May 29

May 29 Collective/Collectible by MASA

MASA walks the blurry line between art and design. Collectible design. Experimental design. To show, to curate, to write, to build, to question, to provoke, to educate, to learn: these are the desires. Desire might even be at the center of this adventure. MASA is a nomadic project offering space for discourse about design. MASA is cornmeal, a pliable material that quells hunger and sustains culture.

With digital, physical, and conceptual presence, MASA challenges convention and presents ideas on a global stage. With an effort to open up conversation and dialogue around material culture, MASA curates exhibitions offering work with integrity, direction and value.

MASA was founded in Mexico City by Héctor Esrawe, Cristobal Riestra, Agé Salajõe and Brian Thoreen, along with Roberto Díaz Sesma and Isaac Bissu. Their backgrounds in art, design and architecture are reflected in MASA’s presentation of design at its boundaries.

Their inaugural exhibition, Collective/Collectible, features leading artists and designers from Mexico whose work challenges hierarchies of function and expression. Exhibiting artists include Pedro Reyes, Alma Allen, Frida Escobedo, Héctor Esrawe, Jose Dávila, Tezontle Studio and others.

In collaboration with co-curators Constanza Garza and Su Wu, the exhibition also asks what it means to be “from somewhere,” with additional artworks, documents and archival materials that show some of what artists themselves have long sought in Mexico, or believed the place to be. Contextual works include pieces by On Kawara, Leonora Carrington, Francis Alys, Juan O’Gorman and Ana Mendieta.

Together, the contemporary designs and their biographical precedents ask how the structures that define a place might be separated from the structures of the state, which can impart citizenship but not a sense of belonging.

Collective/Collectible by MASA on Anniversary Magazine

Exhibiting artists: Alma Allen, Jose Dávila, Frida Escobedo, Héctor Esrawe, Jorge Méndez Blake, LANZA Atelier, Rubén Ortiz Torres, Pedro Reyes, Jeronimo Reyes-Retana, EWE Studio, Brian Thoreen, Tezontle Studio, VISSIO, V.V. Sorry, Jorge Yázpik.

Additional works by: On Kawara, Leonora Carrington, Francis Alÿs, Héctor Garcia, André Breton and Diego Rivera, Juan O’Gorman, Ana Mendieta, Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, Damián Ortega, Héctor Zamora, Miguel Angel Ríos, Yann Gerstberger.