An ephemeral installation for Heart of the City at 516 ARTS
Rutas: Routing Roots
A collaboration between Working Classroom & 516 ARTS
Residency/Workshop:January 10 – 31, 2014
Exhibition:February 1 – May 3, 2014
Rutas: Routing Roots
LEAD ARTIST
Celia Alvarez Muñoz
APPRENTICES
Carlos GabaldonShannon Jones
Pauline MartinezLizbeth Miscles
Angel PaviaIzaiah RamosMarco Rivera
Dedicated to Nan Elsasser,
Founding Director of Working Classroom,
on the occasion of her retirement
4th Street in Barelas, Downtown Albuquerque, photo by Michael Lorenzo López
Young artists at Working Classroom collaborated with nationally re-
nowned artist Celia Alvarez Muñoz to conceptualize, research and create
an art installation that reflected upon the identity of the historic, work-
ing class neighborhood of Barelas. Students sourced imagery and ideas
from city planning and development, city maps, demographic shifts and
effecting results, and gave the student artists an investment in the politi-
cal fabric of their city.
4th Street, the main artery that connects Downtown to the Barelas com-
mercial corridor, was originally developed around the Route 66/Camino
Real trade passage. With the construction of Civic Plaza, which diverted
street traffic from the neighborhood, and the closing of the Rail Yards in
the 1970s, economic development and trade largely evaporated for the
neighborhood and it was designated as a “pocket of poverty” district.
Although long-time residents have been resilient, the community is now
faced with opportunities for much needed re-investment. One of the
questions that this project asks is: How does the Latino and Hispanic
identity of the neighborhood fit into the vision for re-vitalization?
Alvarez Muñoz says, “This project broadened the students’ notion of
what constitutes a city, distinct neighborhoods and the role that citizenry
can play in that process. The transformation of information into an art
form has exposed them to the poetics of interpretation through the use
of language, signage and metaphor.”
Exploring the Barelas Neighborhood
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I was very happy to be invited by Working Classroom and 516 ARTS to
participate in Heart of the City, an arts collaboration led by 516 ARTS
which focused on the urban environment and Downtown as the heart of
Albuquerque. For this project, we chose to respond to the redevelopment
plans along Albuquerque’s historic central route of El Camino Real
juxtaposed with the popular car culture Route 66. It was a pleasure to
be literally back in the classroom working with a dream team of seven
students from Working Classroom, an after-school arts program in the
Barelas neighborhood adjacent to the two routes.
I respond to projects that have an inherent historical edge. This interest
started with a large solo installation call Postales for The Tyler Museum
of Art in the late 1980s. A response to the evident demographic shifts
and displacement resulting from the 1960s settlement of a one hundred
year dispute between Mexico and the U.S. on the border cities of El Paso,
Texas, my hometown until 1969, and Ciudad Juarez on the Mexican side
of the Rio Grande River.
Our project, titled Rutas: Routing Roots, was a journey of discovery and
validation based on research about the importance of Albuquerque’s
place in history. Just as the story of the place reveals positive as well as
negative adjustments to accommodate physical changes, so does it reveal
the citizenry that it affects. A major part of the workshop concentrated
on becoming familiar with the historic Barelas neighborhood and
finding parallels between the immediate demographics and the history
of the students themselves – their reasons for living in Albuquerque,
their families’ contribution to the economics of the city and how
redevelopment might affect them. As teenagers, they are growing into
becoming contributing members of society.
The process of conceptualizing a form of expression, how to tell the story
and how to interpret new-found information into an art form, or “the
stuff of art,” was the meat of a three-week workshop. We started with
brainstorming and accumulating data, prioritizing and editing through
The Calling: Awareness = Validation
by Celia Alvarez Muñoz
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writing. The story of mapping and rerouting pathways gave way to
questioning which stories were true and whether myth had any part in
the development of the history.
We jumped on the word “myth” and digitally appropriated and designed
thematic imagery for wall paintings. The students edited their stories into
prose poetry rendered in adhesive vinyl letters. These formally criss-cross
the story told by the images. The hanging metal green street signs tell a
tale of assimilation as intersections of language. A color pallet of green
tints hints and questions the notion of progress. Thus, the combination of
elements, color, word, image and sculpture, provocatively and eloquently
interpret the universal story of development and redevelopment.
The importance of design in a group exhibition was prevalently discussed
and studied. Seriously considered was the “noise” level of the our
installation in dialogue with the all the other gallery installations in the
group exhibition for Heart of the City. It was decided that the doctrine of
“less is more” was most contemplatively suitable.
Photo by Anna Muñoz Photography
A conceptual and multimedia artist known for her writing, photography, painting, installation and public art, Celia Alvarez Muñoz has been invited to exhibit and to create site-specific works for more than fifty major U.S. museums and was included in the 1991 Whitney Biennial. In her work, Alvarez Muñoz draws on family and communal memories to explore her own experiences growing up Catholic and Mexican American on the Texas–Mexico border, as well as larger issues concerning the spaces between languages and cultures and the histories that connect place to community.
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In the ancient Anasazi legend
The trickster spider traps the snake
By tying each stretched segment
As it reaches for the stars
– Angel Pavia
Angel Pavia & team
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Roads that have developed To build new paths for us.New opportunities, new memories.But please leave a permanent path
To go back to where it all started.
– Shannon Jones
Carlos Gabaldon & team
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Barelas, the neighborhoodBorn of the 1600’s Original Land GrantsNext to the Rio GrandeBecame sandwiched between the 1880’s industrialRailroads and downtown AlbuquerqueWill it be Albuquerque’s Phoenix?Or remain the city’s myth?
– Celia Alvarez Muñoz
Shannon Jones, Celia Alvarez Muñoz & team
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As a one-year-old Mexican immigrantI was raised in AlbuquerqueNow, 18 years oldI recognize the once powerful Rail Road YardsGiant of BarelasSlumbering since its 1950’s decline.Limbs outstretchedIt makes its once irrefutable position knownIn Albuquerque.
– Carlos Gabaldon
Angel Pavia & team
10Isaiah Ramos & Pauline Martinez
11Isaiah Ramos & Pauline Martinez
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When I came to Albuquerque from TexasThis place was new to me.Now it’s old and unreal.Let’s recreate it better than I remember it.Find hope in the restoration of Barelas
Make it the Camino Real!
– Izaiah Ramos
Isaiah Ramos & team
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1972Creation of Civic PlazaThe loneliness that we createdForced by the blowing strength of money
2007From old railroadsGentrification comes for the relocated peopleIs there hope for good?
– Marco Rivera
Lizbeth Miscles & team
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During the first re-birth of Barelas in the 1980sWorking Classroom was established. It has helped me stay connected to my Mexican cultureLike adding chile spice to all my memoriesIt is who I am
– Lizbeth Miscles
Marco Rivera & team
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The once main road, Route 66Led the people to it, in 1937, here in BarelasIt has now, turned slow and quietBecause it was re-routedOnce so loud and full.That road is so distant to me nowSo slow and quiet It is like we have vanished.
– Pauline Martinez
Pauline Martinez & team
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516 ARTS
516 ARTS, known for its leadership of collaborations large and small, is
a nonprofit arts and education organization founded in 2006 to attract
audiences to Downtown Albuquerque for arts and cultural activities.
Its mission is to forge connections between art and audiences, and the
vision is to be an active partner in developing the cultural landscape
of Albuquerque and New Mexico. Its values are inquiry, diversity,
collaboration and accessibility. 516 ARTS offers programs that inspire
curiosity, dialogue, risk-taking and creative experimentation, showcasing
established, emerging, local, national and international artists from a
variety of cultural backgrounds. www.516arts.org
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Working Classroom
Working Classroom is a multi-ethnic, inter-generational community
of student and professional artists, writers, actors and directors with
a conscious commitment to supporting new and diverse voices and
visions in the arts. The underrepresentation and caricature of historically
ignored communities hampers our understanding of who we are as a
nation, how we interpret our past and contemplate our future. Working
Classroom contributes to a more nuanced understanding of American
identity. www.workingclassroom.org
Left to right: Carlos Gabaldon, Shannon Jones, Angel Pavia, Lisbeth Miscles, Marco Rivera, Isaiah Ramos, Pauline Martinez, Celia Alvarez Muñoz
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Upper left: Isaiah Ramos & Pauline Martinez. Upper right: Marco Rivera & Shannon Jones Lower left: Celia Alvarez Muñoz & Lisbeth Miscles. Lower right: Lisbeth Miscles & Carlos Gabaldon
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Front & back cover: Celia Alvarez Muñoz & team, Barelas / Bar Ellas Street Signs
Celia Alvarez Muñoz & team, Barelas / Bar Ellas Street Signs, installation view at opening reception, vinyl on metal, sculptural component of the installation Rutas: Routing Roots
© 2014, 516 ARTSPublished by 516 ARTS, 516 Central Avenue SW, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87102505-242-1445, www.516arts.orgDesign: Suzanne Sbarge • Production support: Alima Lopez
Richard R. BerryMayor
Printed by Don Mickey Designs www.donmickey.com
THANK YOU!
Rutas: Routing Roots was made possible in part by:
Bernalillo CountyThe City of AlbuquerqueThe FUNd of Albuquerque Community Foundation
Special thanks:
Basement FilmsSarah BrownStubblefield Screenprint Company
Heart of the City was made possible in part by:
Bernalillo CountyThe City of Albuquerque: Cultural Services Department Public Art & Urban Enhancement Program 1% for ArtThe FUNd of Albuquerque Community FoundationMcCune Charitable FoundationNPN/Visual Artists NetworkNew Mexico Arts, A Division of the Office of Cultural AffairsUNM College of Fine Arts