Back in Mexico City after a week of great films and impossibly blue oceans.
“The Man Who Lived in a Shoe”, our feature-length doc was in competition.
Had a ball, and a very fun screening–full house and a moving Q&A that lasted almost an hour.
This, here, is an article in Mexican press that recounts that night in Playa del Carmen.
Yep. Bernard is in town once again. But this time he is not only descending for tacos, but actually back in Mexico for good, after many years of living in NYC.
Which makes me very happy indeed. So as part of my own personal celebration, I am reposting a blog entry I wrote in Feb 2010 about a VBS.tv episode that Bernardo and I did together.
Enjoy.
(Y bienvenido señor!)
+++
Some months ago, I got a call from Bernardo Loyola–senior editor at VBS, (plus DP, occasional producer, also director and now a dear friend who brings gifts in the form of chocolates with truffle oil and sea salt when he comes to visit Mexico City).
He had just read an article of mine that was published in Vice Magazine, which started off describing a certain amusement park in a certain indigenous town:
(“There is a certain amusement park in Alberto Town, in the Mexican state of Hidalgo. It is run by hñahñu Indians. There, instead of the usual merry-go-round or what not, amusement takes a different turn: one can pretend for a couple of hours to be an illegal immigrant trying to get across the border. You will be chased for 18 kilometers; there will be shots, barbed-wire fences, cactuses, sirens, shouting, running for cover and even a theatrical death or two: all for 25 bucks a head. It is a simulacrum of the “torturous travails of a ‘mojado’ crossing the border, with educational objectivesâ€, the organizers have explained several times. Non withstanding its educational and entertainment value “for the whole family, sometimes people even bring babies, like in real lifeâ€, the amusement park has been criticized by some as so-called training grounds for people who are truly planning to get across the border; by others for treating lightly the terrifying ordeal that real immigrants go through, in search for something a lot more basic than the American dream: just plain old food on the table and a roof over their families heads.
The idea for the theme park—even if it is in central Mexico, far from the real border– was not gratuitous. The town’s number of inhabitants dwindled to a little over two hundred (compared to an average of two thousand in former years) because their population started immigrating to the USA. So a council was formed and they decided upon a strategy: to gather stories of people who have been there and done that, all while reviving an ecological park and guaranteeing steady income for their townsmen so they would no longer feel the need to cross the border; only pretend to everyday. Almost 80 towns-people work there, don their police uniforms or become masked coyotes for the tourists as soon as the sun comes down, so they can imagine what the real thing is like.”)
So, yes, Bernardo had read this, and was calling from New York with a proposal: that we travel together to Alberto and do a 30 minute documentary for VBS.
And so we did. We ran in the dark for a few hours, huddled beneath the bushes,  hopped on ‘Border Patrol’ trucks with wailing sirens, heard stories of real crossings, and all the time our feelings verged madly between enjoying the surreality of it all and quietly pondering the complex social scenario at our northern border–so palpably visible in this small town–, mulling over questions with no easy answers. Bernardo, Rodrigo Teie (who assisted us with an additional camera) and I where in a thoughtful mood on our drive back to Mexico City.
No easy answers, no. But creative ones in Alberto: that, for sure.
Click, click click to see the short VBS documentary.
Says Alinka EcheverrÃa:
“Six Million Pilgrims (2009) is a photographic typology of the backs of three hundred Mexican Catholic pilgrims on their journey to the
Basilica de Guadalupe in Mexico City. Â This yearly pilgrimage, undertaken by approximately six million people every year takes place
on the anniversary of the five apparitions of the Virgin of Guadalupe between the 9th and 12th December 1531 to the indigenous man Juan Diego in Tepeyac, the sacred place of the Aztec goddess Tonantzin. The myth of the apparitions marks a turning point in the spiritual conquest of native Mexicans by the Spanish and lead to the amalgamation of Tonantzin and the Virgin Mary. This is the origin of the devotion of Mexicans to the Virgin of Guadalupe. Â Since the spiritual conquest of Mexico (arguably one of the most important legacies of the colonial period), the image of the Virgin has been of central importance in the history of Mexico. Her image was used by political leaders as a symbol of faith and freedom during the Independence movement in 1810, and again during the Revolution a century later.
In 2010 the Virgen de Guadalupe continues to be the center piece of our cosmology as Mexicans. This work is an observation of her role in contemporary visual culture and the vast layers of symbolism transmitted through her iconic image. I am also interested in the pilgrimage as a socio-political and cultural phenomenon and in the psychological and emotional relationship that each individual has with the Virgin.  The work is inspired by the Becher tradition of systematic documentation.  I chose to photograph the pilgrims that are carrying their virgin, which is usually hanging in their home.  They take their paintings, sculptures, posters or cloaks of the Virgen to the Basicila to be blessed and to give thanks. Each portrait was taken separately, then ‘cut out’ and mounted onto a plain background. This decontextualization is intended to focus our attention on the individual. It also functions as a means to be able to then recombine it with the other hundreds of pilgrims. When placed back into the series the image has a direct relationship to the other portraits
rather than with the rest of the elements originally in the image. The large number of portraits creates a visual maze of similarity and difference, perhaps metaphoric of Mexican identity and makes us imagine the millions of pilgrims that visit the Basilica every year.”
***
(Alinka is part of “La (otra) maleta mexicana”– a Tóxico collective art project.)
(Click pic twice to enlarge)
Image by Cristóbal Trejo.
A couple of months ago we had the pleasure of having photographers Juliana Beasley and Tema Stauffer give a great workshop for Tóxico Lab. Tema, who is also a curator at Culturehall–a curated online resource for contemporary art where selected artists can share their work– invited four workshop-ers to be part of it. In Tema’s own words:
“In August 2010, photographer Juliana Beasley and I co-taught the first Tóxico Lab workshop. Tóxico Lab is a new series of events designed for emerging photographers. ‘Truth or Dare’ was a three-day intensive course during which we gave artist talks, lectured about the work of relevant photographers, and critiqued student works-in-progress. We were introduced to twelve photographers living and working in Mexico City, and from this inspiring group, I invited four to contribute portfolios to Culturehall.”
Do take a look here, and see what four young and talented Mexican photographers have been up to.
(Wonderful to see things happening across borders.)
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/13043612[/vimeo]
Wonderful, mesmerizing short film by Carlos Armella. Do click.
“Winner of over a dozen film festivals, including the Golden Lion in Venice and published in the American Cinematographer Magazine of June 2010, Land and Bread is a piece of art that could only be achieved through film. With what seems as one single shot trough a day, Isi Sarfati and Carlos Armella developed a technique to achieve this suttle camera movement. Sarfati calls it a human motion control.”
***
(Produced by Tania Zarak, founder of Bonita Films, with whom we have a few new exciting projects in the oven)
Images by MarÃa José Cuevas, from her series Bellas de Noche — film stills from a documentary to come:
“Seven great and powerful vedettes, all of whom witnessed the low and dark world of  politics, society, and entertainment of Mexico during the 70s and 80s. Today, their reign has ended and their lives are marked by scandals and tragedies. Sasha Montenegro, Princess Yamal, Rossy Mendoza, Olga Breeskin, Lyn May and Wanda Seux define an important and peculiar period in the history of Mexico.”
This is Maria José’s first documentary, now in the final stages of filming; she is in Las Vegas as I write, staying with Olga Breeskin. I saw a 15 minute trailer a few weeks ago and I was very (!) impressed with her work. It will be a fantastic film: a wonderful mix of surreality and poignancy, with a good dose of both humor and sadness. The tale of Mexican politics and life-style through very strange and particular lenses.
Download a PDF and read more about her project here on the Tabloide website.
Images by Juan Carlos López Morales.
Memento Mori–”remember, you will die”:Â art or symbolic object that evoke mortality, impermanence.
And from one edge of this reminder, this death, to another: animal and then machine. Animal-machine. Different series that provoke different reflections, that reinvent the relationship between them: from his pictures of biotechnological composites (sewn by hand with traditional surgery techniques that he learned at a vet’s school); to lab drawers that keep unintended jigsaw puzzles of once-were animals (bones sliding down the abstract scale: seal first, then mixing flamingo and deer bones, and then an unidentifiable something, nameless, forgotten: this is how he found them, how they had been scientifically ‘classified’). And then a still-life at the end. A still-life reminiscent of Renaissance paintings, pointing to the origin in man’s imagination of world that is coming, and that is coming quickly. A cabinet of curiosities poised between our past and our future, let us say.
***
Juan Carlos is a young Mexican photographer that has already won several grants and awards; happily, he is also a regular at Tóxico Lab: he has been part of the Fabrica/Colors, Laurel Ptak and Juliana Beasley/Tema Stauffer workshops.
We also just got news that he got an Honorary Mention at the upcoming Photography Biennale in Mexico City–one of the most important photo events in Mexico.
“Si mi vista tuviera el poder de penetrar la realidad, verÃa a través de las paredes, que están constituÃdas por moléculas separadas, y a través de los cuerpos, que son torbellinos de átomos(…) No hay más que una unidad. Lo infinitamente grande es idéntico a lo infinitamente pequeño. El espacio es infinito sin ser grande. La duración es eterna sin ser más larga. Estrellas y átomos son lo mismoâ€
-Camille Flammarion, 1903-
Espacio que se vuelve identidad, individuo contra espacio, espacio anulado que crea identidad e intimidad: todas las paradojas empujan hacia dos lados que, mas que anular, crean el momento único del sentido.
Tóxico presenta para Postopolis! DF una radiografÃa inmersiva de la ciudad: comenzando por los retratos aéreos del piloto Oscar Ruiz, siguiendo con las fotos urbanas de Mark Powell y cerrando con pornógrafos de medio tiempo, sectas y burócratas, tres series del fotógrafo José LuÃs Cuevas.
-“¿Alguien reconoce éste lugar?â€- pregunta el piloto. Para los asistentes hay un aire irreconocible y familiar en la inestabilidad de sus geometrÃas. Grandes terrenos verdes contra infinitos puntitos en la ladera de una montaña, geometrÃas en idéntico patrón repitiéndose contra completa irregularidad orgánica, territorios llameantes contra enormes centros de comercio: SerÃa imposible no reconocer a la ciudad en éstos paisajes, más aún; serÃa imposible no ver los rostros de sus habitantes en sus contrastes.
Mark Powell, si de algo sabe, es de paradojas: un hombre fornido muestra sus músculos en el interior de un puesto de flores, un equipo de fútbol acostado en el piso alrededor de un balón, una coqueta niña de preparatoria rodeada de basura. ¿Quién mejor para no dejar desapercibida la curiosa cotidianeidad de la ciudad? Mark Powell, estadounidense ahora residente del D.F, muestra la poética relación entre el individuo y su contexto como solo un extranjero podrÃa notar.
Sin embargo, si uno no es extranjero ¿por qué no hacer exactamente lo contrario? Tomar lo ordinario, descontextualizarlo, vaciarlo hasta su verdadera profundidad y ver qué florece en su interior. José Luis Cuevas y su serie “el hombre promedio†toma a decenas de burócratas, paisaje gris casi amueblado de la ciudad, les elimina su espacio y los deja resplandecer en su personalidad.
Llevándolo aún más lejos ¿ por qué no explorar lo invisible de la ciudad? Cuevas descubre y captura, bajo la máscara del hombre común, sectas apocalÃpticas y estrellas pornográficas.
Casi al final de su presentación, Cuevas muestra un director pornográfico tomando parte en la escena, haciéndolo aún más intensamente que sus actores. Si el fotógrafo repitiera la pregunta del piloto –“¿alguien sabe qué es esto?â€- la respuesta no serÃa problemática : probablemente todos verÃan en ella el paisaje de la ciudad.
-Emilio Bassail, escribiendo desde Postopolis DF!-
*
(Mark Powell y Jose Luis Cuevas han asistido a varios talleres de Tóxico.)
(Emilio es parte de Tóxico In Vitro, una nueva plataforma de colaboraciones multidisciplinarias integrada por talentosos estudiantes)
Happy to announce that Tóxico will be participating in Postópolis! DF, from the 8-12 June; very excited to see all that international blogging talent flying into DF, it promises to be a great event with an amazing line-up of talks:
*
“Storefront for Art and Architecture, in partnership with Museo Experimental El Eco, Tomo and Domus Magazine, will host the third edition of Postopolis!, a public five-day session of near-continuous conversation curated by some of the worldʼs most prominent bloggers from the fields of architecture, art, urbanism, landscape, music and design. 10 world-renowned bloggers from Los Angeles, New York, Turin, Barcelona, London and elsewhere will convene in one location in Mexico City to host a series of discussions, interviews, slideshows, presentations, films and panels fusing the informal and interdisciplinary approach of the architecture blogosphere with rare face-to-face interaction.
Each day, the 10 participating bloggers will meet in the magnificent courtyard of Museo Experimental El Eco, designed by Matthias Goeritz, to conduct back-to-back interviews of some of Mexico Cityʼs most influential thinkers and practitioners – including architects, city planners, artists and urban theorists but also military historians, filmmakers, photographers, activists and musicians. The talks will be conducted in either Spanish or English, and translations will be available. Each day of talks will end with an after-party hosted by some of Mexico Cityʼs most influential music blogs.
The first Postopolis! took place in the gallery space at Storefront for Art and Architecture during the summer of 2007, and a second edition was held in Los Angeles in 2009.
Participating blogs:
Urban Omnibus (Cassim Shepard)
Intersections (Daniel Hernandez)
DPR Barcelona (Ethel Barona Pohl)
Toxico Cultura (Gabriella Gomez-Mont)
Tomo (Guillermo Ruiz de Teresa)
Mudd Up! (Jace Clayton aka DJ /rupture)
Edible Geography (Nicola Twilley)
We Make Money Not Art (Regine Debatty)
Strangeharvest (Sam Jacob)
Wayne & Wax (Wayne Marshall)
***
More info on speakers and schedules here.
(See you there)
***
Twitter: @postopolis, #postopolis
@toxicocultura
***
Partners
Museo Experimental El Eco, TOMO, Domus Magazine
Organizers
Joseph Grima, Daniel Perlin, CeÌsar Cotta, JoseÌ Esparza
Sponsors
Mexicana, British Embassy, Urbi Vida Residencial, UNAM DifusioÌn Cultural, UNAM Museo Experimental El Eco, Cityexpress, XXLager
*
(Lots of news, soon, right here: deliriously paced blogging will begin come June.)
Images by Fernando Montiel Klint, Mexican photographer.
Martha, una pelÃcula dirigida por el maravilloso Marcelino Islas Hernandez, por fin se estrena en México: tanto en el Festival de Cine de Guadalajara como en Cinema Global.
“Martha es una mujer de 75 años que vive sola en una casa de interés social en la periferia de la ciudad de México. La monotonÃa que marca su vida rutinaria cambia cuando un dÃa, después de 30 años, es despedida debido a que su trabajo será desempeñado por una computadora. Impulsada por las circunstancias y con el apoyo de Eva –la joven encargada de vaciar los archivos en la computadora- Martha decide que acabará con su vida una vez terminada su última semana de trabajo.”
Una buena parte de las personas de esta pelÃcula–Marcelino (director), Rodrigo Sandoval (fotografÃa), Daniel Castillo (sonido), Rodrigo Teie (edición) e Ivan Lowenberg–han colaborado con Tóxico en diferentes proyectos. Además, ya arrazaron con varios premios nacionales e internacionales, y eso que apenas empiezan: Martha fue su tesis para la carrera de cine.
(Click en los links de arriba para ver horarios.)
(Ahà nos vemos.)
I recently did a Q&A with América Late, an Argentina-based magazine focused on creativity in the Latin American Region.
You can read it here.
Alexis Okeowo interviewed me about a month ago, for MIL, The Economist’s Cultural Supplement.
It was published yesterday. And you can read the Q&A here.
Images by Onnis Luque. Photos taken at Unidad Santa Fe, social housing designed by Mario Pani one of Mexico’s best-known architects of the 50s.
(Compare it to Mexico’s social housing of today, in the post below.)
Says Onnis:
Este proyecto se llama USF/ DF y es acerca de una Unidad Habitacional, la Unidad Santa Fé, diseñada por Mario Pani en los años 50, donde está expuesta mucho de la ideologÃa del positivismo, del movimiento moderno en la arquitectura mexicana y del régimen de esa época. Este proyecto muestra las transformaciones espaciales y de forma de vida que la unidad y sus habitantes han tenido que experimentar para que siga siendo habitable.
El proyecto es acerca de un territorio especÃfico, su apropiación por parte de los habitantes y de como lo transforman y adaptan, tanto en términos expresivos como vitales. En este proyecto logro abracar muchos de los temas que me interesan y a los que todo el tiempo les estoy dando vueltas.
(Via Tomo. Read the rest of the interview here.)
***
(Onnis took the Amy Stein Tóxico Workshop, and also a workshop that I imparted at El Gimnasio.)
One morning, hunting the Mexico City flee markets, I came upon a small battered suitcase that caught my eye. When I opened it up I was surprised to find it full of old photographs, negatives, postcards and other personal mementos from the 30s and 40s. There was a whole story to be woven, image by image: I could tell that the original owner was both an amateur photographer and also an amateur physicoculturist; I could easily imagine that this suitcase kept a certain (nameless) young man’s favorite pictures, plus dozens of self-portraits in different stances and under different guises. I was mesmerized by all that was there to be inferred, and also wondered about how such a suitcase ended up in a stranger’s hands. It made me think of the story of The Mexican Suitcase–a suitcase full of negatives of the Spanish war, shot by Capa et al–and also of the suitcases that someone found on the streets of Massachusetts, full of pictures of a ravaged Hiroshima after the war… both of them surprisingly full of important historical contents. And then there was this suitcase, this other Mexican suitcase, also full of images, of a very different nature. The contents are not historical, but it is history nonetheless: a personal history taken, kept, forgotten and lost and then sold. Because yes, I bought it with all it contained. And Tóxico then invited several talented visual artists to reinterpret the materials–or rather be inspired by them, to propose their own.
Today the suitcase flew into Cuba, ready to be shown at the Fototeca, in Habana. Besides, Alinka EcheverÃa–wonderful Mexican photographer, and one of the artists involved–will be working with several talented local photographer’s: the suitcase will leave the island with a new artist-book, created collectively.
And so the suitcase will travel now, and keep on traveling, and it will acquire a will of its own. It will travel with what it contains, both the new and some of the old, making space for both chance and accident, and at every stop a new artist will be added to the list and at every gallery or museum the project will be presented in a different type of installation. And just like before: who knows where it will end up, and in whose hands.
—
Artists: Ramiro Chaves, Mark Powell, Mezli Vega, José Luis Cuevas, Carlos Casas, Maggie Delgado, Santiago da Silva, Carlos Ãlvarez Montero, Alinka EcheverrÃa, Lorena Moreno, Andrés Padilla, Corine Vermeulen, Alfredo Moreno, Omar Gamez, Gabriella Gómez-Mont and the anonymous photographer, the original owner of the suitcase.
–
(Muchas gracias a Alinka EcheverÃa, Lorena Moreno y Maggie Delgado por su ayuda. Y gracias a Nelson–curador de Noviembre fotográfico– por su invitación.)
–
(Soon a website for la Maleta)
Images by Milagros de la Torre. From the series Bulletproof.
It is said that Milagros de la Torre investigates the censored and the forgotten along with the fearful, the painful, and the fragile. And the underlying violence that begets these states and sensations is often hidden in the fold of certain unassuming objects. Such as clothes.
These in particular, in the imges above, were designed by Miguel Caballero: the ‘Armani of the armored clothing’.
Says the ICP website:
“Throughout her career, Milagros de la Torre has explored the traces of hidden and often violent narratives to reveal their broader social and political implications, particularly within Latin America. Her most recent series, Bulletproof (2008) reflects her fascination with objects that reveal histories of violence and power. Beguiling in their apparent simplicity, these photographs use a straightforward approach to record what appear to be everyday articles of clothing—a t-shirt, blouse, or sports jacket. These are in fact armor-plated designer garments sold in luxury boutiques, whose purpose is to inconspicuously protect the wearer from gunshot wounds. Photographed on their hangers against a blank background and printed at life-size, these disembodied garments float in the frame as though awaiting the viewer to claim them. Small clues reveal their true function: a hint of the armored breastplate is just discernible under the light blouse, the small zipper on the t-shirt’s hemline provides a clue as to how the armor plate is inserted and removed, the “platinum” garment labels indicate the level of protection provided. Currently worn by politicians (including, allegedly, President Obama on Inauguration Day) and the rich and famous, such bulletproof clothing caters to an elite clientele that has come to expect the discrete protection offered by these armor-plated garments.
***
Bulletproof is included in Dress Codes: The Third ICP Triennial of Photography and Video, on view through January 17, 2010. Other artists include Barbara Kruger, Laurie Simmons, Lorna Simpson, Martha Rosler, Cindy Sherman and Hu Yang, among many others. So if any one is around New York…
(We will soon meet and chat with Milagros here in Mexico City; expect a Tóxico interview soon.)
(Gracias Milagros por las imágenes)
Images by Mexican photographer Vida Yovanovich, from the series Soledades Sonoras.
Vida has spent many years traveling around Mexico, photographing women in jail. Her main topics–both in this series and in former work–are abandonment, marginalisation, injustice, courage, vitality and survival.
More here.
***
(Vida took the Martin Parr Tóxico Master Class, as well as the one with Christopher Doyle.)
Denise Dresser, Javier Elguea, Claudia Fernandez, Gabriella Gómez-Mont, Gabriel Guerra. Blanca Heredia y Damon Rich:
en Pase Usted, ideas sobre educación.
(O de intoxicación, en mi caso)
(Nos vemos por ahÃ)
Ayer en la noche se presentó un nuevo libro de Rubén Bonet, lleno de de “aforismos salvajes”, “manifiestos introducibles” y toda una serie de ingeniosos espasmos verbales.
Felicidades al estimadÃsimo Bonet, endiablado prÃncipe de las azoteas. Y para ustedes, una probadita mientras encuentran el libro:
***
fundación adopte a un escritor
manifiesto introducible
de rubén bonet*
la Fundación Adopte a un Escritor es una organización de carácter situacionista vital, rubeniana e irresoluble. desdeñamos lo binario. y un par de cosas más.
la Fundación Adopte se declara situacionista porque después de tantas y tantas posturas y actitudes ensayadas en la vida y después también de haberlo pensado mucho no hemos encontrado ninguna otra organización en el mundo a la que nos gustarÃa pertenecer. todas son un asco. de manera efervescente nos declaramos primordialmente situacionistas. y sabemos de antemano que esto no significa nada. nada que valga la pena me refiero.
Collages by Javier Sirvent, alias Pancho Pancho Pancho, talented 23 year-old visual artist and designer.
(Javier was part of the Amy Stein Tóxico Workshop and will soon be doing other nice lil new projects with us.)
(Gracias Martha por el link)
Images by Omar Gámez, from the series Stability. More here.
“The theory of stability of dynamic systems proposed in 1892 by the Russian mathematician Aleksander Lyapunov covers three states of equilibrium: stable, unstable and asymptotically stable. Any of these three possibilities suggest that the origin, the point at which the body stands independently of external supports, is in fact a solution for equilibrium. The body always achieves balance by locating its own center.
The series entitled Stability takes this premise in a metaphorical way from Lyapunov´s theory to confront the physical, emotional and mental states within each figure once they have been stripped and destabilized. More than just photographs, theses images are sculptural proposals concerning canonical treatments of bodily beauty throughout the history of art. They are also notes on the possibility and impossibility for man to seize and sustain his permanence on earth.”
-O.G-
—
(Omar took the Tóxico Master-Class by Christopher Doyle)
Â
Images by Alejandra Laviada, mexican photographer who just won the Descubrimientos PhotoEspaña Award.
Read an interview here.
Images by Alinka EcheverrÃa, Mexican artist. From the series Lightness of Being.
And take a look at her mesmerizing video on the same subjet right here.
(The music of the video is by the fantastic Ariel Guzik, with whom we worked on a project while I was still with Laboratorio 060)
***
(“The brain appears to possess a special area which we might call poetic memory and which records everything that charms or touches us, that makes our lives beautiful… I have said before that metaphors are dangerous. Love begins with a metaphor. Which is to say, love begins at the point when a someone enters their first word into our poetic memory.”
-Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being-)
Two images, as teasers, of a new project by Mexican photographer José Luis Cuevas, whose work we have show quite a few times in the Toxi-blog. What can we say. We are fans. Look at those faces. And more on their way.
—
(José Luis was enrolled in the Tóxico Martin Parr Master-Class.)
Serie de Sebastián Sepúlveda, fotógrafo chileno basado en la Ciudad de México:
“Ellos son imitadores, y al final del espectáculo, nadie los reconoce.”
Ah, estas esquinas (quasi) anónimas del DF.
[nggallery id=37]
Illustrations by Mauricio GarcÃa. (website coming soon)
(Mauricio was part of La Incubadora, a series of international workshops directed and created by Tóxico for the 12 best students of a private university in Mexico City.)
These rolls of film were shot by me in 2001, during a six-month trip around the world. I have kept them in a small carton box for more than seven years. The seven-year mark is no coincidence: it is said that it takes precisely that long for a body to completely regenerate. And so, in fact, not a single cell of the now-me was part of the then-me: nor, hence, part of the original experience. (“J’ est une autre.”)
I never forgot that the films were there in their carton box. But nowadays, hard as I try, I find it difficult to remember even one of the actual photographs I might have taken back then. The images themselves–locked up in the undeveloped film–have purposefully been left to weather, time, chance: a process probably more faithful to what happens with the moments themselves; to the memories locked up in our (sometimes humid, sometimes dusty) brain.
So. To go. To click. To age. To fade. To wait. And wait. And wait, and wait until seven years is finally past: yesterday I dropped off the first four films to be developed.
We shall see.
Or not.
(Maybe a double ghost of an almost remembering, like the dream of an I once was.)
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Tóxico en Container y 17, Instituto de Estudios CrÃticos
Plática sobre nuestros proyectos y las cositas que nos mueven
Jueves 27 de noviembre. 8 pm
Colima no. 166 esquina con Orizaba, Colonia Roma
t. 5207 51 52
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