Art & Public Practice | Mario Mesquita

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CRÓNICA DE UNA MUERTE DEL DÍA DE LOS MUERTOS

Collaborative work with Amy Ruvalcaba. The altar is dedicated to the (re)appropriation of the día de los muertos legacy. In May 2013 Disney Enterprises, Inc. applied for a total of ten trademarks to secure the phrase “DIA DE LOS MUERTOS” or “DAY OF THE DEAD” for the then upcoming subsidiary Pixar film, “The Untitled Pixar Movie About Dia de los Muertos.” In true Disney capitalistic fashion, the trademarks would secure the rights for multiple merchandise platforms from non-medical toiletries to poultry, and everything in between. As a result,  Disney was met with scrutiny and an uprising of the Latino community via social media, which then prompted them to abandon their filings with the US Patent and Trademark Office.

Disney’s attempt is a culmination of the commercialization and misappropriation of día de los muertos. From it’s history as a communal/familial time of reflection and honoring of one’s ancestors over a series of days which warranted weeks of preparation, to modern day events which last a few hours and many Americans actively confuse as an extension of Halloween, to the patenting of the name of this holiday for the sake of peddling the wares of an all-powerful media conglomerate. 

The altar “Crónica de una muerte del día de los muertos” is a tongue and cheek altar which turns this appropriation on it’s head, by directly pointing out the consumption in an effort to protect the traditional legacy and integrity of this sacred holiday.

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Concina Abierta

Cocina Abierta is a nomadic experimental “test kitchen” that facilitates the fluid exchange of immigrant histories, culinary skills, and base building strategies towards the development of a worker-centered philosophy to eating ethically. While a traditional test kitchen functions as a laboratory for the creation of new dishes, Cocina Abierta uses the act of communal cooking and teaching as a methodology through which they gather restaurant workers and consumers in a space of dialogue.

During their research-based residency at LACE, the collective will prototype designs and interventions for a mobile kitchen, using Hollywood as their testing grounds. This process will allow the collective to develop a series of events, such as private gatherings and public cooking demonstrations, that will be used to gather restaurant workers, consumers, and Hollywood passers-by in conversation around the question, “what is ethical dining?” These roving interventions will also serve as spaces to acknowledge the immigrant and people of color workforce that sustains the Los Angeles restaurant industry, while providing a platform for the collective to document and bear witness to the stories of restaurant workers in Hollywood.

ABOUT THE COLLECTIVE The Cocina Abierta Collective is the work of an artist/community chef collaborative comprised of Christina Sanchez Juarez, Cayetano Juarez, Mario Mesquita, and Oakland Bautista.

http://www.welcometolace.org/exhibitions/view/cocina-abierta-collective-help-wanted/

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Dystopic Stories: Arizona

As the Artist in Residency at Combine Studios, from June 1-7, 2014, I invited youth to a collaborative brief writing workshop on the dystopic future of living in a state that has banned ethnic studies in the public school system. It was held on Saturday, June 7th from 2pm - 4pm, at Librería Doncelles hosted at Combine Studies, in Phoenix, Arizona. Participants were asked to think about how the lack of ethnic studies has effected the urban and rural landscape, neighborhoods, and people we live or interact with. Youth will participate in a collaborative authoring of future stories of youth living in Arizona as well as had the opportunity to design what an ID would look like in 100 years. Will it be necessary to carry an ID at all times? What kind of information will be required? Can an ID to a personal story? 

View more and read the collaborative story at the website Dystopic Stories: Arizona

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Otis Graduate Student Open Studios 2014 Getting to Know Your Neighbor: Experiment #2

This was the second iteration of the Getting to know your neighbor conversational table project that I have been experimenting with. The use of the table as a prop to facilitate conversation is explored in order to engage participants surrounding how one gets to know their neighbors/surrounding people. I questioned and wrote what sorts of questions or interactions solidify an in depth interaction with total strangers.

In continuation with experimenting on how to best use the table as a tool of facilitation to an experience, I decided to write questions on the table. They acted as visual prompts along with pens which initiated a call and response effect. While the few people wrote their responses I continued to ask probing question to get participants to elaborate on their experiences in getting to know their surrounding people.

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Ni Chana Tijuana

Getting to Know Your Neighbor: Experiment #1 “Ni nos conocemos los vecinos” (“We don’t even know our neighbors”)

Ni Chana Tijuana Tumblr Blog Otis Public Practice in Tijuana

This reflective project was inspired by group efforts of the MFA Public Practice first year students in Camino Verde, Tijuana, B.C. México. Ni Chana Tijuana unpacked what happened when a group of people enrolled in a Public Practice MFA must, for the first time, develop fieldwork within a community across the border whom they have only previously encountered through theoretical frameworks, methodologies taken from books by specialists, and abstract discussions. What happens when these individuals arrive to that community of flesh and blood, full of knowledges, problems and questions wildly different from their academic abstractions? What types of cross-cultural connections can be created with people who have experienced three decades of issues that are far beyond the understanding of the average social practitioner? Not one or the other, neither here nor there, ‘ni Chana ni Juana’ is an expression used in México to emphasize the ambiguous nature of a given situation. In that spirit, this exposition deals with the contingent relationship between these artists and Camino Verde.

The experiment was inspired by talking with local Camino Verde community leaders, such as Alma Teresa, who stated “Ni nos conocemos los vecinos” (“We don’t even know our neighbors”). Camino Verde has built much of its recent infrastructure with the backing of the community. Yet as that concept was explored beyond the surface, implied or assumed connections presumely binding the neighborhood fell apart. Mario created Getting to Know Your Neighbor: Experiment #1 to explore dialogue as a foundational gesture to allow people to exchange ideas, common notions, and understandings involved in creating community.

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Beard Shave

Statement

I, Mario Mesquita, plan to do a 10 minute performance piece, on October 3, 2012.

I shall be put on display in Field Work facing the public streets.

I will interact with interior participants in conversation.

Interior Participants will help facilitate this piece with their guidance and direction

on shaving my beard.

-An homage to the score and inspired by performance artists such as Tehching Hsieh and Mierle Laderman Ukeles to name a very few.

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Towards an Educated State of Mind

Towards an Educated State of Mind is a collaborative art project curated by Graduate Student Mario Mesquita, Art & Social Practice MFA Candidate, former Academic Advisor and Admission Counselor, and Undocumented Students in the state of Oregon. This collaborative effort is designed to create an area open to talk about the importance of Tuition Equity and the pursuit for higher education today for all.

http://2esm.tumblr.com/