Mexico City has been buzzing with cultural activity since the beginning of the year. It’s been proclaimed as the hottest new fashion capital and is equally becoming a hotbed for young artists and musicians. Last week it came to a head, when hundreds of artists, galleries, and the rest of the art world descended on the city for Zona MACO and Material Art Fair.
From Diego Rivera to Gabriel Orozco, Mexico has a long, rich tradition in the arts, but the current art scene has been getting a lot of international press due to the scene’s modern approach, and young talents from all over the world that come to Mexico City looking for the new exciting outlet of art. From the massive art fairs like Zona MACO to the alternative ones like Material Art Fair and Salón Acme, to small and hip galleries around the city that combined young art from Chicago, Portland and LA with local talent, Mexico City is a strong vehicle for the art of 2015.
This weekend, for example, gallerists, artists, collectors and contemporary art lovers, came together for a variety of events such as Zona MACO, Mexico’s biggest contemporary art fair, and the Material Art Fair, it’s younger, cooler cousin. As well as gallery openings, parties and independent initiatives such as Salón ACME., Whether you want to invest in or just meet new artists, or simply enjoy the crowds and experience Mexico City’s fever for art and culture, it was the perfect week to explore Mexican art of today.
Zona MACO is now in its 14th edition and brings together over 100 galleries from across the world, and takes in everything from furniture design to curated sections such as Zona Sur, Modern Art and New Proposals. A highlight is FONCA’s pavillion, where it is presenting a selection of young Mexican artists, exhibiting a different one each day, bringing you the future faces of Mexican art; Edson Caballero, Hans Claudia and Daniela Libertad. It also shows the depth of the Mexican art scene, as these arts work out of all four corners of the country, and create work dealing with everything from Mexican history to more international and conceptual strands.
Ana Bidart is another artist to watch out for, exhibiting with Josée Bienvenu Gallery and Fifi Projects, her works owe a stylistic debt to the 70s conceptual art scene. In Pasaporte K, information from labels and barcodes interacts with abstract painting; quiet, subtle reflections on hard data that through use, time and repetition evoke a minimalistic poetry. Fifi Projects, also represents Pablo Dávila, an emerging artist whose reflections on time and light in photography are catching people’s attention. Zona MACO is Mexico’s most famous fair, but it’s in underground that its real strength lies, as a young generation pushes things forward, and is positioning Mexico City as one of the coolest cities in the world.
Three-years-ago a group of young artists (Zazil Barba, Sebastián Vizcaíno and Álvaro Ugarte) from Guadalajara teamed up with an architect and curator from Mexico City, Homero Fernández and created Salón ACME. Together they showcase young artists from different states in the country, selected from an open call and sell their work at very accessible prices. This edition is dedicated to Chihuahua, a state on the Mexican-American border, known more for its social and political violence than its creative talents and academic endeavours. It’s the kind of project that highlights the diversity of Mexico, and the world that lives beneath it’s stereotypes.
Material Art Fair is an initiative that aims to include work by artists on the rise and target younger, emerging collectors, and a more underground international scene. Held in a comfortable, more laid-back venue, it’s full of young gallerists engaging with viewers in a refreshingly open manner, sharing stories of the artists they represent. One of the highlights was Smart Objects, from Los Angeles, who brough Keith J. Varadi, a painter and writer, to the DF for the fair. Varadi’s technique involves painting text directly onto the canvas from a tube of paint; usually facts, dates, places, people and other information related to where he will be showing, before adding layers of colour on top, so the text becomes obscured and the colour subdued.
New Galerie, Paris, showcased Los Angeles based artist Sean Raspett, whose work is highly visual but appeals also to our sense of smell. Sean Raspett reinvents textures, techniques and memory using chemistry, allowing our bodies to engage with the molecules contained in a piece such as Phantom Ringtone, a 4.5 litre bottle holding a fragrance formulation made from propylene glycol. A sensuous experience, that alters your interactions with all the other works in the booth. Another highlight was Parallel Oaxaca, based on a story the curator, Attilia Fattori Franchini commissioned from an anonymous Mexican artist, she curated a dreamlike show of some of the best international up-and-coming artists like Tomás Díaz Cedeño, Beatriz Olabarrieta, Michael Ray-Von, Yves Scherer, Marianne Spurr and Lewis Teague Wright.
Mexico continues to be a hot spot for the arts and a gathering place for creatives and intellectuals worldwide. Things happen here that challenge and redefine our notions of what contemporary art and visual culture mean to society. Participating in this endeavour promotes powerful creativity and connectivity in all.
Credits
Text Jessica Berlanga
Photography Ana Hop