Javier Téllez's film, Letter on the Blind for the Use of Those Who See, commissioned by Creative Time and co-produced with Peter Kichmann Gallery, will be presented in the 2008 Whitney Biennial. Inspired by the ancient parable of the blind men and the elephant, the film features six New Yorkers who are blind and was shot last November in McCarren Park Pool, Brooklyn. The film departs from the fable in order to question both notions of visibility and blindness, and how we perceive reality.

The project will be presented in conjunction with Performa 07.

THE ARTIST
Javier Téllez (born 1969, Venezuela) lives and works in New York. A key and respected figure in the contemporary art world, Téllez has exhibited in the Venice, Sydney and Prague biennale’s. His recent solo exhibitions include “Distinguished Artist in Residence: Javier Téllez”, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, (2006); “La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc (Rozelle Hospital)”, Peter Kilchmann Gallery, Zurich, (2006); “La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc (Rozelle Hospital)“, The Power Plant Gallery, Toronto and “S-t-e-r-e-o-v-i-e-w”, Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, New York.

Previous works include One Flew Over the Void (2005) staged at the border between San Diego and Tijuana consisted of a parade co-organized with psychiatric patients from the Baja California Mental Health Center in Mexicali, a Mexican border city. The project culminated with the firing of Dave ‘Cannonball’ Smith the worlds leading human cannonball over the international border fence.

 “Javier Tellez belongs to the 90s generation of Venezuelan artists. Through the contemporary languages of video, installation, and environments, Tellez shapes a work around the profound criticism of contemporary society, institutional power, political sphere, the art market, and conditional patterns of behavior. He has developed a constant investigation associated with the peripheral and marginalized populations, such as the mentally ill, and their relation to patterns of behavior pre-established by the centers of power, as well as with the museums.” - Americas Society, New York