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current EVENTS 

UPCOMING EXHIBIT:

HINA / JAINA: ON THE THRESHOLD OF THE MAYAN UNDERWORLD (600 - 900 AD)

MAY 16 - SEPTEMBER 15, 2012

The man-made island of Jaina, off the northern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula in the State of Campeche, was an extremely important Mayan ritual and religious site in the Classic Period (600 – 900 AD).

This exhibition presents a selection of over 50 “Jaina style” figurines discovered on the island that depict various aspects of Mayan cosmology, religious beliefs and society, accompanied by a small selection of vessels and objects. Together, they provide fascinating insight into one of Mexico’s most intriguing ancient civilizations.

Organized in collaboration with Mexico’s National Council for Culture and the Arts (CONACULTA), National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) and its regional Campeche Center, this display celebrates the Maya’s incredible cultural and artistic legacy in Mexico.  This presentation is part of a year-long series of events around the globe that have been organized in 2012 to highlight various aspects of the Mayan World. This exhibition is funded in part by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, an agency supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

GALLERY TALK:  TUESDAY, JUNE 26 @ 6:30 PM

Join us for a talk with Dr. Mary Miller, Sterling Professor of History of Art and Dean of Yale College. Dr. Miller will explore the fascinating world of Jaina, in the context of our current exhibition.

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

SATURDAY MAY 19 @ 3:00 PM

Known for his captivating use of color, Rufino Tamayo created a unique form of modernism in Mexico.   At the forefront of taking on the international/national and abstraction/figuration debates that preoccupied modern Mexican artists during 1920s and 1930s, he promoted a new type of abstract figuration that privileged personal myths while also engaging with issues of Mexican cultural identity.  He challenged the monumentality, politicization, and institutionalization of mainstream Mexican Art of his time, especially Muralism, in which he also took part, to warn of the limits of nationalism and the necessity to incorporate internationalism/universalism into diverse aesthetic programs.  Tamayo synthesized the aesthetics of the European vanguards with Mexican content and form in a dynamic tension.  His refusal to be didactic, yet his insistence on promoting Mexican aesthetics and motifs, has had a profound legacy on the development of modernism in Mexico, the United States, and Europe, places he lived and worked throughout his life.

Dr. Anna Indych - Lopez will discuss Tamayo’s various aesthetic influences, the contexts in which he worked, and the ways in which he constructed a new paradigm for Mexican painting.

Woman Spinning Wool, Rufino Tamayo, 1943  

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

AN INSIDER'S STORY OF MEXICO'S ART WORLD IN THE WAKE OF THE REVOLUTION

MAY 31 @ 6:30 PM

The Mexican Revolution -that violent, inchoate, never-quite-complete break with the past- opened a new era in Mexican art and letters now known as the "Mexican Renaissance." In Mexico City, a coterie of artists including Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros explored how art could forward revolutionary ideals—and, in the process, spent countless hours talking, gossiping, arguing, and partying. Into this milieu came Anita Brenner, in her early twenties already trying her hand as a journalist, art critic, and anthropologist. Her journals of the period 1925 to 1930 vividly transport us to this vital moment in Mexico, when building a "new nation" was the goal.

Brenner became a member of Rivera's inner circle, and her journals provide fascinating portraits of its members, including Orozco, Siqueiros, Rufino Tamayo, and Jean Charlot, with whom she had an unusual loving relationship. She captures the major and minor players in the act of creating works for which they are now famous and records their comings and goings, alliances and feuds. Numerous images of their art brilliantly counterpoint her diary descriptions. Brenner also reveals her own maturation as a perceptive observer and writer who, at twenty-four, published her first book, Idols Behind Altars. Her initial plan for Idols included four hundred images taken by photographers Edward Weston and Tina Modotti. Many of these images, which were ultimately not included in Idols, are published here for the first time along with stunning portraits of Brenner herself. Setting the scene for the journal is well-known Mexican cultural critic Carlos Monsiváis, who offers an illuminating discussion of the Mexican Renaissance and the circle around Diego Rivera.

Editor Susannah Joel Glusker, daughter of Anita Brenner and author of the book Anita Brenner: A Mind of Her Own, will discuss her mother’s journals.  She teaches "Mexican Women of Note" and "Mexican Art of the Early Twentieth Century" at the Universidad Iberoamericana, translates, and writes for various publications.

Click on the invitation to enlarge.

Mexican Cultural Institute

2829 16th Street, NW | Washington, D.C.
Blocks from Columbia Metro Station

FREE ADMISSION. SEATING IS LIMITED.
RSVP RECOMMENDED: RSVP@instituteofmexicodc.org

BY CLAUDINE GOMEZ-VUISTAZ

THURSDAY, JUNE 14 @ 6:30 PM

Join us for a delightful evening of 18th Century French harpsichord music by Claudine Gómez-Vuistaz (Mexico), with a program featuring works by Gaspard Le Roux, Jean Philippe Rameau, Joseph Nicholas Pancrace Royer and Jacques Duphly.

Claudine Gómez-Vuistaz studied harpsichord with Professor Luisa Durón at the National Conservatory of Music of Mexico, where she presently teaches the keyboard.  She started performing at a very young age under the direction of her mother and teacher, Emma Gomez, has attended master classes with Gustav Leonhardt, Bob van Asperen and Jacques Ogg, and has participated in the Key International Competition in Bruges, Belgium. She constantly performs and promotes the harpsichord repertoire and baroque music. Since 2003, she has coordinated the harpsichord concert series of the Miguel Lerdo de Tejada Library at the Historic Center of Mexico City, which is increasingly recognized as the premier venue for harpsichord music in Mexico, having presented the best harpsichord players from around the world. She has participated in major baroque music festivals in Mexico and performs numerous concerts in various countries as a soloist and with assorted chamber music ensembles. Since 2000, she has been the harpsichordist for ENSEMBLE KAIRÓS, a group dedicated to the interpretation of Baroque vocal and instrumental music (their album “Due alme innamorate”, released under the Urtext label featuring works by Forqueray, Couperin and Strozzi, received critical accolades). Since 2007, she has also been the harpsichordist for the chamber music ensemble La Capilla Virreinal de la Nueva España, under the direction of Maestro Aurelio Tello.

Mexican Cultural Institute

2829 16th Street, NW | Washington, D.C.
Blocks from Columbia Metro Station

FREE ADMISSION. SEATING IS LIMITED.
RSVP RECOMMENDED: RSVP@instituteofmexicodc.org

SATURDAY JULY 7 @ MCI

SAVE THE DATE!

In November, 2011 the United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO) recognized mariachi music as part of its intangible cultural patrimony, joining traditional Mexican Food and the Day of the Dead celebration in such a prestigious list. The songs often played on festive occasions by groups of guitar, violin and trumpet performers wearing traditional clothes and wide-brimmed hats, are sung throughout Mexico, and have become a key part of regional identity. Immigrants, descendants of Mexicans living abroad, as well as Latin Americans, have made the mariachi music a symbol of community identity, because it is a bond linking them to their roots in spite of the distance.

Come to the Mexican Cultural Institute and celebrate with us this festive occasion!  Our program will include a mariachi concert and a talk with one of the most popular and traditional bands in the United States.

More information and a full program to come soon!

 … MORE MEXICO EVENTS AROUND TOWN

SATURDAYS MAY 5, 19 AND 26 @ VARIOUS TIMES

GALita, a program of GALA Hispanic Theatre, is proud to present its 4th Children's Film Festival featuring classic children’s films from Argentina, Mexico and El Salvador that capture the imagination of children and parents alike. The films are fun, educational and stimulate children to think creatively.

The film festival will be presented on Saturdays, May 5 at 3 pm, May 19 at 1 pm and 3 pm, and May 26 at 3 pm. The duration of each film varies between 50 and 90 minutes, and the content is suitable for the whole family. The films are in Spanish with English subtitles.

Click on the poster to enlarge.

 Click here to see the Press Release.

This festival is presented with the cooperation of the Ibero-American Cultural Attachés Association of Washington, DC.

ANTOLOGIA: FIVE CENTURIES OF LATIN AMERICAN HARMONIES

SATURDAY, JUNE 2 @ 7:30 PM

Coral Cantigas, Washington, DC’s premier Latino chorus presents its season finale concert, Antología: Five Centuries of Latin American Harmonies. Savor the premiere of our rare collection of exquisite harmonies that reflect the diversity and history of Latin America–from sacred colonial songs, to the secular sounds that emerged from independence and national pride, and contemporary works inspired by folklore and cross-cultural infusion.

Click on the invitation to enlarge.

“Antología” is based on Artistic Director Dr. Diana Sáez’s 2011 published doctoral research. “It presents important musical treasures that richly enhance Washington’s choral arts,” says Dr. Christina Taylor Gibson, musicology professor at Catholic University of America, and specialist in early twentieth century US-Latin American musical exchanges. She will conduct a pre-concert, live interview of Dr. Sáez about the historical background of the music to complement the show. The anthology aims to affirm the words of renowned musicologist J. Peter Burkholder, that “…music in the Americas turns out not to be peripheral to the history of Western music but an integral part of the story.” Dr. Sáez adds that “as the first colonizers tried acculturating Native peoples with religious songs, little did they know they were setting the stage for a cultural phenomenon of new music.” Indeed, “Antología” captures the beautiful, evolving fusion of rhythms and harmonies that shaped and continue to influence music history in the Americas today and will present pieces from Peru, Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela, Cuba

Click here to see full program and press release

NOW ON VIEW: FEBRUARY 16 - MAY 20, 2012

Latino superheroes disguised as Spiderman, Green Lantern and Batman will be at AMA showcasing im­measurable life and labor of their day to day lives for the good of others. This, along with works dealing with urbanity, mobility, and migration are set in a city that is the ultimate urban laboratory, where experi­ences and cultures converge, fostering the exchange of ideas.Ñew York, opening on February 16 at the AMA | Art Museum of the Americas of the OAS, includes photography, video, drawing, sculpture, and mixed - media work by young, outstanding Latin American and Spanish artists residing in New York City.

The exhibition commemorates artistic exchange and innovative communication channels between visual artists from vboth sides of the pond and opposite hemispheres who share the same language, and the same city.

NOW ON VIEW: APRIL 20 - JUNE 22

Two women, two worlds, two stories, two ways of making art; all this comes together in one majestic story that never comes to an end: “Twice Upon a Time…”.

From her inside, Isabel Brinck shows us through her work, a world of fantasy, where her dreams and creatures appeal to her childhood innocence, getting in touch with the freedom of being a child once again.

At the same time, Laura Villarreal looks from her inside out, grasps reality and returns back inside to process the images of her daily life. Giving as a result an urban vision plagued of imaginary beings that come to life in the canvas and still retain an essence of real life.

The unification of two worlds, those of two women, whom in their enormous amount of convergences and divergences find common ground in the story that comes to life as painting.