BY MARIA GALLUCCI
The News
Friday, Dec. 18
Imagine sitting at home one evening, loafing on the couch and flipping through the channels, when a knock raps on the door. Curious, you turn the knob, opening up to a group of eager-faced actors asking to come inside. And to use your living room for a rehearsal.
The concept of such spontaneous and unexpected performances is the brainchild of Seres Comunes (Common Beings), a Mexico City-based theater collective that coordinates the at-home shows through its Salas de Urgencias (Emergency Room) project.
After wrapping up its second year with the impromptu theatrics, the group is preparing to bring rehearsals to more homes and other unconventional spaces, such as cantinas and cafeterias, in 2010. “The idea is that this creative laboratory can serve to make the spectator an accomplice,” Alfonso Cárcamo, artistic director for Salas de Urgencias, said from his home office in the Centro Histórico.
The project essentially works like this: During a two-month period, a group of actors, directors and playwrights will walk around knocking on between 20 to 30 doors around the Santa María la Ribera neighborhood.
In each living room, rooftop or café, the group will perform various stages of the play, from rudimentary readings to a complete run-through. After each performance, the crew engages the viewers and collects feedback to add to the play. Hosts are invited to view the final production at the nearby Sergio Magaña Theater.
“It is the perfect strategy to draw in the public and convince people that the theater is accessible, both economically and thematically,” Cárcamo said.
Seres Comunes actress Naomy Romo added, “It's no longer a piece of theater that's shown behind this velvet curtain. It becomes much more accessible and personal.”
The idea for the grassroots project began in 2007 in Cárcamo's apartment, when his Seres Comunes colleague Luis Ayhllón presented an informal reading of his play “Los caracoles estresados” (“The Stressed Snails”) to a group inside the home.
After fielding comments from the audience, Ayhllón showed his progressing rehearsals inside 15 random spaces in the Federal District, the State of Mexico and in Veracruz. A final performance debuted in a summer theater festival in La Paz, Bolivia.
By summer 2008, Mexico City's Secretariat of Culture adopted the concept as a pilot program to implement in the communities surrounding the Sergio Magaña Theater, a centrally located stage with a low turnout rate.
“People around the theater just stopped going, for various reasons. They didn't like the play, they thought it was too expensive, they didn't know the lineup,” said Romo.
Through Salas de Urgencias, however, the program managed to draw in more than a thousand viewers to the theater in 2009 alone, with a set of 21 “interventions,” or in-home rehearsals, and eight final shows from February to March, and an additional 32 interventions and four shows in July and August.
The roster also included widely known Mexican choreographer Antonio Salinas, who carried out a series of dance performances throughout the year. Next year, the program will expand to include cycles from February to March, June to July, and October to November. In addition to theater and dance, interventions in 2010 will include a musical component as well, and final performances will also be shown in the Centro-area Teatro del Pueblo (Community Theater) and the Tlatelolco Cultural Center.
Cárcamo said that while many times people refuse to let a bunch of strangers into the privacy of their homes, those that do welcome the theater group inside become very excited and energized as they take part in the creative process.
“The key word here is 'complicity,'” he said. “The idea is that when a movie or TV show ends, you can no longer see the actors. But with theater, when the play is over, you can converse, share ideas or have a drink with the actors.”
The artistic director added that by visiting more humble homes and meeting residents with lower levels of education, both the hosts and Salas de Urgencias members have learned that quality theater is not just a pastime of profound intellectuals or high-income viewers.
“In Mexico, people keep their distance from the theater, because many times it feels untouchable, and so the audience is left with nativity plays or grade school shows,” he said.
“The solution that we've found is to present contemporary texts with professional actors to the public, and we have reached around 3,000 people [through these shows] in our two years of work.”
For more details, visit http://salasdeurgencia.blogspot.com, or www.serescomunes.com
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Plaza de Toros offers "la brava fiesta"
[Author's note: Grupo Mac remembered that a Web site might be a good feature for a 21st-century newspaper to have, so here's the most recent story that's on www.thenews.com.mx).
BY MARIA GALLUCCI
The News
Thursday, Dec. 24
It starts with the quick thud of charging hooves and the graceful shuffle of the matador's feet. Horns lowered and cape raised, the dance begins. The dramatic act continues with flashes of red and huffs of rage until finally, somebody falls.
It is, as Juan Castañera says, the art of the “corrida de toro,” or bullfight.
The controversial colonial tradition has persevered in small Mexican villages and booming metropolises alike, with suspenseful shows drawing thousands of spectators into open fields and grandiose plazas each year.
In Mexico City, the biggest bullfight season of the year is already underway at the Plaza de Toros, a stadium that plaza spokesman Castañera called the biggest bullfighting arena worldwide in terms of capacity. The bullring, located near the city's Ciudad de los Deportes neighborhood, can hold around 40,000 people.
The season began in November and will offer fights every Sunday through the end of February next year. The next fight is slated for Dec. 27. The plaza publishes its lineup of international matadors, also called “toreros,” each Tuesday before the fight on its Web site.
“The torero in his moment is creating art, and this has inspired many writers, artists and painters to transfer this to their works,” Castañera told The News. “This art is glued to our culture, our music, our poetry.”
The spokesman explained that bullfighting, or the “fiesta brava,” came to Mexico along with the Spanish colonizers some 400 years ago. The first fiestas were very rudimentary but began to define themselves as the Spaniards pegged bullfighting to pagan celebrations for each pueblo's patron saint, effectively expanding the Catholic faith through Spanish culture and religion.
As the bullfights spread to larger capital cities, such as Tijuana, Monterrey and Guadalajara, the tradition outgrew the limited, once-a-year celebrations and broadened to include year-round fiestas at centrally located plazas dedicated to the sport.
Mexico City's Plaza de Toros was built on Feb. 5, 1946, and nearly every year since then has held a smaller season from July to October and a larger one at the end of the year, with a grand anniversary celebration that takes place in February.
At the fights, the matador attracts the bull with a large red cape and twists his body to dodge the charging animal. A pair of picadors is often close by on horseback, jabbing the bull with lances.
In the end, regardless of whether the matador wins or the bull defeats him, the bull is killed with a sword to the heart.
Over time, the nationwide shows also matured from inexperienced matadors with young bulls to professional bullfighters challenging adult bulls. Imagery also became a large part of the spectacle, with matadors dressing in distinctive suits of a fitted jacket with embellished shoulder pads and matching cropped pants exposing colorful tights. A simple felt hat and flat black shoes often round off the outfit.
Castañera said that he did not think raising and killing bulls purely for spectacle is particularly cruel to the animals. He reiterated the industry position that bulls are raised in small land preserves and that the protected species would not exist if not for bullfighting.
“These animals would otherwise be killed in the fields because they are a danger to the people,” he said. “These animals are preserved because of the 'corridas.'”
On the other hand, many animal rights activists and, recently, Mexican legislators have spoken out loudly to the contrary.
The Mexico City-based Gente Por la Defensa Animal (People in Defense of Animals) said on its Web site (www.gepda.org) that bullfighting was neither art nor graceful theatrics, but rather the science of torture in which the bull and horses are subjected to miserable conditions before the event and a slow, painful death during the show.
“It is not humane to attend these events. These traditions do not belong in the 21st century,” the group wrote.
Last week, members of the Mexico City legislature (ALDF) presented an initiative that would modify the stipulations of the law Public Performance and Protection of Animal in the Federal District.
“Our intention is not to prohibit the bullfights, but rather prevent the torture until death of the bulls,” Christian Vargas of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) recently told the Mexican press.
“If we want to stop being a capital of the Third World, we have to change our mentality and the laws to better protect non-human living beings,” he told the press.
Bullfighting has already been banned in nearly 10 countries in Latin America and Europe. The Canary Islands in Spain and most of France have also banned bullfighting, although nationally the fights are permitted.
BY MARIA GALLUCCI
The News
Thursday, Dec. 24
It starts with the quick thud of charging hooves and the graceful shuffle of the matador's feet. Horns lowered and cape raised, the dance begins. The dramatic act continues with flashes of red and huffs of rage until finally, somebody falls.
It is, as Juan Castañera says, the art of the “corrida de toro,” or bullfight.
The controversial colonial tradition has persevered in small Mexican villages and booming metropolises alike, with suspenseful shows drawing thousands of spectators into open fields and grandiose plazas each year.
In Mexico City, the biggest bullfight season of the year is already underway at the Plaza de Toros, a stadium that plaza spokesman Castañera called the biggest bullfighting arena worldwide in terms of capacity. The bullring, located near the city's Ciudad de los Deportes neighborhood, can hold around 40,000 people.
The season began in November and will offer fights every Sunday through the end of February next year. The next fight is slated for Dec. 27. The plaza publishes its lineup of international matadors, also called “toreros,” each Tuesday before the fight on its Web site.
“The torero in his moment is creating art, and this has inspired many writers, artists and painters to transfer this to their works,” Castañera told The News. “This art is glued to our culture, our music, our poetry.”
The spokesman explained that bullfighting, or the “fiesta brava,” came to Mexico along with the Spanish colonizers some 400 years ago. The first fiestas were very rudimentary but began to define themselves as the Spaniards pegged bullfighting to pagan celebrations for each pueblo's patron saint, effectively expanding the Catholic faith through Spanish culture and religion.
As the bullfights spread to larger capital cities, such as Tijuana, Monterrey and Guadalajara, the tradition outgrew the limited, once-a-year celebrations and broadened to include year-round fiestas at centrally located plazas dedicated to the sport.
Mexico City's Plaza de Toros was built on Feb. 5, 1946, and nearly every year since then has held a smaller season from July to October and a larger one at the end of the year, with a grand anniversary celebration that takes place in February.
At the fights, the matador attracts the bull with a large red cape and twists his body to dodge the charging animal. A pair of picadors is often close by on horseback, jabbing the bull with lances.
In the end, regardless of whether the matador wins or the bull defeats him, the bull is killed with a sword to the heart.
Over time, the nationwide shows also matured from inexperienced matadors with young bulls to professional bullfighters challenging adult bulls. Imagery also became a large part of the spectacle, with matadors dressing in distinctive suits of a fitted jacket with embellished shoulder pads and matching cropped pants exposing colorful tights. A simple felt hat and flat black shoes often round off the outfit.
Castañera said that he did not think raising and killing bulls purely for spectacle is particularly cruel to the animals. He reiterated the industry position that bulls are raised in small land preserves and that the protected species would not exist if not for bullfighting.
“These animals would otherwise be killed in the fields because they are a danger to the people,” he said. “These animals are preserved because of the 'corridas.'”
On the other hand, many animal rights activists and, recently, Mexican legislators have spoken out loudly to the contrary.
The Mexico City-based Gente Por la Defensa Animal (People in Defense of Animals) said on its Web site (www.gepda.org) that bullfighting was neither art nor graceful theatrics, but rather the science of torture in which the bull and horses are subjected to miserable conditions before the event and a slow, painful death during the show.
“It is not humane to attend these events. These traditions do not belong in the 21st century,” the group wrote.
Last week, members of the Mexico City legislature (ALDF) presented an initiative that would modify the stipulations of the law Public Performance and Protection of Animal in the Federal District.
“Our intention is not to prohibit the bullfights, but rather prevent the torture until death of the bulls,” Christian Vargas of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) recently told the Mexican press.
“If we want to stop being a capital of the Third World, we have to change our mentality and the laws to better protect non-human living beings,” he told the press.
Bullfighting has already been banned in nearly 10 countries in Latin America and Europe. The Canary Islands in Spain and most of France have also banned bullfighting, although nationally the fights are permitted.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Photos find life in abandoment
BY MARIA GALLUCCI
The News
The News
Oct. 30, 2009
The peeling plaster, crumbling balconies and shattered windowpanes make the city look like an apocalyptic war zone. Piles of splintered two-by-fours scatter around sagging shells of apartment buildings as the destitute stillness eliminating any signs of life.
Yet the deteriorated remains, those that hint at a nuclear blast, are little more than the product of neglect, the result of a Japanese mining town that went from populous to desolate in a matter of months.
Exclusive images from the island's barren grounds are on display in Mexico City as part of a comprehensive project by StilL, a local photography collective that includes artists Guillaume Corpart Muller, Jan Smith and Ragnar Chacin.
The exhibit, titled "Fantasmas de GunkanjimO ("Ghosts of GunkanjimO) will remain at the Japanese Embassy's cultural annex in Colonia CuauhtAcmoc through Friday, Nov. 6.
"This is the last photo documentary that there is ever going to be on Gunkanjima," Corpart said at the exhibit's Oct. 21 inauguration.
Gunkanjima is a tiny island measuring just one square kilometer and situated off the coast of Nagasaki. In 1886, the Mitsubishi Corporation opened a coal mine there, and the population began to boom in 1916 when the company built housing complexes for its workers.
Over the decades, hundreds of coalminers and their families flocked to Gunkanjima. Schools, stores and clinics popped up as the island-city expanded. By the 1970s, however, petroleum had surfaced as a far more lucrative alternative to coal.
Before Mitsubishi closed the mine in 1974, the island's population had reached a staggering 83,500 people per square kilometer - the highest population density ever recorded.
(Mexico City, by comparison, logged around 8,400 people per square kilometer in 2007).
After the mine closed, literally every inhabitant left the island, with most heading to Nagasaki to search for work.
Last November, nearly 35 years after the mine closed, Corpart and Smith took a small boat to Gunkanjima to close the final chapter on a series of abandonment-themed photographs, a venture that took the duo to cities in Africa, Puerto Rico and Mexico.
Although the island at the time was technically closed and heavily guarded by coastal patrols, Corpart and Smith managed three trips lasting five hours each. They incessantly snapped images of the all that was left behind.
However, since the island has become an UNESCO World Heritage site, no one has been allowed back on Gunkanjima. With a platoon in place to protect the grounds, Corpart and Smith's pictures could very well be the last to emerge from the shell of a civilization.
Back in the Mexico City gallery, 24 of the collection's 60 images hang on the walls, mostly alternating between the two artists' works.
"I tried to capture how people lived, and I really tried to bring back the human elements that tie us back to a time of prosperity," Copart said.
A black-and-white photograph titled "No. 44" shows a polished pair of a girl's white ballet shoes, the toes pointing to a coal-covered balcony and resting on a cracked tile floor.
His image "No. 27" pictures an enormous heap of glass bottles piled up to the ceiling and spilling down to the floor, surrounding a metal-frame cot in what looks like a medical clinic.
Smith's work, on the other hand, is less about the life that remains and more about the ghosts of what once was.
In a photograph titled "Patience," the blurred silhouette of a nude woman accents the crumbling window frame on which she poses. The image "Au revoir HashimO shows rust-stained concrete walls, cracked glass and scattered debris with the sweeping shadows of the model in movement.
The Gunkanjima exhibit coincides with the StilL's mission to promote art photography, Corpart said.
"We're bringing evermore attention to photography as conveying emotions, feelings structures, ideas and messages," he said.
For more details, visit www.still-photo.blogspot.com
The peeling plaster, crumbling balconies and shattered windowpanes make the city look like an apocalyptic war zone. Piles of splintered two-by-fours scatter around sagging shells of apartment buildings as the destitute stillness eliminating any signs of life.
Yet the deteriorated remains, those that hint at a nuclear blast, are little more than the product of neglect, the result of a Japanese mining town that went from populous to desolate in a matter of months.
Exclusive images from the island's barren grounds are on display in Mexico City as part of a comprehensive project by StilL, a local photography collective that includes artists Guillaume Corpart Muller, Jan Smith and Ragnar Chacin.
The exhibit, titled "Fantasmas de GunkanjimO ("Ghosts of GunkanjimO) will remain at the Japanese Embassy's cultural annex in Colonia CuauhtAcmoc through Friday, Nov. 6.
"This is the last photo documentary that there is ever going to be on Gunkanjima," Corpart said at the exhibit's Oct. 21 inauguration.
Gunkanjima is a tiny island measuring just one square kilometer and situated off the coast of Nagasaki. In 1886, the Mitsubishi Corporation opened a coal mine there, and the population began to boom in 1916 when the company built housing complexes for its workers.
Over the decades, hundreds of coalminers and their families flocked to Gunkanjima. Schools, stores and clinics popped up as the island-city expanded. By the 1970s, however, petroleum had surfaced as a far more lucrative alternative to coal.
Before Mitsubishi closed the mine in 1974, the island's population had reached a staggering 83,500 people per square kilometer - the highest population density ever recorded.
(Mexico City, by comparison, logged around 8,400 people per square kilometer in 2007).
After the mine closed, literally every inhabitant left the island, with most heading to Nagasaki to search for work.
Last November, nearly 35 years after the mine closed, Corpart and Smith took a small boat to Gunkanjima to close the final chapter on a series of abandonment-themed photographs, a venture that took the duo to cities in Africa, Puerto Rico and Mexico.
Although the island at the time was technically closed and heavily guarded by coastal patrols, Corpart and Smith managed three trips lasting five hours each. They incessantly snapped images of the all that was left behind.
However, since the island has become an UNESCO World Heritage site, no one has been allowed back on Gunkanjima. With a platoon in place to protect the grounds, Corpart and Smith's pictures could very well be the last to emerge from the shell of a civilization.
Back in the Mexico City gallery, 24 of the collection's 60 images hang on the walls, mostly alternating between the two artists' works.
"I tried to capture how people lived, and I really tried to bring back the human elements that tie us back to a time of prosperity," Copart said.
A black-and-white photograph titled "No. 44" shows a polished pair of a girl's white ballet shoes, the toes pointing to a coal-covered balcony and resting on a cracked tile floor.
His image "No. 27" pictures an enormous heap of glass bottles piled up to the ceiling and spilling down to the floor, surrounding a metal-frame cot in what looks like a medical clinic.
Smith's work, on the other hand, is less about the life that remains and more about the ghosts of what once was.
In a photograph titled "Patience," the blurred silhouette of a nude woman accents the crumbling window frame on which she poses. The image "Au revoir HashimO shows rust-stained concrete walls, cracked glass and scattered debris with the sweeping shadows of the model in movement.
The Gunkanjima exhibit coincides with the StilL's mission to promote art photography, Corpart said.
"We're bringing evermore attention to photography as conveying emotions, feelings structures, ideas and messages," he said.
For more details, visit www.still-photo.blogspot.com
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Mexico students put on Shakespeare show
BY MARIA GALLUCCI
The News
Oct. 28, 2009
With the wrap called and curtains closed on a worldwide Shakespeare festival, students in Mexico's bilingual private schools are setting the stage for a second round of events.
For the third consecutive year, secondary schools around Mexico City last weekend performed abbreviated versions of the Bard's most celebrated plays. Directors, teachers and students are now gearing up for a round of individual recitals at the high-school level, a process that kicks off in November and wraps up in March next year.
"Shakespeare is generally acknowledged as being the greatest writer in the English language, but his plays were never meant to be read - ever," said Stuart Cox, coordinator of the Shakespeare Project with The Anglo Mexican Foundation and artistic director of the Celebrating Cultures theater company.
"His plays were always meant for acting, and the best way to understand the play is not to read it, but to see it performed, or to perform in it yourself," he added.
Cox said the Shakespeare Project was founded in Mexico in 2001, a year after the main British festival got its start. Since then, the project each year has increasingly attracted more schools in its monologue competition and collective shows.
Around 200 students in Mexico recited monologues or sonnets last year. This year, 22 schools around the country will take part, with 11 finalists emerging for the final rounds in the spring.
Internationally, the festival of plays in October counted the participation of students in around 70 other countries, whose events took place on the same day to coincide with performances in the United Kingdom.
Participating schools in Mexico included the Lancaster School in Tlalpan, which performed "Macbeth," and the Greengates School in Colonia Lomas Verdes, which performed "The Tempest." The Mount Sinai Hebrew School in Colonia Roma performed "Twelfth Night," and the Las Rosas School in the Purísima Ticomán neighborhood put on "The Winter's Tale."
Two Cuernavaca schools, the Marymount School and Churchill College, in November will perform "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "Richard III," respectively.
Cox explained that most of the students in Mexico speak English only as their second language, which he said adds a "fresh and innocent" perspective to Shakespeare's works.
John Kelly, lead English teacher at Lancaster, said that the standard for the performances has risen over the years, elevating the prestige of the festival and recital among students and parents.
Kelly directed his school's performance last Friday at the Anglo's Antonio Caso campus in Colonia San Rafael.
"As a school, we feel that these events are our cultural livelihood...To be involved in the Shakespearean play is starting to be a point of social status amongst our students, and many parents are keen to see their children in these plays," he said, adding that the audience that night exceeded the theater's capacity.
Gerardo Coello, 15, said he was thrilled to be cast in the lead role of Macbeth.
"I love [Shakespeare's] language, and how his characters and settings are all about one issue: in "Macbeth," it's repentance; in "Othello," it's jealousy; and in "Hamlet, it's about indecision," he said at a dress rehearsal before the final performance.
María Guillán, who played Lady Macbeth, said she loved learning Shakespeare in school because of his character manipulation.
"I love the way he takes a character, which seems to be perfectly normal, but then he transforms it and totally degrades it. He knows a lot about the human mind and psychology, and he includes that in his plays," said the 15-year-old.
For more on Shakespeare International, visit www.ca.org.mx
Friday, October 23, 2009
Alebrijes march on Mexico City
[Editorial update: Despite using reliable sources like an old story from The News, I got a few things wrong. The original alebrije creator was born in Mexico City, not Oaxaca, and was of Aztec, not Mixe, descent. Oops].
BY MARIA GALLUCCI
The News
Oct. 23, 2009
The cardboard creations come in droves, swarming in a colorful cluster down Mexico City's most prominent thoroughfares with dragon wings, webbed feet and wiry antennas on their 100-kilogram frames.
The alebrijes are back.
For the third year in a row, the capital city's Museum of Popular Art (MAP) is putting on its Parade of Monumental Alebrijes in an effort to familiarize the world with this papier-mache artisan craft.
Nearly 120 alebrijes this Saturday will commence their 4-kilometer march in the historal center, then move to the Zócalo and down Paseo de la Reforma. They will remain on display at the Angel of Independence monument through Sunday, Nov. 8.
"Mexico City has few popular traditions in its urban areas, so we're looking to start a new tradition in the heart of Mexico so that we can make it part of our collective tradition," said MAP Director and parade coordinator Luiz Haza.
Alebrijes are multicolored creatures that mix the parts of one animal with many others.
Elsa Linares' creation, for example, features the body of a bright red fish with white frog feet, patterned bullhorns and a long tail of red-and-yellow feathers. The internal structure is built from carrizo, a Mexican bamboo traditionally used with alebrijes for its density and flexibility.
Linares, 30, has been crafting alebrijes for more than 15 years, carrying on a family tradition that started the entire artistic movement.
In the mid-1930s, her grandfather, Pedro Linares López, fell violently ill from gastronomic complications, and a high fever knocked him nearly comatose, she said, beginning the family story as she painted a thick paper horn.
The elder Linares, who died in 1992, was an indigenous Mixe artisan from the Oaxacan village San Martín Tilcajete who made piñatas, carnival masks and dolls from papier-mache.
In his fever-induced delirium, he heard a crowd of voices whispering quietly and then shouting loudly the nonsensical word "alebrije." He saw a forest filled with fantastic creatures, like donkeys with butterfly wings and multi-legged lions.
After he awoke, he reconstructed his magical visions with paper, cardboard, paste and electric colors until, eventually, a Cuernavaca gallery owner discovered his work. As famed Mexican artists like Diego Rivera and Frida Khalo began commissioning Linares to build more alebrijes, the craftwork spread to neighboring Oaxaca villages and to Mexico City.
The tradition grew considerably after British filmmaker Judith Bronowski's 1975 documentary on Linares, who later received Mexico's National Prize for Popular Arts and Traditions for his work.
Now, alebrijes are considered the pride of Mexico's folk art repertoire. The figures are also carved from wood in less monstrous proportions.
Elsa said it was an exciting experience to participate in the alebrije parade each year because "my grandfather never imagined how far his creation would go. He never thought that it would become so popular in Mexico and even outside the country."
The parade in 2007 started with just 35 alebrijes on platforms. The 2008 parade included around 80 floats and started the Reforma run-through, attracting an estimated two million spectators, Haza said.
This year is set to include at least 117 floats and is expected to draw an even bigger audience than last year, he said, adding that the general budget this year fell around 1 million pesos. Sponsors include the National Council for Culture and Arts (Conaculta), the Mexico City government and MAP's Friends of the Museum Association.
The younger Linares said she and project partner Yeudiel Lara had committed three weeks of 14-hour days to build and paint their red "michin," the Nahuatl word for "fish." The design element, however, began immediately after the previous year's parade finished.
Ricardo Linares, who is not related to Elsa or Pedro, said he will present two alebrijes and oversee production for at least five others. His own creations will include a bird with cat paws and a snake in a conch shell with feet. They will also feature exterior mirrors to reflect the sunlight and internal lamps to glow at night.
"The alebrije symbolizes Mexico City in just one artisan piece," said the 37-year-old, adding that the parade provides a spirit of togetherness down streets often filled with political protests and marches .
Elsa noted, "Each year that more figures and artisans participate in the parade, it guarantees that alebrijes will be with us for much more time, that they will always remain relevant, and that more people will learn about them."
For more details, visit www.alebrijes.com.mx
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Mexico fashion takes on Tokyo
BY MARIA GALLUCCI
The News
Oct. 22, 2009
While Mexico might be better known for exporting its more illicit goods, a Mexico City culture consortium is hoping to push the country's more stylish industries to the outside world - fashion, cinema and design.
This week in Tokyo, six fashion labels, two filmmakers and an interior design team have been presenting their latest and freshest proposals to Japanese audiences. The "DFTokio" event, coordinated by Mexico City's Pasagüero culture hub, also coincides with the 400th anniversary of the first recorded contact between Mexico and Japan.
Pasagüero director Ricardo Pandal said the idea to bring the contemporary Mexican artists to Tokyo was inspired by a recent talk regarding alternative subcultures in the world's megalopolises.
And while Japan's capital city has already hosted more traditional Mexican art like exhibits on Frida Khalo or pre-Hispanic artifacts, Pandal said he thought it was long overdue to bring a more modern perspective to the Mexican presence in Tokyo.
"Mexico's alternative, urban culture is very alive in Japan, I just think that now we're looking for the right ways to channel it," Pandal told The News last week before his flight to Japan.
"I don't see why Mexico can't be just like Brazil," he said, referring to Brazil's recent prominence in the global fashion, film and contemporary art scenes.
The project's purpose is to select a few aspects, personalities and professionals from Mexico's cutting edge, with the goal to create an event that will show the current trends in contemporary Mexican culture, according to Pasagüero. Creating this dynamic allows Mexican artists to communicate a renovated perspective of the country to the outside world, developing cultural promotion and investment and attracting more international tourists.
The event kicked off in Tokyo last weekend on Oct. 17 with Mexican director Alejandro González Iñarritu, of "Babel" and "Amores Perros" fame, presiding over the judges' panel at the Tokyo International Film Festival.
Designers participated from Tuesday to Thursday in Japan Fashion Week, and couturiers included Alejandra Quesada, Carla Fernández, Trista and T.E.M.O.R.E.S., a label by 22-year-old Carlos Temores. Jewelry designers include Gabriela Artigas and Anndra Neen, a jewelry label by Phoebe and Annette Stephens.
Although not on the runways, the six young design labels presented in a separate showroom styled by the Dfcasa interior design team, offered Japanese buyers, collectors and the general public a chance to admire or purchase the Mexican fashion. The line-up was also coordinated in part by the Mexican style magazine 192.
Pandal said that while Quesada and Anndra Neen have already entered the Japanese market, the event is an opportunity for everyone to strengthen their ties in the Asian style scene while representing their Mexican roots abroad.
Fernández's designs, for instance, reinterpret the colors, patterns and movement of traditional mariachi garb but with twenty-first century cuts and fits. Quesada offers flirty dresses and sheer blouses with floral prints and warm colors, indicative of a warmer climate influence.
The women of Anndra Neen, who are Mexican but live in Los Angeles, have received considerable U.S. press from publications like Vogue magazine and The New York Times. Their handmade pieces are certainly not subtle accents - with chunky, shiny pieces hanging from thick gold cords and thick metal cuffs with edgy details, they steal the whole show.
"These designers are definitely youthful, alternative and very cutting edge," Pandal said of all the stylists.
Pasagüero will celebrate the close of Tokyo Fashion Week and the film festival with an after-party on Thursday, with high-energy music by Mexican deejay Sicario and the Japanese group The Triple Nipple.
The final three days of DFTokio will return to its cinematic beginnings. A special three-day retrospective film presentation by Mexico City-born director Carlos Reygadas, whose films include "Japan," "Battle in Heaven" and "Silent Light."
While the actual film festival will not include any new projects from Mexico, the retrospective signifies a first for the Latin American country in Japan's capital city, Pandal said.
Pandal added that he hoped the Tokyo presentations could kick off a newfound relationship between Mexico and Asia over the next five years. Similar events might take place next year in cities like Shanghai and Hong Kong, he said.
"We hope that our presence in Asia doesn't just stop with this. We want to have a continual presence at fairs, festivals and cultural events," he said.
The Pasagüero director noted the value such events have for Mexico's once-booming tourism industry, and he added that for this reason the Mexico City's Tourism Secretariat helped partially fund DFTokio.
"They understood the benefit of promoting the city to young cultures around the world, who aren't as afraid to come visit as others," he said.
For more info on DFTokio, visit http://mexcofest.com
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Renau exhibit unusually relevant in Mexico
BY MARIA GALLUCCI
The News
Oct. 21, 2009
The graphic prints, provocative collages and eccentric murals of Spanish artist Josep Renau have had impeccable timing in Mexico.
As Mexico City's electricians continue to contest recent actions by the Mexican government to dissolve their union, Renau's messages of syndicate strength and systematic struggles have been born anew, finding an unintentional contemporary context for the artwork's latest exhibit.
Nearly 300 pieces by the Valenciíborn artist have traveled to the Tlatelolco University Cultural Center (CCUT) as part of the display "Josep Renau 1907-1982: Compromiso y Cultura," or "Commitment and Culture," up through Jan. 10, 2010.
But part of his art is already on display in Mexico. Renau, after all, helped Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros complete his 1939 mural at the Mexican Syndicate of Electricians building.
"Renau is an example of what is the political commitment of artists and intellectuals, a theme that in this moment is not touched on as much," said curator Jaime Brihuega of the Complutense University of Madrid.
"Every time art is called 'political' in our days, it is just another marketing tool. That is why it is important to have this exhibit, because Reanu is an artist that teaches that there are always problems around us, and that we should talk about these problems."
"He fought against the world's injustices every moment that he lived," he said of the communist-allied artist.
Brihuega added that the CCUT exhibit aims to resurrect the work and history of an artist who was fundamental in Spanish and Mexican culture.
The display was first assembled in Valencia in 2007 to celebrate what would have been Renau's 100th birthday. The exhibit also traveled to Madrid, Sevilla, Las Palmas and Zaragoza before moving to Mexico City this past Oct. 14, kicking off a world tour organized in part by Spain's State Society for Cultural étion Abroad (SEACEX).
At the CCUT's Salón Juárez gallery, the Renau exhibit is divided into four parts; the circular display is a timeline of the artist's often controversial works in relation to the historical events that served as his muse.
"Times of the Republic: Between Formation and Commitment" spans the years 1926 to 1936, when Renau came of age as an artist and a political activist during this pre-war period. The exhibit opens with ink-on-paper sketches of shapely women, aged prints of magazine covers and minutely detailed lithographs.
During this period, the republican-socialist government of the Second Spanish Republic in 1931 replaced the monarchy while nationalist and fascist tendencies strengthened. At this time, Renau was creating his infamous graphic designs and photomontages of sensual yet tasteful nudes, prominent political figures and cultural references.
A 1935 cover of the Valencia magazine Nueva Cultura, for example, is a lithograph detailing the horsemen of the apocalypse, including the Pope, dollar sign-toting bankers and well-heeled politicians. Renau founded and directed the magazine, and he also designed and edited for political periodicals like Estudios, Octubre and "Orto."
The exhibit section "Spain in War: 1936-1939" marks Renau's rise as a prominent intellectual and a renowned artistic director during the Spanish Civil War.
The war ended in 1939 when General Francisco Franco and the nationalist and fascist movements overthrew the Republic and instated a right-wing dictatorship, over which Franco ruled until 1975.
Renau worked tirelessly during this period to publish posters, photomontages and murals dedicated to "agitprop," a term that blends "agitation" with "propagandO and is used to disseminate the communist agenda.
His 1936 photomontage "7 de octubre. Una nueva era en el campo" ("October 7. A New Age in the Field") pictures a man's fist clenched tightly and tinted red as it grips the handle of a curved sickle, with golden stalks of grain illuminating the background.
That same year, Renau was named the General Director of Fine Arts for Spain, and he oversaw the National Orchestra, the National Committee of Music and the Spanish Pavilion in the 1937 World Fair in Paris. He also commissioned fellow artist Pablo Picasso to paint his well-known cubist mural, "Guernica."
The sequence "Crossing the Ocean: Exile in Mexico" follows 1939 to 1958, when Renau sought refuge from the Franco dictatorship in Mexico. Here, Renau absorbed the influences of famed Mexican muralists like Diego Rivera and Siqueiros, and Renau continued writing about his political leanings for leftist publications.
Curator Brihuega noted, "In every place that he visited, he has had this duplicity - he opens his life to influences, while at the same time creating his own school of art."
Handwritten papers at the gallery document Renau's 1947-48 stance in Cuernavaca, where he carried out the intricate and vivid mural "Casino de la SelvO ("Casino of the Jungle").
Impressive oil paintings capture traditional scenic landscapes interpreted through an avant-garde eye; reeds and conch shells on a beach, for example, are presented with sharp angles and stark contrasts.
Renau in 1954 also began his highly celebrated photomontage series "American Way of Life," a 12-year project mixing vanguard photographs and graphic designs and that later helped fuel the Pop Art movement in Spain.
The exhibit's final chapter "Images éross the Wall" includes artwork produced during Renau's second exile period in East Germany from 1958 to 1982, including his second photomontage series "Sobre AlemaniO ("About Germany").
The artist's political poignancy at this time was influenced by the so-called Cold War, and his art reflected constructive realism, a philosophy that emphasizes science in the political realm.
His 1969 large-scale mural "El futuro trabajador del comunismo" ("The Future Worker of Communism") paints a bare-chested man bent over a control panel as stars and grids swirl behind him. Beneath his desk, colorful geometric shapes circle forcefully, reflecting Renau's artistic ability to put powerful motion into stagnant images.
Renau's anthology ends with a series of 1970s-era collages heavily focused on the female body. "Madre TierrO ("Mother Earth"), for example, is a 1975 portrait of a single breast emerging over the horizon as if it were a hill surrounded by an oasis of firs and field grass.
The polemic artist traveled numerous times to Spain throughout the six years preceding his 1982 death. There, he published various books and hosted many exhibitions on his work. He continued creating his posters, designs, collages and murals until he died in Berlin.
The News
Oct. 21, 2009
The graphic prints, provocative collages and eccentric murals of Spanish artist Josep Renau have had impeccable timing in Mexico.
As Mexico City's electricians continue to contest recent actions by the Mexican government to dissolve their union, Renau's messages of syndicate strength and systematic struggles have been born anew, finding an unintentional contemporary context for the artwork's latest exhibit.
Nearly 300 pieces by the Valenciíborn artist have traveled to the Tlatelolco University Cultural Center (CCUT) as part of the display "Josep Renau 1907-1982: Compromiso y Cultura," or "Commitment and Culture," up through Jan. 10, 2010.
But part of his art is already on display in Mexico. Renau, after all, helped Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros complete his 1939 mural at the Mexican Syndicate of Electricians building.
"Renau is an example of what is the political commitment of artists and intellectuals, a theme that in this moment is not touched on as much," said curator Jaime Brihuega of the Complutense University of Madrid.
"Every time art is called 'political' in our days, it is just another marketing tool. That is why it is important to have this exhibit, because Reanu is an artist that teaches that there are always problems around us, and that we should talk about these problems."
"He fought against the world's injustices every moment that he lived," he said of the communist-allied artist.
Brihuega added that the CCUT exhibit aims to resurrect the work and history of an artist who was fundamental in Spanish and Mexican culture.
The display was first assembled in Valencia in 2007 to celebrate what would have been Renau's 100th birthday. The exhibit also traveled to Madrid, Sevilla, Las Palmas and Zaragoza before moving to Mexico City this past Oct. 14, kicking off a world tour organized in part by Spain's State Society for Cultural étion Abroad (SEACEX).
At the CCUT's Salón Juárez gallery, the Renau exhibit is divided into four parts; the circular display is a timeline of the artist's often controversial works in relation to the historical events that served as his muse.
"Times of the Republic: Between Formation and Commitment" spans the years 1926 to 1936, when Renau came of age as an artist and a political activist during this pre-war period. The exhibit opens with ink-on-paper sketches of shapely women, aged prints of magazine covers and minutely detailed lithographs.
During this period, the republican-socialist government of the Second Spanish Republic in 1931 replaced the monarchy while nationalist and fascist tendencies strengthened. At this time, Renau was creating his infamous graphic designs and photomontages of sensual yet tasteful nudes, prominent political figures and cultural references.
A 1935 cover of the Valencia magazine Nueva Cultura, for example, is a lithograph detailing the horsemen of the apocalypse, including the Pope, dollar sign-toting bankers and well-heeled politicians. Renau founded and directed the magazine, and he also designed and edited for political periodicals like Estudios, Octubre and "Orto."
The exhibit section "Spain in War: 1936-1939" marks Renau's rise as a prominent intellectual and a renowned artistic director during the Spanish Civil War.
The war ended in 1939 when General Francisco Franco and the nationalist and fascist movements overthrew the Republic and instated a right-wing dictatorship, over which Franco ruled until 1975.
Renau worked tirelessly during this period to publish posters, photomontages and murals dedicated to "agitprop," a term that blends "agitation" with "propagandO and is used to disseminate the communist agenda.
His 1936 photomontage "7 de octubre. Una nueva era en el campo" ("October 7. A New Age in the Field") pictures a man's fist clenched tightly and tinted red as it grips the handle of a curved sickle, with golden stalks of grain illuminating the background.
That same year, Renau was named the General Director of Fine Arts for Spain, and he oversaw the National Orchestra, the National Committee of Music and the Spanish Pavilion in the 1937 World Fair in Paris. He also commissioned fellow artist Pablo Picasso to paint his well-known cubist mural, "Guernica."
The sequence "Crossing the Ocean: Exile in Mexico" follows 1939 to 1958, when Renau sought refuge from the Franco dictatorship in Mexico. Here, Renau absorbed the influences of famed Mexican muralists like Diego Rivera and Siqueiros, and Renau continued writing about his political leanings for leftist publications.
Curator Brihuega noted, "In every place that he visited, he has had this duplicity - he opens his life to influences, while at the same time creating his own school of art."
Handwritten papers at the gallery document Renau's 1947-48 stance in Cuernavaca, where he carried out the intricate and vivid mural "Casino de la SelvO ("Casino of the Jungle").
Impressive oil paintings capture traditional scenic landscapes interpreted through an avant-garde eye; reeds and conch shells on a beach, for example, are presented with sharp angles and stark contrasts.
Renau in 1954 also began his highly celebrated photomontage series "American Way of Life," a 12-year project mixing vanguard photographs and graphic designs and that later helped fuel the Pop Art movement in Spain.
The exhibit's final chapter "Images éross the Wall" includes artwork produced during Renau's second exile period in East Germany from 1958 to 1982, including his second photomontage series "Sobre AlemaniO ("About Germany").
The artist's political poignancy at this time was influenced by the so-called Cold War, and his art reflected constructive realism, a philosophy that emphasizes science in the political realm.
His 1969 large-scale mural "El futuro trabajador del comunismo" ("The Future Worker of Communism") paints a bare-chested man bent over a control panel as stars and grids swirl behind him. Beneath his desk, colorful geometric shapes circle forcefully, reflecting Renau's artistic ability to put powerful motion into stagnant images.
Renau's anthology ends with a series of 1970s-era collages heavily focused on the female body. "Madre TierrO ("Mother Earth"), for example, is a 1975 portrait of a single breast emerging over the horizon as if it were a hill surrounded by an oasis of firs and field grass.
The polemic artist traveled numerous times to Spain throughout the six years preceding his 1982 death. There, he published various books and hosted many exhibitions on his work. He continued creating his posters, designs, collages and murals until he died in Berlin.
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