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You are here: Home / LACE / 2020-Current Year / Ser todo Es ser parte/To Be Whole Is To Be Part

Ser todo Es ser parte/To Be Whole Is To Be Part

ES / EN

Ser todo es ser parte/To Be Whole Is To Be Part
October 3 – November 22, 2020
Curated by Selene Preciado

Sidewalk/Storefront viewing hours:
(Gate will be open for visitors to see the show through the gallery windows)*
Thu & Sun 12pm – 6pm
Fri & Sat 4pm – 9pm

Ser todo Es ser parte / To Be Whole Is To Be Part Digital Publication

This exhibition brings together a group of artists working fluidly within historical and contemporary traditions of drawing, illustration, graphic arts (including printmaking), street art, and muralism.  Above all, these artists are connected by a seemingly shared aesthetic language, which is their depiction of hybrid beings that are part human, part zoomorphic pre-Columbian deities, or fully mutant gods walking on this earth, here and now. The concepts of the “Now” and the “Past” are crucial for bringing these artists together. Much of the work that has been produced within this aesthetic language of combining pre-Columbian iconography with contemporary imagery and themes, often projects into the future—perhaps longing for the promised future of a “cosmic race”—and foreshadow, in turn, a futuristic post-colonial utopia of a hybrid civilization that merges a cosmic future with our ancestral past. Nonetheless, the point where the past and the future converge is in the present, and this instant feels quite dystopic. 

Hand in hand with our hope for a futuristic utopia, we are faced with ideas that attempt to explain or justify our current subaltern diasporic condition, here and now. Nepantla, Third Space, Heterotopia, are terms that are used to disrupt our colonial understanding of place and identity, offering—and validating—spaces of liminality or in-between that allow resistance and transgression; even our existence. However, for a true deconstruction or reconfiguration of our post-colonial present, it feels urgent to reclaim, defy, and disrupt, our existence in a re-inscribed present. Resistance implies a constant push and pull, a negotiation of a power dynamic that is very palpable. Studying the scenes and characters that will inhabit the works of this exhibition, a common thread is that these beings seem to live in the here and now, in a dialectic temporality informed by the past and the future. They unfold and collapse time and space. They eat the past, the future, themselves, and digest it to transform place and identity into collectivism—a collectivity formed with others as collective selves. These people live in realities that are not imagined futures, but alternative presents with evolved symbols and iconography. At this moment in time utopia and heterotopia are not enough. 

Using speculative fiction as a way to decolonize theory, this exhibition proposes a non-linear interpretation of time and place through narrative. Departing from an impetus of reclaiming this current moment and our presence in it, the title and framework of this exhibition are inspired by the concept of “the return,” not as nostalgia for an alleged better past, nor to an ancestral home, but the return as a continuous voyage of the collective self; a voyage which is cyclical, an ourboros. To have traveled and continue to travel from utopia to dystopia and back, but with a sense of evolved consciousness, that informs our present and our territories. The 1974 novel The Dispossessed, Ursula K. Le Guin hides in plain sight the core of her story, in an epitaph that reads: “To be whole is to be part; true voyage is return.” The title of this project takes the first section of this statement to represent the intersection of themes, iconography, and subversion of concepts of time, identity, gender, and sexuality, in the work of the artists in the exhibition. 

Featured Artists: Demián Flores, Rurru Mipanochia, J.Chavez, and Celia Herrera Rodríguez

*Due to current efforts of stopping the spread of COVID-19, many of the art spaces in Los Angeles have been permanently or temporarily closed. Coming to terms with this reality, we were faced with the task of re-adapting, and inevitably, re-imagining the vision behind this unique exhibition. As an incubator for artistic and curatorial experimentation, LACE and guest curator Preciado embrace this challenge by seeing it as an opportunity to expand what it would mean for an exhibition to take on a different kind of life. Through careful planning and consideration, Ser Todo Es Ser Parte/To Be Whole Is To Be Part has been re-designed to be interactively experienced outside the windows of LACE’s storefront on Hollywood Boulevard

Support for this exhibition provided by the Pasadena Art Alliance, the Department of Cultural Affairs Los Angeles, and the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture.

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

Image Credit: Rurru Mipanochia, Vivi Tlazolteótl (detail), 2018. Courtesy of the artist

Photos by Raymundo Barerra.

Logo of Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture

Filed Under: 2020-Current Year, LACE Tagged With: alternative presents, cosmic race, diasporic condition, Heterotopia, Nepantla, post-colonial utopia, pre-Columbian deities, Selene Preciado, The Dispossessed, Third Space, Ursula K. Le Guin, zoomorphic

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You can now watch all the performances from "ENDUR You can now watch all the performances from "ENDURANCE" on the LACE website as part of our digital archive! 

"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 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:
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Sharon Kagan, "...and then this happened..." (2025)
Anna Homler, Jeff Schwartz, and David Javelosa, "VOE Variations" (2025)
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Construction for LACE’s new home is in full swin Construction for LACE’s new home is in full swing — we’re one step closer to unveiling an exciting new chapter. Stay tuned…🚜

Slide 2 (left to right), LACE Team: Johnny Young, Ida Tongkumvong, Fiona Crary, Selene Preciado, Sarah Russin
Slide 3 (left to right), LACE Fellow & Getty Interns: Becca Choe, Camilla Caldwell, Jada Wong
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!
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