An Incomplete Collection of Impossible Projects

An Incomplete Collection of Impossible Projects

Gary R. Libby University Gallery, University Galleries, The University of Florida

An Incomplete Collection of Impossible Projects is the result of a course delivered by artist Eduardo Abaroa to a diverse group of UF students (María del Pilar Arrieta, Taylor Baxley, Ellery Burgess, Salenka Chinchin, Tomas Curcio, Valentina Galván, Rachel Sue Horn, Valerie Luciow, Nicolle Luzardo, Elaine Machado, Gwen Maxwell, Gabriel de la Torre, and Ivonne Zelaya). The artist asked each student to imagine a project that they thought was impossible to conclude. Abaroa designed a dynamic exhibition space to display the impossible projects conceived by the group.

These are some of the guidelines:

Each artist has to imagine an impossible project. Among other possibilities, it can be something fantastic, imaginary, something technically unfeasible, a poetic idea.

Even if a project can not actually be constructed or achieved, a plan can still be imagined to communicate it. The challenge is to make each project visible to other people simulating their imagination via models, props, drawings, videos, text, etc.

Ask important questions: What is the project, exactly? Why is it impossible to make? How would we do it? Why would we do it? Why wouldn´t we do it?

A project may be impossible to complete, but investigating this failure can reveal many things about our lives, fears, hopes, mistakes, and certainties. Some projects are simply too ambitious, others are real technical challenges to human civilizations. We will find examples of poetry, unfettered intellectual ambition, or fantasy.

Eduardo Abaroa and the group of artists devised a wooden polymorphic structure to display the 14 projects resulting from the course. The irregular structure alludes to an evolving discussion, which may turn in unexpected directions, reach dead ends, or piled up without apparent reason. Artistic discussion can be thought of as a particular material itself.

We consider the exhibition space as a medium that demands a constant reflection of its boundaries. For example: Who is the spectator? Who is the artist? That is why we have an “Impossible Projects” depository. Visitors to the show are invited to write down their own impossible projects using the Impossible Project Request Form and then put it in the available Impossible Projects deposit. After the exhibition opens, we will select some of these projects to visualize them in a similar way that we produced our pieces.

This exhibition is possible thanks to the generous support from CLAS and the School of Art + Art History (SA+AH), University of Florida, Gainesville. We are especially thankful to Carlos de la Torre, director of CLAS, for his support and visionary understanding of the importance of cultural manifestations of, from and in Latin America contemporary artistic practices.

Eduardo Abaroa is the Kislak Family Foundation Artist in Residence at the Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS).