Blending international figures with Latin American galleries and artists, ZonaMaco founder Zélika García shares her insights for the 2023 edition of the fair
Mexico City and ZonaMaco
Mexico City has an artistic culture that runs deep in its veins and has been evolving ever since the Aztecs founded the city hundreds, upon hundreds of years ago. It’s this artistic culture that ZonaMaco aims to present to the world, along with headlining international artists and galleries to Mexican collectors and galleries. Founder Zélika García does this every edition with the ZonaMaco Main Section, México Arte Contemporáneo, ZonaMaco Diseno, ZonaMaco Salón del Anticurio and ZonaMaco Foto.
International Names Meet Local Talents
Visitors who congregate to the Mexican capital will witness different sections, representing emerging galleries and artists, along with more established figures. Ms. García stated that there isn’t one specific theme. She exclusively wanted to focus the attention on artists, especially from Latin America, as sometimes they tend to have less exposure than North American and European artists.
Focus On Latin America
ZonaMaco pushes to represent international artists to accommodate collectors and visitors coming from North and South America, but they focus on Latin American artists and galleries. Ms. García pointed out, «Not only Mexico, but Latin America, we are already in Mexico and have the geographical location». She continued, «we bring European, Asian, American galleries because our Mexican collectors want to see international art, and the international visitors want to see Latin American art».
Balancing the representation was crucial for Ms. García. In the end, ZonaMaco is a fair in Mexico and representing their talent is not only expected, but needed. «If we present eighty percent international artists and only twenty percent Mexican or Latin American, you could go to any art fair in the world and see the same», Ms. García stated when asked about how she configured the balance. She continued, «we need to support the galleries in our country as well as in our region».
ZonaMaco’s Contribution to the Latin American Artistic Scene
In 2002 when Ms. García established ZonaMaco, there weren’t many collectors and galleries in Mexico. In the beginning, there were mostly Mexican galleries with a few international entries sprinkled about. As time went on, Mexican galleries began representing international artists and vice versa. The combination started to grow and Mexican artists began to see more exposure in museums, galleries, and fairs around the world. Soon after, international artists began arriving in Mexico. Young and established artists then began moving to Mexico city, full or part-time.
«We have the platform, we have the support, we have the collectors, why not? We’re promoting culture in the end, not only a painting or sculpture», exclaimed Ms. García.
Since the launch of ZonaMaco, countless galleries have opened and been supported by collectors, whether they are corporate, old or young. «We have accomplished what was proposed in the beginning, which was to promote art collection because the galleries and local artists simultaneously help the local art scene grow», explained Ms. García.
The Jumex Collection has been by ZonaMaco’s side since the beginning and now they have a contemporary art museum in Mexico City, to serve as an example of how the fair has drawn attention to the Central American artistic scene and the change that has taken place over the past twenty plus years.
«In the first fair, we had around twenty galleries, now we have 210». In the beginning, there were only the main and younger talent sections, now they’ve added modern art, antique, design and photo fairs gradually over the years thanks to the rising interest of collectors.
Evolving with Times and Demand
Ms. García is attentive to global cultures. She listens to the change, what people and collectors want, and how she can adapt these aspects to ZonaMaco. The different fairs within ZonaMaco used to take place at different times throughout the year. However, Ms. García noticed that if she were to combine all the fairs into one big event, it would draw more attention and visitors.
SUR, The Global South Specific Platform
SUR, curated by Luiza Teixeira de Freitas hailing from Rio de Janeiro, is a section that shines a spotlight on the works of artists representing the Global southern hemisphere and will feature twenty-one exhibitors. This section celebrates practices and methods that have been developed in the southern hemisphere, and will be celebrated by galleries representing projects and artists from countries around South America, Africa, and Southern Asia. Another theme for this section is feminism. Visitors can wander at pieces embodying the concepts of female empowerment and the correlation between concepts that intertwine feminism with other ideals.
Main Section at ZonaMaco
This edition will see sixty-five galleries setup for ZonaMaco to present works of contemporary art from leaders in the global artistic scene. Within this section, visitors can marvel at a selection of pieces by Galleria Continua, JD Malat Gallery, Vistamare, Mark Hachem, any several others. As sticking to Ms. García’s quest for equal representation between Mexican and International galleries, about half of the galleries in this section originate from Latin America.
Arte Moderno Done the 2023 Way
Curator Esteban King selected twelve galleries that will present works regarding historical and iconic pieces that were created before 1950. Within the collections, the pieces will be from globally-renowned artists from their early or mid-careers. Some of the participating galleries include Galeria Joan Gaspar from Barcelona and Galería de Arte Mexicano GAM from Mexico City, to name a few.
DISEÑO Emerges
Under the artistic direction of Cecilia León de la Barra, this section of the fair will present a selection of jewelry, textiles, furniture, and decorative objects, alongside exclusive and historical pieces. Within this design fair, EMERGENTE will present a selection that aims to shine a spotlight on the work of younger designers. This new section will showcase over thirty projects.
Hybird Ejes
The EJES section of ZonaMaco is under the direction of Direlia Lazo from Havana, Cuba. Within this specific section, visitors can find exhibitions that are focusing exclusively on transdisciplinary and hybrid projects.
Ms.García ensured to point out that in this exhibition, there are more international galleries, but the majority are young Mexican galleries who can usually only attend ZonaMaco. Oftentimes, these fresher markets can’t afford to do New York or European art fairs and ZonaMaco offers them a global platform for visibility. Within this section, various diverse proposals and transitional spaces reflect today’s current «here and now» mindset, focusing on younger solo and multi-artists proposals.
Foto and Salón del Anticuario
Sara Hermann is the director of ZonaMaco FOTO, which is the section focused on artists and galleries in the realm of photography and film/video media. Within this exhibition, there will be eighteen galleries present covering a variety of themes.
For Salón del Anticuario, Alfonso Miranda curated the antiquities section of the fair. Within this exhibition, antiques produced from hundreds of years ago until 1960 will be on display.
Selecting ZonaMaco
The section committee is composed of members from five galleries based around Latin America. The Artistic Director Juan Canela is in charge of selecting the curators, who then generally remain on board for three years. From there, each section has their own respective selection committees.
The Main Section features six committee members from around Mexico, New York, and Brazil and they chose galleries based on different ideals, counting on the fact that they have a permanent space representing artists, so that way they don’t have galleries only doing secondary artists. They then edit galleries and presentations to avoid repeating artists, and aim to represent the best of each gallery through the artists they pick. If the committee comes across an artist that they feel may not be ready for the main section, they can place the artist and gallery in a different section.
For Modern Art, it’s about selecting the pieces but also the origin of the pieces and ensuring it’s good enough to be in the fair, especially when concerning Mexican modern art. That’s why there are curators in the various sections, to be able to present the best they can.
NFT’s at ZonaMaco
Globally, Mexico is known for having one of the most colorful and vibrant cultures in the world. Ms. García was keen to implement these cultural ideals within ZonaMaco. This year, there will be several conferences taking place during the fair, spanning an assortment of topics, but one that Ms. García proudly mentioned was regarding NFT’s. Not only will there be a conference, but ZonaMaco will also be giving out an NFT award. This award entails the production for a physical piece of art that will also be part of an NFT. It is the first time ZonaMaco will be giving out such an award.
«We need to support digital art», states Ms. García. Even now, while visiting art shows around the world, one can notice that there are few NFT pieces to see and the Founder of ZonaMaco took note of that. «We want to show every part of the artist’s work, we are not an NFT fair, but we try to promote as much as possible».
Ending off ZonaMaco
To celebrate the success of this year’s edition, there will be a party featuring DJ Bob Moses and Paula Pan. Ms. García continued to point out that around Mexico City, during the week of ZonaMaco, there will be museums hosting exhibitions, like Francis Alice and Alma Allen. In attendance this year, groups from the Guggenheim, MoMa, Modern Art Museum of Dallas, and others have all counted themselves in for a week of artistic globalization and assimilation in Mexico City for ZonaMaco 2023.
ZonaMaco
Av. del Conscripto 311, Lomas de Sotelo, Hipódromo de las Américas, Miguel Hidalgo, 11619 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico. The 2023 edition of Latin America’s most significant art fair, ZonaMaco will take place from February 8-12, 2023. Zélika Garcia is the founder and the fair will take place at the Centro Citibanamex in Mexico City.
