The third installment in the SITElines biennial series focusing on contemporary art from the Americas, Casa Tomada featured 23 artists from eight countries and ten new commissions. The title referenced Argentine writer Julio Cortázar’s 1946 short story “Casa tomada” (“House Taken Over”), which follows two shut-in siblings devoted to the care of their ancestral home. As a mysterious and unnamed presence begins to occupy parts of the house, they are eventually forced onto the street. The exhibition plays off the ambiguities of this story, addressing the reciprocal and complex relationship between the ones who stay and the ones who leave, those that belong and those that are outliers.

Questioning notions of private property — of the body, mind, land, and culture — the exhibition asks how boundaries are dissolved and/or violated. Why do we create these divisions? What marks the difference between guest and trespasser? Who is the host and who is the visitor, and when are these roles reversed?

Exhibited Artists:
Lutz Bacher
Ángela Bonadies & Juan José Olavarría
Melissa Cody
Paz Errázuriz
Victor Estrada
Radames “Juni” Figueroa
Andrea Fraser
Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds
Fernanda Laguna
Victoria Mamnguqsualuk
Jumana Manna
Eduardo Navarro
NuMu (Jessica Kairé & Stefan Benchoam)
Tania Pérez Córdova
Jamasee Pitseolak
Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa
Eric-Paul Riege
Curtis Talwst Santiago
Sable Elyse Smith
Stephanie Taylor
Lawrence Paul Yuxweulptun

Curators:
José Luis Blondet, Candice Hopkins & Ruba Katrib