New Tendencies in Mexican Art: the 1990's

192 Pages·2006·13.13 MB·English

by  Gallo, Ruben

N T M A
EW ENDENCIES IN EXICAN RT
1990
THE S
Rubén Gallo
for Terence Gower
New Directions in Latino American
Cultures
A S E L F -M &
ERIES DITED BY ICIA IOL ATTA
J é Q
OS UIROGA
Published in 2004
New Tendencies in Mexican Art, by Rubén Gallo
Jose Martí: An Introduction, by Oscar Montero
Published in 2003
Bilingual Games: Some Literary Investigations, edited by Doris Sommer
Tongue Ties: Logo-Eroticism in Anglo-Hispanic Literature, by Gustavo
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Alicia Gaspar de Alba, with a foreword by Tomás Ybarra Frausto
The Famous 41: Sexuality and Social Control in Mexico, 1901, edited by
Robert McKee Irwin, Edward J. McCaughan, and Michele Rocío Nasser
New York Ricans from the Hip Hop Zone, by Raquel Rivera
Forthcoming Titles
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edited by Frances Negrón-Muntaner
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The Masters and the Slaves: Plantation Relations and Mestizaje in
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NEW TENDENCIESIN MEXICAN ART
Copyright © Rubén Gallo, 2004.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner
whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations
embodied in critical articles or reviews.
First published 2004 by
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Contents
List of Illustrations vi
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction: Tendencies 1
Chapter One: Orientalism 19
Chapter Two: Voyeurism 47
Chapter Three: Radiophonism 71
Chapter Four: Urbanism 91
Chapter Five: Institutionalism 135
Notes 160
Works Cited 173
Index 178
List of Illustrations
Figure 1: Fernanda Brunet, Heroínas (1996).
Figure 2: Yishai Jusidman, Sumo VII (1995).
Figure 3: Eduardo Abaroa, Vicisitudes iniciáticas [initiatiaton vicissitudes] (1996).
Figure 4: Pablo Vargas Lugo, Finale(1998).
Figure 5: Pablo Vargas Lugo, Rising Sun (1996).
Figure 6: Daniela Rossell, Pecados(1996).
Figure 7: Daniela Rossell, Pecados(1996).
Figure 8: Edgar Orlaineta, My Melody (1998).
Figure 9: Julio Galán, China poblana (1987).
Figure 10: Yishai Jusidman, Geishas al descubierto [geisha uncovered] (1992).
Figure 11: Daniela Rossell, Untitled, from the series Ricas y famosas (1994–2001).
Figure 12: Daniela Rossell, Untitled, from the series Ricas y famosas (1994–2001).
Figure 13: Daniela Rossell, Untitled [Paulina Díaz Ordaz], from the series Ricas y
famosas(1994–2001).
Figure 14: Daniela Rossell, Untitled [Paulina Díaz Ordaz with Salinas Painting],
from the series Ricas y famosas (1994–2001).
Figure 15: Daniela Rossell, Untitled [Wendy and Zapata], from the series Ricas y
famosas(1994–2001).
Figure 16: Daniela Rossell, Untitled [Banuet and Zapata], from the series Ricas y
famosas(1994–2001).
Figure 17: Daniela Rossell, Untitled [Siqueiros], from the series Ricas y famosas
(1994–2001).
Figure 18: Daniela Rossell, Untitled [Empache cristiano / Christian Gorging],
from the series Ricas y famosas (1994–2001).
Figure 19: Francis Alÿs, from the series Ambulantes I (1995–2001).
Figure 20: Francis Alÿs, from the series Ambulantes I (1995–2001).
Figure 21: Francis Alÿs, from the series Ambulantes I (1995–2001).
Figure 22: Francis Alÿs, from the series Ambulantes I (1995–2001).
Figure 23: Francis Alÿs, The Collector (1991–92).
Figure 24: Mejor Vida Corporation webpage (www.irational.org/mvc).
Figure 25: Minerva Cuevas cleaning the Mexico City Metro—a free service
provided by Mejor Vida Corporation.
Figure 26: Mejor Vida Corporation, student identification card.
Figure 27: Santiago Sierra, Pedestrian Bridge Obstructed with Wrapping Tape (1996).
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS vii
Figure 28: Santiago Sierra, Obstruction of a Freeway with a Trailer Truck (1998).
Figure 29: Francis Alÿs, Turista (1996).
Figure 30: Santiago Sierra, Wall of a Gallery Torn Out, Tilted at an Angle of Sixty
Degrees, and Supported by 5 People (2000).
Figure 31: Teresa Margolles, Tongue(2000).
Figure 32: Teresa Margolles, Cards for Cutting Cocaine (1998).
Figure 33: Teresa Margolles, Cards for Cutting Cocaine (1998).
Figure 34: Teresa Margolles, Dermis(1995).
Figure 35: Jonathan Hernández, from the series Credencial Sordumudos (1995).
Figure 36: Jonathan Hernández, from the series Credencial Sordumudos (1995).
Figure 37: Museo Salinas, installation view (1996).
Figure 38: Museo Salinas, installation view (1996).
Figure 39: Salinas-Chupacabra rubber mask, Museo Salinas (1996).
Figure 40: Street kid in Mexico City wearing a Salinas-Chupacabra mask (1996).
Figure 41: ‘‘Chupa-Mex’’ and ‘‘Chupacabras’’ tattoos, Museo Salinas (1996).
Figure 42: Luis Felguérez, Carlos Salinas as Fantasia’s Sorcerer, Collection Museo
Salinas (1996).
Figure 43: Aurora Boreal, Self Portrait (1995).
Figure 44: Gustavo Prado, Museo del Prado, corner with the souls of Purga-
tory (1999).
Figure 45: Museo del Prado, Aurora Boreal’s coffin (1999).
Figure 46: Museo del Prado, detail (1999).
Figure 47: Museo del Prado, installation view with Pornografía Infantil on the
back wall (2000).
Figure 48: Miguel Calderón, from the series Artificial History (1995).
Figure 49: Miguel Calderón, from the series Employee of the Month (1998).
Figure 50: Miguel Calderón, from the series Employee of the Month (1998).
Acknowledgements
I would like to express my gratitude to Princeton’s University Commit-
tee on Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences and to the Office of
the Dean of the Faculty for awarding me a generous research grant that
allowed me to complete New Tendencies in Mexican Art. I thank Professor
Angel Loureiro, chair of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese
Languages and Cultures at Princeton, for his support of the project and for
creating an extremely collegial and intellectually stimulating work
environment.
I wish to express my gratitude to Jean Franco and Ken Lum, who
graciously read an earlier version of this manuscript and offered insightful
suggestions. I am also grateful to Licia Fiol-Mata and José Quiroga,
editors of the New Directions in Latino American Cultures series at
Palgrave, for selecting this book for publication. I thank Gabriella Pearce,
my editor at Palgrave, for her patience and skill in seeing this book through
completion, and Gayatri Patnaik for encouraging me to write a book
about recent Mexican art. Thanks also to Elyse Kovalsky, who proofread
the manuscript and offered numerous stylistic suggestions.
In Mexico City, many artists and critics were kind enough to meet with
me and discuss their work. I am grateful to Eduardo Abaroa, Pablo Vargas
Lugo, Teresa Margolles, and Taniel Morales, who also provided me with
invaluable recordings of his radio programs. I thank Daniella Rossell for
discussingRicas y famosas and answering numerous queries by e-mail and
telephone. Patricia Martín, curator of La Colección Jumex, helped secure
images and permits. Gustavo Prado and Miguel Calderón were kind
enough to discuss their work and their vision of Mexico City museums.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge Terence Gower, who has shared
his encyclopedic knowledge of art in countless conversations. His insights
have shaped my own understanding of art, Mexican and otherwise. To
him I dedicate this book.
I
N T R O D U C T I O N
T
ENDENCIES
The decade of the 1990s was one of the most turbulent periods in recent
Mexican history, marked by political assassinations, the Zapatista uprising
in Chiapas, the signing of NAFTA, a catastrophic economic crisis, and the
defeat of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), after 70 years of
one-party rule. How did art respond to these events? To answer this
question, we will examine some of the most radical artistic experiments
produced in this period, from Daniela Rossell’s photographs of Mexican
millionaires to Teresa Margolles’s manipulations of human remains, from
Santiago Sierra’s exploitation of manual laborers to Vicente Razo’s crea-
tion of a museum devoted to Carlos Salinas, the disgraced ex-president.
Though critics have argued that Mexican art of the 1990s is for the
most part apolitical and obsessed with formalist concerns, I will show that
many of these works establish a fascinating dialogue with the traumatic
events that defined the history of this last decade of the twentieth century.
Many of these works go beyond traditional forms of representation: They
do not merely portray recent history but they stage events that aspire to
become historical in their own right and alter the course of politics or the
economy. Minerva Cuevas, for example, launched Mejor Vida Corpora-
tion, an art project that is also a real corporation devoted to identifying and
solving the problems affecting Mexico City’s poorest residents.
But before launching into a discussion of these radical experiments in
art making, let us review some of the most significant events that marked
Mexican history of the 1990s.
The decade of the 1990s was the most tumultuous in Mexican history
since the Revolution ended in 1920. It was a period marked by social
upheaval, political intrigues, bitter power struggles, and a string of high-
profile assassinations. This was a decade of rapid and radical changes that
brought the way of life that Mexicans had known for most of the century
to an abrupt end.1