Subjective mapping of Mexico
Summer 2009 — Autumn 2011
On the initiative of Moniek Driesse and Analía Solomonoff we developed the Subjective atlas of Mexico. Over the course of two years we organised four workshops: two in Mexico City, one in Oaxaca, and another one in Merida. There were also contributions from a distance which came from Monterrey, Juarez and Tijuana. In Mexico the atlas did not set rankings, it did not have a center. Each participant, each project could affect others in order to detonate different ideas. We worked under a rhizom model, which allowed us to develop the relationship among the integrants and participants of the project in a different way, which is shown in the content.
Workshop at Casa Vecina by Moniek Driesse, Analía Solomonoff. Invited speakers included Carlos Aguirre, Diego Mier y Terán and Tania Solomonoff, Mexico City, 17 – 28 August 2009
Workshop at Ule by Moniek Driesse and Analía Solomonoff, Mérida, Yucatán, 17 – 23 May 2010
The atlas presents a picture of what a mixed group of artists, designers, photographers and other sensitive souls living in Mexico at a certain point in time consider important. They have chosen subjects close to their hearts to use as starting points in investigating their cultural identity. The book constitutes an arbitrary selection of personal yet meaningful views of things the contributors consider to signify ‘Mexico’ or ‘Mexican’. When you look more closely, though, you find that these personal observations are less random than you initially might have thought.
Workshop at AAVI by Moniek Driesse, Annelys de Vet and an audio-visual workshop by Diego Gutiérrez, Mexico City, 28 September – 10 October 2010
Moniek Driesse: “The concept of identity is always evolving, it is not static. People create their culture and identity based on their day to day life. Mexico is located between the United States and Latin America. Two different forces that influence tremendously the day to day activities and the construction of its reality. At the beginning of the project I felt that there was a search for not losing the ‘Mexican culture’. This idea was confirmed when I listened to the stories of the participants.”
Analía Solomonoff: “We faced the prehispanic Mexico, the colonization, the modern Mexico, the class struggle, the borders, politics, the media, and other latent topics. This book allows to transgress a general scope, a common factor. Its reading is so plural that in the end Mexico explodes. i.e. that the scope of Mexico as a country limited by its Northern and Southern borders, and its latitudes vanishes. We can find one Mexico, and all Mexicos. This Mexico is the one reflected into the world, and the world reflected into it. We are everybody, and at the same time, we are me, you, he...”
Exhibition and discussion of process, AAVI, Mexico City, October 2010
Book-launch, Casa Vecina, Mexico City, 31 May 2011
Book-launch, Printroom Rotterdam, January 2015
Exhibition Subjective Atlas, as part of The Mexican Connection 'Defending Mexico’s Independent Journalism' in De Balie, Amsterdam, November 2015
Acknowledgements
The first edition of the Subjective Atlas of Mexico was printed in August 2011 in the workshops of Stellar Group, Mexico City. Produced by Moniek Driesse, Analia Solomonoff in collaboration with Casa Vecina (Mexico City), Ule (Mérida), Iago (Oaxaca), Aavi (Mexico City).
Supported by: Mondriaan Foundation (the Netherlands), Dutch Embassy in Mexico, Fundación/Colección Jumex
Awarded Henry van de Velde label 2012 (Belgium)
