Paul Ramírez Jonas
Half-Truths

July 4-September 16, 2017
New Museum Annual Art & Social Justice Residency and Exhibition

For Half-Truths, Paul Ramírez Jonas examined bureaucracies as frameworks for understanding truth by delving into the mechanisms of social contracts—without which institutions meant to uphold collective governance become arbitrary.

The exhibition comprised three participatory works grounded in direct audience-artist engagement, along with  Legal Fictions, a nearby room featuring critical texts, historical facsimiles, and artists’ projects on identification.

Fake ID (2017) invited visitors to empty their pockets of personal documents—IDs, passes, memberships, and other cards—as a facilitator photocopied, deconstructed, and reassembled elements based on choices within a set of limited questions. The new card granted free admission to the museum during the exhibition. The process prompts reflection on the absurdities, limitations, and malleability of data-driven systems in representing identity, and ultimately rights and access. 

Alternative Facts (2017) offered to “notarize” visitors’ lies as official documents, with each participant receiving one copy and another archived in the installation. The cost of having a lie turned into a truth took the form of a gold coin that the artist created by chemically altering participants’ spare change.

I Bet You a Dollar It Will Rain Tomorrow (2017) treated betting as a common speech act, promising a social contract. A felted table, part blackjack, part roulette, hosted games with shifting rules made up by Teen Apprentice facilitators. Visitors wagered wooden tokens they inscribed with personal offerings, such as a song or a drawing, but a flashing LED sign warns, “ the house always wins.” 

Together, the works responded to a political climate where authoritarian voices delegitimize democratic truth. Half-Truths ultimately asked: Is it possible to collectively create and agree upon truth?
Related Programs

Between Illegality & Personhood, a Performance by Guadalupe Maravilla and Panel
Manufacturing Truth: Machine Learning and Bias
Digital Self Defense & Empowerment workshop series w/ Taeyoon Coi, DATA X, & Equality Lab

Selected  Press
Need a Fake ID? Artist Paul Ramírez Jonas Will Make You One for Free at the New Museum, Artnet, Sarah Cascone, July 20, 2017
Paul Ramírez Jonas Exhibits ‘Half-Truths’ at the New Museum, Kristen Tauer, WWD, July 11, 2017
Secrets and Lies, Jeffrey Kastner, VICE, July 26, 2017