6.–21.1.2011
Jota Izquierdo: Region 4
Jota Izquierdo investigates “Yellow Capitalism” in Mexico
In his new set of works Region 4 Jota Izquierdo (b. in Castellón, Spain, 1972) presents a selection of documents and materials gathered and/or created throughout a wide-ranging research on the Mexican black market. Under the notion of capitalismo amarillo (‘yellow capitalism’) this multi-leveled project takes up and carries with it the forms of representation and underground cultural practices that spread from the renowned Tepito market in Mexico City to the rest of the American continent, as well as on a global scale.
Izquierdo is taking part in HIAPs’ production residency programme, and the Cable Gallery will host his exhibition from 6 to 21 January 2011. The exhibition is curated by Manuel Cirauqui, also in residency at HIAP during the Spring of 2010.
Although Jota Izquierdo’s research and analysis focuses on phenomena taking place on a global scale, the epicenter of the capitalismo amarillo project is the Tepito street market in Mexico City, from which a profuse variety of unregulated activities emanate in all directions. Known for its dense network of pirate traders, Tepito has earned a reputation for being a wild exchange area where the difference simply vanishes between the legal and the illegal, the authentic and the fake. Jota Izquierdo’s experience as an insider in this market for over two years shows us how wild and sometimes hilarious forms of commerce function as an important platform for cohesion amongst its neighbours and workers. It is a space for wild inventiveness at the core of the wild market society which has engulfed the globe.
Materializing in sculptures and multimedia installations (mainly video and sound), Jota Izquierdo’s work explores the constellation of products that Tepito generates and disseminates across the map of the world, together with the forms of popular life that they spontaneously give life to. The exhibition borrows its title from Tepitean jargon, in which Region 4 (normally used to indicate the encoding used for DVDs in Latin America and Oceania) designates all pirate products circulating within the Mexican distribution circuit. Most of them are produced and/or distributed through the Tepito market. Presenting several video documentaries, a wall painting and a collection of pirate mass-distributed materials, Region 4 offers a panoramic view of a paradigmatically wild economy, inviting us to rethink the opposed economic patterns that coexist in globalized societies. Through his research (partly theoretical, partly documentary and partly sculptural) Jota Izquierdo takes on concepts of authenticity and falsification in the contemporary market, forcing the viewer to question his own participation in it.
Jota Izquierdo’s most recent exhibitions include H.E.L.L.O. (La Gallera, Valencia, 2009) and Espectrografías (MUAC, Mexico City, 2010).
The exhibition is supported by:
