Eschewing “front row” artists covered by the art establishment, Antigua Casa Haiku throws its spotlight on socially dynamic artists in the throes of arriving and worth your time, but who won’t be spotted at any art auctions, at least not yet. Their website is an interactive, multimedia feast of graphics, videos and blogs; the mutable exhibition space plays host to experiments like the recent Only For Real, a performance art piece from András Senra (Brazil) and Felix Fernández (Spain) which combines drama and installation to juxtapose “sexuality with the absurd, the homoerotic with the politically incorrect.”
The space, under the tutelage of Diego Rosembuj, Alex Brahim and Tania Brett, is fruit of a collaboration between “hyperactive agency” Haiku Media, which lends the physical space and staff, and artistic production company DiBiNa, who arrange the cultural programming. As curator Brahim puts it, “Haiku Media provides the house, DiBiNa, the furniture.”
They’ve had a thriving first few years, a success Brahim chalks up to the space’s lack of focus on any particular artistic discipline, theme or type, its celebration of art as experience vs. contemplation and their success in bringing together the “urban, trash, fashion, conceptual and goth” to argue over the banality or brilliance of a particular artistic fact. The idea is to leave no one indifferent.
You can buy the works if you want but that’s not the point of this non-commercial space—Brahmin will be happy as long as you leave not knowing what you’re going to get next time.
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