panama from 1968 to 1981 and signed the Torrijos-Carter Treaties that allowed his country to recover full control of the Panama Canal in 2000.
This project at the Museo Tamayo has three structural elements. The first is the video Introducción a la teoría de la probabilidad which Stevenson made for the 2008 Panama Art Biennial. This artwork, which takes its title from one of Chuchú s texts, forms part of the artist s research into the last Shah of Iran who was exiled on a Panamanian island in 1979. The video tells the story using mathematical language sourced from probability theory and set theory of a fictional meeting in which the personal and political stories of the Shah are intertwined with those of General Torrijos and Chuchú, as the General s bodyguard. The game of cards shown in the video is a common motif in probabi-
lity theory, which is based on the works of Blaise Pascal and Pierre Fermat as a theory of games of chance that might make it possible to calculate the probability of winning every hand. Pascal and Fermat s studies also contained the principles on how to determine the number of combinations of parts of an infinite set. This probability theory is used by Stevenson to narrate the encounter between these historical figures (the Shah and General Torrijos) and to try to grasp their political motivations as if the whole affair was a game of chance. The second element is a sound piece that interacts with the Introducción a la teoría de la probabilidad video, and reproduces the drone of a light aircraft in allusion to the philosophical text written by Chuchú called Teoría del vuelo (1979). The text, re-edited specially for Stevenson s Museo Tamayo exhibition, is most definitely not an aviation manual but a profound reflection full of metaphors of flight relating to lightness, the loss of the object converted into image, existence, time and the infinite. The project s third component is an installation consisting of doors that allude to another of Chuchú s theories, this one on the existence of the devil and taught at the University of Panama s Mathematics
Department, which argues that the devil s existence can be proved each time a door gets jammed for no apparent reason. The research for Chuchú s Teoría del vuelo has a second chapter, which will take place almost simultaneously in the contemporary art space of Portikus, in Frankfurt, Germany. For this project, the light aircraft we hear in the Museo Tamayo will not be present physically but with its image projected through a camera obscura. In collaboration with Portikus and Köning editorial, Museo Tamayo are going to publish a bilingual book about the work of this artist.
Concepts Artistic Research: one of the artistic categories most frequently used in the past ten years to produce artworks, fiction, theories and knowledge. This model of producing artworks uses investigation methods normally associated with other disciplines such as science, history, sociology, psychoanalysis and education. Installation: a type of art in which the artist uses the exhibition s space and the context as part of the work s composition, employing a range of artistic materials and media. Installations can be either ephemeral or permanent, and spectators can often pass through them. Sound Art: artworks which use sound as their main mode of communication, tending to be conceptual on account of their inherent characteristics. Sometimes these are combined with other media such as sculpture, installation and video.
About the Artist Michael Stevenson was born in Inglewood, New Zealand, in 1964. Since 2000 he has lived and worked in Berlin. His group shows include the 6th Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art (2010); viii Bienal de Arte de Panama (2008); Lender of Last Resort, Kröller-Müller Museum, Holland (2008); The Irresistible Force, Tate Modern, London (2007); and Monuments for the usa, Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco (2005). His most notable solo shows include Michael Stevenson, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2011); Snow Melts in the Upper Clutha, Hamish McKay Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand (2009); Persepolis 2530, Arnolfini, Bristol (2008); Art of the Eighties and Seventies, Städtisches Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach (2006); c/o the Central Bank of Guatemala, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco (2006).
Educational Notes José de Jesús Martínez, Chuchú, was a friend of writer Graham Greene and they worked together on the Omar Torrijos biography: Getting to Know the General, published in 1984. He was also a friend of General Manuel Antonio Noriega during the latter s period as Commander of the Panamanian Defense Forces. After watching Michael Stevenson s video, do you think science is a kind of poetry of reality? When you hear the sound of the light aircraft, what sensations, images and ideas spring to your mind? Do you think politics is a kind of game of chance? What happens when you re just left with the image or memory of an object? Can you think of an example of this happening to you?
Project s Workshop Aproximaciones al vuelo (Approaches to Flight) Workshop designed by artist Paola de Anda based in the text Teoría del vuelo Open to the general public Free with museum ticket Place: Sala educativa August to November, 2012 Time: Tuesday to Friday 10 am to 2 pm Saturday and Sunday 12 pm to 4 pm (the workshop lasts between 30 to 40 minutes)
Credits Curator Magnolia de la Garza Education Mónica Amieva Paola de Anda Museography Rodolfo García Design Lídice Jiménez Audiovisual Department Jacobo Horowich Registrar María Marines Liliana Martínez Documentation Center Enrique Arriaga Editor Arely Ramírez Moyao Communication Amanda Echeverría Beatriz Cortés Pilar Altamirano We wish to thank the following people for their support and work on this project: Eduardo Araujo, Silvana Branchetti de Martínez, Roberto Caro del Castillo, Jaime Flores Suaste, Susana Beatriz González-Revilla, Nuno Luz, Anamarie Michnevich, José Luis Muñoz Romo, Laura Preston, Sophie von Olfers and Gilberto Zamora.
It s true that mathematics, which solves problems of the universe, cannot solve problems of society ( ) And we hope because this is the revolution s projectile that one day individual and societal problems may also be the universe s problems, and that the universe s problems may also shared by society. José de Jesús Martínez, Chuchú
Michael Stevenson. New Math August 26th - November 18th, 2012