Un Grito Gallery is pleased to present “Running with History – D.C. Travel Journal” by Verena Gaudy and Martín Rodríguez. The exhibition will open Thursday, February 29th and Friday, March 1st, 2024, from 7-10 pm with a closing reception held on March 21, 2024.
Running with history is an ongoing performance / video project first initiated in 2019 during a five-week journey throughout parts of Europe. The first run occurred at the Berlin Wall, in former East Berlin. This sparked a series of runs in front of monuments, historical buildings and iconic locations in Berlin, Vienna and the countryside of Styria.
In 2023, during a trip to the only Austrian embassy available for passport renewal for Austrians residing in Texas, a new series of runs was born in our nation’s capital, the District of Columbia.
These runs were heightened by the accidental encounters with the multitudes of national and international tourists, day tripping school children, writer’s guild protesters, all with the backdrop of neoclassical architecture.
Running is a simple act we all enjoy and practice as children but soon discontinue unless for exercise purposes. An act that takes a few seconds to occur is manipulated with the time-based technique of super slow motion creating an art form that combines visual art with dramatic performance.
Can we run away from our past? Where are we running to? Shifting the speed of time by filming in slow motion, one thing becomes clear: We can only run with history.
Martín received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2003, and Master of Fine Arts in 2018, both from The University of Texas at San Antonio. He is a New Media Interdisciplinary artist of Puerto Rican descent, with an emphasis in performance and installations, having performed at the Capilla del Arte in Puebla City, the Museo Soumaya in Mexico City and Hotel Pupik in Scheifling, Austria, Throughout Washington D.C., throughout the city of Berlin, Germany. And, of course, San Antonio, TX. His art is part of both private and public collections. Martín is co-founder and Gallerist of Un Grito Gallery in the Upstairs Studios at the Blue Star Arts Complex in San Antonio, TX. Martín's wife, Verena Gaudy, is his closest collaborator and partner at Un Grito.
Verena is a contemporary ceramic and performance artist, co-owner at Un Grito Gallery and Assistant Professor of Instruction and Ceramic Technician at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Born in Austria in 1975, Verena achieved her BA(Hons) Ceramics at the University of Wales Institute Cardiff and her MFA at UTSA in 2018. Together with her husband Martín C. Rodríguez she collaborates in performance art, having participated in the “Fuse Box Festival” and “Soundspace” at the Blanton in Austin, TX and travelled internationally to Art residencies and art festivals in Austria, Netherlands, and Germany. She was a recipient of The City of San Antonio's Individual Artist grant 2023.
Un Grit Gallery is free and open to the public.