MEXICO CURATED - MINGEI IN TIJUANA

YOUR HOSTS

Verónica Hernández

Degree in Marketing from the Technological Institute of Higher Studies of Monterrey. For 25 years he has been dedicated to the generation of marketing strategies, expertise on real estate, design and art promoter.

She currently runs her own real estate company 9LAMAT. She is the founder of Be Love Projects, OBJECT, Mexico Curated and former co-founder of NERO48, these projects promote cultural exchange, the dissemination of Mexican design and its impact on the creative industry in the development of cities.

Ilya Haro

Independent art advisor and curator, born in Tijuana, Mexico, now based in Los Angeles, California. Illya is passionate about sparking cross-cultural conversations through contemporary art and design. With a background spanning the private and public sectors, she has led and produced projects, organized cultural field trips, managed customer relationships, and facilitated acquisitions for renowned architecture and design firms, private client collections, cultural institutions, art galleries, and real estate companies in Italy, Mexico, and the United States.

From 2009 to 2013, Illya served as the exhibition manager and curator of El Cubo at CECUT. She is founder of NERO48 and director of AGNTÉS, a non-profit organization, these projects promote cultural exchange, the dissemination of Mexican design and its impact on the creative industry in the development of cities.

María Di Maruka Morales
Born in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Mexico, and currently based in Monterey, California, MDMM is an interdisciplinary artist and Sociologist whose work is deeply rooted in her diverse cultural experiences. From a young age, MDMM developed a passion for language, urban glamour, and a nomadic lifestyle, which greatly influenced her perspective on contemporary visual culture.

THE TOUR

CECUT - Tijuana Cultural Center

What is the CECUT?

The CECUT is a cultural center in Mexico on the border, founded on October 20, 1982. It is the institution that concentrates the most extensive and diverse cultural offer in the northwest region, and the only infrastructure of the Ministry of Culture, formerly the National Council for Culture and the Arts, outside the capital of the country. It is committed to meeting the artistic and cultural needs of this population through programs that include various artistic expressions and themes of traditional and contemporary culture.

Its facilities are integrated as follows: IMAX Dome, Museum of the Californias, Showroom, El Cubo (three rooms with international standards), Temporary Exhibition Halls, Cinematheque, Aquarium, Rehearsal Rooms, among others. Covering an area of 3.5 hectares, located two kilometers from the border with the United States, it is the most recognized symbol associated with Tijuana and its inhabitants.

The Centro Cultural Tijuana (CECUT) was designed by the talented Mexican architect Pedro Ramírez Vázquez, who was also responsible for several other prominent Mexican architectural projects, including the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. The CECUT's design incorporates elements of modern architecture and is characterized by its large dome, which houses the IMAX theater, and its striking, angular forms.

El Cubo, museum space with an exhibition area of 1,500 square meters, undoubtedly offering the city and its visitors the opportunity to appreciate masterpieces of universal art more frequently, as well as various cultural manifestations.

The venue has high technical specifications to house art collections in its three rooms. It also offers multidisciplinary cultural events in its various areas, such as the Cubo Lobby, Terraces 1, 2, and 3, Mezzanine, and English Hall, now known as "Estación Vizcaíno," a space where you can listen to classical music and audio recordings of Hispano-American literature in the voices of various contemporary authors.a contemporary addition to the Centro Cultural Tijuana (CECUT), was designed by the Mexican architect Manuel Rosen Morrison. Completed in 2008, El Cubo is a modern structure that contrasts with the original CECUT building, adding a dynamic and visually striking element to the cultural complex.

La Frontera - Exhibition
El Cubo, Gallery 3, CECUT

La Frontera explores the U.S.–Mexico border and what it represents as a physical reality, geopolitical construction, and condition of being. Working in contemporary jewelry, the artists included present stories of geography, identity, and desire, creating profound relationships between concept and the implied wearer.

First mounted in 2013, the original La Frontera exhibition considered the border as the physical place where complex relationships between Mexico and the U.S. are most visible. Re-curated on its tenth anniversary, La Frontera brings together many artists from its first iteration with artists from the borderlands, deepening the ways in which the exhibition includes the lived experiences of transfronterizos.

The new La Frontera also occupies the space that it addresses for the first time. CECUT - Centro Cultural Tijuana presents this traveling exhibition in conjunction with a concurrent La Frontera exhibition at Mingei International Museum. The exhibition travels to CECUT and Mingei from its opening at the Stanlee and Gerald Rubin Center for the Visual Arts in El Paso, Texas, and the Centro Cultural de las Fronteras at Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua in 2023. Speaking to the border instead of about it, La Frontera signals the deep connection between border life and the body: here, you will find stories that are worn.

La Frontera is guest-curated by Mike Holmes and Lorena Lazard, with Jess Tolbert and Kerianne Quick of Secret Identity Projects.

Enrique Ciapara
Artist Studio

Since the early 2000s, he has been one of the most prominent artists in the Tijuana-San Diego border area, presenting his work in numerous group shows and solo exhibitions in museums and galleries in Tijuana, San Diego, California, Mexico City, Barcelona, Los Angeles, California, and Washington DC., among other venues. Among his most recent solo exhibitions are LANDSCAPES IN TRANSIT at the Pedro Coronel Museum, Zacatecas (2019), ENRIQUE CIAPARA at the Estación Coyoacán Gallery, Contemporary Art, Mexico City (2015), and TROMPE-L'OEIL at the Tijuana Cultural Center (2013).

His work appears in various catalogs of national and international exhibitions, such as OBRA NEGRA, An Approach to the Visual Culture of Tijuana, 2011, Tijuana Cultural Center; STRANGE NEW WORLD, 2006, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. His work has also been reviewed and analyzed in books such as De aquellos páramos sin cultura...(Three decades of arts in Baja California: from the retinal to the conceptual), Roberto Rosique, 2016; Cambio y permanencia (The open routes of 21st-century Bajacalifornian art), Gabriel Trujillo Muñoz, 2017.

He has been awarded prizes and distinctions in various art competitions such as the III Northwest Biennial (1991), the Baja California Plastic Biennial (1993, 2005), and recently won first place in the VI Pedro Coronel Painting Biennial (2019). He is currently part of the National System of Art Creators, FONCA, 2019-2022 edition. He works and resides in the city of Tijuana, Mexico.

Caesar’s Restaurant

Caesar’s is a renowned restaurant located in Tijuana, Mexico. Known for its modern take on traditional Mexican cuisine, Caesar offers a diverse menu featuring dishes made with fresh, local ingredients.

The Caesar salad is said to have been invented in the 1920s by Caesar Cardini, an Italian immigrant who owned the place. The story goes that on the Fourth of July in 1924, Cardini had a rush of customers and found himself short on ingredients. To accommodate the demand, he made do with what he had on hand: romaine lettuce, garlic, croutons, Parmesan cheese, olive oil, egg, and Worcestershire sauce.

Cardini prepared the salad tableside, creating a spectacle that delighted his customers. The salad was a hit, and its popularity spread. Over time, variations of the Caesar salad were developed, but the original recipe remained a classic.

As for the history of the restaurant, Cardini's was a popular destination for Americans during Prohibition, as it was just across the border from San Diego. Celebrities and politicians frequented the restaurant, adding to its allure.

Today, Caesar's Restaurant Bar in Tijuana continues to serve the famous salad, keeping alive the legacy of its inventor, Caesar Cardini.

www.latimes.com/food/list/best-restaurant-caesar-salads-los-angeles-orange-county

Object Mexico

Object Mexico is a platform that promotes Mexican design and art, offering a wide range of products from various designers and brands. Their online store features items such as furniture, jewelry, and home decor, all made with high-quality materials and traditional Mexican craftsmanship. They also have a physical store located in Tijuana, Baja California, and have been in business for almost 10 years.

Last week for Tijuana Design Week and World Design Capital we presented “EL BAILE EBRIO DE XOCHIPILI” by Martín Levêque. This French artist debuts in Tijuana, capturing the essence of Xochipilli's intoxicating dance with a variety of materials. His works explore the interaction between form and movement, celebrating the vitality of life and creativity.

His work focuses on exploring our relationship with objects and space, seeking to generate confusion among viewers and break the barriers imposed by everyday life. Through installations, sculptures, photographs and silkscreens, Levêque transforms the impossible into reality, in a utopian search that challenges the traditional tools of art.

In 2017, he presented his first monumental installation, "Sanctuaire", at the Mutek Mx digital art festival in Mexico City, as a tribute to the city's energy. This work then took center stage at Salón ACME in 2018, one of the main contemporary art fairs in Mexico, and won the grand prize of the Korean K Design Award competition in the same year.

Also making her debut as an artist Maria di Maruka Morales, in her artwork she reflects her ancestral connections to the Mayo-Yoremes, indigenous peoples from northern Mexico, specifically from the states of Sonora and Sinaloa. The Mayo-Yoremes have a rich cultural heritage, known for traditional crafts, music, and agricultural practices, and maintain their ancestral traditions despite modernization pressures. MDMM's connection to the Mayo-Yoremes instills in her a profound respect for indigenous and marginalized communities worldwide.

www.nytimes.com/2016/10/31/t-magazine/design/object-design-store-tijuana.html