El Casting

$75.00

Unique Box with 30 analog transparencies, 1 poster and booklet

Description: “Because the female nude is classically considered a pillar in refined culture, particularly when portrayed in oil paintings, producers such as Guillermo Calderón came to the conclusion that “high art” simulacrum was the ideal cliché to rely on in order to boost ticket sales without losing mainstream consumers. As seen from a western standpoint, art history dictates that a woman’s body is not to be represented as naked or active in sexual pleasure if it is to hang from respectable walls. The same rule applied to cinema at the time, explaining why a variety of fictional male painters and their attractive models were eagerly written into corny scripts.” Ana Cadena Payton

Boxes by: Omar L. Mendoza
Staff: Fernando Gallegos, Iván García
Scripts, songs and posters from the movies: Diana La Cazadora, El Seductor, Esposas Infieles, La Ilegítima, La virtud Desnuda,
La Fuerza del Deseo
© Images and texts of the Authors
Published 2020
Printed in Monterrey, Mexico
$75USD + $20 Donkey Shipping (Mexico to USA to Rest of the World)

Out of stock

  • Description

    El Casting Book. Limited edition of 250. Published by Studio Cartagena in 2020

    Taming Through Framing /
    The act of representation as regulation

    “In El Casting, a beautiful woman steps into a classroom.  She is shy but enthused at the prospect of being looked at, not only by a dashing young art student, but by his highly acclaimed professor. Politely undressed by the elder, she promptly climbs on a makeshift pedestal and carefully strikes a pose. This scene from the 1955 film “La fuerza del deseo” was one of several to exhibit female nudity in Mexican cinema, a practice that would eventually gain traction, allowing the exposed female body to take its place in mainstream visual culture…

    The irony of women hired to construct a non-working, gendered identity for a parallel world displaying sexuality while simultaneously avoiding it is a baffling mental challenge. It reaffirms the fact that the body is a highly political object. A place where power is exercised. If we gaze hard enough at the 1950’s nudes featured in this book, it may be worthwhile noting the blonde dyes, the crafted poses, the indirect glances and the general rigidity in the hopes of understanding the centuries of toil so many men have undergone to obtain them”  Ana Cadena Payton text for El Casting

    El Impulso de Archivo / El Valor de la Memoria

    “Imagino que este archivo, El Casting, habrá cumplido con una finalidad específica al momento de su gestación, cual fuere satisfacer la necesidad de seleccionar el cuerpo de la mujer que mejor se adecuase al papel. ¿Pero cuál es su valor de uso en la actualidad?, ¿Por qué vivificar documentos que promocionaron la cosificación del cuerpo femenino en el imaginario colectivo? ¿Qué nuevo relato propondríamos si lo ignorásemos o condenásemos a la desmemoria?.Cual sea que fuere la respuesta, en ella se concentra el poder del artista como reintérprete de la memoria mercantilizada.

    Pareciera que mientras más podemos recordar como resultado de la mercantilización de la memoria, más nos exponemos a olvidar. Como si aquella se resumiese a un pasado valioso o meros datos desechables”  Victoria Fava text for El Casting

    More Information about the Author and Studio Cartagena

    Bio CV Works in Collections

    Other books available: Carpoolers, A Guide to Infrastructure and Corruption, Suburbia Mexicana