Curated by Andrew Birk, Maximiliano León, and Lukas Willmann
Text by Sira Pizà
Participating Artists: Allan Villavicencio, Sofia Cruz, Christian Camacho, Lucia Vidales, Juan Caloca, Madeline Jimenez Santil, Jose Eduardo Barajas, Prras! Collective, Sangree, Karla Kaplun, Matias Solar, Victoire Barbot, Maximiliano León, Ana Segovia, NAAFI, Lilly Pfalzer, Andrew Birk, Alma Saladin & Marco Rountree, Pablo Cendejas, Daniel Hüttler, Andy Medina, Angelika Loderer, Isreal Urmeer, Paloma Contreras Lomas, Daniel Aguilar Ruvalcaba.
6 June - 15 August, 2019
Kunstraum am Schauplatz
Praterstraße 42
1020 Vienna
Austria
"That which is composed of constituents to form a unified whole, not in
the manner of a heap, but as a syllable, is evidently more than the sum of its
constituents. A syllable is not the sum of their sounds; ba is
not the same as b plus a [...] So the syllable is something for itself;
it’s not just her lute, but something else."
Aristotle: Metaphysics
In the last few years Mexico
City has experienced an internationally acclaimed boom as
a result of a multi-faceted net of
factors. Balancing a delicate equilibrium of safety for outsiders, and a violently corrupt reality, the mega city is on
its way of becoming a world capital for culture and tourism, mirroring
successful capitalist models but –
literally – built on shaky
ground.
Integrating the affluence and
influence of internationalism through the waves of artists and young
professionals floating in and out of Mexico as one very specific type of global
tourism, the creative scene in the city looks very different now than it did in
the 90s. The question is, how does a particular idiosyncrasy survive processes
of exoticization in the market of identities, while thriving in a world of new
demands?
Organized
by Maximiliano León, Andrew Birk and Lukas Willmann, Ebullición
presents the work of twenty-six artists based in or associated with Mexico City for the first time in
Vienna. The show brings a selection of active agents in the field, from artists
to music collectives, to map out the extent of this diverse network. Creating
their own structures outside of insititutionalised formats, artists and creatives
have found that mutual recognition and generational support are the most
effective ways of achieving visibility and agency. In a place with a polarized
and unstable socio-economical base, and during times of attention as currency, true cooperation appears as the only way that the
independent parts can benefit from
the force of the whole.
- Sira Pizà