Mexiconceptual

H̶E̶R̶I̶B̶E̶R̶T̶O̶ Y̶é̶p̶e̶z̶ (Satélite)

2016

Commissioned by Satélite, a curatorial project with an emphasis on institutional critique founded by curator Violeta Horcasitas, Mexiconceptual consisted of a website, www.mexiconceptual.com, that was active for one month, from April 14 to May 13, 2016. Each day, the site published one text by H̶e̶r̶i̶b̶e̶r̶t̶o̶ ̶Y̶é̶̶p̶e̶z̶, examining the relationships among Mexico, the museum sector, and the legacy of Conceptualism. The texts would disappear after 24 hours, and could only be glimpsed afterward through screenshots shared on social media, until they were later published in book form.

Mexiconceptual was thus an art criticism project that explored new ways of making and preserving the archive.

Heriberto Yépez (Satélite), Mexiconceptual, 2016. Screenshot, 2018, Google Chrome 69 on macOS 10.14.

VISIT ARCHIVED WEBSITE

“Bienvenidos al Museo Neoliberal.” — H̶e̶r̶i̶b̶e̶r̶t̶o̶ ̶Y̶é̶̶p̶e̶z̶

Mexiconceptual was partly an art historical effort that offered a tour through five decades of conceptual art in Mexico, from 1970s figures such as “Los Grupos” and the post-conceptual artist-writer Ulises Carrión to the current era and its neoliberal cultural politics.

Read an interview with Heriberto Yépez by Violeta Horcasitas

Read a critical take on Mexiconceptual by Gaby Cepeda

Heriberto Yépez (Satélite), Mexiconceptual, 2016. Screenshot, 2018, Google Chrome 69 on macOS 10.14.

At the same time, it engaged with the affordances of digital circulation. Twenty-four hours after a text was published, it was erased from the website. Some readers took screenshots of the posts before deletion, sharing them on social media as a distributed archive of an ephemeral work.

A year after the site ended, a limited edition of 200 copies was published, containing the 30 original texts and a few extra ones.

Photo: Raúl “Raya” García.

Even as Y̶é̶̶p̶e̶z̶’s profile has grown, he continues to take highly provocative, even troll-like approaches to his online presence on social media and at www.borderdestroyer.com.

This, along with his status as one of Mexico’s more controversial and influential authors, contributed to the project’s high visibility and cultural resonance, helping to establish www.mexiconceptual.com as a significant counter-history and alternative archive of Mexican contemporary art.