Continue playing
(Time remaining: )
Play from beginning
Continue playing "{{ controller.videos[controller.getVideo(controller.currentVideo)].segmentParentTitle}}"
{{controller.videos[controller.getVideo(controller.currentVideo)].title}} has ended.
"Spanish Lessons"Gabriel Orozco
The 200th episode of Exclusive provides viewers with an intimate look at Spanish Lessons (2013), a project by Gabriel Orozco that took place at Marian Goodman Gallery in New York. Unsatisfied with the relegation of Spanish to “street talk” in the United States, Orozco used art and literature to teach the language to gallery goers.
“It’s very common to hear people quoting Borges, but not many people have really read Borges in Spanish,” he says. “Meaning changes when you translate.”
Orozco’s temporary classroom was situated in an unused office below the commercial gallery, creating an opportunity to exchange ideas and knowledge in a space usually used for the exchange of money and objects.
More information and creditsCredits
Producer: Ian Forster. Consulting Producer: Wesley Miller & Nick Ravich. Interview: Ian Forster. Camera: Rafael Salazar & Ava Wiland. Sound: Ava Wiland. Editor: Rafael Salazar. Artwork Courtesy: Gabriel Orozco & Marian Goodman Gallery. Additional Footage: Yunsung Hong. Special Thanks: Irma Cedeno & Alena Marchak. Theme Music: Peter Foley.
Art21 Exclusive is supported, in part, by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; 21c Museum Hotel, and by individual contributors.
Closed captionsAvailable in English, German, Romanian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Italian
Through the Art21 Translation Project, multilingual audiences from around the globe can contribute translations, making Art21 films more accessible worldwide. Translate this video now.
Interested in showing this film in an exhibition or public screening? To license this video please visit Licensing & Reproduction.
Gabriel Orozco uses the urban landscape and the everyday objects found within it to twist conventional notions of reality and engage the imagination of the viewer. Orozco’s interest in complex geometry and mapping find expression in works like the patterned human skull of Black Kites, and the curvilinear logic of Oval Billiard Table. He considers philosophical problems, such as the concept of infinity, and evokes them in humble moments. Matching his passion for political engagement with the poetry of chance encounters, Orozco’s photographs, sculptures, and installations propose a distinctive model for the ways in which artists can affect the world with their work.
“Meaning changes when you translate.”
Gabriel Orozco
Artist at Work
Gabriel Orozco
Gabriel Orozco
Gabriel Orozco