by 
An exhibition by Pau S. Pescador
On view February 3 – April 20, 2024
For this exhibition, artist Pau S. Pescador examines the effects of the summer Olympic Games on its host cities and citizens. Over the past several years, Pescador has researched what will become a full-length video artwork as well as a body of photographs that look at cities that have hosted or will host contemporary summer Olympic Games. She traveled to cities including London, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, and Tokyo in order to understand the lasting infrastructural effects of the games. She interviewed residents, historians, and individuals involved in the original games.
Pescador has also looked at the legacy of the games within Los Angeles that has hosted two Olympics (1932 and 1984). CSUDH was an official site of the 1984 Summer Olympics. At the time, the Olympic committee constructed a state-of-the-art velodrome for the track cycling events on the campus. The velodrome was relocated in 2003 to make way for the now Dignity Health Sports Park, where Mayor Garcetti announced that Los Angeles will be hosting the games in 2028. CSUDH’s first on-site student housing was originally built to house Olympic athletes competing in the 1984 summer games. After the games, the housing was transferred to the University for student use. This transitional use of spaces is one of the topics Pescador examines at various global Olympic sites.
The work featured in the Gallery will pull from Pescador’s extensive research and include photographic images and video clips that expose her iterative process. The exhibition will culminate with a screening of the completed video project in the final week of the exhibition. Like the multi-year lead up to two- week Olympic events, the exhibition exposes process. It looks at the past and poses questions about that which citizen observers can look forward. The artist documents their personal relationship as a tourist through these Olympic cities as she moved through the civic spaces: what is it to be a traveler in these cities before and after an Olympics event? As a point of departure for this work, Pescador poses overarching questions, including: how do these events shape our communities, architecture, and individuals themselves? How does an event of such scale depict the image of a country? How does a country represent itself? And, what is a consequence to local citizens who are affected by the event?
About the Artist
Pau S. Pescador (she/they) is a contemporary trans fem nonbinary artist who works in film, photography, and performance, and lives and works in Los Angeles, California. They graduated with an MFA from University of California, Irvine and a BA from University of Southern California. Select exhibitions and screenings include: 18th Street Art Center, Santa Monica; 5 Car Garage, Santa Monica; Advocate and Gochi Gallery, Los Angeles LGBT Center; Anthony Greaney; Boston, Ashes/Ashes, Los Angeles; Biquini Wax, Mexico City, CSUDH Art Gallery, Carson; Campbell Hall Gallery, Los Angeles; Coastal/Borders, Getty Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA at Angels Gate Cultural Center; Deslave, Tijuana; LADRÓNgalería, Mexico City; LAND at The Gamble House, Pasadena; gallery1993, Los Angeles; Human Resources, Los Angeles; Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Klefied Museum, Cal State Long Beach, Long Beach; Lenzer Family Art Gallery, Pitzer College, Claremont; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; Main Museum, Los Angeles; Park View, Los Angeles; The Pit, Glendale; Marathon Screenings, Los Angeles; Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery; Scripps College, Claremont; University of Nevada, Las Vegas; UV Estudios, Buenos Aires; Vacancy, Los Angeles; and X-TRA Online.
Select performances include: Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena; ForYourArt, Los Angeles; Guggenheim Gallery at Chapman University, Orange; Los Angeles Contemporary Archives; JOAN, Los Angeles; Machine Projects, Los Angeles; PAM, Los Angeles; Performa 2015; Colony, New York; Highways, Santa Monica; LAXART, Los Angeles; Situations, New York; UC Berkeley: Durham Studio Theater; REDCAT, Los Angeles and Salon Silicon, Mexico City. Their first collection of writing, CRUSHES: A NOVELLA, was published by Econo Textual Objects in Spring 2017.
Installation images by Elon Shoenholz
