The artist Héctor Zamora celebrates the life and joy of spring with an intense ‘performance’ in Tepoztlán

Reguilete

n “}},”video_agency”:false,”alt_image”:”Reguilete”},”url”:”https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/RIC43QO2LJCWRDQMIABUYMAFOQ.jpg?auth=9bcfd8a39c3f710cfa4511fab5e45d8b58e47b04c0c8f9c4d469bd1c0492fb2c&width=1200&height=675&smart=true”,”alt”:”Reguilete”,”ogWidth”:16,”ogHeight”:9});

It is the first time that Zamora presents a performance where the base is the fabric. To do this, he prepared a light blanket painted with colors that recreate the passage of the day, from the bluish black of the night, the orange of the sunsets to the intense yellow of the noon sun. The idea was that the volunteers, all dressed in black, wove the piece by moving the fabric between the housing openings. Zamora began the preparations for his assembly since the early hours of Saturday, when all those involved made several rehearsals so that the work will be perfect at the afternoon. It was the first time since the 1990s that the folding doors of the area occupied by the kitchen of the property, away from the room and the main bedroom opened. It was built on the ground tank, to ensure that it never lacks water in the kitchen. It is a beautiful architecture that reminds a star or a celestial body of the universe, a pavilion crowned with a kind of watchtower, from where you can contemplate the soft landscape of Tepoztlán, that small town south of Mexico City, a area of ​​rocky mountains and extensive forests that is a refuge of the capital that are lucky enough to be able to build there and move away from the chaos of the huge city.

Zamora invited a group of friends, artists and journalists to witness their new work. An excellent quality tequila circulated in the form of fresh cocktails that appeased the heat of spring. Before the initial presentation, the spectators were able to appreciate other works of the artist installed in the broad land of this property of Tepoztlán. Here it was Nseonenosesewhich consists of wind cones located in each of the cardinal points, a piece with which he was a few years ago as the best emerging artist in the prestigious Maco Zone Art Fair, in Mexico City. “Reflect on lies, how we can modify history at will or what we see in politics, which is manipulable,” explains the author. Another of the works is a series of white flags, a fragment of a piece that installed on a beach in New Zealand, composed of 500 of those flags that symbolized the fight of the Maori for their territory. “The white flag was used by the British colonizers to demarcate the space they were taking away from the Maori. Using it is a powerful provocation,” explains Zamora. I was also here Mobulas (2023), seven structures made with ceramic tiles created to intervene urban space. The artist came from presenting last September Emergencya frantic performance in which 600 vases ended trizas in the Madrid gallery Albarrán Bourdais.

When hot temperatures yielded and the afternoon sun began to give their sensual orange colors, the performance In Tepoztlán. The volunteers dressed in black then wove the huge colored fabric between the windows of the house, in a movement that made it constantly circular it throughout the pavilion. The fabric was interwoven with architecture in a chromatic contrast that highlighted softness and fluidity against the solidity of the structure. “This poetic gesture seeks to caress architecture in an ethereal movement, creating a contemplative and ascetic atmosphere,” explained the organizers. Zamora participated in a moment of the act, playing a huge drum while the sun shone with intense colors in what would be the beginning of the estate of the day. “The night ends!” Shouted the members of the performancewhile they threw from the dark part of the fabric, because each color marked the passage of the day. The powerful movements that penetrate the fabric with sensuality in the structure, the hoarse sound of the drum and the afternoon lights produced an intense, magical and vibrant experience. “It has been an arduous work,” says Arantxa Hernández, one of the volunteers, while sorbe a glass of tequila at the end of the presentation. She was one of the weavers, that is, her function was to guide the fabric to give them to different people to follow the movement cycle. “We practiced several times from dawn and every time it went better. Héctor wanted us to be relaxed, taught us to coordinate and measure our temporality, because sometimes the movement can go very fast, sometimes slower. It was a way of being in team contact,” explains Hernández, a young visual arts student.

Zamora devised everything as a ritual, which is always important in his work. “That form of work was integrated within my actions, in which I involve a group of people who collaborate with me to do the works, which become a very human process, which generates a very large energy and in that sense a spiritual dimension is generated within the same work,” explains the artist. “I am very interested in this action for everyone’s energy working together at the same time with a specific purpose, which creates a series of reactions that lead us to reflect on the rituals we have as humans and that can be seen very clearly in almost all the cultures of the world,” he adds. The artist did with this ritual in Tepoztlán an applause to life. “This piece becomes a celebration of spring, joy and enjoyment,” he said satisfied with a glass of tequila in his hand.

About the firm

See biography

Editor of the America El País Edition. For eleven years he was in charge of the coverage of Nicaragua, from Managua. Now, in the wording of Mexico City, it covers the news of Central America and education and environmental issues.