This installation is a work in dialogue with the historic exhibition Paris, Barcelona & Miami. It will highlight the relationship between the modern (historic) and the contemporary, and how the two interact.

Intertextualidad is a multi-disciplinary installation by Quisqueya Henriquez. The video consists of a three minute loop of a rooster walking the city streets, juxtaposing the modern with the rustic, with the basic, with the relatable past we don’t often think about concretely.

A black and white photo of the artist’s silhouette is based on the famous photograph of Charlotte Perriand laying on a Chaise Lounge known as the B306, designed by her, Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret. The shadow cast is of the body and the chair, creating a slight distortion because of the corner angle in which it was taken. The copy of the chair which Henriquez lays on is by Cassina created in the 1960’s, in an identical position to Perriand’s.

Quisqueya Henriquez’s installation is a commentary on modernity in Latin American art. It is an old debate on the originality of the artistic proposals of Latin American art. Many of the Latin American artists who are now part of the Modern or historical dialogues in art, traveled to Europe not only for their artistic formation but also in search of legitimacy. In many instances, these artists were seen, albeit erroneously in most cases, as followers, rather than creators of new trends in art. Many of these have gone on to a universal context in art and are a solid part of Art Historical debates (Wifredo Lam, Frida Kahlo, Joaquin Torres-Garcia, Roberto Matta, and many others).

The shadows in Henriquez’s photographic piece are dark, uncertain, and imprecise, like the very history of Latin American art, like the very influences in Latin American art. Even the lines of the image are not defined. The work gathers together many concepts important and of interest to Henriquez. Among these concepts is modernity seen through furniture, the collaboration between Le Corbusier and Charlotte Perriand. Even the fact that Le Corbusier’s studio began designing furniture after Perriand entered the studio is of interest to the artist, showing a turning point, a demarcation often overlooked in art.

The collaborations in design are more readily seen than those in fine art. Noting collaborations is more of a contemporary phenomenon. Originality is after all, a modern concept, but it is during its contemporary phase that the value of originality is questioned. The Chaise Lounge is a piece of furniture emblematic of modernity but its value continues beyond its status as relic of the past. Just as the show that this installation is in dialogue with in the gallery Paris, Barcelona & Miami deals with modernity, the early 20th century, the artists’ status as history or of “the past” has many important points of reference for art and artists of today