September 2021

SMARTFILMS

SMART FILMS

The festival’s structure is based on yearly celebrations and throughout the process, educational and activation activities are conducted to encourage people to participate and promote the film industry in Mexico. Anyone can do it and everyone can see it.

< Arte Abierto > welcomes this Mexican cellphone-made film festival at Artz Pedregal on May 2 for the launch of its second edition in Mexico: SmartFilms 2019.

https://smartfilms.mx/blog/se-acerca-el-dia-de-lanzamiento/

AMBULANTE

AMBULANTE

Ambulante goes to places that have limited access to screenings and education in documentary filmmaking, in a bid to build a participative, critical and informed audience, and to open new channels of expression and reflection in Mexico and in other countries.

Every year, for two months, Ambulante organizes an international documentary film festival that visits different states in Mexico. With an international exhibition of over one hundred films, approximately one hundred guests and more than one hundred and fifty venues, Ambulante promotes documentary cinema throughout Mexico. The tour seeks to widen the traditional exhibition circuits in the country, beyond the commercial film theaters so as to reach different groups.

As of 2019, Ambulante includes < Arte Abierto > as one of its venues in Mexico City. In May, < Arte Abierto > had an open-air screening of four of Ambulante’s documentary films at Artz Pedregal.

LA COLECCIÓN JUMEX

UGO RONDINONE (Switzerland, 1964)
LOVE INVENT US, 1999

Neon sign, acrylic, translucent foil, steel

In his artistic proposal, Ugo Rondinone uses “very basic raw symbols, something that everybody can relate to, from a child to an old person, from the East to the West.” His work emphasizes on creating an experience rather than conceptualizing or understanding it.

The rainbow is one of the most recurrent motives in Rondinone’s artwork. Since 1997 he has created large-scale signs with simple yet poetic messages. These metal structures shaped and colored like a rainbow, composed of large lit words seem to float in the air. This work seeks to be beautiful and fantastic; the rainbow is also a symbol used by the LGBT community and therefore this piece is about the freedom of loving whomever one chooses.

For Rondinone, this symbol is of special importance since it is a reminder of his long-term relationship with the acclaimed New York writer, poet and fellow artist John Giorno.

www.fundacionjumex.org

LA COLECCIÓN JUMEX

DAN GRAHAM (United States, 1942)
GROOVY SPIRAL, 2013

Two-way mirror, stainless steel

“My pavilions are always a kind of two-way mirror, which is both transparent and reflective simultaneously, and it changes as the sunlight changes. This relates to the changing landscape, but it also means that people on the inside and on the outside have views of each other superimposed, as each gaze at the other and at the material. It’s intersubjective.”

Dan Graham

Dan Graham’s pavilions are half way between design, art and functional architecture; they are built to create tangible experiences for the public. These works play with perspective and may even disorient the viewer, in a bid to question our everyday perception of spaces.

www.fundacionjumex.org

DANIEL BUREN

DANIEL BUREN (France, 1938)
DE LA ROTONDA DE LA FUENTE. CINCO COLORES PARA MÉXICO, 2018

In situ work, memorial to architect Manuel Tolsá

Marble, aluminum and colored glass

Daniel Buren’s work revolves around the abstraction of the form through lines and color; his artistic proposal is framed within the fields of architecture and urbanism. With his in situ work, he highlights certain aspects of the buildings and spaces he intervenes, and as a result he also has an impact on the landscape. Ultimately, his compositions address the relationship between human beings and their physical surroundings.

The artwork exhibited here was thought up and created to fit the central fountain of the ARTZ Pedregal complex. In doing so, the artist opened a dialogue with the space and its surroundings, by combining simple materials, geometric figures and solid colors that coexist with the water and the natural light.

AI WEIWEI

AI WEIWEI (China, 1957)
FOREVER, 2013

Stainless steel

Forever is China’s most popular bicycle brand and it has been mass-produced in Shanghai since 1940.

The sculpture consists of a series of bicycles tortuously exhibiting their iterative shape. It prompts a reflection on the individual in Chinese society, where little by little metropolitan growth has led to the emergence of other means of transport which have replaced the use of bicycles. Today, the urbanism of contemporary Chinese metropolis has left their utility and social status marginalized and diminished.

On the other hand, you can’t help but notice his reference to the ready-mades or found objects from the early 20th century, where the bicycle is one of the most recognizable figures.

TANIA CANDIANI

TANIA CANDIANI (Mexico, 1974)
KIOSKO SONORO, 2018

Steel structure, trumpets, tubes, concrete base

To create this interactive piece, the artist used as a starting point a traditional kiosk, and the social and cultural role it plays in the public square.

The sound sculpture reflects on the historic burden contained within this type of construction. It does so through its structure, which comprises a reticulated installation of trumpets, connected via rigid hoses to a single transmission point that can be activated by the public. The piece then acquires new attributions by allowing for a direct personal experience in a public environment.

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