Exhibition, Ofrenda de Día de Muertos, and collective creative session

Opening ‘Future Ancestors’
Thursday, 31 October, 18h
Goethe Institute CDMX
With an opening speech by Beatriz Paz Jiménez and quelites based tidbit by MASA

Artists:
Carolina Castro
Fransisco Toro
Venus Hermeneuta
Ksenia Guerrero
Graciela García
Rosa María Arizmendi Orta
Zoë Heyn-Jones
Beatriz Paz Jiménez
Janina Totzauer
Maria Justus
Pierre-Yves Delannoy
Analía Martínez
Pezi Novi
An Laphan
Paulina Nolte
Bhavani GS

Curators and initiators:
Beatriz Paz Jiménez and Janina Totzauer

Monday, 4 Nov, 10-14h
‘Archaeobotanical drift of Quelites. Chapter 2. Rapport: Colonia Roma’
Session for collective creation in collaboration with artist Leto Delgado (Quelite de Ciudad) and gastronomist Andrea Aquino
Walk with artistic practices such as drift, expanded literature exercise, and quelites refreshments 
The meeting point is in front of the Goethe Institute.
Free of charge 

Quelites are edible wild greens that supported the evolution of crops native to the ancient region of Mesoamerica. Ancestral Quelites have composted soil and sprouted for thousands of years, marking the agricultural calendar and filling the bellies in Indigenous diets. Their resilient nature meant that no efforts by former colonial rulers to replace them with European crops could prevent their sur- and revival. They thus symbolize an indigenous anti-colonial spirit. Quelites have already lived with and fed our ancestors, and with our mutual help they will continue to feed our children’s children.
They are our Future Ancestors.

On October 31st, the artists and researchers Beatriz Paz Jiménez and Janina Totzauer invite you to the opening of a very special exhibition „Ancestros del Futuro“ at the Goethe Institute in Mexico City. Artworks by 16 international visual artists and an artistic Ofrenda de Día de Muertos pay tribute to our beloved ancestors. By creating a collaborative exhibition, we want to rethink ancestry collectively, across borders, out of love and care, while mourning and re-signifying the kind of world we shape with our mouths and guts. We invite everyone to taste an assortment of Quelites and other native ingredients. Come and join the circle of life, from our ancestors to the future.

The exhibition will run from 1 to 19 Nov 2024
Mon – Fri, 9-18:30h
Admission to the exhibition is free.

More: goethe.de

_{Picture by Graciela García}

Artistic project to take nonviolent action to protect the land from extractive capitalist development practices, creating consciousness around the hegemonic concept of property. 
Within this capitalist worldview, land can be owned, sold and exploited. This objectifying conceptualization justifies overexploitation, deterioration of natural habitats, loss of species, and often denies access to the commons to the local inhabitants.

Communal Performance
Saturday 19th 2024
Peninsula of La Paz, Mexico

In most ancient cultures, land is not an object, but is perceived as sacred and sentient. She has thoughts, feelings and personality. It is not uncommon to say “What does the river feel?”, “What does the land need to be happy?”. Under this unity worldview, a person can choose to become a guardian of a space, offering their time and energy to keep that space safe. This is the worldview we want to reconnect with Guardians of the Land.

The territory chosen for this intervention lies in the vicinity of La Paz, Baja California Sur, México. In recent years this area has been under a lot of pressure from real estate development groups, with more than 63 megaprojects registered by 2020, each comprising 100 to 4000 hectares of land. One of these projects was recently halted by public demonstrations. However development efforts continue for this and many other megaprojects, so the need for resistance is stronger than ever which inspired the artists for this art/activism piece.

More: sustrato.mx/guardianes