La ciudad de Oaxaca se ha convertido a través de los años en un centro cultural de suma importancia a nivel mundial. Este crecimiento cultural se ha visto rezagado por mínimas iniciativas de profesionalización artística enfocadas a la formación y producción artística. Las nuevas generaciones de artistas nacidos y radicados en Oaxaca han tenido la oportunidad de formarse en gran medida gracias a las instituciones creadas al margen de los gobiernos cambiantes, en mayor medida las instituciones impulsadas por el artista Francisco Toledo. Desafortunadamente fuera de ese margen son pocos los espacios independientes que fomenten a la reflexión y diálogo comunitario.

La Curtiduría es un espacio cultural independiente fundado en el 2006 cuyo propósito es abrir un centro para el diálogo, intercambio y producción artística contemporánea en Oaxaca. Ubicado en una antigua curtiduría en el viejo barrio de Jalatlaco en el centro de la ciudad, con un espacio abierto de 300 metros cuadrados y un departamento para albergar a dos artistas. El programa esta estructurado a partir de tres ejes fundamentales: artistas en residencias, espacio para desarrollo de proyectos y exhibición de propuestas artísticas contemporáneas.

Misión

Crear un lugar de trabajo donde puedan compartir y desarrollar proyectos artísticos creadores de Oaxaca y el mundo, simultáneamente en las áreas de pintura, gráfica, ensamblaje, performance, video, instalación y demás medios de las artes visuales, que requieran de un espacio amplio y profesional para su desarrollo. 

Visión

Sentar la base de un proyecto alternativo autosuficiente y sustentable a través del arte, la educación, la cultura y el conocimiento y resguardo de la bio

diversidad, que trascienda en el tiempo y se constituya como un referente mundial en términos de beneficios colectivos de calidad. 

La Curtiduría

- a contemporary space for the arts-

The city of Oaxaca has been transformed throughout the years into a cultural center of high importance at an international level. This cultural growth has been ignored by the professional artistic initiatives aimed at artistic production and formation. The new generation of artists born and residing in Oaxaca has had the opportunity to form a group thanks to the institutions operating independently from the government, particularly those created by the artist Francisco Toledo. Unfortunately, there are few independent spaces outside of these margins that foster reflection and community dialogue. 

La Curtiduría is an independent cultural space founded in 2006, whose purpose is to open up a space for dialogue, and exchange of contemporary artistic production in Oaxaca. Located in an old tannery in the center of the historic village of Jalatlaco, la Curtiduría has an open space of 300 square meters and an apartment for housing two artists. The program is structured upon three fundamental axes: artists in residence, spaces for developing projects, and exhibitions of contemporary artistic proposals. 

Mission

To create a place to work where artistic projects from Oaxaca and from the rest of the world can be shared and developed simultaneously in the areas of painting, graphic art, assemblages, performance, video, installation, and other visual arts that require a professional and open space for their development.

Vision

To establish a base for an alternative, auto-sufficient, and sustainable project through art, education, culture, with an understanding and protection of the biodiversity—transcending time and constituting a global reference point in terms of a high quality of collective benefits.

La Curtiduría

When art is anything but trivial 

Blanca González Rosas

Founded in 2006 by visual artist Demián Flores and supported from the start by Alfredo Harp Helú Foundation, La curtiduría (the tannery) is a non-profit association, located in the city of Oaxaca which, in very little time, has become a place to create, exhibit, meet and discuss for the vibrant artistic community residing at such a beautiful and harmed town. Run by Flores and strengthened by the efforts of the arts and letters bachelor Olga Margarita Dávila as curator and of the visual artist Marietta Bernstoff, as person in charge of special projects, La curtiduría gradually consolidates its presence through merging projects that link arts with the needs, realities and everyday problems of this community.

The exhibition called El maíz es nuestra vida (maize is our life) has been at the Museum of Natural History and Environmental Culture, at the Chapultepec Forest Second Section, since August, 2007. This exhibition stands out both for its creative diversity and for its contextual appropriateness. It was organized by Marietta Bernstoff, who also works as promoter and social activist, and it shows 52 pieces by 48 female artists who live in Oaxaca. The exhibition is aimed at promoting reflection about the significance, from the point of view of economy, culture and nutrition, of the mystical grain in our country. Moreover, it discreetly alludes to the noteworthy relation between maintenance and female awareness. Through different manifestations, both traditional and technological, like conventional and digital graphic works, photos, videos, and installations, as well as pictorial practices, the artists deal with issues associated with the dangerous transgenic manipulation of maize, the rise of tortilla prices, the lack of governmental support to indigenous farmers and the cultural impact of such a highly-appreciated grain for Mexican identity.

Located at the museum of natural history, which under the leadership of Eduardo Vázquez, strives for the integration of both scientific and artistic models of knowledge, the exhibition presents us with works like Laura Blaconá’s watercolor paintings, which document our ethnic diversity through grains of various colors cut transversely. Also, Mari Olguín’s installation restates the perdurability of maize culture with 25 beautiful metates (flat stones used for grinding corn) from different dates in history, as well as the dramatic digital impression by Ana Santos which serves as testimony of the affective and nutritious importance of the tortilla.

Sponsored by Demián Flores, the community workshops for the population of Zegache, exhibited at the cultural center Casa Lamm, is quite notable both for its economic objectives and for the integration of contemporary art with the town’s handcrafting trades. Created on the year 2000 by the artist from Oaxaca Rodolfo Morales (1925-2001) with the purpose of generating job sources, recuperating traditional trades and preserving the artistic heritage of the town, some 20 km south from Oaxaca, the abovementioned workshops made up by 12 young artists have done a remarkable work reproducing the 18th century mirrors at the church of Santa Ana of Zegache. Best known for their cedar-wood red frames, painted in oils, with tempered gold leaves and fine silver appliqués, these mirrors stand as unique pieces, remarkable for the designs created and donated by 24 major contemporary Mexican artists.

Bearing attractive features, these mirrors are marked by the diversity of languages and poetics engraved on them, from the erotic imagery of Daniel Lezama, the geometric abstraction of Mauricio Cervantes, Francisco Castro Leñero and Gabriel Macotela, the allegories of Gilberto Aceves Navarro, the landscapes of Raúl Herrera, the fantastic references of Sergio Hernández, Óscar Bachtold and Dr. Lackra, the chromatic sensuality of Germán Venegas and the humor of Franco Aceves and Miguel Castro Leñero. These mirrors have been exactly reproduced by the workshop members in five-piece editions auctioned at 6 900 pesos.

Even if it’s true that both projects are quite interesting because of their contents and objectives, their core value resides at the sense of integration and social beneficial effects for artistic creation. A sense that serves as further evidence of the fact that art is mostly art when it is not trivial.

Translated by Rebeca Castellanos