Emergencies

Emergencies collects work relating to Alfredo Jaar’s work Emergency, or to its call for attention to the developing world. From Tony Oursler’s Boot to Anri Sala’s Dammi i Colori, everything here was gathered together for the inaugural exhibition at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Castilla and León, which opened in León, Spain in 2005. MUSAC's agenda, above and beyond the act of collecting contemporary art, is the establishment of a dialogue with the public about everyday events that affect and threaten human sensibility. Emergencies documents that collecting, and is also a platform for the expression of the artists’ and the museum’s utopian hopes, a stage for the fight between injustice and artists’ dreams. To that end, each section of this dense, well-designed text lists further reading on the artistic and political topics covered--websites of interest, government, nonprofit, and reference addresses to turn to for more information.