Now. The reason we are here tonight is to celebrate the early kick-off of the Armory Festivities as they introduce their 2011 identity and the artist that has been commissioned to create the visual identity of the South American-themed annual fair. This is where your Saab comes in. Mexico City’s Gabriel Kuri has been known for making sculptures and collages that zealously rummage through the realm of material consumption. Both his objects and images are often created from the residue of monetary exchanges and the consumed goods that the artist collects on a daily basis. (don’t we all? Here’s something to do with your dry-cleaning stubs, your deli receipts and your empty Redbull can.)
Kuri is a material archivist who extracts visual and linguistic value from the tracking systems, retail supplies and trivial marketing mechanisms that constitute our daily lives; the lymphatic system, so-to-speak, of our consumerist society; the legal paper-chain of our own consenting participation. “Nobody Needs to Know the Price of Your Saab” is the title of his ten-year retrospective currently on view at The Blaffer Museum in Houston, and at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston starting February 3. Clever little guy indeed. He doesn’t speak much, his eyes loftily lost in the horizon, his fists greedily clutched inside his tan sweater. But he doesn’t need to. That’s the very essence of his endeavor, is it not? Besides, another player is here to help loosen the tongues of the excited crowd.
It’s called Casa Dragones and thanks to their obsessive passion, you won’t need to remember another name of Tequila for as long as you live. I should know, I do not drink Tequila. Too bitter, too sweet and way too brutal.
So I squirm and smile a lot when the deliciously enthusiastic Edurne San Sabastian invites me over for a special tasting. It’s served barely chilled and up in champagne flutes. It’s going to take a lot out of me. And there’s no getting away, the tequila-sipping erudition reaches me from all corners, strapping me into place.
First of all, you smell the aroma but wait, you do so your mouth open so that the alcohol doesn’t ‘bite’ your olfactive senses and therefore limit your discerning capabilities. Then, I’ll have you know there are 3 (three) steps to taking in a tequila’s aroma. You see the small circle at the mouth of your glass? Divide it into three.
The first part, almost at the rim that is closest to you is where you appreciate the purity of the Agave that has been used. Here 100% pure young blue agave raised on volcanic soil.
