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How do artists overcome the hurdles of moving to New York City? In this film, artist Alejandro Almanza Pereda contends with a series of obstacles while enrolled in his first semester of graduate school at Hunter College in Manhattan. A Mexican citizen, Almanza Pereda’s first difficulty is finding a way to live and work as an artist in New York City. He decides his best way to get a visa, and join an art community, is to go back to school. Without enough money for rent, he relies on a network of friends and fellow artists, couch surfing for four months in exchange for favors and throwing parties. While settling into his MFA studio and preparing for his first graduate critique, tragedy strikes when he accidentally destroys a series of sculptures built with fluorescent bulbs. Ever-resourceful, Almanza Pereda exhibits what survived and then dismantles the sculptures, returning what he can for a little extra cash. The final hurdle in the film is school itself: Almanza Pereda learns that Hunter College plans to demolish the current studio facility—a gritty building with grand underutilized spaces near Port Authority. He hangs an artwork, in protest, on the facade of the building to express both his frustration with the school’s administration and his solidarity with fellow graduate students. Says the artist, “When you have a harsh path, you improvise, you learn, no?” Featuring music from Alejandro Almanza Pereda’s band Bachelor Sound Machín, and the artworks Bachelor Sound Machín, and the artworks This placed Displaced Misplaced (2012), After all these years I see that I was mistaken about Eve in the beginning; it is better to live outside the Garden with her than inside it without her (2012), Spare the rod and spoil the child (2008-12), Change the world or go home (2009), Just give me a place to stand(2007), Andamio (2007), and Untitled (Ropero) (2006).
Production still from the NYCU film "Alejandro Almanza Pereda's Obstacle Course."
Alejandro Almanza Pereda (b. 1977, Mexico City, Mexico) lives and works in Brooklyn and Manhattan, New York.