MUSEO JUMEX : THE NEW PIECE
Stereotypes about political and social events, narcotic traffic and sunny pyramids have almost made us forget that there was a time when Mexico City was considered a main center of culture: Frida Kahlo portrayed her pain as an oneiric allegory, Carlos Fuentes put his words to describe Mexico's history and society, and Luis Buñuel entertained us with his subversive eye.
Forgetting about this, Mexico City has actually turned into one of the main places in the world of contemporary art.
Consider this as the event of a lifetime: opening your own museum. This is what Eugenio López has accomplished inaugurating Museo Jumex on November 16th in Mexico City, even though the Mexican collector is familiar with this type of circumstance.
Indeed Eugenio López, 46-years-old and heir to the eponym juice company, also owns Fundación Jumex his private art foundation he opened in 2001 in Ecatepec, about 20 miles away from the city of Mexico where Jumex juices factories are located. Strong with 2,500 art pieces, it is said to be the largest private contemporary art collection in Latin America and is evaluated at approximately 80 millions dollars. A collection that includes art pieces from 1960's minimalists such as Dan Flavin and Robert Ryman to California artists Paul McCarthy and Mike Kelley. Through his foundation, Eugenio López is also a strong supporter of Latin American artists. The opening of this new museum can be considered in fact as a logical consequence.
And López did it massive: a two day celebration gathering the biggest names in the art world and international celebrities such as Ari Wiseman deputy director of the Guggenheim Museum in New-York, Frieze magazine editor Amanda Sharp, the Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco and even Hollywood stars such as Eva Longoria and Will Ferrel, and of course all the beautiful people that a megalopolis like Mexico can count. In total more or less 2,000 guests. A "casual" dinner was organized for the 700 personalities who had flown in at the beautiful Casa de la Bola, an hacienda from the XVI century located in the area of Tacubaya near by Los Pinos, the presidential residence.
Saturday was the grand opening introduced by host Eugenio López and British architect David Chipperfield who designed the new Jumex building. For this occasion, the renowned art advisor Patricia Marshall transformed the parking lot into an exhibition room with the disturbing artwork 'Confusion in the Vault Room' (2005) from artist Richard Jackson.
On the top floors the inaugural program showcased 5 projects that define the mission of the Jumex Foundation: art promotion, research and education. The new museum hopes to attract during the first year around 300,000 visitors and plans to host 6 exhibitions annually. 'Un lugar en dos dimensiones' (A place in two dimensions) curated by Patrick Charpenel in association with the North-American artist Fred Sanback, tries to demonstrate that two objects or more can coexist in the same spatiotemporal schematic; by joining for this occasion in the same space several art pieces from Francis Alÿs, Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, Eduardo Terrazas or Andy Warhol part of the Jumex Collection, with seven works from Fred Sanback, the curator Charpenel proves the parallel universes and the simultaneity dimensional principie. ‘1/2 an Autobiography' from James Lee Byars is co-produced by Fundación Jumex and MoMA PS1, and curated by Magali Arriola and Peter Eleey; it is the first exhaustive show devoted to the conceptual artist in North America since his death in 1997. More than 125 pieces of his work are featured: sculptures, wardrobe, performance videos and archives. The Jumex Collection acquired two pieces specifically for this opening. In the patio of the building, the sculpture 'Cosmogonía doméstica' from Mexican artist Damian Ortega, curated by Rosario Nada, is the first of a series of acquisitions Jumex plans to do for that space in particular. Finally, atypic but smart, this opening was also integrating the presentation of an editorial project 'Las ideas de Gamboa' from Museo Experimental El Eco's curator Mauricio Marcin. This feature is supposed to relaunch Jumex's other cultural mission, the edition of art books.
Eugenio López was also proud to announce the launch of a digital platform based on the programs of the Jumex Foundation and Museum and having the MoMA's one as a benchmark which drives each year 19 millions of people. "The objective we have in mind is to show that those kind of digital platforms can attract a broader public rather than physical visitors in a real museum. We are completely convinced that people can participate, interact and get to know our proposal using this kind of media." believes Patrick Charpenel, curator of the Museo Jumex.
Later on, guests were pleased to go to the Museo Jumex party at the Military Racecourse of Mexico - supervised by the tremendous New-Yorker PR Nadine Johnson for at least a million dollars - where every single person's invitation was checked on an iPad. Inside the barracks transformed as a disco club for this occasion, an orchestra in top hats and Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead People, famous in Mexico) make-up played Mexican national songs for a while until DJ Mark Ronson took over the party making Mr. Chipperfield cross the dance floor. A week-end event that following Joseph Nye's concept could almost place Mexico as a new superpower nation.
However, let's not forget the real star of this happening : the edifice itself. The monolithic gigantic structure of 45,000-square-feet opened on 5 floors combines from the outside light-brown travertine façades with a ceiling of windows letting the natural day light enhance the primary exhibition on the top floors. With two proper galleries, a basement bookstore, it also includes the usual public spaces such as a ground floor café and a promenade for outdoor installations, Museo Jumex does not break the rules of modern museum.
Reportedly costing 50 millions dollars, 3 years of work were necessary: “t's an investment, it's a gift to the city that is quite extraordinary" said Chipperfield, for who it is the first project in Latin America, to the journalists on Saturday morning on his building's airy top floor.
His elegant factory-inspired shape, already iconic for Chilangos (inhabitants from the city), refers to what this neighborhood was in the past: an industrial zone where General Motors had its assembly plant or Modelo brewery group, his production factory. Chipperfields'team confesses that they conceived the museum with "distinctive shapes and materials that honor its origin and surroundings".
A NEW BACKGROUND IS SHOWING UP
On this day, this area is the target of real estate developers that sensed its potential after Carlos Slim, the Mexican businessman and the richest man in the world, decided a few years ago to convert this unsavory area into a new business center that bears the name of his conglomerate Carso, to set his telecommunication headquarters Telcel, his museum the Soumaya featuring his 64 000 private artworks as well as the Cervantes theater, still under construction that Slim imagined as the Mexican Broadway. Since then, upscale New Polanco as this district is now called, changed its face: major headquarters have arrived, Saks Fith Avenue opened its 1st store and luxury apartments are sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars. As gamblers, culture players understood very well Museo Soumaya and Jumex were giving a new -business- opportunity like Anonymous a New-York based gallery that used to have its Mexican office in hipster Roma neighborhood and that decided to move a few months ago to New Polanco. "Of course this cool for a gallery to be in Roma, but there are no sales. The money is in New Polanco even if you try to be more alternative" says Jorge a Mexican artist.
Nevertheless, according to Jumex's curator Patrick Charpenel, money doesn't have the upper hand over creation and production in Mexico: "One of the characteristics of Mexican artists is to manage producing within a context to rise to international standards. The best example we have is Abraham Cruzvillegas who gets inspiration from his childhood when he used to live in chaotic homes full of objects, to create but also to produce by collecting stuff from everywhere." Charpenel's viewpoint is confirmed by Abraham Cruzvillegas himself, who introduces his creation process saying: "The capitalist efficiency never proves to be the best strategy for artistic productions".
We could extrapolate this theory to the new Mexican scene: in spring 2012 the Modern Art Museum of Paris organized an exhibition highlighting young Mexican artists who left their mark on the last decade, "Resisting the Present, Mexico 2000-2012". This show, where 24 artists born after 1975, were presenting their work emphasizing a new neo-conceptual language around the tension between local and global problematics. The economy of the modes of production, the poverty of the material they had used, called to mind as much as their engagement against violence, cartels, corruption or social inequalities. The approach employed could show how much the accession of the PAN (National Action Party) in the year 2000 gave them the opportunity to overcome the clichés where the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) had locked them for 70 years; during all these years everything out of the political party box was excluded from any support fundings and that's why artists like Gabriel Orozco or Damian Ortega first became famous abroad. A turning point that proves the singularity in the evolution of contemporary art in Mexico now allowing the repatriation of Mexican 'artistic force' in order to revitalize the process of development inside the country.
The public institutions are also landing in ear to this new opportunity. Zona Maco Mexico's contemporary art fair, the most important contemporary art window into Latin America giving an overview on modern art and design, has celebrated its 10th edition this year and welcomed 40,000 visitors within 5 days. Vanity Fair's August issue, considered Zona Maco as the most promising art fair in the same way as Istanbul Contemporary. The challenge is huge. For that reason, organizers decided to bring forward the event in 2014 on February 5th to 9th instead of the initial schedule which was planned for April, competing at the same time with too many other fairs like Art Cologne or Sao Paulo International Art Fair.
MEXICO CITY'S ARTISTIC FORCE
But public institutions are not the only ones capitalizing on this emergent buzz. Many independent alternative spaces thrive everywhere and most of them in the popular "colonia" San Rafael that the New-York Times analyzed as the new upswing neighborhood due to the many galleries that were opening over the past few years. That is true, renting a space in Roma is really high now and lots of people are choosing San Rafael which offers the same folk touch at reasonable prices, which encouraged lots of galleries to move there.
Let's focus on them. Three typologies can be identified: the Established, the Alternatives and the UFO's. In the first category we found Galería Hilario Galguerra, pretty sophisticated, it opened in 2006 and draws big names like Damien Hirst or Gottfried Helnwein. The 2nd one could be represented by Yautepec; this gallery, managed by Brett W. Schultz originating from Chicago and Daniela Elbahara a Monterrey-born artist, tend to propose an eclectic program going from paintings or sculpture to body performance. This "business couple" who met at school in the United States decided to open Galería Yautepec in 2007; they are as of today well integrated within the emergent scene of the city and decided, as a sign of support, to launch this coming year a new fair called 'Material' focused on emerging art and aiming at competing with Zona Maco. Finally the UFO's whom conception resonates in Abraham Cruzvillegas' philosophy are artists that decided to produce and promote themselves opening their own space to exhibit their own artwork or other artists'. That's the case of Preteen Gallery, where Gerardo's bright white lobby is used as a showroom or even of Andrew Birk and his girlfriend Débora Delmar that create together this year NO SPACE, a studio in their penthouse dedicated to artists. Andrew is from Oregon, U.S. and Débora from Mexico City; they met in 2011 in the United States while they were studying art and decided to move to Mexico City considering it was cheaper and that you did not need to be in New-York to break through. NO SPACE can be seen as a prototype of our time putting internet in the center of its platform: the artists they work with have in general a huge digital culture and get informed about contemporary art through internet; furthermore NO SPACE has developed a Tumblr page to present artists, artworks and promote their concept. The couple's objective is to give a real alternative to what is seen now in typical galleries or showrooms placing art in the heart of the exhibition, thus dropping "the social or political engagement that we have seen on the last ten years". The curatorial approach they push for is to show works as a whole and not focusing on a name or one piece in particular; that's why Andrew and Débora decided not to place descriptive texts near the artworks, letting visitors concentrate on what is really important: the art. The same rigor is attached to the openings: "we open exhibition only during the day and do not serve alcohol. We don't want to do a party with the art just in background" says Débora. NO SPACE's program involves as well Mexican artists like Aldo Chaparro, already known in Mexico, as international ones like Gregor Rozanski a Polish artist living in Berlin and of course Andrew's and Débora's works. Although NO SPACE's ironic branding clearly translates its positioning, this type of self-financing is not an isolated case. Lots of American artists have crossed the border to give a try in the Mexican capital: living is cheap, space is abundant and the art sphere is getting more and more predominant. A symbol of this growing interest for Mexico City as a contemporary art hotspot is the number of American art dealers who have opened an office in Mexico, and vice versa, many Mexican galleries are opening bureaus in New-York or Los Angeles, thus their are able to work with artists more easily and represent them in both countries.
To confirm its new status and compete next to big art hubs like Berlin or Brussels, the city is also reinforcing its offer in contemporary art; the Museo Tamayo in Chapultapec Park reopened in August 2012 after a year of remodeling and hiring as its new curator Julieta González previously the curator in charge of the Latin America department at the Tate Modern in London. But other museums complete Mexico City's expansion such as Museo de Arte Moderna (MAM), Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC) on the campus of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) in the south of the city or smaller institutions like El Chopo in San Rafael or Museo Experimental El Eco on Reforma.
The opening of Museo Jumex arrives just in time to make Mexico City the next shining star of contemporary art.
We asked 4 questions to Patrick Charpenel, curator of Museo Jumex
Nomad : Why did you decide to open this museum when Fundación Jumex already exists?
Patrick Charpenel: Actually this project for the museum started to take form slowly. Since we opened the foundation in Ecatepec (located out of Mexico City), Eugenio López thought it was important to extend an executive platform of Fundación Jumex in a centric area and well connected with the city of Mexico.
Nomad : The Jumex collection is one of the most important in Latin America. Do you think it is part of its role to bring a new alternative in this region of the world ?
Patrick Charpenel : I am sure that Mexico City is a major place in contemporary art, with a winded infrastructure. Nevertheless there are not so many institutions that manage to gather representative collections about what has been done these last ten years, which gives us a huge responsibility with the pieces we own ; they not only contribute to enrich the mission of the Foundation but can also complete other institutions' collections.
Nomad : What's your point of view about Mexico City within the contemporary art ?
Patrick Charpenel : I am sure that Mexico City is a major place in contemporary art, with a winded infrastructure. Furthermore, the creation of new cultural spaces and centers have been growing and is now giving form to one of the strongest creation, exhibition and diffusion hubs in the world.
Nomad : What's the curatorial program for Museo Jumex this coming year ?
P.C. : I can tell you that the coming program reflects the complexity of our collection where besides exhibiting, we also propose publications, investigation, educational and social projects. After the opening program, we will present works from Coleccion Jumex curated by Michel Blancsubé ; 1/2 An Autobiography from the artist James Lee Byars will last until April to leave the place for a big show of Cy Twombly.