TONO: The new art festival in Mexico City for time-based work April 18-30th

Dear Shaded Viewers,

Arts including dance, performance, music and video art the focus of the new art festival in Mexico City – TONO. The exhibitions are in gallery and museum spaces across the city. The exhibition will feature local, regional, and international artists. The idea is for TONO to become an important space for dialogue surrounding time-based practices and for creating new threads of research.

The first TONO Festival opens next month and will run from April 18-30th. The main program will take place across Museo Anahuacalli, Museo de Arte Moderno, Museo Ex Teresa Arte Actual, Centro de Cultura Digital, Museo Experimental el Eco, Laboratorio Arte Alameda, Complejo Cultural Los Pinos, and General Prim. The satellite program will take place at participating galleries in Mexico City.

Main Program Artists: TONO is thrilled to be working with artists from Argentina, Armenia, Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, France, Mexico, Morocco, Peru, Poland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Artists include: Lotte Andersen, Cecilia Bengolea, Meriem Bennani, Alberto Bustamante, Naomi Rincón Gallardo, Santiago Gómez, Jenny Granado, Agata Ingarden, Arthur Jafa, Naima Karlsson, Ligia Lewis, Paloma Contreras Lomas, Garush Melkonyan, Jao Moon, Lauro Robles, Pepx Romero, Luiz Roque, Jacolby Satterwhite, Diego Vega Solorza, Alonso Leon-Velarde, Wangshui, and Osías Yanov.

Theme: Rhythm. We are interested in how rhythm acts as a thread to explore different group dynamics and social structures. At a point in which the idea of a greater “we” is fragmented, what channels do we have for connection and communication with ourselves and our environments? How do local frequencies have a global effect? Participating video installations and performances will consider the role of dance and music in fostering identity-whether individual, collective, group, etc; interspecies connection; non-verbal language and transmission (virality of music); politics of sound; and ecological connection / rhythm.

Founder: Samantha Ozer is a curator and writer based between Mexico City and New York. She has organized projects independently in Athens, Mexico City, and Milan and at the David Kordansky Gallery in Los Angeles as a curatorial member of The Racial Imaginary Institute. She has held curatorial roles at the Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1 in New York, and worked as a researcher in Ekene Ijeoma’s Poetic Justice Group at the MIT Media Lab. She is a contributor for Artforum, CFA, Cultured, Cura, Frieze, Materia, PIN-UP Magazine, and Purple Magazine, where she is an arts editor and was Editor-at-large for the Mexico City issue.

Agata Ingarden

Agata Ingarden (b. 1994, Poland) lives and works in Paris. Her practice revolves around investigations in the fields of humanities, science fiction and mythical narratives. She works with multiple mediums, including installation, sculpture and video. She has exhibited in institutions and galleries in Europe and the United States, including CAPC Bordeaux (2022), Pinchuk ArtCentre, Kiev (2021) Kunstlerhaus in Vienna (2020), Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden (2020), Parc Saint-Leger (2020), Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2019), Mo.Co Montpellier Contemporain (2019) and the Frac Ile-de-France / Le Plateau, (Paris 2019). She was awarded a Special Prize by the Future Generation Art Prize 6th edition (2021).

 Alonso Leon-Velarde

 Alonso Leon-Velarde (b. 1993, Peru) works between Lima and Mexico City. Primarily working in painting, his work combines elements of personal history, science fiction, and contemporary subjects. The artist considers the ways western media travels and permeates South American visual cultures, examining traces of orthodoxy embedded in the landscape. Additionally working in sound, Leon-Velarde’s compositions often incorporate improvisation and a group of constant collaborators. Leon-Velarde has been included in exhibitions at El Instante Fundación, Madrid; Whitechapel Gallery, London; Drawing a Blank at The Parasol Unit Foundation, London; O’Flaherty’s, New York, and Ginsberg Galería, Lima.

Arthur Jafa

Arthur Jafa (b. 1960, USA) is an artist and filmmaker. Jafa’s films have garnered acclaim at the Los Angeles, New York and Black Star Film Festivals, and his artwork is represented in celebrated collections worldwide, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, The Tate, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Studio Museum in Harlem, The High Museum Atlanta, The Dallas Museum of Art, The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, Stedelijk, Luma Foundation, The Perez Art Museum Miami, Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden; and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, among others. Recent and forthcoming solo exhibitions of Jafa’s work include presentations at Luma Arles, France; Glenstone, Potomac, Maryland; OGR Torino, Italy; Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves, Porto; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; and the Louisiana Museum of Art, Humlebæk, Denmark. In 2019, he received the Golden Lion for the Best Participant of the 58th Venice Biennale “May You Live in Interesting Times.”

 Cecilia Bengolea

Cecilia Bengolea (b. 1979, Argentina) lives and works between Paris and Buenos Aires. She works on a range of media, including performance, video and sculpture. Using dance as a tool and a medium for radical empathy and emotional exchange. Infused with the symbolic energies found within nature and relationships, her compositions are formed around ideas of the body–both individually and collectively – as a medium. Bengolea develops a broad artistry where she sees movement, dance and performance as animated sculpture. Bengolea presented her work at the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao (2021 and 2022); Bourse de Commerce, Collection Pinault, Paris (2021), E.A.T – Engadin Art Talks, Switzerland (2019); Desert X, Palm Springs (2019); Fondation Giacometti, Paris (2019); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2018, 2015); Fiorucci Art Trust, Stromboli (2018); Dhaka Art Summit, Bangladesh (2018); TBA21–Academy, Venice (2018); Dia:Beacon, New York (2017); Elevation 1049, Gstaad, Switzerland (2017); Spiral Hall, Tokyo (2016); 32nd São Paulo Biennial (2016); Hayward Gallery, London (2016); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2016, 2010); 13th Biennale de Lyon (2015); Tate Modern, London (2015); ICA, London (2015) and 10th Gwangju Biennial (2014), amongst other venues.

Garush Melkonyan 

Garush Melkonyan (b. 1993, Armenia) lives and works in Paris. His work mainly combines video, sculpture and installation, exploring the invisible codes that structure communication, discourse and language. Experimentation and improvisation within an already defined framework play an important role in Melkonyan’s practice, as they allow for the creation of a new collaborative environment. His works have been exhibited in group exhibitions, screenings and festivals in venues such as Palais de Tokyo, Paris; La Panacée, Montpellier; Nordenhake Gallery, Mexico City; La Villette, Paris. He had solo exhibitions at Jean Claude Maier Gallery, Frankfurt and Lasecu, Lille3000. He was a resident at Lafayette Anticipations and Martell Foundation. In 2017, Melkonyan received the Thaddaeus Ropac Prize.

Jao Moon

 Jao Moon (b. 1986, Colombia) lives and works between Colombia and Berlin. He is a dancer and choreographer whose looks at the Latin American diaspora in Europe, gender identity and processes of socio-political assembly in migratory contexts. He has worked and collaborated with Kampnagel Hamburg, Sophiensaele Berlin, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Volksbühne Berlin, Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin, Ballhaus Naunynstrße, Jupiter Art Land Edinburgh, and The Centre Pompidou, Paris. His latest collaboration and works include Infinite II Performance with Michele Lamy X Matt Lambert, Julia Stoscheck Collection, Berlin (2022); The Lifetime of Fire Performance, Haus der Kulturen Der Welt, Berlin (2022); and an upcoming performance with Enad Marouf (Now It’s Night), premiering at Kampnagel (K3) (March 2023).

Ligia Lewis

Ligia Lewis (b. Dominican Republic) lives and works in Berlin. As an experimental choreographer, her works are often marked by physical intensity and humor. In her work, sonic and visual metaphors meet the body, materializing the enigmatic, the poetic, and the dissonant. Her work has been presented across Europe and the US, at venues such as HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin; Tanzquartier, Vienna; MCA Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Kaaitheater, Brussels; Arsenic, Lausanne; High Line Art, New York; Performance Space, New York; OGR Torino; Stedelijk, Amsterdam; TATE Modern, London, amongst others.

Lotte Andersen

Lotte Andersen (b. 1989, United Kingdom) lives and works between Mexico City and Lima. Through sculpture, collage, installation, sound, performance and video she investigates group dynamics, movement, and its properties. Reflecting on feelings of fragmentation as well as the power inherent in many pieces composing a nuanced whole, she reimagines games and hierarchies. Who will work together? Who will complete the riddle first? Who will decide to abandon the rules? Andersen ́s work has been shown internationally, recent group exhibitions include; David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles (2022) ; La Casa Encendida, Madrid (2022) ; The Whitechapel Gallery, London (2019) ; Storage by Hyundai Card, Seoul (2019); Tate Lates at Tate Modern, London (2018).

Luiz Roque

Luiz Roque (b. 1979, Brazil) lives and works in São Paulo. Attracted by the power of image and, in particular, by sensations that stem from the sense of vision, Luiz Roque’s work crosses different territories, such as the genre of science fiction, the legacy of Modernism, pop-culture and queer bio-politics, in order to understand and propose ingenious and visually sensual narratives. The plasticity of the allegories he uses in his films takes us through the current conflict between technological advancement and contemporary micro and macro power relations. Most recently, he was included in The Milk of Dreams (2022), The 59th Venice Biennale.

Meriem Bennani

Meriem Bennani  (b. 1988, Morocco) lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Juxtaposing and mixing the language of reality TV, documentaries, phone footage, animation, and high-production aesthetics, she explores the potential of storytelling while amplifying reality through a strategy of magical realism and humour. She has been developing a shape-shifting practice of films, sculptures and immersive installations, composed with a subtle agility to question our contemporary society and its fractured identities, gender issues and ubiquitous dominance of digital technologies. Bennani’s work has been shown at the Whitney Biennale, MoMA PS1, Art Dubai, The Vuitton Foundation in Paris, Public Art Fund, CLEARING and The Kitchen in New York. Her animated series, 2 Lizards, a collaboration with director Orian Barki, premiered on Instagram during Spring 2020 and was described by The New York Times as “hypnotic…deploying a blend of documentary structure and animation surrealism…both poignantly grounded in actual events and also soothingly fantastical” and its animated protagonists “art stars.” (Jon Caramanica, April 2020).

 Naomi Rincón Gallardo

 Naomi Rincón Gallardo (b. 1979) lives and works between Oaxaca and Mexico City. Through an experimental and transdisciplinary methodology, she creates films, drawings, sculptural props, performances and video installations that interweave multiple fields of study, including Mesoamerican cosmologies, queer theory, critical pedagogy, and Latin American decolonial feminisms. Her works have been shown in exhibitions and screenings including the 59th Biennale di Venezia, Venice (2022); Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2022); 34th Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil (2021); 11th Berlin Biennale, Berlin, Germany (2020); amongst others.

Osías Yanov

Osias Yanov (b. 1980, Argentina) lives and works in Buenos Aires. His practice includes performances, parties, installations, sculptures and videos. His practice intersects queer theories, night parties, group bonds and eroticism as a tool of knowledge. His work has been exhibited at the 11th Berlin Biennale; 11th Gwangju Biennale; Gasworks, London; Nora Fisch Gallery, Buenos Aires; Zarigüeya/Alabado Contemporáneo, Quito; MALBA, Buenos Aires; among other places.

Paloma Contreras Lomas

Paloma Contreras Lomas (b. 1991, Mexico) lives and works in Mexico City. By employing drawing, sculpture, performance, writing and multimedia installation, Paloma Contreras Lomas addresses subjects such as gender, violence, political inheritance and structure, class segregation and post-colonialism. Her work has been shown at Galeria Agustina Ferreyra, Puerto Rico; kurimanzutto, Mexico; Palais de Tokio, Paris; Lille 3000 Eldorado, Lille; Museo Tamayo, Galería Lodos, MUCA Roma, Alumnos 47, Ladrón Galería and Biquini Wax, Mexico City. She obtained the CIFO Cisneros Fontanals grant (with acquisition prize) for emerging artists and the Jóvenes Creadores del FONCA grant.

Santiago Gómez

 Santiago Gómez (b. 1992, Colombia) lives and works in Mexico City. He works across video, installation, sculptures and texts  to point out existing realities and to empower new worlds to come. In his work he proposes speculative strategies such as science fiction to explore the relationship between global systems, mythological reserves, and non-human entities, etc. He has exhibited widely, at venues such as Space52, Athens; Museo de la Memoria Histórica Universitaria. Puebla; 4th Festival of Art and Technology, Chile; Universidad Autónoma De Hidalgo. México; Fundación Casa Wabi, Studio Croma, Fería de la Acción, Parque Galeria, Seminario

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Diane Pernet

A LEGENDARY FIGURE IN FASHION and a pioneer of blogging, Diane is a respected journalist, critic, curator and talent-hunter based in Paris. During her prolific career, she designed her own successful brand in New York, costume designer, photographer, and filmmaker.

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