Ricardo Legorreta, Praemium Imperiale Laureate

Ricardo Legorreta (Mexico, DF 1931 - )

Ricardo Legorreta has been awarded the Praemium Imperiale prize (architecture).

The award, given to individuals who have “shown extraordinary acheivement in the fields of architecture, music, painting, sculpture and theatre/film, recognizes lifetime achievement in the arts in categories not covered by the Nobel prizes.

Ricardo Legorreta, among Mexico’s most significant living architects, combines the traditions of Western modernism with the building culture of his native country. Vibrant color, geometric shapes, fountains, light-filled spaces, and intimate courtyards are hallmarks of his style. With more than 100 design projects to his name he has created a diverse body of work in Mexico and abroad.

Official website for Ricardo Legorreta: http://legorretalegorreta.com/

Video in Spanish: http://esquire.esmas.com/video/351377/legorreta-premio-japon

The other Praemium Laureates this year are Seiji Ozawa (Japan) Music, Bill Viola (USA) Painting, Anish Kapoor (UK) Sculpture, and Judi Dench (UK) Theatre/Film.

Related, Books:

1001 Buildings You Must See Before You die:  The World’s Architectural Masterpeices (Quintessence Books) Hardcover; Mark Irving, Editor

Pedro Ramirez Vazquez awarded Fine Arts Medal

Pedro Ramirez Vazquez (Mexico, DF 1919 - )

Pedro Ramirez Vazquez, architect and urban designer, has been awarded the Fine Arts Medal by the National Institute of Fine Arts, the highest award for artistic achievement in Mexico.

National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City, DF

Ramirez Vazquez, a graduate of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico, contributed profoundly to Mexico City’s urban panorama during his 6 decade career.  Much of his work is founded on his strong personal beliefs in social responsibility and civil participation.

Upon receiving the medal, he said,

On this day I want to share my reflections with youngsters… practice self-discipline, ecological conservation, and originality,  but keep roots, because these are permanent and do not change over time.

He is one of the most prolific of Mexican architects nationally and internationally.  Some of his projects in Mexico include:

• The National Anthropology Museum (Museo Nacional de Antropologia),
• the Aztec Soccer Stadium (Estadio Azteca),
• the new Guadalupe Basilica (Nueva Basílica de Guadalupe) and the
• Museum of Modern Art (Museo de Arte Moderno) in collaboration with Rafael Mijares

Mi Gran Obra

Ramirez Vasquez also designed a prefabricated school classroom for children, a concept which has been adopted internationally, which he refers to as “Mi gran obra“, his greatest work.  During his tenure on the federal committee of school construction, 30 thousand rural classrooms were built in just 3 years, a classroom every 2 hours it was said.  Ramirez’s design was taken to 17 countries in Latin America as well as Philippines, India, Indonesia, Yugoslavia and Italy. Eventually, an additional 150 thousand units were built in Mexico.

Related:

More information and photographs of of his projects:  Pedro Ramirez Vazquez awarded Fine Arts Medal by the National Institute of Fine Arts (Art Daily Newsletter)

Fantastic creatures parade through Mexico City

Saturday, October 22 at 12 noon
5th Annual Parade and Competition of
Monumental Alebrijes (Monumental Fantastic Creatures)

The parade will begin in the Zócalo and continue down 5 de Mayo, Juárez and Paseo de la Reforma avenues until reaching the Angel de la Independence Monument.

After the parade, competitor’s “creatures” will be on exhibit through Sunday, November 6 on the main sidewalks of Paseo de la Reforma, between the Angel de la Independencia monument and Diana Cazadora monument.

Watch portions of the parade here:

Stream videos at Ustream

Related: 

Information about alebrijes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alebrije

Household saints

Inauguration day of the statue of El Santo in Mexico City, below in a mask like his father, El Hijo de El Santo

Visit David Lida’s post on El Santo:  David Lida » Blog Archive » Household saint.

The sculpture of El Santo, El Emascarado de Plata (The Silver Masked Saint):

The plaza, garden and statue, inaugurated in June 2006, is between the streets Jesus Carranza and Gorostiza in Colonia Peralvillo, Cuauhtémoc, the Barrio Bravo de Tepito in Mexico City.  The sculpture, 3.65 meters tall and weighing 1.5 tons, was created by Edwin Jorge Barrera García, a sculptor and fireman.  The wrestler’s son, who wrestles as El Hijo de El Santo, financed the project.

The unveiling was presided by politicians, son of Rodolfo Guzmán, a.k.a. The Saint, actors and the President of the Lucha Libre Comission of the time.  The wrestler’s son, like his father, wore his mask and did not reveal his identity.  Others attending included sports commentators, retired wrestlers Baby Richard, Pompín y Many Guzmán, legendary masters of the “lucha” like El Perro Aguayo, Ringo Mendoza and Mil Máscaras, and wrestlers Huracán Ramírez Junior, Scorpio, Greco, Charles Bronson, Rebelde Rojo, Blue Panther, Cerebro Negro, Villanos III, IV and V, Dr. Cerebro, Jaque Mate Jr., Solar, Fantasma y Tinieblas, Blue Demon, Jr.  At the event they signed autographs and posed for the camera’s of hundreds of Mexican Lucha Libre fans.

Heroes die but legends continue…I leave the Saint in your care. – El Hijo de El Santo (The Saint’s son) on the day of the innauguration

Information about El Santo released at the event:

Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta was born September 23, 1917 in Tulacingo, Hidalgo.  He began wrestling in lucha libre in 1925 as Rudy Guzmán, Hombre Rojo/Red man, and the Murciélago II/Bat II.  It wasn’t until June 26, 1962 that the referee Jesús Lomelín baptised him as El Santo, the name that immortalized his career.  He was national Welterweight and Middleweight champion in 1943, Welterweight world champion in 1946, Middleweight champion and Cruiserweight (97 kg./210 lbs.) national champion in 1952.  The Saint starred in 58 films, including The Saint and Blue Demon against Dr. Frankenstein, The Saint vs. the Wolves, The Mummies of Guanajuato, The Saint against the Vampire Women and The Saint against the Zombies among others.  He died February 5, 1984.

There is another statue of El Santo in Tulancingo, Hidalgo, birthplace of the wrestler.

Humor: Day of the Dead debacle

Calavera de la Catrina ("La Catrina"), José Guadalupe Posada (1851-1913)

Hi, everyone!

The Mountain Room is gearing up for its Day of the Dead celebration on Friday. Please send in photos of loved ones for our altar. All parents are welcome to come by on Wednesday afternoon to help us make candles and decorate skulls.

Thanks!

Emily

What begins as a seemingly harmless celebration of Day of the Dead in an American pre-school takes some unusual turns as parents and children get involved.  Maria Semple, writing for the New Yorker, takes a humorous look at what can happen, chronicling events in this series of e-mails between a pre-school teacher and parents.

To read the article in the New Yorker’s humor section, Shouts and Murmurs, click here:  Day of the Dead or Halloween? : The New Yorker.

Information about: the graphic cartoon of José Guadalupe Posada:

Posada’s posters and political cartoons depicted members of every social class as calaveras (mischievous skeletons).  La Catrina, the “Calavera of the Female Dandy”, satirizes the life of the upper classes during the reign of Porfirio Diaz.  The humor of the device made his scathing political satire more acceptable.

Well-recognized and enjoyed in its day, Posada’s work gradually faded from popular memory until shortly after the Mexican Revolution.  In the 1920s his work was revived by French artist and art historian Jean Charlot and La Catrina, gaining iconic status as a symbol of uniquely Mexican art, was mass-produced for the public.  When Diego Rivera painted the mural Sueño de una tarde dominical en la Alameda central, he painted himself as a boy holding hands with his depiction of Posada’s Catrina.

Today, José Guadalupe Posada’s work is synonymous with the lively Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico.

Related articles

• ‘Day of the Dead’ expanding in US (boston.com)

For a fundamental list of Mexican culture

Mexican Mole Poblano in a traditional "cazuela" (ceramic pot)

What do these things/people have in common?

• Dia de muertos (Day of the Dead)
• Pedro Paramo (a short novel by Juan Rulfo)
• Teotihuacan (an archeological site near Mexico City)
• Mole
• La Dichosa Palabra (a TV Talk Show about education, language, literature, and poetry) and 
• Enchiladas

Answer:  From Fundamental Lists of Mexican Culture, 5 most mentioned elements by readers in order of popularity (10/18/11).

The project, a collaboration between CONACULTA and Este Pais, invites specialists, artists of all kinds, and the public to make lists of Mexican culture. The lists, creating a collective map of the most significant people and works of the nation, will form a guide, particularly for young people, to learn about and appreciate Mexico’s cultural heritage.

In summary, all that Mexicans should know, see, read, listen and learn, with the premise that from these fundamentals, Mexicans’ identity is formed.

To create your own list, visit: http://www.estepais.com/listas/

or just visit this site to find the many and fascinating lists created by others!

Maya M(i)X

Soviet playing cards with Maya-inspired designs

Easily among the most baffling pieces of cross-cultural pollination is the popularity of Maya motifs during the Soviet era in Russia. Case in point: This Maya-inspired deck of playing cards, designed by an unknown Soviet artist in the middle of the 20th century.

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Cervante’s Festival of the Arts

Finnish Virpi Pahkinen, performs Aajej (nordic wind) experimental ballet

October 15 through November 2 – Michoacán, MX

The Festival Internacional Cervantino is one of the most outstanding cultural events in Latin America. The event draws tens of thousands of Mexicans and tourists to attend plays, concerts, symposia, dance performances and films.

More than 2,800 artists from 29 countries perform; special invited performance artists represent Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway and Nayarit.  This year’s theme, The Gifts of Nature, is dedicated to the environment.

Background on the festival (FIC) in Guanajuato:  http://www.guanajuato.gob.mx/ingles/FIC.htm

Festival Internacional Cervantino (FIC) official site (in Spanish):  http://www.festivalcervantino.gob.mx/

The Mexican Sombrero, one heavy thing

From Eleven Heavy Things, (sculpture and photo opportunity) 2009 by Miranda July

The exhibition, Eleven Heavy Things by artist, filmmaker, and writer Miranda July featuring a series of 11 sculptures that encourage viewer interaction is now in the Melrose Wave Park at the Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles.  The work was first exhibited in a garden within Giardino delle Vergini for the 53rd International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennale in 2009, and at Union Square Park in New York in 2010.

Related articles

Pictures of other heavy things at this site:

• Eleven Heavy Things by Miranda July (design-milk.com)

Mexican writers

The Vasconcelos Library in Mexico City

In celebrated Chilean author Roberto Bolaño’s 1998 novel The Savage Detectives, a brilliant but depressive group of young poets roams through Mexico City, writing and drinking at bars across the frenetic capital.  Nearly all those poets, modeled on real writers, were men. Today, the Mexican literary stars frequenting the same bars are just as likely to be women.

Gabriela Juaregui

Writers like Gabriela Jauregui, the author of the critically acclaimed poetry collection Controlled Decay  who is now at work on her first novel, are part of a surge of young, urban Mexican women whose talent, vision, and drive are challenging the country’s traditionally macho literary culture.

Valeria Luiselli

No longer just the domain of male greats like Bolaño, Octavio Paz, and Juan Rulfo, Mexican literature has given rise to a new class of female scribes who are racking up successes at home and abroad… “There are some times when I feel compelled to say, ‘This is also Mexican,’ ” says Jauregui, who has written poems about riding the subway in Mexico City and blue-collar workers in East L.A. who dress up in ornate cowboy outfits at night and practice roping in neighborhood parks.

Chloe Aridjis

In Chloe Aridjis’s widely praised novel Book of Clouds, the female Mexican protagonist, like most immigrants, struggles with xenophobia and cultural alienation while trying to preserve her humanity in Berlin. And Brenda Lozano’s All Nothing is an intimate, humorous portrait of a girl dealing with loss and grief.  Valeria Luiselli’s essay collection, False Papers, deals with people’s relations to spaces—including her own sense of being “in between” Mexico and the United States, neither native nor foreign in either.  She ruminates on the isolation of the city: “The more nights you spend in other rooms—hotels, rented apartments, borrowed beds, sofas, shared spaces—the more you will get to know yourself.”

Brenda Lozano

Getting published in Mexico is no easy feat, especially for unknown writers: big publishers tend to focus on profit-reaping established authors. A few independent presses, like the successful Sexto Piso, have published Mexican writers in Latin America and Spain. “Many young authors first get published by small publishing houses, but their presence is very small, so the books go practically unnoticed,” says Eduardo Rebasa, a founder of Sexto Piso. “However, in recent years there has been a surge in independent publishing, with houses trying to publish quality stuff, but also trying to be successful financially and create a project that is sustainable in the long term.”

Readers can count on seeing more such works, thanks to an increase in the number of both female writing students and writing collectives for women. And their stories will continue to reflect a rapidly changing Mexico, even if most of the writers call other places home.

Excerpts from Newsweek Magazine and The Poetry Foundation.

Related articles

• 10 of the best books set in Berlin (guardian.co.uk)