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Feb 08 2012
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International Tóxico Guests, Toxico Lab

ROSS MCDONNELL EN TÓXICO LAB!

 

 

TRUE / VISIONS:
EL DOCUMENTAL CREATIVO
UN TALLER DE ROSS MCDONNELL PARA TÓXICO LAB
14 – 17 de febrero / 11.30 am – 6pm


Ross McDonnell. Cineasta y fotógrafo irlandés cuyo trabajo atraviesa los mundos del documental, el reportaje y la ficción. Ha ganado varios importantes premios, incluyendo el First appearance Award del IDFA por su película Colony, dos nominaciones del Irish Academy Award (IFTA) y varias becas del Irish Arts Council, the Jerome Fountation y el San Francisco Film Society. Como cinefotógrafo Ross ha collaborado con reconocidos directores de cine independiente, incluyendo Alex Gibney (ganador del Óscar), Kirsten Sheriden y John Carney. Sus fotografías han sido publicadas en The New York Times, Time Magazine, Art in America, Washington Post, Observer y Esquire, entre otros, y ha sido exhibido en museos y galerías internacionalmente. Recientemente Thom Powers—“Mr. Documentary”, programador del TIFF– nombró a Colony como uno de los mejores 20 documentales de los últimos cinco años.

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En este taller de cuatro días se explorarán las formas y posibilidades del documental creativo. Ross hablará acerca de técnicas narrativas y sobre diversas formas de acercarse a eso que llamamos realidad. El sonido y la imagen jugarán un papel muy importante–así como la mirada subjetiva–ya que su forma de trabajar, como fotógrafo y también como director, está caracterizada por poner en tensión constante a hechos reales con una hiperactiva sensibilidad estética.

Además Ross hablará a fondo de cómo lograr resultados exponenciales con bajos presupuestos y micro-equipos: “Colony”, su primer largometraje, fue hecho por un equipo de sólo dos personas de principio a fin; sin embargo, después de estrenarse en el Festival Internacional de Cine de Toronto, fue aclamado como uno de los documentales mejor realizados de ese año.

Dados sus comienzos como fotógrafo y el hecho de que la mayoría de sus documentales los ha realizado con una Canon 5D, este taller se recomienda tanto para cineastas como para fotógrafos y artistas visuales interesados en ahondar en las posibilidades de la estética documental y su potencial creativo.

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“Colony is the most aesthetically beautiful documentary of the season, as well as one of the most urgent and intelligent” -John Anderson, Variety

“We admire some documentaries for their artistry and others for their urgency. Rarely do we see a film that combines both those qualities as impressively as this debut by directors Ross McDonnell and Carter Gunn. Their unlikely topic is the world of honeybee keepers during the on-going crisis of “colony collapse disorder.” Beautifully photographed by McDonnell and skillfully edited by Gunn, their film “Colony” follows several American beekeepers over the course of eighteen months as the country’s economy spirals downward.”
-Thom Powers, TIFF Programmer

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El costo del taller es de $2,250 pesos.
Selección por portafolio.
Cupo limitado.

Interesados favor de mandar una breve bio y links a trabajo a
info@toxicocultura.com.

Les recomendamos escribir lo antes posible porque los talleres de Tóxico se llenan muy rápido.

Gabriella Gómez-Mont
0445521719574

www.toxicocultura.com

(Y gracias a Taxidermie y a The Lift por el apoyo)

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Feb 06 2012
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Random Intoxicants

CAR POOL

By Alejandro Cartagena, Mexican photographer.

More here.

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“What is that feeling when you’re driving away from people and they recede on the plain till you see their specks dispersing? — it’s the too-huge world vaulting us, and it’s good-by. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies…”

J. Kerouac

 

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Jan 13 2012
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Tóxico Projects

“THE MAN WHO LIVED IN A SHOE” COMPETING FOR BEST MEXICAN DOC AT THE GUADALAJARA INTERNATIONAL FILM FEST

 

 

Yes. News just out. We are soon off to the Guadalajara Film Festival–considered one of the most important showcases for Latin American Films–with our Man and his shoe.

After the break you will find the complete list of selected films.

(I am specially eager to see the new films by Juan Carlos Rulfo and Everardo Gonzalez; two of Mexico’s best doc filmmakers, who are also in competition.)

Continue reading →

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Sep 22 2011
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Random Intoxicants, Tóxico People, Working in Mexico

ON CERTAIN DAYS

Images by Livia Radwanski. More here.

(Livia was part of the Amy Stein Tóxico Workshop)

 

 

 

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Aug 17 2011
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QUOTE OF THE DAY

Border fence arizona sonora mexico

Flooding washes away section of U.S. border fence in Arizona.

(v Daniel Hernández)

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Jul 30 2011
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DESCENDING INTO MEXICO CITY No. 004: ANTONIO VEGA MACOTELA

 

“Going dancing, visiting a prostitute, watching a son’s first steps, getting drunk at the baptism of a nephew: These are the kinds of ordinary pleasures and transgressions that make up everyday life, and artist José Antonio Vega Macotela has partaken of all of these experiences. There’s nothing remarkable about that – except that in each case, the life Macotela was living belonged to someone else. Neither the son nor the nephew was his, he didn’t know the woman with whom he went dancing, and he limited his interactions with the prostitute to conveying a greeting from somebody else. Over the course of his project Time Divisa (Time Currency), 2006-10, Macotela acted as a …”

–Excerpt from article by Chus Martines, from last month`s ArtForum Magazine

**

Oh yes. Toñito is back in town for some weeks–nopal accomplice, bisabuela medium, and artist extraordinaire;  Mexico city boy, but now living in Amsterdam for a couple of years, since he was awarded the ultra prestigious Rijksakademie Residency scholarship.

The image above is part of the Time Divisa project, in which he would exchange time with prison inmates: while he was in the outside world doing errands on their behalf, they would simultaneously and under his instructions create an art work–many of which had to do with measuring the passing of time… here: a book of “The Count of Monte Cristo”, continuously scratched with a single fingernail by a prisoner while Toño did his deeds.

You can read more about it an interview I did with him right here.

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Apr 08 2011
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Random Intoxicants, Tóxico People

THE POINTY BOOT MEXICAN DANCE

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEiMA3QtYWc[/youtube]

Our dear Bernardo Loyola–with whom I have collaborated on several projects for VBS– sent me this fantastically fun new episode that he just co-produced and edited: a journey to the dusty city of Matehuala, Mexico, in search of the pointiest long-toed cowboy boots ever made.

“Over the past year, the botas vaqueras exóticas phenomenon has overrun the rodeo dance floors and clubs of this area and even spreading North into Texas, Tennessee, Oklahoma, and any place where big groups of immigrant Mexicans have taken root. We made our way to Desierto Light, one of the clubs in this area where party promoters host dance-offs to music known as Tribal Guarachero. For the finals competition, the 17-year-old prodigy DJ Erick Rincón of the 3ballMTY crew performed for a crowd of adoring pointy-boot wearing raver cowboys”.

And strangely enough, Maricarmen Guajardo and I had been secretly planning on doing a little doc on the same subject this summer, since she had started photographing them in San Luis Potosí over a year ago… Oh well. If somebody else besides us had to do it, I am glad it was another close friend. (Nos ganaste condenado, ja)

(Plus I confess that now I can’t wait to visit him in New York soon, and see him do the pointy boot tribal dance–since now he has a pair of his own: the very longest and the very pointiest and the very purplest in all of Williamsburg, all the vice-filled nightlife rumors say)

 

 

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Apr 07 2011
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Tóxico News, Tóxico People

TÓXICO TALK AT THE URBAN GENOME PROJECT & MACO

Today! Tóxico in conversation with the wonderful Daniel Hernández– author, journalist, and the main man behind the Intersections blog.

We will be talking about our respective projects and creative industries in Mexico.

More info here.

 

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Apr 02 2011
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Random Intoxicants

GUADALAJARA FILM FEST DIARIES No. 003: EL PREMIO

Stunning autobiographical film by Paula Markovitch, who debuts as a director.  Until recently, Markovitch was best known as the scriptwriter behind Fernando Eimbcke´s films—and non withstanding that they are great films, in my opinion El Premio leaves them in the dust.

This is an autobiographical story. The action takes place in the locations of my childhood, to which I always return in my dreams. I can still hear the sound of the wind clearly, never-ending and wet. I see the unfriendly beach. The sea is yellow and grey. Storms make the walls tremble. These are hostile times. At school we are exposed to the overwhelming mediocrity of fascism and its ridiculous ceremonies. I am seven years old. I go to school. I know I must not reveal my true identity to the other kids. I’ve been told that my family’s safety depends on my silence. I’m forced to lie. I lie, just as they told me to. I manage to make them believe my lies. I desperately try to look like all the others but now my mother feels sad and despises me. I am wicked and stupid and make her suffer. What should I say? What should I keep to myself? What should I do to earn my mother’s approval and please the others? In a world so full of confusion and fear, who are we supposed to be?”

The film won two awards at the Berlinale, and Best Film at Guadalajara, plus Best Actor Prize for her 7-year old (amazing) protagonist.

You can watch Paula interviewing her two young actors here.

 

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Mar 08 2011
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INTERGALACTIC TRAVEL, A LA MEXICANA

THE PLANET OF FEMALE INVADERS / El Planeta de las mujeres invasoras (1965, Alfredo B. Crevenna).

monstersshipthe-660

THE AZTEC MUMMY V. THE HUMAN ROBOT / La momia azteca v. el robot humano (1957, Rafael Portillo).

“They came from outer space a half-century ago and landed in Mexico, where moviegoers embraced big-headed freaks in Mylar tights and female invaders from Venus. Fighting for the survival of Earth: mummies, wrestlers and mad scientists. These unsung heroes of vintage Mexican cinema mesmerized south-of-the-border moviegoers for a decade in low-budget pictures that threw together science, space and action with low-budget abandon.”

Says Wired Magazine.

 

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Jan 12 2011
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Random Intoxicants

TIERRA DE BRUJAS

Images by Maya Goded, one of our favorite Mexican photographers.

From her “Land of Witches” Series.

“Empecé a hacer viajes en auto por el país en busca de curanderos y chamanes, hasta que un día me contaron acerca de una escuela de brujas que se encontraba en un pequeño pueblo en el desierto. Llegué a un pueblo muy solitario en San Luis Potosí. Ahí cada vez que preguntaba por la escuela de brujas, los habitantes me miraban con desconfianza, negando la existencia de brujas en el lugar. Sin embargo, sabían de alguna leyenda: de su poder, de su maldad, cómo volaban y cómo chupaban sangre a los niños. Un señor que conocía a una bruja me enseñó el camino para llegar a su casa pero me pidió que no le contara a ella que él me lo había dicho.
Cuando llegué a la casa, toqué la puerta, que tenía colgada una bandera de México, y abrió una viejita que estaba haciendo tortillas; rápidamente me invitó a pasar, me ofreció comida y me contó sobre su vida. Había vivido sola a las orillas del pueblo, estuvo muy enamorada pero su experiencia fue muy dura. Frente a mí tenía a una mujer distinta a las mujeres del pueblo: independiente, fuerte, sin hijos; que vivió su amor y sexualidad libremente y que se revelaba en contra de las reglas del pueblo. Regresé una semana después. Ella usaba un vestido blanco que  estaba manchado de tierra en la parte de atrás. Me contó que había volado toda la noche con los muertos y que estaba contenta de verme porque había llegado a su vida para curarla. Ella tenía visiones en el agua, pero estaba perdiendo sus poderes. Estando en su cocina, me contó sobre la relación que tenía con los muertos y, por un momento, me invadió un escalofrió en todo el cuerpo, sentí que ella estaba muerta, cuando se lo dije, ella me tranquilizó y afirmó que estaba viva. Después de tomarnos un té, entramos a un cuarto donde ella curaba y hacía hechizos, le pedí tomarle una fotografía. Cuando lo hice, ella me miró y no tuve duda de que era una bruja, que se movía en varias dimensiones. Era el comienzo de un largo viaje de aprendizaje.

Con esta fotografía empezó mi proyecto sobre las brujas, que curan, que se revelan ante el destino, que buscan cambiarlo y que trabajan con la ilusión, la venganza y la justicia.”

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Dec 25 2010
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SANTA CLOS A LA MEXICANA

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVZ6SWoW-q0&[/youtube]

A Mexican classic from the 50s,  filmed in MexiScope.

(Gracias Carlos Gutierrez)

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Dec 17 2010
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TÓXICO FELLOWS No. 006: EUNICE ADORNO, PRIZES GALORE




Images by the fabulous Eunice Adorno, who is part of the “Tóxico Mentorship Program” for emerging Mexican artists, and whom we are celebrating today, once again:

Eunice has won absolutely every national and international grant and competition she has entered this month, including the coveted “Premio Nacional de periodismo cultural Fernando Benitez 2010″, and just yesterday got news that she also won an international  residency grant in NYC for 2011. Ah sí, ah sí. We are so damn proud and oh so very happy to have her be part of Tóxico.

The pics above are from her series Frau Blaum, a project on Mennonite communities in Mexico

See more here, and do keep an eye on her: she is going places, and going quick. Mark our words.


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Dec 14 2010
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Random Intoxicants

CINE MÓVIL

Filed away in the Centro de Documentación at the Cineteca Nacional are promotional brochures from 1975, records of an orange-saturated world of geometric-patterned carpets that hasn’t existed for thirty years. The Cineteca caught fire in 1982, less than ten years after opening, its entire collection destroyed. (Within Mexico, the cause of this “cultural crime” is still officially listed as unknown, although those inclined to paranoia whisper that it was sabotage, the obliteration of a country’s past. Legend has it that the print of the Polish film playing when the fire started was somehow salvaged from the rubble, and that everywhere it’s shown a fire breaks out.)

The Cine Móvil program sent mobile cinema units ambling around rural Mexico in those pre-fire years, bringing ‘buen cine mexicano’ to small villages that often didn’t even have electricity, let alone a movie theatre. There were three different vans with three different routes, outfitted with four-wheel drive (“taking the abruptness of our geography into consideration”) and with room for two: beds, a bathroom, a kitchen, storage space for the projection equipment, a small film archive, workbench, screens, sound equipment. The young projectionists lived in the vans for the month it took to wind their way through the countryside, traveling from town to town during the day, setting up their equipment for a screening each night and making super 8 documentary films on those they encountered.

(But where are the vans? And where are the films? Were they lost to the fire? Or are they out there somewhere, hidden away?)

-Audrey Young, Tóxico International Intern–

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Dec 13 2010
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Tóxico People, Working in Mexico

VIRGENCITA


Says Alinka Echeverría:

“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.  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.  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)

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Dec 01 2010
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Tóxico People

ON GODS AND HUMANS

Images by José Luis Cuevas, Mexican photographer
From his series of sects and religions across latinamerica
More here
*
(José Luis has taken several Tóxico Workshops, and there will soon be a Tóxico exhibit of his new installation work in NYC)
*
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Nov 29 2010
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Tóxico People

A ROOM WITH A VIEW

Telenovela (soap opera) backdrops by Stefan Ruiz, one of our favorite accomplices.

More here and a Tóxico interview here.

(The first pic will soon be hanging on my wall, a beautifully big print, ajá. Gracias señor Ruiz for the incredible present.)

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Nov 07 2010
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Random Intoxicants

TOP-FIVE FILMS: PAULA ASTORGA RECOMIENDA

Nuestra muy querida y muy admirada  Paula Astorga–directora de la Cineteca Nacional de México–nos dió su lista de las 5 películas de la muestra que no se pueden perder:

La leyenda del Tio Boonmee, de Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Materia Blanca, de Claire Denis

Un hombre que llora, de Mahamat-Saleh Hauron

De dioses y de hombres, de Xavier Beauvois

Verano de Goliat, de Nico Pereda

Y el resto de la cartelera aquí, además de las sinópsis de todas las películas.

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Oct 19 2010
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VALENTÍN DE LAS SIERRAS

[dailymotion]http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xpa84_valentin-de-las-sierras_creation[/dailymotion]

“Skin, eyes, knees, horses, hair, sun, earth. Old song of Mexican hero, Valentin, sung by blind Jose Santollo Nadiso en Santa Cruz de la Soledad.”

Experimental film by Bruce Baillie, 1971.

(Thank you Audrey Young)

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Oct 11 2010
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AGUA SAGRADA

Images by James Pomerantz, taken at Cenotes in the south of Mexico.

See more pictures from this series here, plus other great work of his.

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Sep 11 2010
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VERANO DE GOLIAT

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/14412918[/vimeo]

Trailer de “Verano de Goliat”, de Nicolás Pereda.

Pereda acaba de ganar el premio de  “Mejor filme Orizzonti” en el Festival de Venecia.

***

(“Verano de Goliat” se estrena en noviembre en el DF; será distribuida por Interior 13–queridos aliados de Tóxico. Además, Gabino Rodriguez, el protagonista de todas las películas de Pereda, tomó el Tóxico Workshop de Cristoffer Boe)

*

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Aug 30 2010
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Random Intoxicants, Tóxico People, Working in Mexico

MEXICAN VEDETTES, THEN AND NOW

Images by María 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.

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Jul 22 2010
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Tóxico People, Working in Mexico

MEMENTO MORI

Images  by Juan Carlos López Morales.

Memento Mori–”remember, you will die”:  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.

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Apr 05 2010
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Random Intoxicants, Working in Mexico

CERTAIN MOODS FROM A CITY IN APRIL

Images by Fernando Montiel Klint, Mexican photographer.

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Mar 24 2010
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Tóxico People, Working in Mexico

MARTHA: HOY! EN CINEMA GLOBAL

Martha, una película 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 monotonía que marca su vida rutinaria cambia cuando un día, 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 película–Marcelino (director), Rodrigo Sandoval (fotografía), 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.)

(Ahí nos vemos.)

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Jan 11 2010
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Random Intoxicants, Work from Mexico

TWO MILLION HOMES FOR MEXICO

(Imágenes de la fotógrafa mexicana Livia Corona.)

Livia Corona shows us head-on the physiognomy of new urban settlements, derives from that analysis the need to reformulate the traditional notion of “home”. Her images offer a cross section wherein various aspects of the postmodern dwelling are unveiled. Corona’s photographs are an allegoric synthesis: they speak of the regulatory obsessions of capitalism of our times and the imagination of the individual set against that depradation.

***

“I should say: the house shelters day-dreaming, the house protects the dreamer, the house allows one to dream in peace.”

— Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space

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Jan 07 2010
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Random Intoxicants, Tóxico Texts, Work from Mexico

A MAN NOT ESCAPED

Cooking Grill No. 1

Cooking Grill No.2

Glass, plate, spoon

Weapons

Weapons made with the border of windows

—-

A few days ago we watched A Man Escaped, by Robert Bresson: a film–based on a true story– that recounts a man’s escape from prison by turning ordinary and seemingly innocent objects into his means to freedom: that turning something into something else.

As the movie ended, I remembered an incredible project by Toño Vega Macotela, wonderful Mexican artist. I also remembered the day I accompanied him to one of Mexico City’s largest prisons, to help him take the pictures you see above. Ah. Sí. That turning something into something else. Not for escape: but for life inside jail. These objects you see in the images above where constructed (illegally of course) by the prisoners.

After the break you can read an interview that I did with Toño for Vice Magazine. where you will find a fuller description of his incredible project.

Continue reading →

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May 19 2009
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Tóxico People

PSICOGEOGRAFÍAS. Y ODAS PÚBLICAS

“Los recorridos son desplazamientos y derivas en el entramado urbano. Se trata en ellos de efectuar reconocimientos, prácticas de campo, distanciamientos críticos y otros tránsitos que activen los flujos de la memoria, las tramas históricas, los afectos y los itinerarios en esta urbe.”

Y estos serán, seguro, una serie de pequeños éxodos de lo común; cuales líneas de fuga ideadas desde la cabeza delirante, desplazada y derivada del muy maravilloso, genial y extra-querido Javier Toscano (a.k.a. Agente Tote), director del 6to foro de arte público.

(Más info aquí.)

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Apr 01 2009
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Call for Proposals

BECA GUCCI / AMBULANTE PARA DOCUMENTAL

Hasta $400, 000 pesos en apoyo a la post-producción de documentales.

Más info en www.ambulante.com.mx

Fecha límite: 12 de junio 2009

1

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Mar 31 2009
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Tóxico News, Tóxico People, Tóxico Projects, Work from Mexico

TEASER No. 003

postal-tfp

(Próximamente en la gran Ciudad de México.)

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Jan 19 2009
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Tóxico People

PAISAJES VERTICALES

[nggallery id=33]

De la serie “Verticalidades¨, de Pavka Segura


La manera en que nuestros ojos estan dispuestos para mirar tiende a la horizontalidad. Así mismo cuando nos paramos frente a un paisaje el horizonte nos sugiere que el mundo continúa, de alguna manera, a través de esta línea; tenemos la perscepción de que el mundo es horizontal y vasto. Quizá no fue hasta la invención del elevador automático como consecuencia del desarrollo de edificaciones de gran altura como los rascacielos de Chicago o Nueva York que la posibilidad real de desplazarse de manera vertical no pasaba de la inquietud como niño de trepar los árboles para mirar desde lo alto “el mundo”, o de los más intrépidos escaladores que a fin de cuentas, en algún momento postraban la mirada sobre esta línea horizontal.

Esta selección de imágenes son parte de un ejercicio que me he propuesto, donde la primera condición formal para fotografiar es la verticalidad. Es entonces en este sentido que me gustaría darle la vuelta a como encuadrar y confrontar el horizonte. Más allá de esta formalidad como punto de partida, la serie pretende hacer un juego visual de correlaciones entre situaciones distantes. Que al mismo tiempo reflejen un solo estado emocional persceptivo que responde al accionar del mundo de “afuera”. Cabeza, corazón y visceras en vertical conectados con aquellos instantes de la “realidad”.

Pavka Segura, Enero 2009

(Pavka tomó el Tóxico Master-Class de Martin Parr y Chris Boot.)

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Jan 09 2009
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Random Intoxicants

AÑO UÑA

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FV799cwkhCY&feature=related[/youtube]

Trailer de película de Jonás Cuarón, hecha enteramente a partir de fotos en las que documentó un año de su vida, y luego reconfiguró en una historia ficticia.

Y una entrevista con él aquí:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPtYxUuJGDU[/youtube]

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Dec 23 2008
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Random Intoxicants

VOY A EXPLOTAR

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeKm16TFYIo[/youtube]

Nueva película de Gerardo Naranjo, pronto en cines. Antojable…

Más aquí.

Y una entrevista con Gerardo aquí:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82Psc3l5pfs[/youtube]

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Sep 23 2008
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Tóxico People, Work from Mexico

MIRAMAR

(De la serie “Miramar”, por Ramiro Chaves.)

Miramar está en la Provincia de Cordoba, centro geografico de Argentina. Miramar es el único pueblo en la costa de Mar Chiquita. Y Mar Chiquita no es un oceano pequeño como uno podría llegar a pensar, sino más bien es una laguna salina muy grande, la más grande de Latinoamérica.

“Mis imágenes remiten a ficciones banales o familiares, y al mismo tiempo registran espacios auténticos. Me interesa conservar la incógnita que se produce cuando no sabemos si un acontecimiento es ficción o documento. Trato de mantener la energía del primer encuentro con un espacio que nos conflictua y nos seduce a la vez. La fotografías concebidas individualmente se conectan tratando de formar una poética personal, haciendo uso del imaginario especifico de esta región. Trato de fabricar una memoria elusiva, redescubriendo este espacio familiar donde mi sensibilidad y visión del mundo fueron formadas. Un recuento de momentos que describan la belleza, poder, tragedia y complejidad cultural de esta zona.”

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(Ramiro es parte del equipo de Tóxico. Ahorita está de vuelta en Miramar, continuando con este proyecto  y visitando a su abuela que vive ahí, entre la realidad y la ficción de su nieto.)

(Puedes ver el nuevo blog de Ramiro aquí.)

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Sep 10 2008
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Tóxico People, Work from Mexico

CRAP CARS: DF

Rick Shearman, ex-Fabricante y diseñador de  Australia, vino a México a visitar y a tomar el Tóxico Workshop de Stefan Sagmeister. Estando aquí se enamoró perdidamente: se quedaba durante horas sentado de banqueta en banqueta dibujando en su cuaderno negro coches viejos que se iba encontrando en las calles cerca (y no tan cerca) de mi casa. La serie se llama “Crap Cars”.

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Sep 08 2008
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Tóxico People, Work from Mexico

FUNDACIÓN ADOPTE UN ESCRITOR

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 gustaría 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.

nuestro eslogan: la lucidez espanta. la idiotez nos mata. sin embargo padecemos una flaqueza irresponsable por toda la parafernalia que rodea a los aperitivos y hacemos gala de un excelente sentido del humor. como muestra de esto último también nos tenemos preparado un magnífico prepitafio: gozamos de una mala salud de hierro. amén.

la Fundación Adopte es un enigma. este enigma goza de una gran ventaja sobre todos los demás: no tiene solución. con lo que para empezar nos ahorramos varias preguntas inútiles.

el objetivo de la Fundación Adopte es, como su nombre indica, buscar el mayor número de afiliaciones adoptantes para procurar el cobijo y la infraestructura mínima necesaria para que un Escritor pueda desarrollar su obra y su vida dedicado exclusivamente a la literatura -y otras actividades relacionadas, como la promoción, el performance etílico, etc.,- sin pasar penalidades económicas y el consiguiente desasosiego espiritual.
les informo seriamente que sin dinero en el bolsillo es imposible escribir de nada. amén.

no sé si esté de más decirlo pero el escritor a adoptar soy yo, Rubén Bonet, y queda excluída –por lo menos en esta Fundación- la posibilidad de cualquier tipo de ampliación a la adopción de otros escritores.

la Fundación Adopte a un Escritor está inspirada en la gloriosa Fundación Joe Gould, sujeto que nunca llegó a publicar su gran Historia Oral de Nuestros Días, pero que dio a conocer de manera selectiva el necesario ensayo de cómo el consumo indiscriminado de salsa de tomate incidía negativamente en el número de accidentes ferroviarios en Estados Unidos.
thanxs for all Joe.

la Fundación Adopte también se inspira en la constatación de hechos a primera vista inverosímiles como que algunos gringos se dediquen a adoptar pedazos de autopista. si existe ese espíritu solidario hacia unos centenares de metros de concreto cómo no van a haber almas comprometidas con el desarrollo espiritual de un Escritor, sin contar con la ventaja afectiva de que yo soy mucho más simpático e interactivo que unos cuantos metros de cemento aplanados por el que nada más pasan coches a 65 millas por hora.

(Para más sobre la fundación click en “continued”.)

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Sep 08 2008
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Tóxico People, Work from Mexico

EXPAT

(“Expat” series by Mark Powell. Mark took the Tóxico Master-Class by Martin Parr and the Stefan Ruiz workshop.) (Click on images to enlarge.)

Traveling into San Miguel Allende from Mexico City you are suddenly presented, around a final descending highway bend, the view of El Bajio region where the pueblo San Miguel de Allende is located within the prehistoric remnant of an old volcanic crater. If it is late in the day, a placating warm light hits La Parroquia towers of the church turning them a soft, dry red. The church clearly marks the center of the village from the distance into a cozy and idealized view.

After World War II, US veterans discovered San Miguel de Allende and using the GI bill of rights which paid for education for the ex-armed forces personnel, they came to study Spanish and art at the Instituto de Allende. This started a long lineage of Americans coming and going. Later the town was discovered by the Beats, Neal Cassady lived there for a while and died there along side train tracks creating a certain iconoclastic aura for future travelers to seek. For the past fifty years, San Miguel de Allende has been a center of American immigration to Mexico, being far from the US border it also represents the most committed immigrants, the ones who take the giant leap to Mexico to start new life away from the States.

The town over the years has become a magnet for interesting characters that all interpret and embrace the Mexican way of life in different ways, often embracing an idealized version of Mexican culture that can border escapism at its best, not unlike the tidy offerings of a cult. A friendly, sunny cult that only Mexico could give.

-Mark Powell

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Jul 11 2008
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Tóxico People, Work from Mexico

NEL DESIGN COLLECTIVE IN SALONE SATELITE MILÁN

NEL exhibited its new collection “CIUDAD SATÉLITE” [Satellite City] during the FouriSalone in Milan. They includied projects such as Tinacos, Trepadoras, SCT and Torres de Satélite. The pieces incorporate urban elements, with the mixture of utopia and decay found in large metropolis around the world.

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Tinacos (2008)

Nel transposes onto the scale and shape of a porcelain vase the monumentality and identity of a water tank. The pieces are intervened in the same manner as real-life buildings, making each of them unique, with scaled-down cracks, graffiti, tags and stencils, as well as political campaigns and music concert advertising.

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Trepadoras (2008)

On a slightly apocalyptic note, the decay of urban infrastructure and the reclaiming of cities by nature is symbolised by Trepadoras [Creepers], a series of pots which imitate neon signs and electricity pylons being slowly devoured by climbing plants.

Also part of this series, Migración shows the area of the Mexico-United States border where most of the illegal migration takes place.

Trepadoras

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SCT (2008)

SCT (Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes – Ministry of Communications and Transportation), is comprised of four wooden sculptures shaped like telecommunications towers that reference the abandonment of human infrastructure, and suggest a possible second use for whole typological classes after the objects stop serving a purpose.

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NEL is a platform for experimentation formed by an evolving collective of Mexican designers. The collective experiments and focuses on the conceptual and playful side of design.

Participants in projects above: Ricardo Casas, Alejandro Castro, Héctor Esrawe, Emiliano Godoy, Cecilia León de la Barra

(Héctor Esrawe, Cecilia León de la Barra and Óscar Nunez took the Martí Guixé Tóxico Workshop in 2007. Emiliano Godoy is on the Tóxico advisory comitee 2008)

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