Project overview

 

I envision a map that guides viewers through the places and spaces in which post-revolutionary Mexican and expatriate artists created and exhibited their works such as art galleries, artists’ houses, ateliers, and public institutions. The map will also present urban sites and city streets that display or make reference to their figures, their lives, and their artistic production - outdoor sculptures, graffiti, and murals.   The cartography will be limited to iconic artists representative of the Mexican avant-garde movements such as Stridentism, Muralism, and Abstract art (1920-1970) including some of the artists of the so-called Generación de ruptura.  Some representative artists are: Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros (Muralism). Manuel Maples Arce, Germán List Arzubide, and Salvador Gallardo (Stridentism), and José Luis Cuevas, Fernando García Ponce, Ricardo Martínez, Arnaldo Coen, Lilia Carrillo, and Manuel Felguérez (Generación de ruptura).  The site will cover the three periods of Muralism, the first in the 20s, the second in the 30s, and the third from the 40s to 1955; then, Stridentism from 1921 to 1927, and finally, Generación de ruptura from 1950 to 1970.

 

The site will display timelines, videos, podcasts, documentaries, photographs, recordings, and interviews.  Most importantly, the map will seek to establish a dialogue between the visual and the literary narratives that portray the city Mexico both a “ciudad letrada” and a “ciudad artística,” a city in constant dialogue between the past and the future, tradition and modernity, the European and the indigenous in constant fusion, movement, and transformation.

 

I agree with Fernando Ainsa’s opinion that the man and the place in which he lives, mutually fashion each other in such a way, that in each representation of the city, one may discover a set of values, wisdom, and experiences of its inhabitants. The street then, like every social structure, is created by the interaction of individuals, who are in turn affected by this same creation.   This symbiotic relationship between the individual and the space is certainly evident in this fascinating megalopolis imbued with a rich aesthetic tradition that constantly promotes urban artwork as a means of educating and positively enriching all sectors of the population.   Ascribing to Ainsa’s perception of the dynamics between the individual and the city in which s/he lives, I am envisioning a cartography that presents a postmodern (audio and visual) reading of the ways in which DF based iconic artists not only transformed and impacted the urban space during their own times, but also the ways in which they continue to have a strong hold and influence in the country’s cultural production of the twentieth century.  As an example, Tina Modotti’s photos of 1930’s Mexico city may establish a dialogue with Elena Poniatowska’s novel Tinisima (2006); Gabriel Ponzelli’s Frida Kahlo statue located at Jardin Cultural Frida Kahlo may introduce map visitors to Kahlo’s diary and letters or engage them in a viewing a segment of comedian Jesusa Rodriguez’s representation of the artist.

 

The map will also include links containing a brief description of the most relevant places where artists would either gather and/or exhibit their works (institutions, colonias, art galleries, cafés).  Such links will additionally address the significance of each of these sites in the circulation of culture and in the construction of a national identity.  Some examples are: Museo Jose Luis Cuevas, Museo Blaistein, Museo Soumaya, Museo Estudio Diego Rivera y Frida Kahlo, Café de nadie, La casa de los Cueto, Preparatoria Nacional, UNAM, and the Palacio Nacional de Bellas Artes.