The City Machine and Its Streets: Anomalous Ecologies
Co-organized by Chris Kraus and Mexicali Rose, with Artists Space
Sunday 01 April, 2012
4 - 8pm, $0
Artists Space, Books and Talks
55 Walker Street
Conference day two
In conjunction with the exhibition
Radical Localism: Art, Video and Culture from Pueblo Nuevo’s Mexicali Rose
The City Machine and its Streets: Anomalous Ecologies
Saturday March 31 – Sunday April 1, 2012
Artists Space is pleased to present a two-day symposium, The City Machine and its Streets: Anomalous Ecologies as part of its exhibition Radical Localism – Art, Media and Culture from Pueblo Nuevo’s Mexicali Rose.
Radical Localism is a survey and celebration of work created in and around the innovative Baja California community media center and gallery, Mexicali Rose. Located in the border-adjacent Pueblo Nuevo barrio, Mexicali Rose has forged cultural and personal connections between international and local artists, writers and activists and neighborhood residents since its inception in 2007.
Featuring conversations between renowned Mexico City journalist Sergio Gonzalez Rodriguez, Los Angeles writer Ben Ehrenreich, Mexicali journalist Sergio Haro and Mexicali Rose founder Marco Vera and hosted by Semiotexte co-editor Chris Kraus, The City Machine and its Streets will explore the existential and geo-political realities of life on the Mexican border and beyond.
Saturday, March 31, 4 – 8pm
"Postcard From Mexicali: The Gallery and Its Communityâ€
4 – 5:30 p.m
Best known for his coverage of Mexican national politics and the narco-wars, award-winning Mexicali-based journalist Sergio Haro will describe the unique context in which the Pueblo Nuevo gallery was born, and the synergies between Mexicali’s culture, local politics and daily life. He will be joined by Mexicali Rose founder Marco Vera and co-curator Israel Ortega, who also works as a curator at the Mexicali-based State Cultural Center.
"The Femicide Machine"
6 – 7:30 p.m
Renowned Mexican writer Sergio Gonzalez Rodriguez, whose investigations of the Juarez femicides inspired Roberto Bolano’s novel 2666, will be joined by Ben Ehrenreich to discuss his new book The Femicide Machine, published by Semiotexte Interventions. In it, Rodriguez extends his investigative work to a gripping analysis of how the anarchic confluence of global capital, corrupt national politics and transient labor has spawned the terror techniques of narco-warfare.
Sunday, April 1, 4 – 8pm
4pm "The Poetics of What’s Around: A Screening of Documentary and Experimental Films from Mexicali Rose"
Marco Vera will screen a selection of films produced by local kids and their artist-mentors at the Mexicali Rose media workshop. Films will include Paulo Aguayo’s Iron Boy: Luchador 100% Cachanilla, Gabriella Heinecke’s Vias de Vida and Edgar Moreno’s Sin Titulo.
7 pm "Reportero"
A screening of Bernardo Ruiz's 2011 documentary Reportero that follows Mexicali-based journalist Sergio Haro, and his colleagues at Zeta, a Tijuana based weekly newspaper.
Participants:
Reporter and photographer Sergio Haro Cordero has witnessed and documented social and political events in Baja California since 1985. In 1997, he co-founded and edited Seven Days, a weekly news magazine which he continued to edit after the assassination of Benjamin Flores, one of the magazine’s writers and founding partners. Haro received the State Journalism Prize for two consecutive years. A book of his photographs, Una Inquieta Mirada is forthcoming. Since 2008, he has been the Mexicali editor for Zeta, a Tijuana-based weekly acclaimed for its courageous and independent reporting on drug cartels and the Mexican political scene.
Ben Ehrenreich is the author of two novels, The Suitors (2006) and Ether, which was published last fall by City Lights Books. His essays, criticism and journalistic work have appeared in many publications, including Harper's, The Nation, and the London Review of Books. Ehrenreich was the winner of the 2011 National Magazine Award for feature writing. He lives in Los Angeles.
Israel Ortega Castro has worked as a cultural promoter for the Cultural Institute of Baja California, and is currently employed as a curator and installer at the State Cultural Center in Mexicali. As an independent curator, he has worked frequently with Marco Vera at Mexicali Rose, and at institutions throughout Baja California, San Diego and LA.
Sergio Gonzalez Rodriguez, best known to US readers for his cameo appearance as The Journalist in Roberto Bolano’s 2666, is one of Mexico’s most important contemporary writers. He began covering the Juarez femicides for Mexico City’s Reforma in 1995, revealing ties between police, government officials and drug traffickers. Assaulted and kidnapped by unknown assailants in Mexico City in 1999, and banned from the state of Chihuahua, he continues to write on these subjects. His non-fiction books Bones in the Desert (2001) and The Headless Man, as well as his novels and essays, have been published throughout Europe. The Femicide Machine is his first US publication. He is currently completing a doctorate in law.
Marco Vera is the founder and director of Mexicali Rose Media/Arts Center, located in one of the city’s oldest and most vibrant areas, and closest in physical proximity to the US/Mexico border. Initially conceived as an audiovisual production workshop for neighborhood kids, the Mexicali Rose project has grown during its five-year existence to include a community gallery known for its curation of eclectic art shows and cultural exchange. Mexicali Rose also hosts Las Palmitas Cinema Club, a forum for international independent filmmakers, and the Radio Pajaro Hombre Community Radio Project, set into motion to provide a free and uncensored communication platform for youth. As Vera notes: “These activities are born out of the necessity and desire for cultural exchange, latent not only in Mexico, but on both sides of the border.â€
Chris Kraus is the author of four novels and two books about culture and visual art. She met Marco Vera while researching her 2011 book Where Art Belongs, and has followed and written about the inspiring work of Mexicali Rose for Artforum, Artillery and May Revue. A co-editor of Semiotexte since 1990, she is a Professor of Writing at the European Graduate School.
In conjunction with the exhibition
Radical Localism: Art, Video and Culture from Pueblo Nuevo’s Mexicali Rose
The City Machine and its Streets: Anomalous Ecologies
Saturday March 31 – Sunday April 1, 2012
Artists Space is pleased to present a two-day symposium, The City Machine and its Streets: Anomalous Ecologies as part of its exhibition Radical Localism – Art, Media and Culture from Pueblo Nuevo’s Mexicali Rose.
Radical Localism is a survey and celebration of work created in and around the innovative Baja California community media center and gallery, Mexicali Rose. Located in the border-adjacent Pueblo Nuevo barrio, Mexicali Rose has forged cultural and personal connections between international and local artists, writers and activists and neighborhood residents since its inception in 2007.
Featuring conversations between renowned Mexico City journalist Sergio Gonzalez Rodriguez, Los Angeles writer Ben Ehrenreich, Mexicali journalist Sergio Haro and Mexicali Rose founder Marco Vera and hosted by Semiotexte co-editor Chris Kraus, The City Machine and its Streets will explore the existential and geo-political realities of life on the Mexican border and beyond.
Saturday, March 31, 4 – 8pm
"Postcard From Mexicali: The Gallery and Its Communityâ€
4 – 5:30 p.m
Best known for his coverage of Mexican national politics and the narco-wars, award-winning Mexicali-based journalist Sergio Haro will describe the unique context in which the Pueblo Nuevo gallery was born, and the synergies between Mexicali’s culture, local politics and daily life. He will be joined by Mexicali Rose founder Marco Vera and co-curator Israel Ortega, who also works as a curator at the Mexicali-based State Cultural Center.
"The Femicide Machine"
6 – 7:30 p.m
Renowned Mexican writer Sergio Gonzalez Rodriguez, whose investigations of the Juarez femicides inspired Roberto Bolano’s novel 2666, will be joined by Ben Ehrenreich to discuss his new book The Femicide Machine, published by Semiotexte Interventions. In it, Rodriguez extends his investigative work to a gripping analysis of how the anarchic confluence of global capital, corrupt national politics and transient labor has spawned the terror techniques of narco-warfare.
Sunday, April 1, 4 – 8pm
4pm "The Poetics of What’s Around: A Screening of Documentary and Experimental Films from Mexicali Rose"
Marco Vera will screen a selection of films produced by local kids and their artist-mentors at the Mexicali Rose media workshop. Films will include Paulo Aguayo’s Iron Boy: Luchador 100% Cachanilla, Gabriella Heinecke’s Vias de Vida and Edgar Moreno’s Sin Titulo.
7 pm "Reportero"
A screening of Bernardo Ruiz's 2011 documentary Reportero that follows Mexicali-based journalist Sergio Haro, and his colleagues at Zeta, a Tijuana based weekly newspaper.
Participants:
Reporter and photographer Sergio Haro Cordero has witnessed and documented social and political events in Baja California since 1985. In 1997, he co-founded and edited Seven Days, a weekly news magazine which he continued to edit after the assassination of Benjamin Flores, one of the magazine’s writers and founding partners. Haro received the State Journalism Prize for two consecutive years. A book of his photographs, Una Inquieta Mirada is forthcoming. Since 2008, he has been the Mexicali editor for Zeta, a Tijuana-based weekly acclaimed for its courageous and independent reporting on drug cartels and the Mexican political scene.
Ben Ehrenreich is the author of two novels, The Suitors (2006) and Ether, which was published last fall by City Lights Books. His essays, criticism and journalistic work have appeared in many publications, including Harper's, The Nation, and the London Review of Books. Ehrenreich was the winner of the 2011 National Magazine Award for feature writing. He lives in Los Angeles.
Israel Ortega Castro has worked as a cultural promoter for the Cultural Institute of Baja California, and is currently employed as a curator and installer at the State Cultural Center in Mexicali. As an independent curator, he has worked frequently with Marco Vera at Mexicali Rose, and at institutions throughout Baja California, San Diego and LA.
Sergio Gonzalez Rodriguez, best known to US readers for his cameo appearance as The Journalist in Roberto Bolano’s 2666, is one of Mexico’s most important contemporary writers. He began covering the Juarez femicides for Mexico City’s Reforma in 1995, revealing ties between police, government officials and drug traffickers. Assaulted and kidnapped by unknown assailants in Mexico City in 1999, and banned from the state of Chihuahua, he continues to write on these subjects. His non-fiction books Bones in the Desert (2001) and The Headless Man, as well as his novels and essays, have been published throughout Europe. The Femicide Machine is his first US publication. He is currently completing a doctorate in law.
Marco Vera is the founder and director of Mexicali Rose Media/Arts Center, located in one of the city’s oldest and most vibrant areas, and closest in physical proximity to the US/Mexico border. Initially conceived as an audiovisual production workshop for neighborhood kids, the Mexicali Rose project has grown during its five-year existence to include a community gallery known for its curation of eclectic art shows and cultural exchange. Mexicali Rose also hosts Las Palmitas Cinema Club, a forum for international independent filmmakers, and the Radio Pajaro Hombre Community Radio Project, set into motion to provide a free and uncensored communication platform for youth. As Vera notes: “These activities are born out of the necessity and desire for cultural exchange, latent not only in Mexico, but on both sides of the border.â€
Chris Kraus is the author of four novels and two books about culture and visual art. She met Marco Vera while researching her 2011 book Where Art Belongs, and has followed and written about the inspiring work of Mexicali Rose for Artforum, Artillery and May Revue. A co-editor of Semiotexte since 1990, she is a Professor of Writing at the European Graduate School.