World Order 2012, Mexico City

Genki Sudo in Mexico City!

Dia de Los Muertos – Enrico Martino

Only 9 days remaining: Project AKASO, artists of the post-Rupture generation

Special thanks to Jim Johnston, author of the wonderful blog Mexico City: An Opinionated Guide, for his contributions this month. His post Around Town: September in Mexico I’ve tweeted; it’s a gem.

I’ll focus on the AKASO exhibition at the  Museo del Chopo which has been extended until the end of this month. The website for this project is in both Spanish and English: http://www.akaso.com.mx/. If you click on PROJECT you will find an introduction to the exhibition.  To whet your curiosity I’ll list its contents so you don’t even have to leave this page to learn more:

• 26 monumental paintings created by 26 Mexican painters from the post-Rupture generation.
• 21 videos and/or animations, based or inspired in the paintings. Created by 21 video artists.
• 1 Documentary Film and 1 TV series (13 episodes), created by Varios Lobos Productions
• 1 publication, RECORDarte, a tabloid format catalogue and special edition of “Record” newspaper

The website is a fascinating encapsulation of the project preparing you for your actual or virtual visit.  The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 to 19 hours; there is no charge to the galleries on Tuesdays.  Address:  Dr. Enrique Gonzalez Martinez, 10, Colonia Santa Maria de la Ribera  Telephone:  5546.347

For an understanding of the term post-Rupture, some background: José Luis Cuevas is a modernist painter and sculptor from Mexico. Born in 1934, he is one of the creators of the “Rupture Generation” that departed from the politicized and stylized mural school of Orozco and Diego Rivera and manifested against the art that presented political programs focused on promoting nationalist ideals, a diverse group of artists united only  by their rejection of the establishment.  Briefly, post-Rupture painters are those born in the 50′s that followed this generation.

Mexican Independence Day Chiles en Nogada and video jam: Herb Alpert vs. Tres Delincuentes

This week I decided that I could only post to this blog if I discovered an original approach to the celebration and rich traditions of September 16, Mexican’s Independence Day, or bore my readers to death with redundancy.

Since I didn’t have a creative stroke of insight, I took a holiday, laid back and enjoyed the festivities.

Nonetheless, I couldn’t resist sharing a few Mexican treasures:  For the cuisine inclined, a link for Chiles en Nogada and Chiles en Nogada with fresh fruit. Chiles en Nogada is a classic for the festivities, in part, because this dish, “blistered, peeled poblano chiles filled with seasoned meat, fruit and nuts, smothered with a sauce of cream and walnuts, and garnished with pomegranate seeds” has all the colors of the Mexican flag. Click on either of these two links:  Cooking in Mexico.  Celebrating Mexican independence with chiles en nogada « Cooking in Mexico  for recipes.

Also, readers might enjoy these musical classics – thanks to BoingBoing for sharing - Los Tres Delincuentes/Three Delinquents and Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass.  Remember the days?

 

Holidays are soon over for this blogger.  How was your weekend?

Conscious Listening: My Mexico City — by Jennifer Clement

In Mexico the faces of poets are represented on some of our money. On the 100 peso note is the face of Nezahualcóyotl, the prehispanic ruler. The 200-peso bill holds the face of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, the nun who lived in the 17th century and wrote some of the greatest verses ever written in Spanish. And one of the designs featured on the 20-peso coin, which has become hard to find recently, is engraved with the face of Mexico’s Nobel Prize-winning poet Octavio Paz. I always think that a country that has poets on its currency can only represent a place where anything can happen and everything does.

Colonia El Toro, my neighborhood in Mexico City, is still a place where old and new Mexico congregate and everything happens. This morning the knife grinder came past my house on his bicycle and blew his whistle; the garbage truck stopped outside while the driver rang a brass bell; and the gas truck arrived with a man who walked beside the vehicle and screamed dozens of times over and over, ¨El gas!¨ A bread seller came to the door with a large basket attached to the handlebars of his bicycle. I could hear his high-pitched bell from blocks away. Three Jehovah’s Witnesses rang my front door buzzer.

Later in the morning the ironmonger walked past. He cupped his hands around his mouth and called out that he was willing to buy any scraps of metal or old newspapers. His voice was silenced by a pickup truck that drove by selling oranges. It had a loud microphone attached to the side door with an unintelligible recording about the price of the fruit.

At noon the neighborhood crier stood outside screaming the news about the latest crimes in the neighborhood: the mechanic Señor Diez had killed his wife; an ATM machine had been vandalized; two chickens had been found dead inside a green Volkswagen.

In the afternoon a man walked by announcing with a megaphone that the circus would be arriving at the end of the week. He yelled, “We bring real Indian tigers. We bring an elephant. We bring a boy with three eyes.”

Later one man stands at the corner below my window playing the trumpet. He plays “Las Golondrinas” (“The Swallows”) off key. A tin can for tips is tied to his waist.

By late afternoon Señor Primitivo, an old man with three cows, walks up the road. One cow limps. Señor Primitivo explains to me that a man driving a red BMW and talking on his cellular telephone hit this cow. He shakes his head while he makes the hand gestures of driving and talking on the telephone.

In the evening a man pushes his steaming cart down my street and the air is filled with the scent of sweet potatoes and bananas. The tamale vendor walks past and cries, “Tamales from Oaxaca for sale. Tasty, delicious tamales for sale.”

Mexico City is made up of dozens of villages that have joined together over the past one hundred years due to overpopulation and construction projects. This development has created a terrible and fascinating urban sprawl. Therefore, some neighborhoods are more modern and others more traditional. Almost all areas can claim a yam and banana vendor.

At midnight, in my part of the city that is in the south near the UNAM University, I hear the soft, comforting whistle of the watchman as he makes his rounds under a sky that has no stars, because of the pollution and because of the electric lights, a sky that only has a moon. The word Mexico means “the navel of the moon.”

JENNIFER CLEMENT is currently the President of PEN Mexico, part of a worldwide organization to promote literature, defend freedom of expression and develop a community of writers worldwide. The author of numerous award-winning books, Ms. Clement lives in Mexico City, Mexico. Learn more about author and poet Jennifer Clement at her website:  http://www.jennifer-clement.com/  My Mexico City was originally published in National Geographic’s Ultimate City Guides. Check mexicocitylife’s websites: Mexico City, Mexico for the link to National Geographic’s site.

In her essay, Ms. Clement writes of the many people and sounds on the streets of her neighborhood that are such a distinctive part of Mexican city life.

Each year, Mexico City celebrates Semana del Sonido/National Sound Week to document sounds that are unique to Mexico City and its culture and as a strategy to increase citizens’ listening habits and a conscious awareness of the audio environment.  A video at the TEDGlobal 2011 conference by Julian Treasure, 5 ways to listen better focuses on this as well.  In our louder and louder world, says sound expert Julian Treasure, “We are losing our listening.”  His fascinating talk shares five ways to re-tune your ears for conscious listening — to other people and the world around you.  Five Ways to Listen Better

The concept for a national sound week began in France in 2004, and in 2009 a similar celebration began in Quebec, Canada; Mexico is the third country to adopt this event.  Organized by Fonoteca Nacional, the first Semana del Sonido occurred September 2010; this year the event took place May 23-29.  For more information on Fonoteca Nacional, working since 2008 to safeguard and promote the audio heritage of the nation, see: http://www.fonotecanacional.gob.mx/  (This site is in Spanish).

At this link, Sounds of Mexico’s street vendors, you will see and hear the bread vendor, the garbage collector, the gas man, the iron and scrap metal collector, organ grinder and knife sharpener.  Also, below, I’ve attached a locally famous video of a Oaxaca tamale vendor that haunts the streets at night.  One person suggests the recording that blares from the vendor’s speakers was made in the 1920s.  What do you think readers?

7 Songs about Mexico City, DF – pure chilanga* inspiration (from Chilango Magazine)

Click here:  7 Canciones que hablan del DF | Chilango.com

I guess this week will include a lot of posts with videos and this one is of music videos pulled from the current issue of  Chilango magazine.  The journalist, Maria Fernanda Lopez, did a nice job and I particularly enjoy the first two.  Click on the link above and advance forward using the arrows at the top right hand side of the video screen to hear seven songs that feature the Distrito Federal/Federal District – what people in the capital often call their city.  The songs and bands are listed above each music video and underneath the screen is a short synopsis and excerpt of the song and lyrics.  If you have a favorite among these seven, and find the Spanish challenging, drop me a line.

Ms. Lopez, writes in the introduction,

Mexico City, so despised and loved at the same time, has been the muse of inspiration for national and international musicians who have given us diverse perceptions of our dear home.  Some touch on everyday themes, like the traffic or the city’s women, while others tackle more serious issues that all of us should give more attention, like drug trafficking.

Whatever it might be, our city has enamored and inspired many and their enchantment is reflected in these songs.  We are proud.

VOCABULARY HELP

* Chilango  is  Mexican slang and generally refers to a person from Mexico City (common usage) OR An unsophisticated person (from the sticks) now living in Mexico City.  The word derives from the word “chile”; presumably these less-sophisticated transplants ate lots of it. When most people (except Mexico City natives!) use the word they are using the first definition. Its tone is slightly pejorative or ironic, having much the same tone as the word “gringo,” referring to someone from the United States. (see the above highlighted link to chilango for more complete information about the word and the magazine).

Mexico City Time Lapse Video

Coco Chanel and Mexico – What’s my point?

Fashion passes, style remains. – Coco Chanel

Informal Translation: “…Point of View;

Ode to Coco   Beyond her revolution in the world of fashion, her unforgettable creations, her empire and her choice of style, Coco Chanel made history by her vision…”

Approximately two weeks ago, one of Mexico city’s neighborhoods, Polanco, made international headlines. Many of you will know about this or saw the video, Las Ladies de Polanco.

Since I want to avoid posting or popularizing vulgarity, the “ladies” language prohibits me from posting the video, so readers/voyeurs take note: your curiosity won’t find any satisfaction here. (Nor, undoubtedly, will I boost my subscriptions or ratings by these kind of decisions). However, for those suffering from insatiable curiosity, I will recommend a link on my blogroll: Mostly Mexico City by David Lida. He discusses Las ladies in his August 29 post.

Besides giving some interesting background information on the ladies in the video, Mr. Lida writes about his concern that his books and articles have perhaps idealized the city, misleading readers. In addition, he ponders if videos, like this one, create a smokescreen while acts of violence by drug cartels, now being called acts of terrorism, grow in frequency.

Now, readers are probably wondering, “What does Coco Chanel have to do with all this? Well, my POINT OF VIEW is, to a degree, represented by my choice of her words, a cover of Mexico’s VOGUE, its text and the potential for multiple interpretations and word play (with Vogue’s manipulation of the word moda/oda or in English, FASHION/ODE, and I, with the word COCO). I hope I am allowing enough gap for readers’ imagination. Obviously, I’ve decided to take a different tack addressing certain issues. The Ladies of Polanco video went viral, and to a great degree I understand this kind of phenomenon. I understand why it might be preferable or more popular to watch two adult women swear like sailors (truck drivers, troopers, dwarfs, pirates…) than watch news coverage of buildings torched in the northern city of Monterrey or hear about the growing numbers of innocent people killed by drug cartels.

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Early on I decided I was not going to blog this VISION of Mexico, and now, not the latest version of the neighborhood Roma as portrayed in the aforementioned video either. I might not be following trends, but I will stick to my style.  As Coco said, “Fashion passes, style remains”.

Perhaps Coco, if she were living, would have preferred a post that focused on other features of Polanco. There you will find a multitude of elegant stores offering luxury clothing brands, including Chanel. (The store is on the Avenida Mazaryk in Polanco).

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Rirkrit Tiravanija is an artist at the forefront of modern conceptual art. In this video, Cool Hunting talks to the artist about his current project as part of Absolut’s 365 Days initiative in Mexico and the culture’s attitudes towards art.

365 Days » About.