Drunken Boat #13 - Pocho Research Society

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Pocho Research Society

The Pocho Research Society (PRS) is an on-going collaborative project that involves trained and “organic” artists, activists, and historians who reside in Los Angeles. Dedicated to the systematic investigation of place and memory, the PRS challenges dominant constructions of local Los Angeles history through archival and curatorial projects and public interventions. In 2008, the PRS completed a project, Fort Moore, Living Monument, for the traveling exhibit, Phantom Sightings: Art After the Chicano Movement organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. During the summer of 2007, the PRS launched “Echoes in the Echo,” an action addressing gentrification. The group installed “unofficial” plaques in public spaces to commemorate formerly queer Latina/o bars in Los Angeles. In 2005, the PRS curated, Collective Synapse: A Forward Memory of the Peace and Justice Center, an archival project focusing on a youth-run cultural space that existed in Los Angeles during the mid-nineties, culminated in an exhibit, live events and panel discussions. Other projects include the October Surprise (2004) and Operation Invisible Monument (2002). Currently members are developing a research based project as part of a larger curatorial Project: Los Angeles: The Mexican Presence in L.A. Art, 1945-1980, sponsored by the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time Initiative, that will culminate in a publication and solo project at the Los Angeles County Museum or Art during 2011.