"It's just that the earth is hot," a lady told me during the Mushroom Festival, an annual event held in the central square of Cherán, Michoacán. Although her tone carried concern, she didn’t seem surprised: "It has rained a lot, but before that, it was so hot the spores couldn't hold out." We are at the beginning of hongosto*, and the fungal community’s reproduction is particularly scarce. Sporadic, in more ways than one.

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Manuel Forte, a Portuguese artist based in Mexico City, presents his first solo exhibition at Karen Huber Gallery. The show features works in various formats, combining painting, drawing, sculpture, and installation. The thematic axis is easily identifiable: rooms, interiors, and domestic spaces. Although this premise suggests a certain restraint, these works do not allow for a calm or restful vision. Instead, Forte sets in motion hyper-stimulating dynamics for both the eyes and the body, demanding an active and engaged perception. Entering these rooms means waking up and shaking off lethargy, prepared to react nimbly to shifts in gravity and speed. The challenge is to navigate these visual spaces at a steady pace, while maintaining a sense of calm.

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To articulate the past historically does not mean to recognize it "the way it really was." It means to seize hold of a memory as it flashes up at a moment of danger.

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How can we not just talk about a territory, but talk from a territory? How can we synthesize a conversation about a place characterized by canals, chinampas¹ , trajineras², tourists, birds, plastics, agriculture, injustices, fog, history, artists, community, and tradition? How do we learn about a place that is fundamentally fluid and ever-changing?

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