Tercerunquinto

Tercerunquinto (translating into English roughly as “a third of a fifth”) is the collective project of Mexican artists Julio Castro Carreón, Gabriel Cázares Salas and Rolando Flores Tovar. Formed in 1996, the collective is responsible for dozens of actions designed, in their words, “to question the boundaries between private and public space, examining the organized frontiers around the constitution of such definitions”.

The interventions often change the properties of the domains one tends to take for granted – and beguile the viewer to ponder what and for whom these places are designed for. In the past Tercerunquinto’s projects have taken the form of architectural or infrastructural interventions that often amplify freedoms still present in an administrated and compromised reality.

With The Integration of The Mexican General Consulate with the Cultural Institution of the General Consulate in Miami (2002) Tercerunquinto underwent a series of sensitive negotiations in order to implement the proposed modification. They proposed dismantling the office that divided the premises of the Cultural Institute and the Consulate. Apart from the integration of the different types of spaces, the collective’s idea entailed the creation of free routes, which would promote a moment of encounter between two different types of publics —those conducting consular procedures and those ones attending an art exhibition.

In the case of Anarchitecture (2009) Tercerunquinto took part in the Shenzhen & Hong Kong Biennale of Urbanism and Architecture with a grave modification of one of the architectural spaces of the exhibition venue. The intervention consisted of the inscription of the word “Anarchitecture” (anarchic architecture) perforated through one of the venue’s walls in such a manner that the resulting holes allowed the viewer to survey the exterior space of the city and its daily transformation.

The creative projects of Tercerunquinto are generally initiated in the social sphere, and most often in the public realm – from parking lots to museum spaces. In exhibitions the art collective often presents different media art works as an installation. The models, drawings, photographs and films are at once documentation and autonomous art works, adding yet another layer to the complex work of Tercerunquinto.

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