Proyecto Coyote (Coyote Project), as the proposal is entitled, transforms Taller 7 into the studio of Estación Tijuana in order to “learn from Medellín”—to paraphrase the Venturi’s celebrated title ‘Learning from Las Vegas’— and from its processes of civic regeneration through art and cultural activism in response to the social and physical decomposition caused by “narco” violence in Medellín especially during the decades of the 1980s and 1990s.
More than a physical space, Estación Tijuana is a collective of artists, poets, writers, social workers and citizens from Tijuana that share a vital interest in generating dialogue and forms of being in community outside the limits circumscribed by violence, state politics, and the brutal Capitalism imposed on the border between Mexico and the United States since the 1970s.
Like other cities of the North of Mexico, since 2006 Tijuana has been severely affected by drug trafficking and the war against the drug cartels, as well as by decades of economic policies that have generated important vacuums in the social contract. Proyecto Coyote departs from the perception of a historic parallelism between Tijuana and Medellín, and proposes that during the last 6 years Tijuana finds a mirror in another place and moment: Medellín during the 1980s and 1990s when drug traffic, repressive politics, and civic crisis eroded the social and governmental structures that weave the fabric of a place together.
Nevertheless, during the last decade Medellín has generated other forms of civility and urbanism that today are an example of progressive politics through the world. Proyecto Coyote proposes that it is imperative to learn from their example, and analyse these advancements from a critical position, understanding that within Medellín critical questions are arising about the forms and means of addressing and encouraging real change beyond a sophisticated, media-savvy image of gentrified urban development. Although Medellín’s urban renewal programs and architectural projects have dominated the image of the city abroad, responsibilities and obligations between the government and its citizens in education, work creation, health and quality of life remain central questions in that city.
Proyecto Coyote is conceived around the potential of individuals to transform their environment. It is for this reason that we have invited to participate cultural producers whose creative practice have developed along three main areas:
1. Pedagogy: 7 of the participants work in universities and colleges in Tijuana and San Diego, California.
2. Cultural production: all of the participants in Proyecto Coyote have long and proven trajectories as cultural produces of diverse, often socially involved, programs, artworks, organizations and projects.
3. Urban improvement: several of the participants actively work generating new proposals for the use of public space through processes of design, urbanism, architecture and urbanism.
Participants from Tijuana
Giacomo Castagnola: Architect and designer
Iván Díaz-Robledo: Video director and producer
Luis Juan Garzón Masabó: Visual artist, Professor of Drawing at Universidad Autonoma de Baja California, founder of Reacciona Tijuana
Socorro González: Chef and cultural producer
Ingrid Hernández: Visual artists, sociologist and pedagogy
Fiamma Montezemolo: Visual artist and cultural anthropologist
Omar Pimenta: Visual artist and writer
Gabriela Posada: Publicist, editor, founder of Reacciona Tijuana
Rafa Saavedra: Writer, and university professor in communication sciences
Gabriela Torres Olivares: Writer and pedagogy
Adriana Trujillo: Director, producer, pedagogy
Felipe Zúñiga: Visual artist and education curator
Organizers
Lucía Sanromán is an independent curator and writer. She formerly served as Associate Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, where she most recently curated Jennifer Steinkamp: Madame Curie (2011), Viva la Revolución: A Dialogue with the Urban Landscape (co-curated with Pedro Alonzo in 2010), and Here Not There: San Diego Art Now (2010).
Marcos Ramirez Erre. Artist, founder and director of Estación Tijuana. He obtained a law degree from the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California in 1982. In 1989 Ramírez began developing his work as a visual artist, since then he has participated in numerous national and international exhibitions.
In 2003 the haudenschildGarage was founded as a 21st century cultural search engine, pursuant of interesting work wherever it occurs and in whatever form it takes. Today, the haudenschildGarage hopes to transcend the 19th century salon and the 20th century alternative art space by providing a home away from home to all seeking to engage in cultural experimentation, play and conversation.
Taller 7 is an independent project generated by new forms of exchange through the exploration of alternative platforms. These permit the self-generation of collective work and new points of connection. It is sited in an traditional home in Medellín’s downtown core, and is established as a site meeting point for the realization of open activities that stimulate and strengthen dialogue that offers multiple points of view that encourage existing processes and new means of interaction. Taller 7 currently has the following members: Carlos Carmona, Mauricio Carmona Rivera, Paola Gaviria, Adriana María Pineda and Julián Urrego.
Proyecto Coyote is organized by Estación Tijuana and Taller 7 for Espacios anfitriones of MDE11, Encuentro Internacional de Medellín, in association with The haudenschildGARAGE. Additional support is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, el Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, Instituto de Cultura de Baja California and Patronato de Arte Contemporáneo A.C. (PAC).
See presentation complete of Coyote Project
Website
Estaciontijuana.blogspot.com
More information
Artists’ initiative: Estación, Tijuana (inglés)
Marcosramirezerre.com
Contact
estaciontijuana@gmail.com
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