SISTEMA M�TRICO CAMPO DE F�TBOL

The project reflects on how common it has become to read or hear references to sports playing fields for measuring large surface areas in the mass media. But what are the real dimensions of a football pitch? Variations of tens of metres are possible between different pitches within regulatory measures. It is interesting to observe how different people use their own methods to measure surfaces: they make reference to everyday objects (steps, cars, etc) that maintain no relation with the established decimal metric system.   Ikenaga has created a series of pieces in which she establishes different components as references for measuring. Hosted in the Abierto x Obras space, it not only includes the layout of a football pitch and goal area, but it also gives significance to the reactions of the spectators and the players of two football teams that play a match within this new space.   The four measurements that Ikenaga sets out to use come from very different media: an animation with drawings made by hand, two actions on the day of the opening (a football match and measurement of the volume of smoke filling the room, which will be recorded on video) and an installation made with furniture.   Sistema Métrico Campo de Fútbol (“Metric System Football Pitch”) began in 2009 with the photographic record of Piscina-Baloncesto (“Swimming Pool Basketball”), a basketball match that was played in a swimming pool and that used a regulation basketball court as the measurement of reference.   That same year, she presented the work Vitrina (“Window”), in which she measured the volume of a window in the presence of a notary by counting the long and curly-haired wigs that fit inside.   Hisae Ikenaga (Mexico City, 1977) was trained as an artist in various cities: Mexico City, Kyoto, Barcelona and Madrid, where she currently resides. Her prominent individual exhibitions include: Concreciones at 3+1 Arte Contemporánea in Lisbon in 2011, Sistema métrico / Malformaciones (Galería Formato Cómodo, Madrid, 2009) and Manufacturing Flaws at the Praxis Gallery, New York (2008) and Miami (2009). Furthermore, she has participated in collective shows such as Selva de Cristal at theMuseo del Chopo (Mexico City), the 2^nd Poli/Gráfica Triennial in San Juan (Puerto Rico), Generación 2008 at La Casa Encendida and Creación Injuve 2007 at the Círculo de Bellas Artes, Madrid. Her work has also been displayed at fairs such as ARCO in Madrid, MACO in Mexico City, Volta Art Fair in Basel and Pulse Art Fair in New York, as well as the Institutos Culturales de México in Madrid and Paris.