Triple Canopy is organizing a series of conversations, including a number of collaborators who live in México City, that considers the ways in which political representation might be achieved—or recognized as a chimera, or disavowed—through the work of representing politics. In doing so the series examines the affordances of new and old media; the relationship between the ways in which art and literature circulate and attain meaning; and the various responses by Mexican artists and writers to social and political crises in recent months and decades. (See below for a description of this series in Spanish.)
with Felipe Ehrenberg, Waysatta Fernández and Juan Caloca (members of Cooperativa Cráter Invertido), Sofía Olascoaga
February 6, 12 noon
This conversation will be devoted to the promises and perils of collective endeavors; on publication as a means of forging and distributing relationships and representations. How does the work of publication test, in public, the ideals and aspirations that so many collective models aim to realize? What does the history of such models in México—where publication has so often been an essential medium and mode of circulation, especially for artists living in exile—tell us about their ability today to create potent representations and to foster powerful actions? (The title is taken from Ehrenberg’s 1985 essay on the legacy of Los Grupos and the “collectivization of artistic practice.”)
with Maru Calva, José León Cerrillo, Prem Krishnamurthy
February 7, 12 noon
This conversation will be devoted to the relationship between design, print culture, and contemporary art. How do the strategies, tools, and material histories of graphic design function as subjects and structures for artworks? How does design—or, more specifically, the status of the designer and of designed objects, whether advertising campaigns or pedagogical platforms—function as an analogue for artistic practice? Participants will consider the historical relationship in México between design, architecture, and the projection of national culture (so often through magazines), and will ask how the ubiquitous designed environments that characterize our digital age might act as vehicles for art, whether profitably or desultorily.
with John Gibler, Gabriela Jauregui, Isaac Torres
February 8, 12 noon
This conversation will be devoted to exhaustion and creation—the various and remarkable ways in which the creative impulses of writers and artists may be stymied, redirected, and revolutionized by instances of social disruption, political crisis, and state violence. Specifically, participants will ask how episodes such as the disappearance of the forty-three Ayotzinapa students may exhaust, challenge, and provoke artists, writers, and citizens; how it might imbue their work with new meaning, or impel them to work differently.
Triple Canopy, la revista con sede en Nueva York, organiza una serie de conversaciones, con la participación de varios colaboradores que viven en la Ciudad de México, a que consideren las maneras en las que la representación política puede lograrse—o reconocerse como una quimera, o incluso negarse—a través de la labor de representar a la política. Las conversaciones examinan los usos y posibilidades de los medios nuevos y no tan nuevos, la relación entre las maneras en las que el arte y la literatura circulan y cobran sentido, y las múltiples respuestas de los artistas y escritores mexicanos ante las crisis política y social de los últimos meses y décadas.
Felipe Ehrenberg, Waysatta Fernández y Juan Caloca (ambos miembros de la Cooperativa Cráter Invertido), Sofía Olascoaga
6 Febrero, 12 del mediodía
Esta conversación se dedicará a discutir las promesas y los peligros de los esfuerzos colectivos, y la publicación como un medio para forjar y distribuir relaciones y representaciones. ¿Cómo es que la labor de publicación pone a prueba en público los ideales y las aspiraciones que muchos modelos colectivos tienen como objetivos? ¿Qué nos dice hoy la historia de estos modelos en México, donde la publicación ha sido tan a menudo un medio y modo de circulación esencial, especialmente para los artistas en el exilio, acerca de su habilidad para crear representaciones potentes y fomentar acciones eficaces? (El título está tomado de un ensayo de Ehrenberg, publicado en 1985, sobre el legado de Los Grupos y la “colectivización de la práctica artística.”)
Maru Calva, José León Cerrillo, Prem Krishnamurthy
7 Febrero, 12 del mediodía
Esta conversación se enfoca en la relación entre el diseño, la cultura del impreso y el arte contemporáneo. ¿Cómo funcionan las estrategias, herramientas e historias materiales del diseño gráfico como temas y estructuras para las obras de arte? ¿Cómo funciona el diseño, o más específicamente el estatus del diseñador y de los objetos diseñados ya sea en campañas publicitarias o en plataformas pedagógicas, como una analogía de la práctica artística? Los participantes considerarán la relación histórica en México entre el diseño, la arquitectura, y la proyección de una cultura nacional (a menudo a través de revistas) y se preguntarán si los medios diseñados, tan ubicuos y característicos de nuestra era digital, podrían funcionar como vehículos para el arte, ya sea de forma rentable o de manera accidental.
John Gibler, Gabriela Jauregui, Isaac Torres
8 Febrero, 12 del mediodía
Esta conversación examinará el hartazgo y la creación: las varias y notables maneras en las que los impulsos creativos de los escritores y artistas pueden ser obstaculizados, redirigidos, revolucionados por casos de trastorno social, crisis política y violencia de Estado. Específicamente, los participantes preguntarán cómo un incidente como la desaparición de los cuarenta y tres estudiantes de Ayotzinapa puede hartar, desafiar y provocar a los artistas, escritores y ciudadanos; si puede infundir su obra con un nuevo significado, o incitarles a trabajar de maneras diferentes.
- Triple Canopy is a magazine based in New York.
- Juan Caloca is an artist living in Mexico City and a founding member of Cooperativa Cráter Invertido and the collective Grupo (de). His work often concerns Mexican history and the ways in which it is remembered. His work has been exhibited at the 2016 Gwangju Biennale; Parque Galería, Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporaneo (MUAC), Bikini Wax, and Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City; the Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA), Long Beach, California; and Ivan Gallery, Alberta College of Art + Design, Canada.
- Maru Calva is a book designer living in Mexico City. Her work explores the boundaries and limits of the publication as a support for artistic practice. She is a founder of Aeromoto, a public library devoted to contemporary culture in Mexico City.
- José León Cerrillo is an artist living and working in Mexico City, and a contributing editor of Triple Canopy. He is represented by Andréhn-Schiptjenko Stockholm and by joségarcía ,mx in Mexico City and exhibits worldwide. Recent venues include the Okayama Art Summit Tokyo (2017), the Gwangju Biennale (2016), the New Museum Triennial (New York, 2015), and MoMA PS1 (New York, 2013).
- Felipe Ehrenberg is a conceptual artist who was born in and recently returned to Mexico City. He began his artistic career as a painter and draughtsman, and his early mentors included muralist José Chávez Morado and avant-garde artist Mathias Goeritz. In the late 1960s he co-founded Beau Geste Press, which published the work of Fluxus artists. In the mid-1970s he was instrumental in the Grupos movement, which hinged on the production of alternative publications. In the 1980s Ehrenberg led self-publishing workshops for artists, students, and teachers in Mexico, giving them the tools to publish works that reflected the needs and interests of Mexico’s distinct regions; he established H2O Talleres de Comunicación, which helped create hundreds of community presses throughout Mexico. Many of Ehrenberg's recent works reflect the ways in which art is generated or consumed in digital, networked environments.
- Waysatta Fernández is an artist living in Mexico City and a founding member of Cooperativa Cráter Invertido. She is focused on researching collaborative processes and the ways in which they relate to artistic strategies through editorial and working groups. She has participated in various collaborative projects such as Consultorio Informal de Desplazamiento a Ojos Cerrados (CIDOC), within the framework of Sofía Olascoaga’s Between Utopia and Failure; and Invasorix, a collaboration between Naomi Rincón Gallardo and Revista Cartucho, a magazine of the visual arts; and the audio seminar Psst Psst.
- John Gibler is a journalist living in Mexico City. He has contributed to In These Times, Yes! Magazine, Colorlines, and the California Sunday Magazine, among other publications. He is the author of Una historia oral de la infamia (2016), To Die in Mexico: Dispatches From Inside the Drug War (2011), Mexico Unconquered: Chronicles of Power and Revolt (2009), 20 poemas para ser leídos en una balacera (2012), and Tzompaxtle: La fuga de un guerrillero (2012).
- Gabriela Jauregui is a writer, editor, and translator living in Mexico City. She is the author of Controlled Decay (Akashic Books/Black Goat Press, 2008), a collection of poems; Leash Seeks Lost Bitch (The Song Cave/Sexto Piso, 2015), a chapbook made in collaboration with artists Allison Katz and Camilla Wills; and a short story collection, La memoria de las cosas (Sexto Piso, 2015). Jauregui is co-founder of the publishing collective sur+.
- Prem Krishnamurthy is a graphic designer, curator, and founding principle of New York-based design studio Project Projects. He is also the director/curator of P!, a multidisciplinary exhibition space in New York City’s Chinatown that experiments with conventions of display.
- Sofía Olascoaga is a curator at Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC) in Mexico City. As a curator, she works at the intersection of art and education by activating spaces for critical thinking and collective action. Olascoaga’s ongoing research project, Between Utopia and Failure, assesses the productive tension between utopia and failure in models for intentional communities developed in Mexico in past decades. In 2012 she received the Cda-Projects Grant for Artistic Research and Production for this work. Olascoaga has been a research fellow at Independent Curators International; a curatorial fellow at the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program; and head of education and public programs at Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil in Mexico City.
- Isaac Torres is an artist living in Mexico City. His work focuses on the relationship between architecture, history, politics, and memory. He is the editor of the magazine El Asunto Urbano and is responsible for the International Art Residencies Program at Centro ADM. His book Siete proyectos sobre la ciudad de México was published in 2014.