The Proposal at the Tribeca Film Festival

Celebrated conceptual artist Jill Magid set her sights on an ambitious new project: an exhibition inspired by the visionary Mexican architect Luis Barragán. The only trouble was, one woman in Switzerland owns Barragán’s entire professional archive and the legal rights to any reproduction of his work, including photographs. And, for more than 20 years, she has kept it inaccessible to the public.

Unable to execute her original goal, Magid instead redirected her focus to this spellbinding documentary about her unlikely journey into a legal quagmire and her attempt to question the inaccessibility of Barragán’s work. The architect’s legacy is reframed as a case study in the damage that can be wrought when a great artist’s work is over-protected, or at least overly difficult to access. With its measured pacing and haunting ambience, Magid’s hypnotic film is an engaging examination of artistry, diplomacy, and posterity at a crossroads.

—Matt Barone

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