Dr. Lakra, "Untitled (Sketch for Mural)"

Contemporary Conversation

Dios Nunca Muere examines a shift in the art of Oaxaca

At first glance, Deborah de Boer and Luis Hampshire seem an unlikely curatorial pairing. De Boer is the director and curator of Deluge Contemporary Art here in Victoria; Hampshire, along with partner Jessica Wozny, runs Ediciones Plan B, an art space in Oaxaca. While de Boer speaks quickly and excitedly, Hampshire is more soft-spoken, his words measured. But, upon talking to them about their upcoming co-curation, Dios Nunca Muere, it is obvious they are both passionate about the contemporary art of Oaxaca—even if they may not agree with each other all the time.

De Boer first visited Oaxaca 15 years ago with Antimatter Film Festival director Todd Eacrett, thinking it would be a one-time visit. “I came back and I saw photos and I wept like a baby because I wasn’t there,” she recalls. Now, Antimatter brings its Foreign Matter program to a theatre in Oaxaca called El Pochote, and she and Eacrett visit the city regularly. “There’s always been this sort of attraction and sometimes repulsion. There were times when I left the city and thought, ‘I’m done.’”

Part of that repulsion, says de Boer, was frustration with the Oaxacan art scene. A very distinctive style of fine art has emerged in the Mexican state and fetches hefty prices—but has created what Hampshire describes as a “fixed identity” in Oaxacan art.

“There is this historical idea of what art in Oaxaca should look like and people still promote the hell out of it and it’s so revered and protected, but to the point where it chokes off the oxygen, could potentially shut down any new artistic direction,” says de Boer, who met Hampshire and several other artists involved in his Edicones Plan B space about two-and-a-half years ago.

Dios Nunca Muere, which translates to “God Never Dies,” aims to show audiences that there is a new artistic direction. The 17-artist show, happening at both Deluge and Open Space, is representative of a new wave of Oaxacan artists—all of whom are exploring different themes, values and mediums.

“Some of them are really well-established within not only the national scene, but also commercially. Some of them are really young, emerging artists,” says Hampshire. “We have such a diversity, not only in the individuals, but also in the mediums. It’s not just painting or drawing or sculpture.”

Indeed it isn’t; from Hampshire’s own three-dimensional works to Arian Dylan Luján cut-paper creations to Saúl López Velarde’s slide projections, the artists use a wide variety of traditional and non-traditional mediums in their works. Noted Oaxacan artist Dr. Lakra will even be painting a mural on the wall of Deluge for the month-long exhibition.

“I keep joking that I’m going to need heroin to paint over it,” says de Boer. “We’re going to create this thing and then have to destroy it.”

“That’s the point of doing that. It’s ephemeral,” interjects Hampshire. “You’re doing that and then just taking it away. That’s the beauty of it.”

The city of Oaxaca is about the same size as Victoria, while the state of the same name, one of 31 in Mexico and located in the country’s south, is the poorest in Mexico and also has its highest indigenous population. De Boer says the state is also known for being rich in both its resources and biodiversity.

“There’s so much to offer, but everything is endangered,” she says.

Oaxaca was also the site of huge and violent protests back in 2006, which resulted in at least 17 deaths—including that of American Indymedia journalist Brad Will—and went on for seven months. While Hampshire says the events did draw attention to some forms of “resistance art,” the shift in Oaxacan art began happening much before then—and that the art in the show may not be as immediately political as people are expecting.

“When you go there, these things get into your brain, in a way,” he says. “Somehow, afterwards, it creates a relationship with your life and that’s where the political stage comes. Because then you have to behave differently and you have to think differently.”

De Boer also feels the works will have a big impact on gallery-goers. “It’s going to be pointed and it’s going to be charged and it’s going to probably defy most peoples’ expectations,” she says. “But I don’t think in any way this work is remotely tame. It’s really explicit. I think the work is having a conversation with the other work—and they’re not necessarily agreeing.”M

Dios Nunca Muere
Opens 7pm (Deluge) and 9pm (Open Space)
Friday, April 2
Artist talk 3pm Saturday, April 3 (Open Space)
Deluge, 636 Yates; Open Space, 510 Fort
To May 1 • deluge.ws • openspace.ca