Odeth Sofía, Gustavo A. Cruz Cerna & Daniel Aguilar Ruvalcaba

To close the first Curso de Verano de Arte Conceptual Mesoamericano (para gente que resuelve), Campeche presents Mesoamerican Conceptual Art Summer Course (For Folks That Get Things Done).

Over the course of six sessions, we gathered to chat, imagine, question, refuse, ruminate, chew, think, doubt, fantasize, propose, invent, inspect, experiment, uncover, flip, cross, leap, drop, lift, clear, worry, engage, negotiate, post-naturalize, prepare, recharge, darken, stretch, extirpate, babble, and dismantle. All in an effort to confront a contradictory intuition: Mesoamerican conceptual art.

The idea that the original cultures of these lands developed in isolation—without exchange with other complex societies—has shaped both Mexican anthropology and public education for over than a century. If, as Jesús Jáuregui argues, “Mesoamerica is not a scientific concept, but an ideological notion tied to the Mexican state,” then: Can we understand this anthropological category—and its aesthetic consequences —as conceptual art? A political fiction designed to bind the nation? A metaphysical control device that governs space and time, from ancient to contemporary Mexico? Where’s the exit?

Guided by Alejandro Magallanes, Job Samoano, Tatyana Zambrano, Benzoato de Sodio, Anacarsis Ramos, and Mili Herrera along with coordinators Gustavo A. Cruz Cerna, Odeth Sofía, and Daniel Aguilar Ruvalcaba (with support from Campeche), the 16 participating artists—Dani Cantarey, Adolfo Cisneros, Yatiní Domínguez, Jos SML, Montse Aquino, Hannah Sotelo, Montserrat Fernández de Bergia, Alessandra Dolores, Jysus Ramírez, José Herrera Bello, Victorio Castillo, Mariana, Bárbara Lázara, Valentina Huérfano, and Raúl Mirlo—, plunged into this ideological labyrinth.

At this final gathering, you’ll get a taste of the confusions that emerged from our conversations, treat your eyes to artistic gestures oscillating between play and hustle, and —if that weren’t enough— try some instant ramen, heuristically prepared.

–Odeth Sofía, Gustavo A. Cruz Cerna and Daniel Aguilar Ruvalcaba.