metropolis m

(The full article is published in Metropolis M no. 1-2012)

Mexico has spawned an exceptionally successful generation of young artists who have swarmed out across the world. In Paris, an attempt is being made to sketch a picture of them and of the country they come from.

‘Every hundred feet the world changes’
? Roberto Bolaño, 2666

Can geography still make a difference in looking at contemporary art? Or, conversely, can contemporary art make a difference in how we perceive certain places in the world? In March, the exhibition Resisting the Present: Mexico 2000-2012, a group show organized in collaboration with the Museo Amparo in Puebla, Mexico, where it was first shown, will open at the Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. Rather than providing a birds-eye view of current art practices in Mexico (such overviews always prevent certain stories from being told), this exhibition brings together a selection of works by Mexican artists, mostly born after 1975, that reflect on a ‘common ground’ of the Mexican present.

Over the past two decades, Mexico’s economy has grown rapidly – something which is reflected in the nation’s infrastructure for art. In 2008, the Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC) opened in a brand new building designed by Teodoro González de León. Currently it is the largest public institution for national and international contemporary art in Mexico, with work by ‘local’ stars such as Damián Ortega, Francis Alÿs and Gabriel Orozco, and international artists like Thomas Hirschhorn, Tom Friedman and others. The museum is part of Mexico City’s National Autonomous University (UNAM), which has smaller cultural venues in the city, such as the Museo Experimental El Eco (devoted to architecture and contemporary art), Casa del Lago (with a permanent project space for contemporary art) and Museo El Chopo. The Museo Rufino Tamayo, another significant institution for contemporary art, closed its doors in August 2011 for a scheduled expansion. Apart from the already established Kurimanzutto Gallery (representing, amongst others, Allora & Calzadilla, Carlos Amorales, Roman Ondák and Minerva Cuevas), young galleries such as Labor and Proyectos Monclova show the work of young and upcoming artists from Mexico and elsewhere. Mexico City boasts an annual international art fair, and in August 2011, Jan Mot opened a branch of his gallery in a building he shares with a design studio and architecture office. Mission contemporary art: consider it accomplished.

[h1]Controversy

At the same time, Mexico is not your typical art hub: its social and political conditions confront its citizens with daily and far-reaching uncertainties.

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Read the full article in Metropolis M no. 1 – 2012

Moosje Goosen is a Rotterdam-based writer and researcher for the Uqbar Foundation

– Resisting the Present: Mexico 2000-2012
Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris/ARC, Paris
9 March – 8 July

– Erick Beltrán: The World Explained
Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam
until 11 March