The Cinematheque

“[A] captivatingly wily documentary … It shines an ingeniously media-savvy spotlight on Barragán’s work — and, not incidentally, on that of the filmmaker herself.”

Jeannette Catsoulis, The New York Times

American conceptual artist and writer Jill Magid, whose work featured in Griffin’s TENXTEN exhibition, resumes her ongoing interrogation of power structures in her debut film, described by the artist as ​“part thriller, part romance.” The final chapter of a project that began in 2013, The Proposal chronicles Magid’s audacious attempt to rescue the archive of Luis Barragán, Mexico’s most famous architect, from the Swiss bunker where a foundation and its unyielding director have kept it hidden from public view for more than two decades. (The archive was bought by a Swiss furniture tycoon as an engagement present for his fiancée—or so the lore goes.) Magid’s scheme to repatriate the collection, a brazen and scandal-igniting proposition from which the film takes its name, raises existential questions about the nature of artistic legacy when commerce and corporate interest control (or withhold) access to it.

Virtual Q&A with director Jill Magid, moderated by Griffin Art Projects Director Lisa Baldissera.

“The film documents this project as if it were performance art, but this is far from the kind of mere record one sees in museum retrospectives. The Proposal has a life of its own, beautiful and provocative.”

John DeFore, The Hollywood Reporter

“The Proposal is an investigation and an exhibition, a love letter and a rival’s riposte, a protest and an olive branch.”

Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times