Fictions of Display: MOCA LA

Tania Pérez Córdova is featured in Fictions of Display at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. 

In a note written in 1962, artist Claes Oldenburg stated that “theater is the most powerful art form because it is the most involving.” A few lines later he added, “I no longer see the distinction between theater and visual arts very clearly . . . distinctions I suppose are a civilized disease.” Featuring props and sculptures; stages and pedestals; actors, impersonators, and avatars; as well as the ghostly image of the audience itself, Fictions of Display explores intertwined themes of theater, performance, and display in MOCA’s permanent collection, foregrounding strategies and modes of presentation that permeate museum spaces.

Fictions of Display also introduces several new acquisitions, as well as works that have never been installed in MOCA’s galleries, such as the painting by groundbreaking Polish theater director Tadeusz Kantor, known for his avant-garde and deeply personal approach to performance, and Catherine Sullivan’s video installation, which merges theater, film, and visual art to examine systems of acting and representation. A live element is subtly woven into the gallery experience: for Tania Pérez Córdova’s Portrait of an Unknown Person Passing By, a performer quietly circulates among visitors at unannounced times, dressed in a garment matching the pattern of a ceramic object on display.