MFA|EDA faculty member, Pedro Lasch, is featured in an interview on Duke’s Arts Journal!
“Lasch joined the Duke faculty in 2002. A lot has changed around campus since then; one landmark of this change was the opening of the Nasher Museum of Art in 2005. Lasch describes the Nasher as a great teaching institution, a venue for his own art, and a gathering point for the arts community in the Triangle. A second landmark event was the launch of Duke’s MFA Program in Experimental and Documentary Arts, currently in its third year.
“This program, says Lasch, raises institutional challenges that reflect the culture gap between, on the one hand, the research university organized around scholars who analyze and write, and on the other hand artists, who make things. But the rewards are considerable. Artists in the program have the pick of courses across the university, which gives them “access to some of the most amazing knowledge being produced in our times.” The artists can then make the knowledge tangible, so the university becomes a more eloquent, productive, outward-facing institution.”
Lasch’s piece LATINO/A AMERICA, is currently on view at the Nasher Museum.
“Lasch’s evolving installation consists of maps printed with red images of North and South America labeled “Latino/a” and “America”, respectively. Lasch provides two of these folded up maps to each person he meets who plans to cross the U.S.-Mexico border. One map they keep for themselves, the other they return to Lasch following their crossing. Each sheet is marked with the evidence of the journey, the stains and tears creating an altered, more personal map.”
