I’m fresh back from Mexico City, where I’m proud to report the long-travelling charm show Joyaviva is now open! Or re-open, as the case may be. Last Tuesday I journeyed to Mexico City to attend the Wednesday night opening at the Museo Nacional de Culturas Populares in Coyoacán.
Opening speeches were delivered by by Tim George, the Australian Ambassador to Mexico, museum director Rodolfo Rodríguez Castañeda, Martacarmela Sotelo, one of the participating Mexican artists as well as the exhibition’s curator Dr Kevin Murray. As all of the speeches were in Spanish I assume that people only said nice things.
Eventually it was declared open, and we got to see the show! If you’ve been following along you’ll notice the much more spare design of this iteration, which really highlights the pieces. It’s a little low on context but hopefully the catalogue will help to alleviate that. There is also a mural reproduction of market in Mexico City that is the premier destination to buy all things pertaining to good and bad luck, and on separate occasions I was told it was a place best traversed with a local as your guide. Consequently I didn’t go – I know when I’m not wanted!
Turbo and I got into some in-depth chats with the artists about the show as well as Mexico City, a dominating topic of conversation given that we were amongst the few foreigners. I also got to hang out with the Mexican artists in the exhibition, some of whom like Lorena Lazard and Raquel Bessudo I had met before (thanks to SNAG 2013), and I also met Swedish artist Hanna Hedman, who is coincidentally in Mexico and teaching workshops about amulets there thanks to Otro Disegno. After dinner with Kevin we headed off to the studio of local artist and fellow Joyavivan Alberto, for a shot of Mezcal and some more conversation about Mexico and jewellery.
