SOCIAL ART
“Every human being is an artist, a freedom being, called to participate in transforming and reshaping the conditions, thinking and structures that shape and inform our lives.”
Joseph Beuys
TAE ARTE collaborates and hosts residencies with artists, philosophers, physicists, archaeologists, and cosmologists, among others, as well as local and international groups with similar interests. We work together on projects involving people from rural Maya communities and other segments of society.
Our goal is to increase resilience in individuals and communities by encouraging conscious environmental participation, revaluing their identities and cultural resources, and developing new viewpoints and possibilities about reality.
PROJECTS
We collaborated with Colombian artist Oscar Murillo, the Frequencies Institute, and the Kurimanzutto Gallery to implement an intervention project in schools across Yucatan. The project involved placing canvases on the desks of the selected schools' classrooms so that school students could participate (strokes, drawings, words, etc.). The end result was an expression collection. Furthermore, the project created an environment conducive to emotional well-being for the participants, demonstrating the creative and freeing potential of art as a method of expression of the inner world and contextual reality.
Our Cultural Ecosystem Lab, in collaboration with Jorge Pardo, MOMA, Storefront for Art and Architecture, Museo Tamayo, and Colectivo Amasijo, among others, hosted a summit on the environmental, social, political, and material components of the Yucatan Peninsula's lowlands (swamps). Artists, curators, anthropologists, scientists, and environmentalists gathered to discuss and offer solutions to ecological issues.
Photography: ©Martin Broen
David Stuart, the American archaeologist who deciphered Maya hieroglyphic writing, and TAE, collaborate on a program to foster awareness and comprehension of the Maya legacy among the culture's young successors. The course covers everything from basic epigraphy to their culture's historical and cosmic beliefs.
Deveron Projects collaborated with Colectivo Amasijo to conduct a residence in Hacienda Tacubaya, with the goal of exploring the land in search of edible species while constantly working alongside the local community. During the residence, participants explored several ancient practices, including making jícaras for food storage and learning about the Mayan backyard and fishing system. Understanding such an ancestral sustainable food system allows us to value the exchange of resources and art (cooking) as an example of teamwork in the Yucatan.
TAE and Mauricio de la Puente launched an educational program for children that invites them to discover the jungle through experiences like observing flora and fauna and listening to their sounds. Children find out the ecosystem rhythms and interact with space. At the same time, they learn to express a myriad of realities through their language that before they had missed.
This program offers weekly challenges to encourage waste recycling in a unique way. We worked with a variety of artists to create a series of dynamics and tasks that serve as examples for the public, demonstrating how to recycle and make the most of waste materials like plastic, paper, and food waste, changing them into functional and attractive items.
