Edited by Tim Johnson. Text by C.J. Alvarez, Ariella Azoulay, Cecilia Ballí, Remijio "Primo" Carrasco, Dolores Dorantes, Darby English, Álvaro Enrigue, Catherine Facerias, Nadiah Rivera Fellah, Josh T. Franco, Esther Gabara, Adolfo Guzman Lopez, Aimé Iglesias Lukin, Elisabeth Lebovici, José Rabasa, Cameron Rowland, Roberto Tejada, Karla Villavicencio.
This two-volume project documents the body of water at the US/Mexico border in a photography series and an anthology of writings
Zoe Leonard (born 1961) is among the most influential artists of her generation. Her work merges photography, sculpture and installation, balancing rigorous conceptualism with a distinctly personal vision. Al río / To the River, initiated in 2016, is a photographic project of epic scale addressing the more than 1,000 miles of river boundary shared by the United States and Mexico. Leonard approaches the river, known as Río Bravo in Mexico and Rio Grande in the United States, as a multifaceted leitmotif in which cultural, ecological, historical, social, political and economic concerns intersect. Published in two volumes, the first features Leonard’s photographs, while the second, edited by Tim Johnson, brings together written contributions from a remarkable group of international artists, journalists, poets and scholars. Conceived as an alternate form of circulation for the work, the publication also provides an interdisciplinary reference for people interested in the river, environmental issues, borderlands culture and contemporary border issues.
Featured image is reproduced from Zoe Leonard’s two-volume, 592-page project documenting the one-thousand-mile-plus river boundary shared by the United States and Mexico. Featuring 350 reproductions and an anthology of writings by a wealth of international artists, journalists, poets and scholars, this publication presents a multifaceted portrait of the highly politicized and deeply symbolic border-river known as the Río Bravo in Mexico and the Rio Grande in the United States. Underneath all of its fraught history, C.J. Alvarez concludes in his opening essay, “the river has not yet been robbed of all its mystery, nor of its power. Like all civilizations, ours too will someday decline or become something else. The border will not be there forever. Perhaps new volcanos will erupt and reshape the watershed once again. Maybe some future generation will start a process of unbuilding. Possibly the places we know today as the ‘United States’ and ‘Mexico’ will erode into some new type of polity. When I imagine a time in the distant future, when all of us are long gone, I take comfort in picturing the river once again running great and wild.”
FORMAT: Pbk, 2 vols, 11.5 x 9 in. / 552 pgs / 312 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $95.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $130 ISBN: 9783775748780 PUBLISHER: Hatje Cantz/MUDAM Luxembourg AVAILABLE: 6/7/2022 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: SDNR40 PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: NA LA
Published by Hatje Cantz/MUDAM Luxembourg. Edited by Tim Johnson. Text by C.J. Alvarez, Ariella Azoulay, Cecilia Ballí, Remijio "Primo" Carrasco, Dolores Dorantes, Darby English, Álvaro Enrigue, Catherine Facerias, Nadiah Rivera Fellah, Josh T. Franco, Esther Gabara, Adolfo Guzman Lopez, Aimé Iglesias Lukin, Elisabeth Lebovici, José Rabasa, Cameron Rowland, Roberto Tejada, Karla Villavicencio.
This two-volume project documents the body of water at the US/Mexico border in a photography series and an anthology of writings
Zoe Leonard (born 1961) is among the most influential artists of her generation. Her work merges photography, sculpture and installation, balancing rigorous conceptualism with a distinctly personal vision. Al río / To the River, initiated in 2016, is a photographic project of epic scale addressing the more than 1,000 miles of river boundary shared by the United States and Mexico. Leonard approaches the river, known as Río Bravo in Mexico and Rio Grande in the United States, as a multifaceted leitmotif in which cultural, ecological, historical, social, political and economic concerns intersect. Published in two volumes, the first features Leonard’s photographs, while the second, edited by Tim Johnson, brings together written contributions from a remarkable group of international artists, journalists, poets and scholars. Conceived as an alternate form of circulation for the work, the publication also provides an interdisciplinary reference for people interested in the river, environmental issues, borderlands culture and contemporary border issues.
