Chinatown, New York
Camilo Godoy
Términos Indignos
ProxycoProxyco is pleased to present a solo exhibition of work by Camilo Godoy, a multidisciplinary artist born in Bogotá, Colombia and based in New York, NY. Titled Términos Indignos, the exhibition includes new works as well as a performance that the artist originally developed over a decade ago, showcasing the range of Godoy's multidisciplinary practice that deftly and potently engages in politics, history, activism, identity, and memory. Among the new works is a video installation of Godoy's performance Amor Eficaz, first performed live on May 15, 2024 at Americas Society in New York as part of the institution's performance series and the special exhibition El Dorado: Myths of Gold Part II. In advance of the exhibition at Proxyco, the artist reperformed an excerpt of the piece and recorded it for posterity and future presentation. In Amor Eficaz, Godoy integrates speech, dance, and music to invoke the activism of the Colombian priest Father Camilo Torres Restrepo (1929–1966). Using language from Torres Restrepo's last speech made before he joined the revolutionary armed struggle and incorporating dance, Godoy's performance addresses the colonial legacy of injustice, trauma, and subversive politics. A second performance work will be activated by gallery visitors throughout the run of the exhibition. Originally conceived in 2012, the work is titled Invidious Distinctions and was inspired by the artist's experience volunteering for the immigrant organizations First Friends and Sojourners by visiting people held in immigration detention centers in New Jersey. Regularly on Saturdays for over two years, Godoy would travel with other volunteers to detention centers to visit and speak with strangers detained and awaiting deportation. Upon entering Godoy's exhibition at Proxyco, visitors' wrists will similarly be stamped, with terms only revealed when their wrists are held underneath the UV light installed in the gallery. In 2012 Godoy converted a friend's deportation order into an etched mirror. For this exhibition the artist revisits this technique to create a new large-scale project titled Espejos. In these works, Godoy grapples with the history of the diplomatic relationship between Colombia and the United States by appropriating items found in archives of political cartoons and declassified CIA documents. When confronting these works, visitors' own faces and bodies will reflect, forcing a visualization of oneself as a witness of these histories of empire and surveillance. Such confrontation plays a fundamental role in Godoy's practice. In conceiving of his exhibition, the artist has reflected upon James Baldwin's 1963 speech "The Artist's Struggle for Integrity," in which the writer and activist asserts: "It is time to ask very hard questions and to take very rude positions. And no matter at what price." Términos Indignos represents one artist's response to that call — a presentation of art that forces us to contend with the state of human dignity and compassion in the struggles of our moment. Camilo Godoy is an artist born in Bogotá and based in New York. He has participated in residencies in New York at the New Museum, International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP), Movement Research, Recess, as well as Solaris, Bordeaux, coleção moraes-barbosa, São Paulo. Godoy's work has been exhibited in New York at the Brooklyn Museum, Leslie-Lohman Museum, Cue, OCD Chinatown, Proxyco Gallery; and Museo de Arte Moderno, Bogotá; Moody Center, Houston; Dot Fiftyone Gallery, Miami; UNSW Galleries, Sydney; Centro de Arte Contemporáneo, Quito; Museum Folkwang, Essen, among others. He has performed at Americas Society, Danspace Project, Movement Research at the Judson Church, New Museum, Toronto Biennial, and Künstlerhaus Mousonturm.