Text by AJ Garrett, MIMA Audience Development Assistant
Dora García
It is not the past, but the future, that determines the present, 2005-2008
Gold leaf on wall
“I think the line between fiction and reality is always blurred. I say that I am not an artist, but just someone who poses as one, because that is how I feel. I think all artists feel a bit that way.” – Dora García
Dora García’s works often take the form of performances or interventions. Her interests as an artist focus on the boundaries between artworks, audiences, and places as well as the lines between fiction and reality.
The Golden Phrases series, which García began in 2001, features sentences applied directly to the walls. The phrases are in gold leaf and can be rendered in different sizes and different languages. Poetic lines form the basis of her Golden Phrases series. Some are made up by García herself, others are taken from quotes but removed from their original context.
At the time García wrote the phrase It is not the past, but the future, that determines the present, she was occupied with science fiction and how our imagination of the future is shaped by our present reality. She was fascinated by ‘the nostalgia for the future’, reflecting on how futures imagined at the beginning of the century, even in their most dystopian forms, were more optimistic than our current reality.
Other phrases in the series include:
Love comes from the most unexpected places.
Reality Is a Very Persistent Illusion.
There are other worlds, but they are in this one.
Wherever the sentences may appear, they hope to draw visitors into conversations with their shining words.
