Gonzalo Lebrija

For artists, curators and visitors, exhibitions are the best excuse to do something, to follow up on something, to experience something and to – justifiably or not – throw their weight around. Exhibitions let you address or even solve problems, though they can create many as well, for yourself or others, which is often the best reason for organising an exhibition once again. Besides are exhibitions the best excuse for independent minds to hold a balanced group show. The idea: Everyone brings as many of their artworks as can fit in their suitcases and can pass German customs on the plane – we will create the rest anew in Berlin, as we are talking about a smoothly functioning team here.

The three artists of the half burnt down top floor of the Condominio-skyscraper in Guadalajara may have thought similarly so when they founded an exhibition space called OPA, Oficina para Proyectos de Arte, in 2002. Jose Dávila, Gonzalo Lebrija und Fernando Palomar have over many years initiated exhibitions with international artists (e.g. Kendell Geers, Anri Sala, Manfred Pernice). Eduardo Sarabia joined them later on, and this is how I met the bunch that promptly invited me to prove my skills to them. They made everything possible. Shortly thereafter I half-nakedly appeared in a music video and took a crash course in painting with a Banda-Band. For the opening, my friends and gallerists from Berlin and New York came to Guadalajara and we threw an unforgettable Party with the Ratones (Spanish: The Rats), a local Maharatchi Band, whose folkloristic repertoire was accompanied by tunes of the New Yorker Ramones.

Earlier this year Martin Klosterfelde, Michael Fuchs and I decided on a change of ends. It’s about time to bring our artist friends and their work to Berlin and give them a space to show their work. “Exhibitions Are The Best Excuses” is this show and simultaneously the best excuse to have a good time with each other, this time on our side of the Atlantic.

Christian Jankowski, curator of the exhibition