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For many, espacio 1414 might eventually become a virtual rival for other institutions devoted to contemporary art in the island -namely, the Museum of Contemporary Art or any of the annexes of the Institute for Culture. The origin of this provincial perception is not only the high-quality art exhibited there, but also the fact that this white and spacious cube, designed by Architect Leslie Boursian, is furnished with the technological gadgets that permit the preservation and conservation of the artworks it houses; details that the cultural institutions sponsored by the government cannot afford. espacio 1414 also has a resident curator, Venezuelan Julieta González, who has been in charge of organizing what appears to be an epic task, since there are hundreds of works, many of them in their original packaging, scattered in three warehouses.
While it is true that the cultural institutions in the Island have failed in their attempt to assemble coherent collections of universal art, it is also true that the recent boom of Puerto Rican art on the international scene and the academic development of a generation of artists studying abroad have been factors of change in the Puerto Rican society that have indirectly promoted the need for and acceptance of new spaces such as espacio 1414.
It is important to point out that for the Berezdivins, espacio 1414 does not pretend to pose competition, but rather to complement the Puerto Rican art scene.
During the 1960s, Diana Berezdivin dared to buy her first artwork, an action that filled her with guilt, since at that moment the family´s economy was not precisely flourishing. In the 1970s and with the collaboration of her husband, Manolo, that compulsive purchase became a practice. Diana explains that the selection of works for their collection was intuitive; they bought what they liked best. Only at a later stage did they decide to pay heed to the advice of art professionals and curators; this explains the diversity of artworks, styles and artists concentrated in one same space.
The Berezdivins went through three acquisition cycles: firstly, they purchased art from Puerto Rico and Israel, as a result of their frequent travels and of the availability of this art; then they bought Latin American, Caribbean and Cuban avant-garde art; and in the last ten years, they explored the new global trends in the context of which an artist´s nationality or the region he or she belongs to are not questioned.
When asked if they have followed any model for the ideological construction of their exhibition space, Ms. Berezdivin mentioned Luis A. Ferré, former governor of the Island in the 1970s, who built up a small but respected private collection of Pre-Raphaelite art that evolved into what is currently known as the PonceMuseum. However, Diana Berezdivin does not find the idea of transforming espacio 1414 into a museum attractive. For the time being, the main idea is to organize selections of the collection and present them to the public in temporary exhibitions...and above all, that espacio 1414 may be a place for young artists to have a close look at the new trends
To achieve this end, Julieta Gonzales decided to maintain a curatorial rigor and divided trends into thematic groups, including the dichotomy between public and private, domesticity, archives, the notion behind traveling -whether tourism or diaspora-; the construction of identities; the repressed unconscious; and the city.
While it is true that the diversity of artists and styles or schools of thought makes it difficult to perceive a structure or logical process of deliberation and edition in the construction of the collection, it is however possible to observe some dominant sources, such as conceptual photography, painting and installation.
In terms of what appears to be the collection´s philosophy or identity, the theme of identity, whether personal, cultural or social, pervades every work. There are also many ideological and stylistic contradictions, works that look totally out of place together. A clear example of this is the presence of the ultra kitsch work of Pepón Osorio, with its strong political content, side by side with Jorge Pardo´s stylized and post-Modern decoration, or Kcho´s melancholy linked to identity side by side with Meyer Vaisman´s black comedy or Luis Gispert´s urbanism.
Among the gems of the collection is a large-scale sculpture by Takashi Murakami (Koumok Kun), which consists of a sci-fi plush-like imperial guard, originally conceived as a costume for a performance the artist presented in New York. Sexual repression is part of one of Arturo Herrera´s best works, the mural titled When Alone Again, 2001, in which the figure of Snow White, more specifically her face, is lost in a maelstrom made up of pieces of limbs of the seven dwarfs, thus creating a violent and practically abstract domestic scene, in which we recognize the individual figures because they are part of the popular unconscious.
Cildo Meireles produces unexpected surprises with a work dated 1978, in which the artist alters the proportions of useful objects creating a sculptural diorama. It is also gratifying to view the latest work of Juan Francisco Elso, Caballo contra Colibrí (The Horse against the Humming Bird). In this piece, a naïf-like horse carved in wood makes reference to the cultural cross-breeding in Latin America. In Elso´s iconography, the horse represents Spain's conquering strength, and the humming bird the fragility of an indigenous culture at the height of its fusion with its oppressor's culture.
The weakest section in the collection is the one featuring contemporary painting, which maintains a modernist, figurative and traditional facture in spite of its presenting conceptual painters such as Miguel Calderón and Enoc Pérez together with Latin American classics such as Adriana Varejao, Flavio Garciandia, Guillermo Kuitca and José Bedia.
During the past ten years, the Berezdivins have devoted themselves to renewing their vision and fully accepting universal contemporary art rather than the regional Caribbean or Latin art. To the question about how they decide when to discontinue their support or buy works by some new artist, Diana comments that this does not depend on a change in style or lack of interest in some artist's new work, but rather on providing an opportunity to some new artist.
Pedro Vélez'Art is not selfish, Diana told me with a sweet smile and nodding her head in affirmation.
At the beginning of the present year, and after presenting their most recent acquisition, the spectacular mural by Fabián Marcaccio Multi-Site Paintant, at the Ponce Museum of Art, Diana and Manolo Berezdivin, who have been art collectors for four decades, decided to show their collection to the general public. espacio 1414, as they have named the old storehouse that lodges their treasures, is a huge three-storey building. The place has a modest façade, so that visitors are surprised by its interior. They can also observe the Mezuzah that the Berezdivins have hung over the main door, which denotes that, besides a work place, this will be a second home to them.
Works by Abraham Cruz Villegas, Darío Escobar, Luis Gispert and Rivane Neuenschwander.
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General view from the first floor of espacio 1414
Vista general desde el primer piso de espacio 1414
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Diana and Manolo Berezdivín with Fabián Marcaccio(artist) and Agustín de Arteaga (director of the Museo de Arte de Ponce).
Diana y Manolo Berezdivín con Fabián Marcaccio (artista) y Agustín de Arteaga (director del Museo de Arte de Ponce).
View of the opening of espacio 1414, featuring Jorge Pardo's Lamps.
Vista de la inauguración de espacio 1414, destacándose las Lámparas de Jorge Pardo.
General view of espacio1414.
Vista general de espacio1414.
Partial view of the exhibition space (works by Kcho, Alfredo Jaar, Guillermo Kuitca, Daniel Guzmán and Sandra Ramos)
Vista parcial del espacio de exposición (obras de Kcho, Alfredo Jaar, Guillermo Kuitca, Daniel Guzmán y Sandra Ramos)
Works by Kcho, Alfredo Jaar and Daniel Guzmán.
Arturo Herrera, When Alone Again, 2001
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