Art in Oaxaca, Mexico

About a year ago when in Dali, China I was asked if I'd like to create something for an art exhibition in Kunming. It was all fairly random how it came about. After some thought I declined the opportunity because i felt I had no time, no ideas for what to do and I suppose I was a little intimidated as there were lots of real artists from all over the world exhibiting their work.


Well almost a year I unknowingly ended up creating something for an exhibition in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Lino Print in an Exhibition in Oaxaca.

The story isn't as interesting or as random as China but here's what happened. By chance I came across an art studio in Oaxaca and got talking to the ower. When I called around I really liked the place and the artists work. There was lots of printing, silkscreen and lino both of which I am a fan. I met some interesting people there too so I decided I'd spend a few days there and work on a lino print. I figured it was a good opportunity to do something creative and also practice some Spanish.


I had plenty of sketches from my trip to choose from but I choose an old sketch that I did a few years ago based a photo I took on the Aran Islands. In heinsight this probably seemed a bit weird to everyone there, Oaxaca is a very cultural, artistic and inspiring place yet I was there doing a print of a boat scene from Ireland.

Armando!

In general I had a good understanding of what Armando was saying to me throughout the two days, I was probably understanding about 60% of the words in each sentence. Combining that with facial expressions, hand gestures and the context in which it was said I had a good idea what was going on. At the end of my last day when my prints were drying and I was cleaning up Armando said something to me.

The finished prints.

I thought understood but I figured I must be confusing something. I was pretty sure "cual" meant "which" and I new "exhibition" was "exhibition". After some back and fourth I realised I had understood correctly. He wanted to know which print was going in the exhibition. I'd seen the posters and flyers for their exhibition but I never realised there was a possibility that what I was working on would be in it.

Exposición Ishuakara

If you are reading this and you are in Oaxaca, you can check out the exhibition in cafe cafe on Col.Reforma, H. Colegio Militar 1010

10 things you may not know about Mexico

1. They don't eat or sell Burritos. (well not in mexico city anyways)
2. They do drink Corona and Sol but without a slice of Lime.
3. Their food is spicy, very spicy, spicer than any food I've had in Asia.
4. They like to drink beer with salt, lemon and chilli sauce. Weird.
5. They eat a lot of Tacos and you can buy them everywhere day or night.
6. Tortillas appear to accompany every meal.
7. Mexico has two of the world's three largest pyramids.
8. They love Mexican soap operas.
9. If you do not want a full box of cigarettes you can just buy one cigarette.
10. They have metro carriages that are only for girls and children.

Mexcio City, Teotihuacán and Los Pumas

After 1 bus, 2 metros and 3 flights and 27 year hours traveling we arrived in Mexico city. Our plan was to stay for a few days. A few days quickly turned into a week and now I'm writing this on a bus to Oaxaca after 13 days in Mexico City. I could easily have spent another few months there.

So what did we do for 13 days in Mexico city? We took a few days to recover from Brazil, catch up emails, write some blog posts and make some plans for the next few months including booking a flight to Cuba. We spent a few days exploring the city, ate a lot of tacos, visited the pyramids at Teotihuacán.

Pyramid of the Sun

Pyramid of the Moon

We got to know some locals who showed us around. Everyone was very friendly, I believe even more so because we attempted to speak some spanish. I went to see a Spanish band play what appeared to be a blend of cumbia and folk music! We were a few metro stops away from UNAM the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México so we spent 2 days hanging out in the University. UNAM is considered to have the largest enrollment among universities in the Americas and it’s main campus is a world heritage site.

The Central Library

Mural by David Alfaro Siqueiros

Finally on my last day I went to see Los Pumas play in the olympic stadium. I never made it to a match in Argentina so this was my first experience of soccer in latin america. I've been to a few premiership games over the years but the atmosphere here was very different. And so was the security, I've never seen so many armed police and riot police in one place. We took a bus to the stadium and as soon as we got off it we were surrounded by riot police and searched. Then as we proceeded to enter the stadium we were searched another 2 times. The search was thorough, even checking the contents of your wallet. I figured it was best not to go taking photographs of the police but you can see some of them in the distance in the picture below.

Riot Police after the game

I was fortunate enough to be invited to the game by some locals who attend all home and away games so I was right in the middle of everything. Los Pumas won 3-2. The game started at 12pm and at 7pm the party outside the stadium was still going strong.

Los Pumas

The crowd throwing empty beer cups!