Art Week has concluded , and with its end, Mexico City's airports filled with gallery owners, collectors, artists, and curious foreigners departing the great metropolis. Cargo planes took away containers of unsold works and returned to their usual locations or headed off to a new Art Week in another city or another continent. Locals returned to our usual programming. It's time to close the bank.
Those of us who attend the various fairs and openings can attest to their success, at least in terms of attendance. Zona Maco, the fair of fairs, reports receiving 81,000 visitors; Feria Material, with a more modest size, 18,000. Every year, attendance records are broken. On the street and in coffee shop conversations, I hear strangers describe the works they saw, and I know which pieces they're talking about. However, I didn't register others I see in Instagram stories, even though they were in the same places I was. As with every occasion, this week was characterized by thousands of objects competing to remain in the memory of those who attended.
The week unfolded like a carnival, with celebrations for everyone: from group openings at youth galleries, where groups of kids under thirty would browse the pieces with a can of beer in hand, to VIP celebrations among the art world's aristocracy and old-money collectors . The joy of this occasion wasn't overshadowed by political circumstances, and the sword of Damocles hanging over the world as we know it was momentarily forgotten. We have other days to worry about it. This was a party.
How to survive galleries, fairs and celebrations.
In the days leading up to the event, there were renowned activities, such as the opening of Politécnico Nacional , a Gabriel Orozco retrospective at the Museo Jumex, or the opening of Economía de la Ligereza , curated by Baby Solís and presented at Laguna. However, Art Week kicked off with a bang on Tuesday, with previews and openings on every corner. “FOMO is one of the pillars of the art world,” reads a work by So Cabrera López. Choosing one opening meant deciding not to attend another, with the feeling that one might miss the event that might not happen here, but there, since openings are for anecdotes and public relations. With so many people chatting in front of the work, it was barely visible. The galleries were packed on Tuesday, however, the rest of the days they seemed almost deserted. Their respective teams were divided between their headquarters and the booth at a fair, and most visitors toured them in less than ten minutes, like tourists killing time. Later, between Wednesday and Thursday, the fairs opened to the public. There was a lot of painting, conceptual art, some clay and ceramics, and less textile art than in other years. The presence of local and Latin American artists was considerable. At Feria Material, 72 exhibitors were present, more than half of whom were from the region. Even at Zona Maco, the largest fair, local and southern Latin American galleries shone, all of them huge and internationally recognized.
Navigating the fairs was exhausting; to appreciate certain works during peak hours, you almost had to wait in line. In several spaces, works faced every corner: some hung, others rested on the floor, and others were at eye level. After passing through a dozen booths , it became difficult to choose where to focus your gaze. In the end, the key was to prioritize some galleries and avoid others, understanding that attention is fixed at times and that distraction is also necessary to maintain sanity. There are works that escape the eye, and others remain as memories and experiences.
Dialoguing with art involves bringing into play references that allow us to assimilate the artist's idea, meaning, or intention. Whether it's a figurative or abstract representation, an icon or a symbol, the lack of support leaves us outside the field of dialogue with the piece before us. In these spaces, with hundreds of heterogeneous works and proposals, it's valid to wish someone could explain what we're seeing, and several fairs have found their own solutions.
At Salón ACME, a QR code provided access to a catalog map with room texts and details of all the pieces. In addition, there were people (often art students or graduates) stationed in each room to offer a tour and provide context. At the Bada fair, artists were present to introduce their work to the public. Thus, what initially was just a paper sculpture in the shape of a Manila mango became a symbol of a family history and of the names and cultural exchanges between countries, thanks to the explanation of its artist, Carolina Magis, in Laguna. A beautiful piece of jewelry, an object similar to an engagement ring but without the space to insert the ring finger, became a reflection on the false promises with which migrants cross the border between Mexico and the United States, thanks to the exhibition by jeweler and artist Haydée Alonso.
I also heard about the problems that plague gallery owners year after year. Povos Gallery, a young Chicago gallery, was exhibiting at Feria Material. Three frames, each measuring approximately 2 x 1.5 meters, framed the slightly odd charcoal drawings on a surface that turned out to be the wall of the fair's booth. When I asked the gallery owner, "What is this we're seeing?" he responded that the work on display wasn't the work that had been carefully planned for exhibition. The pieces that were supposed to occupy that space hadn't cleared customs, a torment that has historically plagued galleries. Even so, she found a solution worthy of the occasion: in record time, in a single day, the artist Isabella Mellado publicly recreated the figures from the original works on the first day of the fair, in what ended up being a performance, an honorable solution, and an invitation to the artist's work and her gallery.
At the same time, there were parties, museum tours, dinners, and visits to artists' studios. During Art Week, you can exchange perspectives and hear what's happening elsewhere and what people in different latitudes think. There are generous conversations and attentive ears. I heard a curator active in rural Utah, in the United States, enthusiastically praise the political charge inherent in much of the art produced in Mexico, something she doesn't see in her country. With two young artists, one Brazilian and the other Iranian, my friend Carolina, a curatorial assistant, and I found a great affinity in interests, enthusiasms, and concerns. These dialogues, which normally occur sporadically and sometimes with considerable planning, are concentrated here intensely in a few days, and many of them arise spontaneously.
Farewell and the future
Most of the interactions were stimulating. But, like any celebration, it's time to go home and get back to the routine. After so much traveling around such a chaotic city, incredibly interesting conversations, and hours on your feet, it's over. It's a good thing Art Week is only a week away and there are still many more to go until the next edition. Even beauty is tiring. Anyway, if anyone is still hungry for more, after the dozens of openings, several exhibitions remain open and can be visited in the coming weeks.
Art Week is an unparalleled opportunity to share, learn, and understand a little about what's happening in the art world today. It's also a time for tourism in Mexico City, with the influx of foreign delegations, restaurant visits, and hotel and Airbnb accommodations. However, even with the importance of cultural tourism, the question about the real state of the art market in Mexico remains. This year, we saw several young galleries grow and increase their presence at fairs and conferences; there's a whole generation of artists attracting attention with new trends. We find spaces seeking to encourage a new collecting movement in the country. Even so, the question posed a few days ago in ArtNews magazine, asking whether the art supply in Mexico is growing at the same rate as demand and whether there is an audience willing to receive all these new proposals, seems sensible.
The Art Market 2024 report has Mexico in its sights as one of the countries to evaluate in terms of collecting. There is a vibrant art scene and established collectors with a long tradition. The point is that, as new spaces open up, there needs to be new collectors, audiences, and types of experiences. Given the recognized vitality, we aspire to be optimistic, but we will have to evaluate the cash flow of each fair and gallery. The verdict is yet to come.
Natalia Téliz
Studio Manager in Mexico City. Graduated in Law and Entertainment Production. She completed a master's degree in Arts Management and Cultural Policy at the Universidad Panamericana.
