The title of Mexico City–based conceptual artist Abraham Cruzvillegas’ solo exhibition at the Walker—The Autoconstrucción Suites, opening March 23, 2013—comes from the Spanish word for “self-construction.” It’s a type of improvised homebuilding undertaken by families—including the artist’s parents—instead of contractors or architects, relying on readily available materials and as necessity dictates. Likewise, found objects are at the center of Cruzvillegas’ art. In his highlights of the year 2012, the artist samples from literature, journalism, sculpture, film, and his personal life, which is the category of his year’s top moment: the birth of his daughter, Ana.
1.
El bajón y el delirio, by Daniel Hernandez
Photo: Daniel Hernandez
Translated as Down and Delirious in Mexico City (Scribner), Daniel Hernandez’s new book, published by Planeta in Mexico, is not about Mexico City, but about its people, chronicling the metropolis’ hybrid tribes of mutants.
2.
Jimmie Durham at M HKA Antwerp
Jimmie Durham, Jesus, 1992. Photo: Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen
A Matter of Life and Death and Singing: This comprehensive exhibition of works by Jimmie Durham at M HKA Antwerp brought Cherokee wisdom and deep know-how of the link between the hand and the mouth.
3.
Mario Santiago Papasquiaro, Arte & Basura
This remarkable anthology of poems is by Mario Santiago Papasquiaro, the poet who inspired Roberto Bolaño for his character Ulises Lima in The Savage Detectives.
4.
Post Tenebras Lux (Light After Darkness) by Carlos Reygadas
Winner of the Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival, Carlos Reygadas’ film is an honest piece on weakness, power, evil, desire, and the pursuit of happiness.
5.
Una carta para Adam Nankervis by David Medalla
Photo: Frente.com.mx
This new book by David Medalla, published by Alias (along with the Spanish version of Guy Brett’s Exploding Galaxies, about the artist), is exquisite. Founder of the postwar avant garde magazine Signals News Bulletin, instigator of the London Biennial, and president of the Mondrian Fan Club, the Filipino poet, painter, and performance artist shares with love his experiences—good and bad—in Mexico City some years ago.
6.
The Ungovernables at the New Museum
Hassan Khan, Jewel 2010. 35mm film transferred to Blu-ray, color, sound, paint, speakers, light fixture; 6:30 minutes (loop). Courtesy the artist and Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris.
Curated by Eungie Joo, The Ungovernables: 2012 New Museum Triennial included a great selection of works that will be emblematic of our times in a not-so-far future.
7.
Morir en México by John Gibler
In journalist John Gibler’s Morir en México (To Die in Mexico: Dispatches from Inside the Drug War), it’s possible to follow some lines of analysis about the state’s failure to provide security to the population while ultimately spreading terror instead.
8.
Null Object by Gustav Metzger
Photo: London Fieldworks
In his sculpture Null Object, Gustav Metzger creates a void to make visible many political points on contemporary Western culture.
9.
Crater Invertido
Screen capture of craterinvertido.org
The opening of artist-run hub Crater Invertido. Arranged as a cooperative and a political activist epicenter in Mexico City, it’s an organized creative force—one that’s needed more and more everywhere.
10.
The birth of Ana
Ana Victoria Cruzvillegas Carrillo was born on November 27. We call her “La Dragona,” as she was born in the year of the Black Dragon in the Chinese tradition. It happens only every 60 years!
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