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You are here: Home / LACE / 2020-Current Year / Intergalactix: against isolation/contra el aislamiento

Intergalactix: against isolation/contra el aislamiento

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Intergalactix: against isolation/contra el aislamiento
Exhibition dates: May 15 -Aug 14, 2021

PROGRAMMING
Performance | Tanya Aguiñiga: Memoria 
Performance | Tanya Aguiñiga: Línea Pak
Virtual Tour | Intergalactix: against isolation/contra el aislamiento
Cog•nate Collective IN-PERSON TALK | And will be again… (Y de nuevo será…)
Online Talk | Objeto Antiguo
Intergalactix Station | Triángulo Nother (Nother Triangle) Talks
Online Talk | The Fire Theory
Free publication, “Objeto Antiguo”
Imaginaries of the Future 2021 Online Talk | “Objeto Antiguo”

The Fire Theory, Tanya Aguiñiga, Cog•nate Collective, and a special collaboration between Beatriz Cortez, Kaqjay Moloj and FIEBRE Ediciones.

Personal maps by: Amitis Motevalli, Helena Braunštajn, Ingrid Hernández and Adán Vallecillos

Collective maps by: Cog•nate Collective with Norma Iglesias Prieto, Dignicraft, Ricardo Dominguez, David Avalos, Amy Sara Carroll, Mariana Chavez and Sayak Valencia. Adán Vallecillo with Dalia Chevez, Claudia Sevilla and Jorge Linares.

Intergalactix: against isolation/contra el aislamiento is a diasporic research and exhibition that brings together artworks examining the violence that is generated from physical and conceptual borders, and severe immigrant policies. With this perspective, the exhibition presents a counterpart–the many forms of resistance built collectively across regions–intended to establish a platform of exchange and dialogue among artists, poets, activists, curators and writers from different areas and practices against isolation.

The exhibition focuses on both the southern border between Central America and  Mexico and the northern border between Mexico and features commissioned work by The Fire Theory,  Tanya Aguiñiga, Cog•nate Collective, and a collaboration between Beatriz Cortez, Kaqjay Moloj and FIEBRE Ediciones.

Borders are a historic tool for segregation, isolation, and discrimination. In our contemporary moment, the border has become the ultimate machine of necropolitics (the politics of death) and the nullification of the human body, especially in the United States. As a response to border systems, the “struggle for life” has been manifested in many different ways. Historically artists have contributed to the fight against the power of the borders that perpetuates global necropolitics and bodily oppression.

Isolation is a strategy to attack and debilitate the intergalactixs, our coalitions, our collective life, and our cosmic condition that connect humans with all living forces. The loss of land (destierro), being dispossessed, erasure, displacement, and unrooted, are actions towards human isolation, against collectivity. It is not a coincidence that detention centers along U.S. borders are designed to isolate and degrade humans and criminalize the human condition of mobility. Intergalactix listens to the heart of the Americas, Central America and spirals into Mexico and the diasporas in the US.

The concept of intergalactix comes from the Zapatista indigenous rebellion in the south of Mexico, who have built autonomous communities of resistance since 1994 in remote locations. In 1996, the Zapatistas called for an “Encuentro Intergaláctico” (Intergalactic Gathering), a forum in defense of humanity and against neoliberalism that summoned the attendance of any life form in and out of our galaxy. This encuentro is considered a watershed moment in global movements, like the Battle of Seattle protest at the World Trade Center in 1999.

As a long-term research project, Intergalactix maps genealogies of artistic collective and collaborative practices in border zones and their extensions, using as a point of departure the implementation of NAFTA in 1994 and its neoliberalist politics and practices. Maps have been traced collectively through encuentros (gatherings) in different cities of Central America, Mexico and U.S.

The genealogies presented in Intergalatix will function as a root system to the exhibition honoring the work of many artists and activists that have worked with these issues for many years.

During the last 41 years, LACE has supported this intergalactix spirit through exhibitions such as Destination L.A. by Border Art Workshop/Taller de Arte Fronterizo BAW/TAF (1991), Art Against Empire: Graphic Responses to U.S. Interventions Since W.W.II (2010) and El Salvador, organized by the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES) and Doug Humble (1981). The legacy continues with Intergalactix, to extend the transversality between these artists and activist and current practices.

“El legado continúa con Intergalactix, para extender los cruces transversales en el arte contemporáneo.”

-Daniela Lieja Quintanar

Documentation done by Yubo at OfPhoto Studio

Documentation of the exhibition "Intergalactix: against isolation/contra el aislamiento"
Documentation of the exhibition "Intergalactix: against isolation/contra el aislamiento"
Documentation of the exhibition "Intergalactix: against isolation/contra el aislamiento"
Documentation of the exhibition "Intergalactix: against isolation/contra el aislamiento"
Documentation of the exhibition "Intergalactix: against isolation/contra el aislamiento"
Documentation of the exhibition "Intergalactix: against isolation/contra el aislamiento"
Documentation of the exhibition "Intergalactix: against isolation/contra el aislamiento"
Documentation of the exhibition "Intergalactix: against isolation/contra el aislamiento"
Documentation of the exhibition "Intergalactix: against isolation/contra el aislamiento"
Documentation of the exhibition "Intergalactix: against isolation/contra el aislamiento"
Documentation of the exhibition "Intergalactix: against isolation/contra el aislamiento"
Documentation of the exhibition "Intergalactix: against isolation/contra el aislamiento"
Documentation of the exhibition "Intergalactix: against isolation/contra el aislamiento"
Documentation of the exhibition "Intergalactix: against isolation/contra el aislamiento"
Documentation of the exhibition "Intergalactix: against isolation/contra el aislamiento"
Documentation of the exhibition "Intergalactix: against isolation/contra el aislamiento"
Documentation of the exhibition "Intergalactix: against isolation/contra el aislamiento"
Documentation of the exhibition "Intergalactix: against isolation/contra el aislamiento"
Documentation of the exhibition "Intergalactix: against isolation/contra el aislamiento"
Documentation of the exhibition "Intergalactix: against isolation/contra el aislamiento"
Documentation of the exhibition "Intergalactix: against isolation/contra el aislamiento"

OBJETO ANTIGUO HANDOUT
As part of the collaboration between Kaqjay Moloj, Comunidad Kaqchikel, FIEBRE Ediciones, Beatriz Cortez, and LACE, we are presenting this free publication, “Objeto Antiguo”, inspired by the Altar of Kaqjay. The Objeto Antiguo (ancient object) exists in the community of Kaqchikel in Guatemala, but also simultaneously as a part of “Intergalactix”. The Altar contains “k’u’x” , an energy that flows across time and space connecting all versions of itself.

PRESS
Un pluriverso anti-colonial: Claudia Pretelin in conversation with Daniela Lieja Quintanar | Terremoto Magazine
A Call for International, and Intergalactic, Solidarity at LACE | LA Weekly
The rise of Latinx artists in Los Angeles
Artforum Review

Support for Intergalactix: against isolation/contra el aislamiento is provided by the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, the California Arts Council, Karen Hillenburg, and the National Performance Network. Initial research funding was provided by the Andy Warhol Curatorial Fellowship.

Curatorial Assistant: Jocelyn Lopez- Anleu

Associate Researcher: Claudia Pretelin

This exhibition is a part of the Se habla español program at LACE. To view more bilingual projects, click here.

Exhibition graphics by Carolina Ibarra-Mendoza. Image: Tanya Aguiñiga, Metabolizing the Border, 2020. Performance. Photo by Gina Clyne.⁠⁠⁠ Courtesy of the artist. 

 

Filed Under: 2020-Current Year, Exhibition, LACE Tagged With: Adán Vallecillos, against isolation, Amitis Motevalli, Beatriz Cortez, cognate collective, contra el aislamiento, fiebre ediciones, Helena Braunštajn, Ingrid Hernández, intergalactic, intergalactix against isolation, intergalctix, kaqjay moloj, mapas, maps, Tanya Aguiñiga, the fire theory

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On Saturday, August 2 from 2–7pm, join LACE for On Saturday, August 2 from 2–7pm, join LACE for this year's Artists’ Film International (AFI'25) at the Philosophical Research Society (@philosophical_research_society).

This touring film program is collectively curated and presented by 16 international arts organizations and convened by Forma (@formaartsmedia). AFI’25 introduces the work of talented moving image artists to worldwide audiences, and will be live over 300 days, with exhibitions, screenings and public programs hosted across 4 continents.

LACE’s selection for AFI’25 is "Leymusoom Garden: New Sun" (2024) by Heesoo Kwon (@leymusoom). Kwon’s oneiric visual language and unique animation style allow her to create memoryscapes of personal and community liberation. The film rewrites mythical matrilineal histories through utopian and whimsical abstractions of time, space, and memory to ultimately bring forth healing and transformation. 

Admission is free! RSVP at the link in our bio.

Image caption:
Still from Heesoo Kwon, Leymusoom Garden: New Sun, 2024. Courtesy the artist
Join LACE for “Obsidian Reflections” happening Join LACE for “Obsidian Reflections” happening Saturday, July 19, 2–5 PM at the Philosophical Research Society (@philosophical_research_society).

Curated by Selene Preciado and Andrea Acuña, this film program presents a selection of video works that integrate ancestral knowledge and indigenous storytelling, imagining futures where the past and present connect through the power of ruins and resilience. Followed by a musical performance with multimedia NeoCumbia artist El Keamo (@el_keamo).

Learn more and RSVP at the link in our bio!
We are excited to announce LACE's 11th Emerging Cu We are excited to announce LACE's 11th Emerging Curator! Meet Semaj Peltier (@horsebreath87) and pom*pom (@__pom____pom__), collaborators in a curatorial collective and experimental film archive organizing community-based events since 2022. For the Emerging Curator Program, Semaj Peltier and Pom Pom curate "No Loneliness Like This," a film and food event showcasing experimental films that traverse the many manifestations of state-sanctioned isolation.

Peltier, a projectionist, archivist and filmmaker, brings a praxis shaped by her studies at the University of Amsterdam’s Preservation and Presentation of the Moving Image Masters program, specializing in ephemeral histories shaped by coloniality and otherness. pom*pom, developed by Russell Hartling and Crystal Dawana, is an experimental food collective whose sensory-driven dining experiences intersect with film programming to evoke memory, storytelling, and connection. Together, they build worlds where film and food become tools of resistance—rituals that evoke memory, incite dialogue, and nurture solidarity through shared sensation and subversion. 

This year’s panel included Jheanelle Brown (@jheaneeeeeelle), faculty member at CalArts and Curator of Film at REDCAT; Carrie Chen (@carriechen01), artist, curator, and educator; and Heber Rodriguez (@hebereatschips), Coordinator for the City of Lancaster’s Parks, Recreation and Arts Department in the Arts and Museums Division. 

Read the full press release in our bio!
If you missed “ENDURANCE” or want to relive th If you missed “ENDURANCE” or want to relive the experience, head over to the LACE website to watch a selection of the performances with more to come soon!

“ENDURANCE” presented performance art and interdisciplinary work by elder artists. These artists use their practices to share wisdom, knowledge, and experiences that they have gained throughout their lives. This series is a companion program to LACE’s 2024 performance series, “ABUNDANCE”, both featuring often invisibilized bodies.

This program was held at L.A. Dance Project (@ladanceproject) from May 16–17, 2025.

The online presentation of “ENDURANCE” is supported by the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles (@culture_la). 

Photos by Angel Origgi (@angeloriggi).

Image captions in order:
Barbara T. Smith, OWB, 2025
Ulysses Jenkins and his band “Who Dat!,” Ethnic Cleansing, 2022/2025
Hirokazu Kosaka, Shoot Yourself, 2025
The Dark Bob, Beirut, 1982/2025
Kamau Daáood, Griot notes: Poem in Invisible Ink
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