THE ROUTE OF FRIENDSHIP IS RUNNING INTO A BIG, BEAUTIFUL WALL, 1968/2018 MAKE BRUTALISM BEAUTIFUL AGAIN

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THE ROUTE OF FRIENDSHIP IS RUNNING INTO A BIG, BEAUTIFUL WALL, 1968/2018
MAKE BRUTALISM BEAUTIFUL AGAIN
La ruta de la amistad se topa con una grande y bella pared; que el brutalismo sea bello de nuevo

An PERMANENT open air exhibiton with 56 international artists curated by Rainer Ganahl, April 29th, 2018 – FOREVER

In 1968, Mexico City hosted the Olympic games which was one of the trggers for the rapid urbanization of the city. The event also served as a stage for a diverse number of protests, initiated by groups of workers and students in Mexico and elsewhere. In the years of the games, a symbol of peace, the Mexican government massacred around a thousand students, who were indiscriminately mowed down by government forces during prostests. Political tensions arose due to massive spending for the games and any resistance to improve the situation for labor and farmers in combination with state represion. To this day, there is still not full clarity and research only little acknowledgement of guilt from the side of the Mexican government and the special forces involved. The Olympics are also remembered for the US athletes John Carlos and Tommie Smith, who greeted their medals with the Black Power Salute, a raised fist and a lowered head.

Mexico City also staged an ambitious international art exhibit with the telling name Route of Friendship consisting exclusively of large concrete sculptures that where supposed to be colored and placed along a newly inaurated highway. Today, most of these sculptures are still in place but have been absorbed by the city.

In this context Hegel’s idea of historical repetition as a farce is proven wrong one more time. Fifty years later racial tension in the USA are again in the open and expressed with Black Power symbols at sports events. Donald Trump, the most divisive president of the USA in many decades, is in the business of constructing a “big, beautiful wall with Mexico” and implements the exit from international trading deals that include Mexico and the rest of the world according to his “America First” logic. ALSO, while installing the exhibtion in Mexico, scores of stundent protesters where massacred in Nicaragua. (see REPETITION). All this is not a farce. It comes with the same force and ferocity and destroys lives the same way it did 50 years ago.

For this show, I take up the original idea of the route of friendship and invite artists to place works made of concrete along a new route. With no productions budget and no permits, artists are asked to install works clandestinely along a traced path beteween the Plaza de las Tres Culturas and The US embasy. The works are mostly made of concrete, and placed without an labeling in an undiscloed palce on the route to be absorbed by its regular surrounding. The show has no ending and some of the works that are less ephemeral are ment to be forever. It is the task of each participant to find a way to insert him or herself into public space through Mexico City along the newly defined route. Unfortunately, these new Friendship sculptures come in a time of open chauvinist hostilities, new political formations of fascisms and a rejection of globalist views of an open world.

The project space, LADRON galeria, (www.ladrongaleria.com) is documenting the final works - for a couple of weeks starting with a opening party on April 28th.

A publication will follow.

To few the origianl ROUTE OF FRIENDSHIP sculpture, see this amazing video- 1968 Route of Friendship Sculptures

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS

Maria Sosa, Mexico
Tlacuache Tlatilco, concreto blanco con fragmentos de obsidiana, glorieta de colon , 2018
Tlacuache Tlatilco, white concrete with fragmaents of vulcano rock in a round about Christopher Columbus

graffiti is saying: Fue el estado/ tu vida tiene valor mi cuerpo no tiene precio. It was the goverment/ your life have worth my body dont have price.

Damián Ortega, Mexico

Xibalba, 2017
Glass, blood build into concrete
The name of helll in pre-Columbian Culture

Ariel Schlesinger, Israel
Stolperstein
referencing the STOLPER STEIN - a couple stone placed in Berlin to commemorate the deported and mostly killed people between the 1930s and 1945) .placed outside the houses these people lived. . BUT WITOU t a name. .stoplerstein.. a stone that is n your way and makes you fall over

Chavis Marmol, Mexico

Alejandro Manzapereda, Mexico

Romeo Gomez Lopez, Mexico
Rolling Hole, Concreto, 5cm x 15cm 15cm

Katharina Göppert, Germany
YOUR UGLY SECRET

Daniel Perezcoronel, Mexico
Deriva, 2018
derive

Marcela Majchrzak, Germany / Poland
The real Kowalski

Francisco Cordero-Oceguera
Hoy fue un día soleado y te sentaste en tu piedra, Sísifo
Today, was a sunny day and you sit on your rock , Sisyphus
Cemento y hule, 15 x 15 x 15 cm

Lucia Hinojosa, Mexico

Todolotratocontigonohayerror, Mexico
(Alldealwhithyouandnomistake) - artist name
Big boys, big deals, big deaths, todo lo trato contigono hay error
Big boys, big deals, big deaths, All deal whith you and mistake no mistake

Anamaya Farthing-Kohl, USA

Ruxin Liu, China
survivors

Ivo Loyola, Mexico
Los arboles que no dan sombra
The trees dont give shadow

Leila Dendic, GB / Germany / Bosnia
Bloodshot eyes and yet no paycheck

Marek Wolfryd, Mexico
Monument to cerelism

Manuela Garcia, Mexico

Victoire Barbout, France

Fabiana Martinez, Mexico

Charlotte Glez,

Wendy Cabrera Rubio

Samuel Nicolle, France

Raquel Olmoss

Pamela Zeferino, Mexico
Intervención, Línea de 30 cm de chicle sobre estructura de concreto.
Intervention, Line of 30 cm of gum in concrete structure.

Monika Ehret
Miscalculation

Rainer Ganahl, USA / AUSTRIA
DRAIN STOPPER 1964 / 1967 / 1968, 2018

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related work made in Mexico
REPETITION, Mexico City 2018 or see directly on youtube
Celebrating Brutalism, MAKE BRUTALISM BEAUTIFUL AGAIN, A MANIFESTO, Mexico City, 2018 or youtube

Valentina Triet, Switzerland
eyeballs

Edgar García, Mexico
Máscara para postre
Peal for post

Yann Gerstberger & Nico Colón, French and USA
Minimental Tonayán Botella
Minimental Tonayan bottle

Uriel Lopez, Mexico
Bolivar

Antonio Gritón, Mexico

Galia Basail, Mexico / USA

Carlon Iván Hernández
Brutalismo, Apartador de concreto ubicado en eje central

Nestor Quiñones, Mexico

Andrea Medina, Mexico
Serpiente de cascabel devorándose a sí misma (uroboro), concreto y canicas

Ilazki de portuondo, France
Péndulo, Plaza de la información.
Péndulo pensado como indicador de tensiones políticas. (pendulo - tabique de barro - colgado en el medio de camino entre la embajada y tlatelolco)