Opening reception
Saturday, April 21 | 6-9pm

Conversation between Rigo 23, Caleb Duarte, and Sam Durant 
Saturday, April 21 | 5:30pm

Initiated by San Francisco-based artist Rigo 23, Autonomous InterGalactic Space Program is an interdisciplinary collaboration with weavers, seamstresses, painters, carpenters, and cultural activists from Southern Chiapas, Mexico. Conceived as a series of sculptures and large-scale environments, Rigo 23’s project for the Gallery at REDCAT is the outgrowth of direct negotiations with the Good Government Junta of Morelia, Chiapas, developed around the theme “Another World, Another Path,” articulated in 2009 by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) at the First Global Festival of Dignified Rage—an event that marked the group’s fifteenth anniversary and underscored its belief in a utopia related to Mayan conceptions of the cosmos. Autonomous InterGalactic Space Program takes the form of a planetarium, in which constellations and spacecrafts based on the iconography and imagery of the EZLN are realized for the purposes of intercommunal and intergalactic dialogue.

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Iniciado por el artista Rigo 23, de San Francisco, Autonomous InterGalactic Space Program [Programa Espacial Autónomo InterGalactico] es una colaboración interdisciplinar con tejedoras, costureras, pintores, carpinteros, y activistas culturales del sur de Chiapas, México. Concebido como una serie de esculturas y ambientes a gran escala, este proyecto de Rigo 23 para REDCAT es el resultado de negociaciones directas con la Junta del Buen Gobierno de Morelia, Chiapas. Desarrollado en torno al tema “Otro Mundo, Otro Camino,” articulado en 2009 por el Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN) en el Primer Festival Mundial de la Digna Rabia – un acontecimiento que marcó el decimoquinto aniversario del grupo y subrayó su creencia en las concepciones Mayas del cosmos. Autonomous InterGalactic Space Program [Programa Espacial Autónomo InterGalactico] toma la forma de un planetario, en el que las constelaciones y naves espaciales son basadas en la iconografía e imaginário del EZLN y teniendo como propósito el crear diálogo intercomunal e intergaláctico. (Translation: Edgar Miramontes.)

Funded in part with generous support from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation; Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco; Ann Hatch; Community Futures Collective; Megan Wilson; and Antonio Roman-Alcala. Additional support provided by EDELO Residency Program, San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico; and Guest Haus Residency, Los Angeles.