SPEAKERS: Co-curator Ric Kasini Kadour in conversation with historian Rob Martinez and artists Joanna Keane Lopez, Margarita Paz-Pedro (Laguna Pueblo) & Marlena Robbins (Diné)
The events of 2020 revealed America’s complicated relationship with history where some citizens are engaged in a thorough inspection of the country’s history and others prefer a celebratory view of history that bolsters a sense of patriotism. As part of a Curatorial Research Fellowship from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Ric Kasini Kadour spent 2021 visiting over a hundred historic sites and museums with an eye towards how history organizations share knowledge with the public and what art organizations can learn from them. In this panel discussion, Kadour will be joined by New Mexico State Historian Rob Martinez. A former high school teacher, Martínez “tries to view the past through a human lens.” As State Historian, he works “to foster and facilitate an appreciation and understanding of New Mexico history and culture through education, research, preservation, and community outreach.” Also participating are three artists from the exhibition, “Many Worlds Are Born,” each of whom are picking up the unfinished work of the past and carrying history to the present. Joanna Keane Lopez explores Lópezville as a looking glass into the complexity of Socorro and a larger story about New Mexico. Margarita Paz-Pedro’s work comments on history, survival, labor, and connectivity of New Mexico’s Indigenous peoples and how they shaped the region. Marlena Robbins’s Welcome to Aztlan invites the community to contribute to the artwork as a way to consider how history is remembered and performed.
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