The Art Tourists visit the Peace Place

Smells of Miami, Argentina come to Temporary Contemporary

DENVER – The pervasive smell of vinyl in the exhibition space at the temporary Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver exuded from the vertically dangling, primary-colored streamers installed by Argentinean artists Rosario Marquardt and Roberto Behar, as part of the Peace Project.Peace Project Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, Mar. 2007

These two artists, who are currently living in Miami, call their works Urban Interventions. This one, the Peace Project, was supposed to create the feeling of a public square with the hope of a giant star sculpture planted in the center. The white multi-pointed sculptural object wasn’t huge but the little maquettes of people milling around below it would have thought so if they could think.

The installation work opened Mar. 30, 2007, and we, opening-goers, stood in the colorful room and politely looked at the 12-point star wondering if it was a sculpture or a toy and contemplating the statues of people the size of a terrier. We waited our turn to have a picture taken under a flowered helmet and behind a similarly plastic-floral shield and be enlisted in the peace army. I talked to an Argentinean woman who said the place reminded her of home. A man said, “me, too,” and I asked if he was also from Argentina, and he said, no, but the smell made him think of the beach. And native of the Great American Plains said, "Pool toys.”

We were being affected by the smell. Some people felt ill.

I’d just had a martini so I was feeling very magnanimous and not so very affected by a toxic smell. I tend not to like things that are messy and this idea seemed a little messy to me, a lot of loose details, but when I heard the artists talk the next day I realized two things: the space was supposed to suggest “peace” – because it is the last in a series of projects devoted to peace by the Museum -- and for these two artists, peace is dressed up by images of their childhood – not mine -- and that these guys like to buy a lot of things from dollar stores. The first thing tied it all together for me like it was a visit to a foreign place, which I like, but the second thing bugged me.

I have recently moved to Denver, but have lived in Colorado for more than 30 years, and I’ve been struggling with the identity of my place. Colorado – a state the size and population of New Zealand, a country – has what exact customs, traditions or collective characteristics? Hispanic, but not beachy. Our tackiness is more earthy, and maybe that is really it. Colorado is more green than most places – conservationist, sustainable agriculture, big into renewable energy, solar-energy fueled because it passes so easily under our skin at high altitude. If I filled a space with peace it would smell like pine trees and be 100 percent recycled and recyclable.

An Art Tourist travels to see art exhibits. Notes from the road end up here, and are jaded by living in the contemporary world, making a living and an American education.