“The Proposal,” an exhibition of works by American conceptual artist and writer Jill Magid, will run through December 10, 2016, at the Walter and McBean Galleries, San Francisco Art Institute. The exhibition is a culmination of Magid’s “The Barragán Archives,” which looks at the legacy of Mexican architect and Pritzker Prize-winner Luis Barragán (1902–1988).Through this multi-year project, artist Magid asks what happens when an artist’s legacy is owned by a corporation and subject to a country’s laws where his architecture does not exist. Who has the access rights to his artwork and who does not?In 1995, Barragán’s professional archive, including the rights to his name and work and all photographs taken of it, was purchased by the Chairman of the Swiss furniture company Vitra, as a gift for his fiancé, Federica Zanco. She now serves as Director of the Barragan Foundation. For the last 20 years, the archive has been publicly inaccessible, housed in a bunker at Vitra’s corporate headquarters.“The Proposal” addresses this as Magid’s rendezvous with Barragán, Zanco, Barragán’s descendants, and the Mexican government. Through the public exhibition of “The Proposal,” Magid will present Zanco with the gift of a two-carat diamond, grown from the cremated remains of Barragán’s body, set into a ring, in exchange for the return of his archive to Mexico.The exhibition is on view at San Francisco Art Institute, 800 Chestnut St, San Francisco, CA 94133. For details, visit, http://www.sfai.edu/Click on the slideshow for a sneak peek of the exhibition
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