The Reina Sofia Museum (Madrid), presents the exhibition Habla from the artist Sharon Hayes curated by Lynne Cooke. The exhibition begins on May 30th and ends on September 24th.

Using methodological and conceptual strategies drawn from spheres of discourse such as theatre, dance, anthropology, archival work and journalism, the projects of Sharon Hayes (Baltimore, EE.UU., 1970) explore the sometimes tense relations between history, politics and language, and they dissect the symbolic and narrative mechanisms through which the collective imaginary is built. In her performances, videos and installations, Hayes shows how the process of documenting a historical event ends up conditioning the way we see that event. She also proposes a critical reflection on topics such as the frictions arising between the public and the private – the personal and the collective – in today's media culture and the cathartic and empowering effect of the act of using one's voice and occupying urban space.

In many of her pieces Sharon Hayes, who has always been interested in the performative nature of language, reuses the texts and public statements of different political agents linked to recent historical events, for example the presidential speeches made by Ronald Reagan or the communiqués sent by Patty Hearst after joining the Symbionese Liberation Army that had kidnapped her. By putting these texts (which she usually recites by memory and almost always in the first person) back on the stage, that is, by recreating them and performing them in a new context, Hayes is engaging in an act of what she calls "oral translation" that helps us to rethink and reinterpret both the historical moment in which in which they were formulated and also our present.

To find a title for this exhibition, which brings together ten of her most significant projects and includes a piece created expressly for this show in collaboration with the Mexican artist and writer Pablo Sigg, Sharon Hayes turned to the writing of Ferdinand de Saussure, Course in General Linguistics, which has been very influential in her work. The Spanish word habla is the closest equivalent to the French term parole ("speech" in English), a notion that played a key role in the theoretical developments of the Swiss linguist. Hayes plays with the polysemic potential of the word habla; besides designating the inherent capacity of each individual to make use of the language system, it alludes to the social dimension of the communication process and, in certain contextual conditions, it can have an imperative meaning.

Dates: May 30 - September 24, 2012.
Place: Edificio Sabatini, Planta 3. Madrid.
Curated: Lynne Cooke.

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Sharon Hayes (Baltimore, 1970) es una artista y profesora asistente en la Cooper Union, que vive y trabaja en Nueva York. Su trabajo tiene que ver con el desarrollo de nuevas estrategias de representación que examinan e interrogan el momento político actual, no como un momento sin fundamento histórico, sino como uno que es siempre alegórico, un momento que alcanza simutaneamente pasado y futuro. Para ello, Haynes emplea enfoques conceptuales y metodológicos tomados de las prácticas artísticas y académicas como el teatro, el cine, la antropología, la lingüística, y el periodismo.

El trabajo de Hayes ha sido expuesto en el New Museum for Contemporary Art, el Museo Guggenheim, el P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center , Art in General, Artists Space, Parlour Projects, Andrew Kreps Gallery, Dance Theater Workshop , Performance Space 122, el Joseph Papp Public Theater y en el Café WOW en Nueva York y en the Room Gallery at UC Irvine, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Track 16,Gallery 2102 y The Project in Los Angeles. Además, ha expuesto en la Tate Modern de Londres, el Museum Moderner Kunst y la Fundación Generali de Viena, el Deutsche Guggenheim de Berlín y en las galerías, exposiciones y espacios de presentación en California, Florida, Rhode Island, Texas y Vermont, Bogotá , Berlín, Copenhague, Malmö, Viena, Vancouver y Zagreb, así como en 45 salas de estar de lesbianas que viven en los Estados Unidos. El trabajo de Hayes se muestra en la Bienal Whitney 2010 y en el Greater New York en el PS 1 Contemporary Art Center. Además, su obra fue expuesta en la Bienal de Estambul en 2009, la Trienal de Yokohama 2008, Guangzhou Trienal 2008 y PERFORMA05. Su pieza colaborativa, "9 Scripts from a Nation at War", hecho con Andrea Geyer, Hunt Ashley, Katya Sander y David Thorne se muestra en la Documenta 12 de Kassel, Alemania y, posteriormente, en la Tate Modern en Londres y REDCAT en Los Ángeles.

Formación.
2003. MFA, University of California, Los Angeles.
1999-2000. Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program, New York, NY.
1992. BA, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME, Magna cum laude.
1991. Trinity/LaMama Performing Arts Program, New York, NY.

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