UPCOMING EVENTS  

CURRENTLY ON VIEW: Celebrating Fotoweek DC, 2011

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC: NOVEMBER 10, 2011 - FEBRUARY 4, 2012

At the Mexican Cultural Institute
FREE ADMISSION
Gallery Hours: 10:00 am - 6:00 pm Monday to Friday | 12:00 - 4:00 pm Saturday

"This exhibition represents a year-long collaboration between the two artists, one from Mexico and one an annual visitor to Mexico which with a single photograph sent by Pablo Ortiz Monasterio as a digital file to Muriel Hasbun, who replied by sending back one of her own. This exchange went on for months. Each responded to the next image in his or her own way, not knowing where the accumulating sequence was leading or what its narrative content ultimately might be. Other than agreeing on the ground rules, they did not discuss what they were doing while the exchange was taking place.

The show thus uses photography to probe the possibilities of cultural and visual exchange in a digital age. Taking place over the Internet, with one artist in Mexico City and one in Washington, D.C., the conversation is a wordless interplay of information and meaning.

Indeed, Conversación is ultimately about how art is made and how meaning is constructed. Every move the artists make is smart in an intellectual sense but also deeply intuitive, a gesture of not knowing more than it is of knowing. To trust each other in this process, to collaborate in the territory of risk and uncertainty where one can feel vulnerable and even foolish, is as much an accomplishment for these artists as is the beauty of the individual images and the mystery of their sequencing."

- Excerpt from an essay on the exhibition by writer, curator and teacher Andy Grundberg

JANUARY 29 @ 2:00 PM

 LECTURE AND CONCERT DEDICATED TO THE MUSIC OF CARLOS CHAVEZ

This special presentation, co-organized with the Latin American Center for Graduate Studies in Music of Catholic University, will include a lecture and concert in honor of Dr. Robert L. Parker, a distinguished scholar of Mexican music. The afternoon will begin with a lecture entitled "Carlos Chávez and Modernism" delivered by musicologist Dr. Christina Taylor Gibson, followed by a concert featuring music by Carlos Chávez -including his early piano pieces, Madrigal for cello and piano, Soli No. 1 and the String Quartet No. 3 (Mov. I)- and selected songs by Silvestre Revueltas.

The program will feature music school faculty members José Ramos Santana (pianist) and Michael Mermagen (cellist), Nicolas Catravas (piano); alumna Rachel Barham (soprano); and current students Anamer Castrello (mezzo soprano), Flor Maryory Serrano Prada and Nicholas Perry (violinists), Hsiao-Chun Lin (viola), and Fanny Nemeth (cellist).

MAREMAGNUM: JORDI SOCÍAS PHOTOGRAPHY

NOVEMBER 10, 2011 - FEBRUARY 4, 2012

A visual journey through the last four decades in Spain and Europe guided by an icon of photojournalism. Jordi Socías (Barcelona, 1945) is one of the key names of the evolution of Spanish photojournalism in the last decades. Its personal style is also an essential element of the layout of the history of Spanish photography, a style that moves away from the objectivity deemed inherent in photography and which becomes aware of its own subjective representation nature. The most important figures and events of the country’s modern history have posed for him, building, through images, a fascinating tale of life since the ‘70’s, when he started his career, until now.

Read more about this Exhibit here. 

At the Mexican Cultural Institute
FREE ADMISSION
Gallery Hours: 10:00 am - 6:00 pm Monday to Friday | 12:00 - 4:00 pm Saturday

FEBRUARY 4 @ 1:00 and 4:00 PM

As part of the Iberoamerican Film Showcase that will take place from January 19th to February 18th, 2012 at multiple locations to be defined, the Mexican Cultural Institute is pleased to screen: 

SILVESTRE PANTALEON @ 1:00 pm

A portrait of an elderly man from the Nahuatl-speaking village of San Agustin Oapan, Guerrero, Mexico. Told with a lyrical combination of lingering imagery and ethnographic detail, this documentary follows the protagonist as he struggles to pay for a curing ceremony and provide for his family. He dedicates himself to the only remunerative activities he knows: handcrafting rope for religious ceremonies and building seldom-used household objects that he alone still has the skills to produce. The story of Silvestre Pantaleón is the narrative of an unusual man playing a familiar role in a simple though universal tale of aging. It juxtaposes the possibility of triumph (the household sustained and health recovered, through offerings to the hearth, the earth, the river and the deceased) with the certitude of reversal (the recognition that healing is but an ephemeral hiatus in the inexorable advance of time). Directors: Jonathan D. Amith and Roberto Olivares, Mexico, 2010, 65 minutes, Nahuatl with English subtitles.  

Co-director and producer Jonathan D. Amith will be in attendance at the screening.

THE MEXICAN SUITCASE: La Maleta Mexicana @ 4:00 pm

The story of three lost boxes, found in a closet in Mexico City in 2007, that disappeared in the chaos of Europe at the beginning of World War II. Contained in the titular suitcase were 4,500 photo negatives, the work of three young European photographers: Robert Capa, David “Chim” Seymour and Gerda Taro. Exiles from different places (Hungary, Poland, Germany), they had become friends in Paris, then traveled to Spain together to fight fascism with their cameras. This fascinating documentary from Trisha Ziff (CHEVOLUTION, 2008 Silverdocs) explores not only the historical mystery of how this photographic treasure trove came to be stashed—and nearly forgotten—in a modest Mexico City apartment, but also the living history of people affected by the Spanish Civil War: in Spain, the contemporary descendants of the defeated Republicans; in Mexico, the refugee children—now senior citizens—who fled war-torn Spain for the safety of a new home. Official Selection, 2011 Karlovy Vary, Los Angeles Latino and San Sebastian Film Festivals. DIR/SCR/PROD Trisha Ziff; PROD Eamon O’Farrill, Paco Poch. Mexico/Spain, 2011, color and b&w, 86 min. In English and Spanish with English subtitles. NOT RATED. 

For more information regarding the complete program of the Iberoamerican Film Showcase please check the official flyer here or  visit  www.facebook.com/IberoAmericaCulturaDC 

MARCH 13 - 25 @ VARIOUS LOCATIONS 

Founded in 1993, the Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital has become one of the world’s largest and most influential showcases of environmental film and a major collaborative cultural event in Washington, D.C.  Each March the Festival presents a diverse selection of high quality environmental films, including many Washington, D.C., U.S. and world premieres. Documentaries, narratives, animations and shorts are shown, as well as archival, experimental and children’s films at venues throughout the city.  Films are screened at partnering museums, embassies, libraries, universities and local theaters and are attended by large audiences. Selected to provide fresh perspectives on global environmental issues, most Festival films are accompanied by discussions with filmmakers, environmental experts and special guests, including national decision makers and thought leaders, and are free to the public.

 Click here to see the complete 2012's program.

This year, as part of the Festival, the Mexican Cultural Institute is pleased to screen:

REHJE

MARCH 18 @ 2:00 PM

After forty years living in Mexico City, Antonia longs to go back to her home town, a Mazahua village in the state of Mexico.
 When she finally decides to do that, she encounters a lot of things that she didn't expect, like the scarcity of water that threatens life in her community.

Director Anaís Huerta will be in attendance at the screening.

APRIL 21 @ 2: 00 PM (More information to come soon)

SAVE THE DATE! As part of the Kids World Cinema 2012 Series,  the Mexican Cultural Institute is pleased to screen:

 EL SUEÑO DE GALILEO / GALILEO´S DREAM

Galileo, in the twilight of his life, dreams of his childhood, where he plays and learns from his observations of the wonderful sky, filled with mystery and secrets.

DIR/ SCR/ PROD Mariana Miranda; PROD CO Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografía (IMCINE), Mexico, 2010, Animation, Color, 6 min, no dialogue.

ESKIMAL / ESKIMO 

Eskimal and Morsa work together to preserve the Grand Glacier, facing imminent catastrophe produced by the industrialized world. 

DIR / SCR Homero Ramírez Tena; PROD CO Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografía (IMCINE) in collaboration with TV UNAM, Mexico, 2011, Animation, Color, 8:48 min, Spanish with English subtitles.

LUNA/ MOON

In a chaotic city traversed by strange motorized beings ruled by time, a little girl named Zoe discovers a beautiful moon in the midst of chaos. 

DIR / SCR Raúl Cárdenas, Rafael Cárdenas; PROD Rafael Cárdenas; PROD CO Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografía (IMCINE), Mexico, 2012,  Animation, Color, 8 min, Spanish with English Subtitles

MONARCA/ MONARCH

 A little boy meets a mysterious old man while fishing in a river.  When he follows him, the boy discovers that the man is actually a magical being who guides the Monarch butterflies in their unflagging life-cycle.

DIR Victor René Ramírez Madrigal / Jorge Arturo Tornero Aceves; SCR Arturo Tornero Aceves, Christian Alain Vázquez Carrasco, Leopoldo Aguilar; PROD Abril Balderrama / Víctor René Ramírez Madrigal; PROD CO Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografía (IMCINE), Mexico, 2009,  Animation, Color, 8 min, no dialogue.

MOYANA/ MOYANA

Juanelo lives an isolated life watching television. When the electricity goes out, he begins an adventure in a new world of mind-blowing settings with endearing and dangerous characters.

DIR/ SCR Emiliano González Alcocer; PROD César Moheno Plá; PROD CO Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografía (IMCINE), Mexico, 2010,  Animation, Color, 11 min, Spanish with English subtitles. 

FEBRUARY 2 @ 6:30 PM   

CONFERENCE ROOM AT FULL CAPACITY, WE ARE NOT TAKING ANY MORE RSVPs

In December 1931, two years after its founding, The Museum of Modern Art inaugurated a major exhibition of the  work of Diego Rivera. Rivera -a forty five year old, openly Communist, Mexican artist- may have seemed an unlikely choice for the young Museum's second only retrospective, but the show was wildly popular. Rivera's international celebrity was based on his fame as a muralist.

But murals -by definition fixed on site- were impossible to transport. In order to solve this problem, the Museum brought Rivera to New York from Mexico six weeks before the opening, and installed him in a makeshift studio space in an empty gallery. There he produced eight "portable" murals -freestanding fresco panels- which were featured in the show. Five of these monumental works are now on view in the exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, along with working drawings and related material.

Curator Leah Dickerman will discuss Rivera's extraordinary commission for MoMA, as well as his ill-fated mural for Rockefeller Center. Together these projects provide a compelling perspective on the intersection of art making and radical politics in the 1930s. 

MARCH 15, MAY 24, OCTOBER 18 AND DECEMBER 6 @ 6:30 PM

The Mexican Cultural Institute welcomes you to the fifth year of its culinary program, Mexican Table with Patricia Jinich. Come join us for an ongoing series of culinary adventures, as we travel through time, regions and topics surrounding you with Mexico's colors, flavors and hospitality!

During each event, we will show you why in November of 2010, Traditional Mexican Cuisine was included to UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list and you will have the opportunity to watch an entertaining demonstration, followed by a sumptuous dinner served with wine, beer and music. As a souvenir, you will take home recipes and some ingredients to get you started cooking at home.

"America is obsessed with television food celebrities. Somewhere along the way, we forgot that, in the kitchen, there just isn’t any substitute for passion and talent. We’ve conveniently chosen to ignore the fact that many of these “stars” are neither food experts nor stars. However, we have our own right here in DC, and she is always a star, even when there aren’t any TV cameras around.

Her name is Pati Jinich, and she is a wealth of knowledge about Mexican cuisine and food culture and the origins and history of ingredients. Her enthusiasm for her subject is infectious, and when she speaks, you are entranced by her warm smile and engaging, funny personality. She is a consummate professional whose recipes are well researched, tested, and easy-to-understand. Pati’s classes are more like culinary extravaganzas where, in between cooking, chopping, and pureeing sauces in a blender, Pati entertains her guests with amusing, information-packed anecdotes.

The last class of 2011 was a smash hit with the more than 125 guests and food lovers who attended. But don’t worry, she’ll be back in 2012 with an even more incredible lineup of programs."

Summer Whitford, DC Event Junkie

For more information on Patricia Jinich log on to www.patismexicantable.com or follow her on twitter @PatriciaJinich

 … MORE MEXICO EVENTS AROUND TOWN

MARCH 8 - 15, 2012 

DISCOVER SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE

Presented by the Corcoran Gallery of Art and College of Art + Design

Join us for an unforgettable trip to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and explore the unique art, history, architecture, and culinary traditions of this charming colonial town. Spend seven days in this picturesque World Heritage site town nestled in the beautiful rolling hills of central Mexico. We will stay at beautiful Casa Chorro, a magnificent, fully staffed colonial home complete with luxurious décor and antique furnishings, lush terraced gardens, a private pool, and breathtaking views of the surrounding town and countryside. Explore the winding cobblestone streets, charming pastel buildings, and stunning historic churches of San Miguel; admire the 17th- and 18th-century architecture of the city and tour elegant Spanish colonial homes; stroll through the bustling artisan’s market and visit private Mexican folk art collections and fabulous contemporary art galleries; marvel at Cañada de la Virgen pyramid, a pre-Columbian archaeological site dating back to 540 AD; and take a scenic drive to Dolores Hidalgo to visit ceramic workshops and learn from the artisans how Mexican Talavera pottery is made. The trip is in partnership with the Corcoran’s Pittman Study Away Program, so participants will have the opportunity to take part in unique art-making experiences with Corcoran faculty and students throughout the week. Check the flyer here!

Mention the Mexican Cultural Institute at time of registration to receive a $100 discount on the trip price!