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Stopping to chat

Traveling school creates cross-continental conversations

One could say Pablo Helguera will be getting an education abroad on a journey that will take him from one end of a continent to the other.

The New York artist is bringing his traveling exhibition, The School of Panamerican Unrest, to ASU’s Art Museum for a two-day stint to explore the question, "What is the limit of empathy?"

Yet this itinerant art project has people asking another question: Why?

"It is, in a way, a summary of everything I’ve ever done," Helguera says. "I’ve always been interested in the conjunction of education and performance and how art can become collaborative or some sort of dialog. This nomadic space came to my mind as a model to do that."

Helguera acknowledges that other artists have created nomadic museums or libraries, but to him, the school classroom symbolizes a more democratic space in which ideas and dialog are fostered and discussed.

"In museums, people are passive observers," Helguera says, "In school we are all here to learn."

Throughout his travels (he’s driving a VW bus) he expects to conduct discussions in English, Spanish and Portuguese, reflecting his interest in experiencing the kind of unified cultural region once envisioned by Latin American intellectuals such as Simón Bolivar and José Martí. Now that we are connected by the Internet, Helguera sees an opportunity to revisit this concept.

As the portable school travels from Anchorage, Alaska, to Tierra del Fuego, Argentina (plus many points in between), Helguera will invoke discussions on various topics. Panels of local experts will engage participants in larger conversations, thus communicating across ideology, history and lines of thought touching upon social, cultural and political events in the Americas. The journey began in late May and is scheduled to end in September. During the school’s travels, Helguera will update a blog at his Web site, www.panamericanismo.org; a video documentary, an exhibition and a publication are planned as well.

Although Helguera admits that "my family thinks I’m completely insane," his travel plans include a few personal stops as well.

"I will be stopping in Mexico City, where I was born," he says. "And in Lago de Moreno, a little town near Guadalajara, where all my family has lived for eight generations."

On his horizon, the small towns hold just as much value as big cities.

"I think you can learn a lot about Latin America by seeing the life of a little town that is in the middle of nowhere … because that’s the essence of the Americas," Helguera says. "When you say, ‘America,’ Europeans will think of New York or Los Angeles, but we know that, really, America is every single little town."

School of Panamerican Unrest

An interactive exhibition and performance project by Pablo Helguera,
June 20 – 21 at ASU Art Museum Mill Avenue and 10th Street, Tempe

Call for times: (480) 965-2787 or visit http://asuartmuseum.asu.edu and click on Exhibitions.