@irismexico Iris México
Iris México faced setbacks and surprises in the Conceptual Manifesto, but never gave up. Conviction and art always win! 🎭✨ #Art #Resilience #CreativeWomen #IrisMéxico https://wp.me/p3JLEZ-8Ak
I made the following post in 2005. The content was part of “lengua lengua”, electronic newsletter and blog of ArT&+.
They apply this solidarity to all their relationships, and they capture what they love and desire for themselves. Public love becomes part of their visual and emotional vocabulary. They gain power simply by realizing that the existence of love is the best strategy in war.
Harriet Rubin.
This text will be about anecdotes and “the quirks of the trade.” In March 2005, the Conceptual Manifesto presented two exhibitions of digital work, as well as three conceptual theater events (a hybrid between performance and theater). To achieve this, the volunteer team of Arte y más overcame setbacks, collisions, thefts, damaged works, miscommunication, staff shortages, lack of resources, nerves, and much more.
Hexen
The most recent presentation of the Manifesto was last Friday at “Hexen,” a café in the Roma neighborhood. We were invited by David Santa Cruz, who held a reading of his stories and called us to close the event. The invitation was informal, given at a party in February, and everyone said, “-Yes, sounds good,” but there was no “official” confirmation, so David decided to include us in the invitation. This way, if we didn’t manage to attend, he could excuse us citing “force majeure,” and if we did show up, we were credited in the promotion. Due to the “ambiguity” of the confirmation, Ana Campos, Karoll Rellstab, Mary Carmen Flores, Citlalli Becerril, Carlos-Blas Galindo, and I showed up, which was half the team. Nevertheless, we set up the show, developed “Manifesto Against Misogyny” and “Guerra Guarra,” a sound poem from the Manifesto Against War,” the audience was very participative, attentive, and overall we were pleased and left happy. In vain, we attempted to sell some color plaquettes that included texts about the Manifesto and reproductions of works for $5. The only success I had was when a woman did a “trade,” giving me a promotional triptych of her poems, which she normally gives away, in exchange for a plaquette. The country is poor. The good thing is that we managed to gather many supportive signatures, with names and surnames, for the Manifestos.
Like good gypsies, we carry our home on our backs. Manifesto on stage is a traveling project; anyone who wishes to invite us for a presentation just has to ask, and voilà! We coordinate, and generally we do not charge for the presentation. Among the “props” or technical support objects we carry in our official “Manifesto” suitcase, there’s a little bit of everything: a piñata, plastic bats, barbies, a lectern, a hat, 6 large pink bows, aprons with nudes, embroidered raincoats with national symbols, rattles, and bells, a jester’s cap, an adult disposable diaper, a pink rope, a painting of the Guadalupana, a mask, microphones, a tripod and camera, batteries, tools, etc. It includes a plastic banner we use as a) an announcement of the event on the venue’s façade or b) a backdrop for the action. In this instance, we placed it at the entrance of Hexen and took a photo there, sticking our tongues out, of course, even the piñata stuck out its tongue! The problem with carrying so many things is that sometimes they get forgotten; at the end of the event, we forgot the mentioned banner (which cost $200 Mexican pesos with a sign maker) and a tie. I hope we can recover it by returning soon to the café.
Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas ENAP (National School of Plastic Arts), UNAM
Days before, on Monday, March 14, we presented at the Autonomous Gallery of ENAP. We had mounted over 70 pieces by Friday. Between Friday and Monday, approximately twelve pieces from the digital work exhibition were stolen. Coincidentally, the glass door of the gallery was broken because a female knee smashed right there on the opening day. On the day of the event, I was on my way to ENAP from Villa Coapa, and I stopped at an OXXO to buy ice, disposable cups for the cocktail, and vodka for the nerves. I returned to “Rodelito” (my car), which was loaded with the Manifest-stuff, and received a text message from Odette Paz, who was responsible for coordinating the exhibition and mounting: “If you don’t arrive by 5 PM, everything is canceled.” Oops! That vodka was calling my name for the fright.
I arrived at ENAP around 4:30 PM for an event scheduled for 6 PM. Miriam and Juan, members of the Pantera Rosa and “administrators” of said gallery, had complaints about the logistics of the event, claiming Arte y más had not complied with the “policies of the space,” which had never been delivered to Odette Paz because they hadn’t finished drafting them yet. I silently thought it was impossible to comply with “policies” by guessing them telepathically beforehand, but I remained silent since my interest wasn’t to argue but to salvage the opening. They showed me the complaint of the theft made by the Panteras to the university’s legal department and insisted on canceling the event because the door was broken, and they wouldn’t take responsibility for the works any longer.
From the beginning, they were reluctant to let Manifesto mount the conceptual-processual-activist-digital works directly on the wall without the sacrosanct “frame and glass” and only accepted after our insistence that such mounting was important for us to demonstrate that we do not intend to sanctify the object but prioritize the contents and reactions. I assured them that if the reactions resulted in theft, Manifesto would assume that risk, recognizing that creating countercultural works generates resistance and often aggression. I insisted on proceeding with the event as planned, and to alleviate their concerns about the “gaps” left in the space due to the stolen works, I came prepared with extra works we could mount, and offered to dismantle all the pieces and remove the exhibition on the same day at the end of the opening. They agreed, and in record time, with the help of Pantera Rosa and Arte y más, by 6 PM, the restoration was completed with the new works, the cocktail served, sound ready, the gallery cleaned, and the protagonists of Manifesto—nine of us that day: Ana, Karoll, Mary, Odette, Janet Valverde, Claudia Hernández, Claudia Reyes, Roxana Acosta, and I—were organized about attire and program, etc. However, not a soul appeared in the space…
So, we headed to the “internal” radio station to theorize deeply about committed art and invite art students to come see the “best faked orgasm” in the “Manifesto in favor of pornographic art.” We inaugurated at 7 PM and began with “Manifesto on stage”: in favor of porn, against the complicit silence that allows anything to be called conceptual art, against misogyny in art, against war, protecting freedom not patriotic symbols. The audience dwindled every five minutes, indifferent to our ongoing event. Of those who signed our surveys “supporting” the manifestos, NOBODY wrote their full name; EVERYONE used pseudonyms, rendering those signatures invalid for Manifesto. An apathetic and disengaged youth, or simply shy? What’s true is that the snacks and drinks ran out. In the end, we removed ALL the works, packed our bags, and left, saying in sarcasm and consolation; “we’ve been kicked out of better houses.” Now, looking positively; we appreciate the experience because each presentation gives us more experience, we gain more understanding of the medium, some accomplices always appear along the way, Juan Carlos Aguilar published a note about the event in Crónica (national newspaper), and because we believe in and enjoy what we do.
And the theft? A) It was a form of censorship instigated by the administration. One could think this because when the current director, Dr. Luz del Carmen Vilchis, Iris México, on behalf of Arte y más, a non-profit independent organization, requested support from ENAP to present the Manifesto at the university, mentioning in that letter the advisers of the organization: Carlos-Blas Galindo and Alberto Híjar, the said director responded to the request addressing and sending the answer to Carlos Galindo from Cenidiap. Vilchis also attempted to prevent a student collective called “La Tiendecita” from organizing Iris México’s visit to ENAP. Furthermore, Vilchis has often cut the power, threatened expulsion, or penalized the Pantera Rosa for organizing parties and other student events. Apparently, Vilchis believes that a cultural bureaucrat should only limit communications to the governmental sphere and scorns independent collectives, seemingly suffering from a strange paranoia! B) It was an act of sabotage among students. Most of the stolen works are attractive images, i.e., “cute little things”; I emphasize this because many of the works of the Manifesto are pure text; “drama.” The sabotage might have been motivated by taste: “I like this poster and I’ll take it,” or spite: “what is this nonsense of little papers on the wall when if I want to exhibit I’m forced to use frames for photos and paintings?” or ignorance “who thought a text could be art?” or political apathy “and what do they want to change the world?” or internal disputes among student “cliques” “the Panteras were the director’s subjects, and now they want to pass themselves off as tough, what a joke,” etc., etc.
El Galerón
On March 3, Karoll, Mary, Odette, Claudia, Claudia, Alejandro, and an invited performer were at El Galerón (a space from Pánico de masas) in an event coordinated by RECIA, and they performed “Manifesto on stage”: against misogyny in art, in favor of pornographic art, and against the complicit silence that allows anything to be called conceptual art. That day, Janet, Carlos, and I couldn’t make it due to a car accident. When the day before (Wednesday) Janet informed me she would not be there early since she would perform herself that day at 7 PM in La Pirámide, I told her I would pick her up after her performance, around 8:20, to arrive at 9 at El Galerón. Yes, in a rush, from San Pedro de los Pinos to downtown in half an hour… I acknowledge that I was mistaken in this decision and that it would have been best for all of us to be there early at around 6 PM as we had agreed, to present ourselves at 8 and do the event. Due to the stress caused by this situation, there were several setbacks; at El Galerón, people were already leaving, and we—Carlos, Janet, and I—didn’t arrive with the “Manifesto suitcase,” and we never arrived since I damaged both hubs of my car in the process. What happened was that a huge bus (at least it looked huge to me) was on my right, so I angled slightly to the left, which was the contra-flow lane for the trolley, not realizing that the lane barriers are massive concrete structures flat in the direction of the flow and round in the contra-flow direction, causing the front hub to turn into a wreck and multiple dents on the rear one. We called the others by cell phone, who were already getting anxious to start and were the ones who saved the event at El Galerón.
Pulled over and with phantom orange plastic cones, we evaluated whether the situation warranted a tow truck or not, and we decided we would try to save it ourselves. Janet and I posed as “guards” armed with a flashlight and a water gun while Carlos changed the front tire, which was the most damaged one with the spare. It was tough because they had been installed at the dealership with mechanical tools. He sweated and got his hands dirty like a “art critic signing documents,” ha, ha, ha. He even wanted a little cushion so as not to get his knees dirty, but when he asked me, planning to give him the cloth I carry to clean the windows, he refused because it was too dirty. Of course, in the end, he thanked the existence of baby wipes that I always carry.
Janet felt terrible because she thought she was to blame, so I reiterated that it was my decision to embark on this Speedy González adventure, and it was not her fault, but she insisted that she thinks she has bad luck, so we joked that we would make a manifesto against the ghosts of the Teresa cinema! Ha, ha, ha. It hints at two or three readings with that phrase: the traffic ghosts, the theater old man, and the porno-specters that haunt from 10 to 10 every day. While we joked, two police officers were interrogating Carlos to see if he was drunk or had dilated pupils, but when they saw his reflexes were fine, they left him alone. Well, they could have arrived earlier to help us change the tire! Janet took the metro, and Carlos and I went at a snail’s pace to the nearest gas station, where they put air in the rear tire that was already flat, but the air kept escaping through the dent in the hub. And here, my instincts kicked in as I got out all pretty with pink sparkles in my eyes, heels, and cape on my shoulders attempting to stop the air leak with a Liverpool bag! Ha, ha, ha. Carlos almost burst out laughing but held it in. The good thing was that the incident drew the attention of customers at the gas station, and one lent us a hammer with which the man at the station straightened the hub enough so we could get to a tire shop. We kept in contact via phone with the rest of the team, who informed us that they managed to pull off the event while on their way home.
Days later, we developed some proposals that among others, and as long as the “quirks” allow us, we will implement to improve the efficiency of the project:
1.- The events of Manifesto on stage will be planned a month in advance, stating the day, place, and time, and notifying the whole team at least a week in advance.
2.- Any person who cannot attend must notify a week in advance to define the program clearly.
3.- The materials (props, bows, bats, costumes, etc.) necessary for the performance must be at the event location a day early if there is a secure place to store them, or at least 3 hours before on the same day.
4.- If someone cannot arrive on the day of the performance, the performance must continue as scheduled with the present team.
5.- All scripts must be learned by two people, ensuring there is a main and alternate for each role.
Another setback at El Galerón was that the works “fell” off the walls; we do not know if it was due to humidity or why, but the venue’s staff decided to “lift” the digital pieces the size of tabloids, which had double-sided tape, and placed them one on top of another with the adhesive from one over the print of the other! And so on, damaging irreparably about fifteen pieces. We insisted a lot on the recommendations for mounting and dismounting: when dismantling, carefully remove the adhesive and place the prints back-to-back. Many times, insistence is quite in vain since “for the journey” many people in the field, whether creators, officials, lawyers, etc., consider that if the work is not a “sacred oil painting,” it is simply a “trial,” a “sketch,” almost like “disposable paper.” For this reason, there is no legal figure in the SEP (Public Education Secretary) to protect a public art project and “hey kid, you can’t register a crime here,” and what to say about appraisers in our legal system! Who find it extremely difficult to believe that a complete exhibition of works in digital prints/paper can be valued and therefore insured or defended against damage and/or theft.
And More
We keep moving forward; we are receiving invitations for an event in May at a university and some other places in the city. To date, we have fourteen Manifestos and hope to present new features and surprises this year. As a curious fact, while over 50 male, female, lesbian, and gay artists have participated in digital work, public art, and online projects, being a plural project, we must acknowledge that so far in Manifesto on stage, we have mainly included women. Women are harnessing our energy to take part, to raise our voices, to defend freedom, sensitivity, and fraternity.
Original Publication:
Iris México. (March 25, 2005) Behind the Scenes of the Conceptual Manifesto. lengua lengua, electronic newsletter and blog in contemporary art of arT&+
Continue Reading:
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- Explaining Real Estate Dispossession
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