Bosco Sodi. Space as a point of change
Mexico City /
The project, which replaces the previous headquarters located in Santa María la Ribera, promises to create opportunities and diversify art in the city.
Part of your work is the social and economic activation of places like Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca or Monticello (New York). Today it is the Atlampa neighborhood in CdMx, what do these sites have in common?
This type of activation is a commitment that we must all have, trying to ensure that when a cultural proposal is made, it is in an area that really needs it, that adds to the neighborhood. Atlampa is a neighborhood with social problems, where there is a high rate of poverty and insecurity. We seek that this type of project always benefits the nearest community, not only because of the economic benefit, but also by opening it to the public and including the people of the area. In the case of the study, we want to invite the government schools so that the children come to participate, maybe they have an art class once a week. Try to create synergy with different institutions and projects around. What is detonated from this is what interests me. It seems absurd to me, for example, that they want to put more museums in the Chapultepec area, museums should be where they can generate different dynamics, contributing something new and helping different communities.
What is your relationship with architecture? How do you integrate it into your art?
I have always been interested in the environment of the work, I am constantly surprised by the recontextualization that occurs in a space. I have done some architectural projects in Puerto Escondido, of course, with great humility, and the dialogue between architecture and art is extremely interesting; the many coincidences that the two can have. In the case of Tadao Ando or Alberto Kalach, they are architects that I greatly admire, and it has been a great honor to create projects together with them.
What are you looking to convey with this space?
I believe that space, like my work, tries to convey calm and serenity. It was part of the dialogue that the architect and I had, to create a welcoming space that coexisted with the work, not a white cube, not a museum, not a gallery, but a space in which my work –which is also made of very simple materials – could coexist with its surroundings without absurd tension. It is a space with very good light that creates its own atmosphere. We wanted it to be a simple place where people can go to do a bit of introspection, see the pieces and draw their own conclusions without the architecture and the pieces competing with each other. they.
How did you choose the pieces that would fill this space?
For this I had the help of Dakin Hart, who is the chief curator of the Noguchi Museum in New York. I have collaborated with Hart in several exhibitions, such as during the Venice Biennale and in my exhibition at the Anahuacalli. I asked him to go and select pieces from my store to curate the exhibition. All the work are pieces that I have kept for my children, I have been choosing and putting them aside: paintings, sculptures, the pieces that I like the most.
Art should be conscious and responsible, what is the best way to give something back to the community?
There is a lack of social awareness in the art world. I think it should be an obligation for successful artists to return to the community. Not only donating works for auction, but doing social work, a commitment. That is what is most lacking: a social commitment. By artists, and also by collectors and curators. I think it should be something obligatory, looking for the world to be better than how it happened to us. We artists are the ones who are nourished by this wonderful thing that is art, its great healing power, introspection, reading, culture, we have many ways in which we can contribute.
mrevistademilenio.com
Photography: Betsy de la Vega Tay and Denisse Hurrle
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