Maximo Gonzalez (Mexico City)

LOCATION: Various Locations around Austin

VISUAL ART

April 24th-May 3rd @ various times

DETAILS:
In Mexico, we can trace street vending back to pre-colombian times. There is evidence of a great market that functioned near Tlatelolco since the XIV century. Years latter Hernan Corts and Bernal Daz del Castillo wrote detailed and astounding descriptions of this market. Throughout the city we find smaller markets, although not less important, called tianquitzli by the indigenous. These markets would be the origin of what we know today as tianguis; ambulant markets that are set up one or two days a week in different parts of the city. These tianguis are a borderline between formal and informal commerce, considering they are in constant expansion.

What we call informal commerce has become a phenomenon of extraordinary dimensions, considering the continuous economic crisis that affects the country and the accelerated decrees in employment generation. By 2003 there were more than 3 million people occupied in this informal commerce and its growth rate was more than 10% annually, statistics that make us think that by now informal economy should prevail over that of formal commerce.

In Mexico City, behind the National Palace, the streets resemble an Aztec Calcutta, this is where informal commerce meets its climax. The streets are full from side to side, and vehicular traffic is put aside to give place to an uncanny flow of human mass. Here we find built up stands, vending carts that move through out the entire district, and what we call toreros which are people who present their merchandise on small blankets that can be lifted and hidden the moment a municipal authority appears. There are fast food vendors and slow food vendors. We can find beauty products, oxygen masks, domestic pets, cameras, cell phones, piercing, fashion apparel, plastic floral decorations, quincea era paraphernalia, pirated music, and cloned DVDs of the latest Hollywood film before it reaches the theaters. The range of products is truly astounding.

Fascinated by this immediate reality, Maximo Gonzalez became an avid observer of this cultural and economic phenomenon. Since 2003 he has kept a register of the possibilities of these vending stands with sketches, drawings and photographs. The array of stands is almost as ample as the products they sell. Gonzalez has captured anything from an adapted bicycle, all sorts of carts, tubular structures and collapsible sound studios. In most cases the nature of the product on sale determines the form of the stand. In Gonzalez's documentation we find he draws only the infrastructure of each stall, rescuing what would be the market structure that allows the economic activity to take place. He deconstructs the complex nature of this reality and presents it as a fragile truth.

During ARCO05 Gonzalez consolidated his project, presenting Changarrito as an alternative to the official gallery selection presented by the Mexican cultural authorities. With Changarrito Maximo was able to present a more accurate account of the vast possibilities that the Mexican art scene has to offer, and more than 60 artists participated in his makeshift ambulant contemporary art vending cart. Gonzalez would promenade throughout the fairgrounds with his cart, inevitably commenting on the commercial nature of such art events.

Changarrito is by and large an attempt to bridge the gap between high-end art collections and a commonplace audience that has no particular affinity to the art world. The project intends to present a hybrid mix of art trends; a heterogeneous collection of young emerging artists mixed with established ones. Thus the Changarrito's structure and content presents a credible reflection of Mexico's contemporary socioeconomic and cultural reality.

The Changarrito will be on display throughout the festival at various locations across Austin.