Everything is made in Mexico, from decorative mirrors to silver jewelry to plastic dolls and ceramic dishware--and contemporary art. Made in Mexico examines recent art produced within and about Mexico. Historically, Mexico has always welcomed artists and writers from abroad as a way of enriching and diversifying the national character. This publication examines the phenomenon from a contemporary perspective for the first time. Made in Mexico highlights the current generation of cultural production within the context of prevailing global and conceptual art vocabularies. Speaking within a larger dialogue, Made in Mexico includes international artists whose work does not necessarily come out of a local experience, yet draws upon a distinctly Mexican vernacular--whether iconographic, architectural, or environmental. Three themes structure the book's organization: "Local Identities" addresses how contemporary artists approach the essential characteristics of Mexican identity as projected through popular imagery, cultural iconography, and traditional art forms. "Mexican Modernisms" addresses the problems of modernist aesthetic ideologies within the context of Mexican architecture, design, and sculpture. And "Social Spaces" addresses artistic inspirations found within the environmental landscape. Included are works by artists such Francis Als, Daniel Buren, Andrea Fraser, Thomas Glassford, Erik G ngrich, Terrence Gower, Andreas Gursky, Mona Hatoum, Sharon Lockhart, Teresa Margolles, Yasumasa Morimura, Gabriel Orozco, Damin Ortega, Pedro Reyes, Sebastin Romo, Daniela Rossell, Santiago Sierra, Melanie Smith.

Made in Mexico

Arts & Photography

Claudia Fernández

FRANCIS ALŸS

Andrea Fraser

Terence Gower

Thomas Glassford

Erik Gongrich

Andreas Gursky

History & Criticism

Inst of Contemporary Art

<p>SOMETIMES DOING SOMETHING POETIC CAN BECOME POLITICAL AND SOMETIMES DOING SOMETHING POLITICAL CAN BECOME POETIC, which includes a film in collaboration with Julien Devaux as well as a map of Alys s journey, photocollages, paintings, drawings, and a group of sculptures, was exhibited in part at The Israel Museum in Jerusalem in 2005. The film, which revisits the artist s 1995 work entitled The Leak, shows Alys carrying a dripping can of green paint along the armistice boundary that Moshe Dayan marked on a map with green pencil after Israel s War of Independence ended in 1948. The piece questions the physicality and cultural relevance of the Green Line, its function as a social and spiritual division in the city of Jerusalem, and its role in the Arab-Israeli conflict. With this work, Alys asks: Can an artistic intervention truly bring about an unforeseen way of thinking, or it is more a matter of creating a sensation of "meaninglessness" that shows the absurdity of the situation? Can an artistic intervention translate social tensions into narratives that in turn intervene in the imaginary landscape of a place? Can an absurd act provoke a transgression that makes you abandon the standard assumptions on the sources of conflict? Can those kinds of artistic acts bring about the possibility of change? In any case, how can art remain politically significant without assuming a doctrinal standpoint or aspiring to become social activism? For the moment, I am exploring the following axiom: Sometimes doing something poetic can become political and sometimes doing something political can become poetic. Texts in English, Hebrew, and Arabic.</p>

Sometimes Doing Something Poetic Can Become Political and Sometimes Doing Something Political Can Become Poetic

David Zwirner

Francis Alys: A Story of Deception, Patagonien 2003-2006 (English and German Edition)

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

Christoph Keller Revolver Verlag

Belgian artist Francis Alÿs employs a broad range of media, from painting to performance, and his diverse body of work often explores urbanity and spatial objectivity through investigations of the tension between poetics and politics, individual action and impotence. Operating within the interdisciplinary space of art, architecture, and social practice, his idealistic and symbolic actions accentuate political challenges and anxieties. Central to this catalogue for a solo exhibition of work by Alÿs at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo are his actions at Key West (USA) and Havana, and at the Strait of Gibraltar. Included are essays by curators Yuki Kamiya and Kazuhiko Yoshizaki.

Francis Alys - Don't Cross The Bridge Before You Get To The River (English and Japanese Edition)

Seigensha

This catalogue is published on the occasion of the exhibition, Francis Alÿs: A Story of Negotiation. An investigation into the parallel activities of painting and performance. Francis Alÿs's art is centered around observations of, and engagements with, everyday life. His multifaceted projects include public actions, installations, videos, paintings, and drawings; the artist himself has described his work as "a sort of discursive argument composed of episodes, metaphors, or parables." Across these different media, Alÿs presents his distinct poetic and imaginative sensibility towards anthropological and political concerns. His actions have involved traveling the longest possible route between locations in Mexico and the United States to highlight the increasing obstacles imposed along the border; pushing a melting block of ice through city streets; commissioning sign painters to copy his paintings; filming his efforts to enter the center of a tornado; carrying a leaking can of paint along the contested Israel/Palestine border; and equipping hundreds of volunteers to move a colossal sand dune ten centimeters.

Francis Alÿs. Relato de una negociación / A story of negotiation

MUSEO TAMAYO

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Books by FRANCIS ALŸS