Exhibition Report Arte: Territorios de Denuncia
Mexico
Consulte el articulo en español aqui.
ARC, in collaboration with the Tlatelolco Museum of Mexico City, and Safe Havens Freedom Talks (SH|FT), presented “Art: Territories of Denunciation” an exhibition running from April to September 2024. This initiative examines how violence stemming from climate change, state actions, organized crime, and corporations has led to the persecution and displacement of communities in the “Northern Quadrangle” region (El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Yucatán, and Chiapas).
The project was inaugurated on April 6 with the panel discussion, “Art as a Strategy of Defending Territories and Freedom of Expression.” Moderated by ARC’s Latin American Regional Representative Alessandro Zagato, the panel included Elyla (Nicaragua), Saúl Kak (Mexico), and Vanesa Rivera (Guatemala) — artists and activists from areas deeply affected by the violence of extractive projects, organized crime, and state complicity. In their interventions they reflected on the challenges they have faced being able to express themselves freely and the power of art for communities in preserving the lived memory of territories and defending their right to inhabit the land.
On a green dividing wall across from the ruins of Tlatelolco is a set of photographs in black and white, enlivened by bright cartoon characters. Inside the frames, butterflies and sea serpents huddle among gangs and help migrants to safety. Next to the entrance of the gallery, a room plastered in projections of a protest for water rights is turned blue and beige while sounds of chants and songs come from the speakers. In the corner of the larger space, a man dances through mud on videotape. Centered among them all is a map across the floor of the Americas, denoting in dirt where forests still lie.
Here in the airy gallery of the Tlatelolco Cultural Center, artists from across Central America have brought together their testimonies to the rapid cultural and ecological shifts happening due to increased industry and decreased protections within their communities. Among those represented in the exhibit are Mexican artists from Chiapas, the Yucatán, Tabasco, the south of Oaxaca as well as international artists from Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador. Over the past year, as violence and government censorship increased in the Northern Triangle, these artists worked with their communities to defend their territories, both physically and creatively. Out of these efforts, Arte: Territorios de Denuncia began to take shape.
The word territory that appears in the title should be interpreted “in the ampliest sense of the word” says Sofía Carrillo Herrerías, curator of the exhibition. Over the past year and a half she and her team have been researching groups who are responding actively to changes within their territories, creating “… a strong force of community activism which is accompanied by artistic activism as well.” But standing up to extractivism and violence is not without its cost. Herrerias notes that “the people who are the most persecuted and assassinated in Mexico and in Latin America are precisely these defenders of the territory.”
In June, two of the artists/defenders involved in the exhibition traveled to CCU Tlatelolco to engage in a conversation with each other about the impact of environmental and cultural changes happening within their respective communities. For Haizel de la Cruz Martín, photography has been a way of both recording the violence and destruction she sees leveled against her Mayan community in the Yucatan, as well as a way to preserve local traditions and community. For Franka Vaquerano, performance poetry and political fanzines are mediums she uses to explore Afro- and indigenous Salvadoran experiences and to support local women’s rights efforts.
“ I dream of a future of plurality, where there are agreements and disagreements, but in which we can construct a dialogue and accompaniment. I like to dream about a future where we listen more than we speak.”
— Sofía Carrillo Herrerías, curator
Apart from their own projects, however, both women place great importance on working with youth in their communities, using art to open conversations about their ways of life. De la Cruz Martín runs photography workshops for young Mayan children and is working to open an independent cultural center to promote Mayan artists and artistic practices. Vaquerano runs workshops in painting, drawing and collage for local children and teenagers in which she helps them explore their backgrounds and their relationships to the land. “For me that’s the most important thing: when we defend our own autonomy,” Vaquerano says. “And each person has a different vision of what that autonomy looks like.”
She continues to focus her solo work, contributions to collectives, and her community workshops on the idea of the body as territory, one that each person must understand in context of their own identity, history and the circumstances in which they live. For Vaquerano, protection of territory and personal autonomy are synonymous and imperative. De la Cruz Martín also focuses on the importance of the body and the land, working to bolster community ties and ecological awareness in order to preserve Mayan lands and ways of life. “These workshops in the communities with the children will always be something that fortifies my resolve, and that also fortifies a specific vision, not my own but instead the collective vision of us all,” says de la Cruz. For de la Cruz, defending Mayan territory means not only protecting Mayan lands, but also preserving the Mayan view and way of life.
Both de la Cruz and Vaquerano recorded their conversation about their work as part of Arte: Territorios de Denuncia, thanks to support from ARC. Herrerias and the artists featured in the exhibition hope that this project can help city dwellers understand the cost of the resources they consume, while raising awareness about the difficulties communities across Central America are facing as they fight for their communities and their homes. “I dream of a future of plurality, where there are agreements and disagreements, but in which we can construct a dialogue and accompaniment. I like to dream about a future where we listen more than we speak,” Herrerias says.
Featured artists:
Regina José Galindo, Vanesa Rivera, Jorge de León, Adán Vallecillo, Alma Leiva, Haizel de la Cruz, Saúl Kak, PH Joel, Ernesto Bautista, Melissa Guevara, Milena García, Ángel Boligán, Darío Castillejos, Víctor Solís, Franka Vaquerano, Sergio Prieto y Abbdel Camargo, Elyla, La Santísima Colectivo, Víctor Peña, Jessica Orellana, Anaïs Taracena, Délmer Membreño, Robin Canul.
Skye Robinson, August 7, 2024. Skye is a poet and academic researcher currently pursuing a degree at Brown University, where she concentrates on Comparative Literature and International Relations. She also serves as the Student Assistant Director at the Sheridan Writing Center, overseeing the 2024 cohort of Writing Fellows and offering peer tutoring across disciplines.