mexico renews itself - ProMéxico
mexico renews itself - ProMéxico
mexico renews itself - ProMéxico
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68 Negocios ProMéxico | The Lifestyle Negocios ProMéxico | The Lifestyle 69<br />
“The city is hanging on a<br />
thread and we all live on top<br />
of it, like tightrope walkers.<br />
What shores the city up is<br />
culture and history.”<br />
tator. All that “Don’t Touch”, “Don’t Walk”, “Keep Your Distance”,<br />
“Don’t Cross the Line” messages create an atmosphere so formal<br />
and aseptic it can often be a turn off.<br />
But here it’s completely different. It’s a place with existing<br />
décor –wallpaper, mirror carpet, furniture–, which makes it a<br />
challenge in the sense that all the pieces have to interact with<br />
their surroundings, and during the course of that dialogue each<br />
piece acquires new meaning.<br />
It’s exciting to have two exhibitions showing at the same time<br />
in the same city, but in such different contexts. I’m showing at<br />
Mycellium Ingenium and I also have an exhibit, Al son del agave<br />
(To the Sound of the Agave), at the Tequila and Mezcal Museum<br />
(MUTEM) in Plaza Garibaldi; two very different, but equally<br />
interesting venues.<br />
—What’s next for Bestabée Romero?<br />
I want to continue doing public art. The most I can wish for is to<br />
see my dreams take shape. I’ve already seen many of my paper<br />
sketches materialized on Paseo de la Reforma in Mexico City, but<br />
I have many other ideas I’d like to see come to fruition.<br />
Right now I have an interesting idea for a Ferris wheel depicting<br />
the different roles the vocho [the classic Volkswagen sedan]<br />
has played: as a taxi in Mexico City, as the first car a woman has<br />
ever owned, as a student’s car, etc. I’d like to build it down below,<br />
in front of Torre Mayor. I think it’s a very doable, fun, human<br />
piece that will help make contemporary art more accessible to<br />
people. n<br />
“I believe you have to work<br />
on both fronts: locally<br />
and globally.”<br />
about mycellium ingenium<br />
Located on the 51st floor of Torre Mayor in<br />
Mexico City, the Mycellium Ingenium Gallery<br />
was created to provide common ground for<br />
artists, politicians and entrepreneurs. Its<br />
curator, Adriana María Martínez, is convinced<br />
there is nothing more at odds with reality than<br />
thinking people with supposedly antagonistic<br />
personalities can’t come together and share the<br />
same space.<br />
Reforma 505, Piso 51<br />
Colonia Cuauhtémoc<br />
Mexico City<br />
www.mycelliumart.com<br />
As for cars, they have always been associated with speed and<br />
accidents. In my case, I seek to convey just the opposite. Every<br />
time I paint a piece, I do it slowly, as if trying to give the tire a new<br />
history, a history of slowness. My tires have learned to be patient<br />
again. In terms of speed, it’s a plea to make decisions about politics<br />
and culture slowly, with your feet on the ground.<br />
Art is a vehicle for reflection and knowledge and my work has<br />
to do with the demystification of speed. I take my tires in the opposite<br />
direction and set them in motion to imprint memories on<br />
them, recording everything that has been run over throughout<br />
history.<br />
—How did you become involved in art?<br />
I’ve been in contact with art since I was very young. It was an important<br />
path for me, but I think, to a certain degree, I traveled it<br />
out of disappointment. When I was young I wanted to study Philosophy,<br />
but in the end I opted for Communications Sciences. To<br />
be honest, I never saw myself working in the media; I preferred<br />
to focus on the research aspect, but I always felt very restricted.<br />
That’s when I got to thinking I wanted to create my own messages,<br />
so I went to study Fine Arts in Paris, then I studied Art History<br />
at the Louvre and then I came back to Mexico and did a PhD<br />
in Art History at the National Autonomous University of Mexico<br />
(UNAM). My communications background was instrumental in<br />
introducing me to the art world.<br />
—Why City on a Thread?<br />
The city is hanging on a thread and we all live on top of it, like<br />
tightrope walkers. What shores the city up is culture and history;<br />
memory is the point where the thread is strongest, allowing us to<br />
survive each passing day.<br />
—The 51st floor of Torre Mayor is a business center, not a<br />
conventional gallery. What challenges does showing at the<br />
Mycellium Ingenium Gallery entail?<br />
It’s really interesting. Because they’ll be site-specific to each exhibition<br />
space, the pieces have to converse with their surroundings<br />
in an unusual way. Ordinarily, when you show at a museum<br />
or gallery, the environment is very controlled so the work can be<br />
appreciated, although it’s often counterproductive for the spec-