Los Angeles. —The Mecca of Cinema always has a new story to tell. In the city of Los Angeles, two themes have been in the air for several years, but due to the crises that are disrupting our times, it is necessary that they now take the spotlight that is usually reserved for the stars of fame: art and science.
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A woman interacts with pieces from the exhibition Sangre de nopal / Blood of the nopal, at the Fowler Museum, in which Porfirio Gutiérrez also participates. Photos: Pst and Especial
The city shines no matter what time of day it is, whether it’s because of its sunsets bathed in an orange hue or because of the lights of the endless cars that crowd the main avenues. Los Angeles is the second largest metropolis in the world. USA and it is where the largest Latino community in the country lives: more than 1.8 million people, 46% of the population, according to the last local census. Therefore, it is not a surprise that cumbia and salsa can be heard in the neighborhoods.
In fact, the presence of Latin artists, especially Mexicans, is vital to the region’s cultural scene. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is joining the PST initiative with the exhibition We Live in Painting: The Nature of Color in Mesoamerican Art, an exploration of the chromatic traditions of the pre-Hispanic world, its cosmology, and the techniques used to generate colors from tree bark, insects, or minerals from flowers.
“Mesoamerica contributes to the art world not only with its iconography and his aestheticswhich are unique, but also with their technology. For the Latino community, it is very important to see themselves represented in these cultural venues, when they came on foot; migrating at any level is an enormous effort, you have to put down roots again and this type of exhibition helps these roots grow,” explains Diana Magaloni, curator and director of the Art of Ancient America program at the LACMA.
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With her PigeonBlog project, artist Beatriz da Costa recorded, through the flight of pigeons, the air quality of some regions of California. Photos: from Pst and Especial
Magaloni, who has researched color in these cultures for more than 30 years, says that through ceramic vessels, fragments of murals, stone sculptures and carved shells, this exhibition explores the techniques and materials used by these cultures, as well as their conceptions of art and image. The transformation of their world into colors. “LACMA is an encyclopedic museum, where we seek to represent all the cultures of the world. Having an exhibition dedicated to Mesoamerican art is a dialogue with other communities, but also from them to us,” she says.
We live in painting… brings together more than 270 objectsmost of which comes from LACMA’s own collection of art in America, but also houses archaeological pieces never before exhibited in the United States, some on loan from the INAH and the Amparo Museumsuch as fragments of murals excavated in Teotihuacan, clay figures from Tlatilco and a Mayan stela.
Regarding the controversies and demands from both governments and citizens to repatriate pieces of art, Magaloni explains that the works in the LACMA collection “were not looted, but I think the best way to defend this is to show the public the dialogue and collaboration we can have with Mexico and its indigenous communities.”
This initiative also has the participation of indigenous artists to revitalize pigment production practices. Porfirio Gutierrez is a testament to this resistance and lineage. He was born in Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca, but at the age of 18 he 17 years old He was forced to migrate and has made Ventura, California, a new home.
“Where are you from? Indigenous? People ask me in spaces where I have shown my work but which are very contemporary; what they don’t know is that I am also questioning the system. This dialogue was rarely opened; for a long time we (the indigenous community) were not invited to be part of the table. Now, these cultural institutions are giving themselves the freedom to look beyond,” explains the Zapotec-American artist.
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“In an indigenous community, there is no difference between science and art: they live and coexist, as we see in medicine and food. Science for us is something that we implement day by day. In the Western world, the vision of science is extremely narrow and there has been no opportunity to expand that vocabulary on what it means in these contexts. I am a scientist, chemist, botanist, farmer and artist,” explains Porfirio, who is also participating in another PST exhibition: Sangre de nopal / Blood of the nopal, from the Fowler Museum.
Another voice that is gaining ground in the Los Angeles cultural scene is Selene Preciado, who a year ago took over as curator and programming director of Los Angeles. Angeles Contemporany Exhibitions (LACE). Born in Tijuana and with a cross-border professional career, such as at CECUT, the San Diego Museum of Art and the previous edition of the PST, Selene is aware of the relevance and need for Latin artists to continue gaining spaces. “LACE is the oldest experimental art space in Los Angeles, it was founded in 1978 and it was with that spirit that the PST was responded to, selecting Beatriz da Costa. The connection with Latin culture is very important for LACE, because the initial group of artists were people who felt excluded from institutions and many of them were Chicanos or women who had no access to the mainstream.”
The exhibition Beatriz da Costa: (un)disciplinary tactics features the curatorial work of the Mexican Daniela Lieja Quintanar. A retrospective on political activism, technoscience, history and how it involved art to also make a record-denouncement on the pollution in California.
“The majority of the population of Los Angeles is Latino, but that is not reflected in the cultural institutions, in their staff, in who runs them. I feel fortunate to arrive at an institution where they support me and my work, but in Los Angeles there is still a long way to go. For me, it is important that the art we present reflects and represents the people we want to attend, that it is accessible, bilingual. For example, I think about my parents, that they can understand what we are presenting at LACE,” Preciado concludes.
