Mexico City´s Exhibition Spaces in the 1968 Cultural Olympiad: Showcasing Art in the Expanding City

• In Event: Cultura y Performance

Abstract

The paper focuses on the relationship between urban development and decentralization of the artistic production in Mexico City in 1964-1968. The development of housing areas in the South and the West of the city and the pre-Olympic construction of the roads led to the reconsideration of center and periphery of the expanding megalopolis and signified not only geographic but also political re-distribution of private and state-funded exhibition spaces.

The paper addresses the important and under-researched topic of how new exhibition spaces shaped the 1968 Cultural Olympiad. The Museum of Modern Art (1964) played a significant role in linking private galleries with the initiatives by the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (INBA) during the preparations to the Olympic Games. The Zona Rosa gallery (1968) opened as part of the Olympiad activities and hosted exhibitions by José Luis Cuevas, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and Rodolfo Nieto. The Pecanins gallery (1963) hosted the artists of the Ruta de Amistad organized by Mathias Goeritz and the Organizing Committee of the Olympics and nevertheless undertook a crucial role in the preparation of the Salón Independiente 1968, a groundbreaking independent exhibition sought as an alternative to the INBA-led Exposición Solar.

The paper also considers the influence of the political crisis of 1968 on the inclusion of previously marginalized groups of artists and art spaces. The research includes rare archival material and presents a map of the development of government-led and private exhibition spaces in the relation to the expansion of the city in the 1960s.

Author

• Svitlana Biedarieva, Courtauld Institute of Art/ El Colegio de Mexico