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Concentrations 49: Miguel Angel Rios consists of a video triptych - A Morir ('til Death) - shot from three different angles, of a popular Mexican pastime played with spinning tops on a grid called a trompos. The five-minute video begins with one spinning top but quickly builds into a cacophonous profusion of tops in a single game involving thirty of the most skilled players in town (ages fourteen to fifty). The installation presents the spinning tops straight-on at ground level, making them both ominous and startlingly human. As these elegant shapes whip across the screen, comically careening into one another and violently edging each other out of the picture, the dynamics of competition, invasion, aggression, and territorialism are played out both visually and aurally. The simplicity of form and color, and the grace of the black tops spinning out of control, one after the other, highlight the arresting beauty of a local game that is universally recognizable.

Walkaboutpresents a selection of five video and multimedia installations by New York- and Mexico City-based artist Miguel Angel R�os (born 1943), along with his paintings and works on paper from the past decade. R�os relocated to New York City from Argentina in the mid-1970s to escape his native country's dire political situation, an experience that has determined much of his subject matter.

Catalogue édité à l'occasion de l'exposition présentée au musée d'art moderne de Saint-Etienne, du 23 juin au 23 septembre 2012. Crudo, réalisé en 2007 par Miguel Angel Ríos, met également en oeuvre des antagonismes, entremêlant corps et chair, désir et pouvoir, spectacle et spectateur. Cette vidéo met en scène la chorégraphie des corps, celle d'un homme dansant et de chiens d'attaque. Un homme en costume blanc réalise une danse traditionnelle argentine, le Malambo. Il est assailli par des chiens d'attaque, dont la rage est alimentée par des chairs suspendues aux poignets du danseur. Miguel Angel Ríos propose ici une structure narrative complexe et inachevée dont la logique nous échappe mais d'où une "étrange beauté" émane. Edition bilingue français-anglais.