¿CUÁL ES LA HERENCIA MEXICANA DEL ARTE DE IZQUIERDA?

Abstract

This article was initially part of a self-published fanzine that was part of Nostalgia de izquierda. Fisuras a un loop político-estético exhibition at Saenger Gallery in Mexico City (2023). The collective Depois do fim da arte (Brazil), Tatyana Zambrano (Colombia), and Arhat Alejandro (Mexico) also participated in this exhibition. The exhibition analyzed the intersections between art and politics in Latin America. We referred to nostalgia to emphasize the condition of subjectivity in the face of recent cultural production, and thus problematized the absurd and tragic repetitions constant in our history (as in art), which seem to testify that there is no future alternative. The exhibition was an invitation to debate from the curatorship so we proposed a critical intervention for this purpose, based on the following questions: What is the Mexican heritage of left-wing art? This exercise comprised a fanzine, a series of posters, and some cards with 10 questions. All this production was produced collectively, that is, it proposes a crossing of hands, disciplines, and specialties. We divided the text based on three moments in Mexican history: the period from 1910-1940, the period from 1970 to 1990, to reach the present day. The text presents a brief note on the leftist culture developed in the national context by marking lines and genealogies, with the aim of asking about the present – ​​continuations, deviations, appropriations, renewals – of this heritage. It reflects on the limits of anti-capitalist art and what to do with the latent drive of fascism of a left-wing aristocracy that has prevailed for a century. Through these materials, we return to the organizational, technical, material, and pedagogical tradition of the same object of study while addressing the relationship between art and literature that fight against capitalism to end with a game of questions that invites dialogue.