Opening Reception: Francisco González Castro: Bodies, Limits, & Transgressions

Francisco González Castro: Does Not Say «I», But Does «I»: Bodies, Limits, & Transgressions
opening reception: Saturday, April 13, 6-8 pm
on view: April 13–June 8, 2024

Chilean artist Francisco González Castro presents his socially engaged practice in a living exhibition with the multi-genre project does not say «I», but does «I»: Bodies, Limits & Transgressions. Mixing genres of video, performance, and drawing, Castro’s work examines problems related to territorial borders, social inequalities, and bodily transgressions. The project title refers to German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s (1844–1900) existentialist quote that begins, “The body is a great intelligence,” (Thus Spoke Zarathustra, 1883), and infers that the human body and soul are one. This title is illuminated in Castro’s own artistic philosophy, which confronts the body, people who reject the body, and how the body is approached as subject and identity. Castro’s personal bodily transgressions and tests of endurance are vehicles for his discourse about geographic landscapes and political borders. It is within this integration of life-and-art, body-and-spirit, that the audience become immersed in this physically ambitious and psychologically profound undertaking.

The exhibition at Coconino Center for the Arts (CCA) commences with a comprehensive multi-media presentation of seminal works the artist has produced over the past ten years. Using a variety of formats and techniques including performance, drawing, and video-performance; and approaches to problems related to territory, social issues, borders, and eroticism; the exhibition tackles subjects that question the body, our limits, and the implications of transgressing those limits.

Castro’s month-long residency allows community interaction while engaging the gallery at CCA as his working studio. Creating new work pertaining to borders, he responds to, builds upon, alters, and departs from the initial installation. As a living exhibition, the space is continually in flux.

The presentation of Francisco González Castro’s Bodies, Limits & Transgressions is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and Arizona Humanities.