Curare

The group’s name plays on the double meaning of the word curare: in reference to the Carib word for a plant poison used to paralyze the enemy; and to the term that connotes the designing of the exhibition of artistic works and accompanying its production. With this dual approach as its basis, the collective formed a type of “counterinstitution” that afforded the opportunity to challenge art and hegemonic cultural policy.

Over two decades, Curare advocated discussions on: changes in the way art was being disseminated, shifts in the perception of the Mexican and Latin American context from a global perspective and the growing demand to privatize culture. Among researchers, artists and art historians, the publication Curare is the collective’s most notable intellectual achievement. However, Curare was much more than its bulletin or magazine. This exhibition highlights the wide diversity of strategies that the group initiated within the cultural domain: expositions, publications, seminars, colloquiums, debates, curatorial consulting, historical reinterpretation projects, database and collection design, to name only a few.

This investigation also identifies those who contributed to the group’s reflections and initiatives, and it explores Curare’s criteria for action, which were continuously adapted in line with changes to the context in which they were launched.
 

Lastly, it brings to light the internal conflicts inherent in the history and critical nature of the organization and it explores the experiences lived by Curare members and collaborators who participated in the group’s development. Today, some thirty years since its foundation, this exposition presents the findings of the first look into Curare’s archives to offer guidelines for interpreting the critical frameworks used within the reflections made on modern and contemporary art in Mexico. More than simply presenting a hermetic interpretation, this exhibition offers multiple points of entry to learn about Curare from a dual perspective: as a response to a series of contingencies and as a catalyst for foundational events in the area of art criticism, curatorship and the historiography of art in Mexico.


Curators: Maco Sánchez Blanco and Jaime González Solís