Estacionarte 08

April 23 to 27, 2008 | Centro Cultural Tlatelolco, Mexico City

Deluge Contemporary Art and Antimatter [media art] have been invited to participate in Estacionarte, a prestigious contemporary arts festival taking place in Mexico City from April 23 to 27, 2008. This annual event features visual, media and sound art, with exhibitions, installations, screenings and live performances and this year features the work of over 50 invited artists.

Estacionarte 08 will be held at the Tlatelolco Cultural Centre using tractor trailers in the main patio for installations, as well as the Centre’s auditorium for screenings and two floors of the building for exhibitions and sound installations. Tlatelolco, a very significant place within Mexico City, is centered on the Plaza de las Tres Culturas, a square surrounded on three sides by an excavated Aztec site, the 17th century church Templo de Santiago, and modern office complexes. An important market district during precolonial times, Tlatelolco was the site of the Aztecs’ last stand against the conquistadors. In October 1968 it was the scene of the Tlatelolco massacre where over 300 student protesters were killed by police and army in advance of the Olympic games hosted by the city. The area suffered heavy damages and loss of life in the 1985 earthquake, with the collapse of entire buildings and housing projects.

In 2006, the former Foreign Ministry Building, designed by iconic Mexican architect Pedro Ramirez Vasquez, was rehabilitated and opened as the Centro Cultural Tlatelolco, operated by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). In addition to hosting a variety of exhibitions, screenings, performances and events, the Centro houses a permanent memorial exhibition on the 1968 massacre and the Andrés Blaisten Collection, one of the most important archives of 20th century Mexican art. Tlatlelolco, chosen by Estacionarte organizers for the role it played in the the student movement of 1968 and its ripple effect on the country’s burgeoning democracy, still represents a collective expression of the city and country’s rupture forty years later.

Curated around the festival’s themes of urban phenomena and the contemporary ruin, Deluge Director Deborah de Boer has selected the work of five Canadian and four international artists to be installed on the previously abandoned 19th and 20th floors of CCUT, alongside the work of other international artists. de Boer will include work from Tamsin Clark, Chris Gillespie, Madoka Hara, Lee Hutzulak and Daniel Laskarin (Victoria/Vancouver); Luis Hampshire and Jessica Wozny (Oaxaca, Mexico); and Mesora + Jimenez (Aruba/Mexico). Antimatter Todd Eacrett has curated two screening programs of film and video, Terminal Velocity and Architectonics, featuring the work of 13 Canadian and international artists.