Gabriella Gomez-Mont Must Carry The Torch for Mexico in 2012!

Gabriella Gomez-Mont 

Hi All!


I have just received some incredible news and felt the importance of sharing it with you. My friend Gabriella Gomez-Mont, a cultural inspiration and leader has been nominated to carry the torch for Mexico in London in 2012 Olympic Games!

I think this is wonderful. We need more people involved in the arts and who support the arts to be visible in the mainstream. We need to get our cause out there. Something simple here about Gabriella. I have a larger bio at bottom of post.

Gabriella Gomez-Mont is a cultural promoter, writer, filmmaker and TED Senior Fellow. She is simply someone  who cares about the arts and has provided guidance and support to other artists including myself for many years. She gives opportunities to artists that otherwise could not afford to participate in art projects. This is just the basics for now.

I am asking you to vote for for Gabriella. And ASAP! Below, you can read why we need to vote for her as artists and art lovers. But, first let's not waste our time. We only have till 11pm EST to get our vote out there.

It is incredibly simple. You just click on the link.


http://samsungolimpico.com.mx/

Voting requires no registration, it is only two easy steps (less than30 seconds) and it seems one can vote 

from other countries as well.

In fact, you can even vote several times if you do so from a different IP or both your phone and a laptop 

for example. 

Pass the word around! Thanks!!!

Now, about Gabriella Gomez-Mont!

Gabriella Gomez-Mont is a cultural promoter, writer, filmmaker and TED Senior Fellow. She has received various recognitions and awards for her work in various fields, as well as helping promote creative excellence in Mexico. In the year 2000 she received a year-long grant at Fabrica, the creative laboratory and art center based in Italy. In the year 2001 she worked in the editorial department of the Aperture Photography Foundation, in New York. In 2002 Gabriella returned to Mexico after receiving the Jóvenes Creadores grant that the Mexican government gives to young artists, and then, in 2003, one of six grants given by Teratoma (a group composed of many renowned artist, art historians, critics, anthropologists, etc., based in Mexico) for an intensive and exclusive year-long course dealing with curating contemporary art and critical theory imparted by important figures of the national and international cultural arena. As a visual artist Gabriella has been part of exhibitions in Europe, Japan, the USA and Mexico; and her work has been published in various magazines and books such as “From Chaos To Order and Back” by Electa. She has also done creative work for companies such as MTV International, Nike, Benetton and the WWF. As a writer, she has collaborated with national and international publications such as Colors (Italy), Step Inside Design (New York), Contemporary (UK), Eye (UK), Acido Surtido (Argentina), -ism (Holand), Luna Cornea (Mexico), Fahrenheit (Mexico), Travesias (Mexico), Código Postal (Mexico), etc. She is also part of the editorial board of Replicante and Fahrenheit magazine, and Gabriella was also associate editor of the Colors Issue on Mexican Telenovelas (Soap Operas) and guest editor for a world-wide Vice Magazine special issue on Mexico City. She has also worked as a producer for editorial projects for The New York Times, Culture & Travel, Vogue Homme, Colors Magazine and visiting international artists. In the year 2004 she founded Tóxico: Cultura Contemporanea and Cine Abierto (dedicated to promoting independent cinema). In that same year Gabriella co-founded Laboratorio Curatorial 060, an experimental collective made up of artists, philosophers, art historians and architects that are interested in questioning the ideas that define and contain contemporary cultural practices. LC 060 has created projects for many of Mexico´s most important cultural institutions such as the Carrillo Gil Contemporary Art Museum, Art & Idea, CANAIA, etc. LC 060´s latest (and running) project has earned both national and international grants for it´s production (such as the Prince Claus Fund from Holland, and FONCA from Mexico ) and was recently awarded first place in the BEST ART PRACTICE AWARD, a coveted international prize given by the Italian government for the best experimental curatorial project of the last 5 years. In May 2009 she was selected as one of 25 international TED Fellows 2009, and is now also a TED Senior Fellow 2010-2013. And she is now filming her first feature-length documentary with the support of the FOPROCINE national cinema grant.

Going Back to Mexico In My Mind or Full Disclosure

"Joshua's Sister", Mexico, 2006. Juliana Beasley

Yesterday, I had the wonderful pleasure of having Mexican photographer, Eunice Adorno come out to my hometown, Jersey City for a visit. The last time I saw Eunice was in Mexico City in the summer of 2010, when she was my student in a workshop that Tema Stauffer and I taught in collaboration with Toxico Cultura. 

I am very elated and proud of Eunice! She has a book called Fraum Blaum about women Mennonites living in northern Mexico coming out shortly. In Spanish the book is called "Las Mujeres Flores" or in English "The Flower Women :  the editor is Pablo Ortiz Monasterio and Fernando Gutierrez and is published with Fabrica. The images are very intimate and the color palette very soothing.

Cover of "Las Mujeres Flores" by Eunice Adorno.

Now, Eunice and her dog, Cleto are living temporarily in New York and she is partaking in a residency at the International Studio and Curatorial Program. And to top it off she is off to Holland in October, to take part in the prestigious Joop Swart Masterclass.  Wowsie! What an amazing year for such a talented and young photographer.

I am looking forward to her next visit and next time with Cleto who can keep my little Howard (Howard definitely needs a FB page) company, now that he is an only child.

Check in:

I wish I could put a torch to most of my life right now. In fact, as an experiment and because I feel that I feel compelled to document the state of my life visually... I will take some photographs to post next time. Because I hope that soon my situation will change. And I hope that the state of it right now will soon be a memory only visible in photographs.

I also believe that since things feel completely impossible right now (or simply feel that way)  that I want to expose myself.

Why?

No, this isn't a shaming masochistic technique to haul ass and clean up and stop avoiding... but a full disclosure or a substantial disclosure of me right now as I am.

AGAIN WHY?

I wouldn't ask less from any of my subjects so, why should I pretend to be anything more that I am. Yes, the shit has hit the fan and it's time to accept it as it is right now because as said, it will change. Slowly, but it will change.

Will this help my career as a photographer? Could it damage it? These are some of the questions that have come up over the last year when speaking to close friends. Only time can tell. I'll go with my instincts.

It's time for self-portraits. Anyone, with skills in this realm... please, contact me through Facebook. I have some questions on how to set it up, etc. I have questions.

In the meantime, I still have the fantasy of my vacation in Mexico with Victoria over 5 years ago. And so, here are some more photographs to keep me out of harm's way or rather just away from the present. Here are more images about Joshua and his family in the south of Mexico

Thank the Universe that I will be photographing this weekend. And in the spirit of all the young photographers out there and even my contemporaries, I will be shooting with my Canon dSLR and not with my Rollei TLR... how avant garde... right?

"Joshua's Brother and Sister Upside Down", Mexico, 2006. Juliana Beasley

"Joshua's Other Brother in Bed", Mexico, 2006. Juliana Beasley

Mexico Part 3

"Victoria After Shower", Mexico, 2006. Juliana Beasley.

"Victoria in Shower", Mexico, 2006. Juliana Beasley.

"Victoria Balancing Beer Can on Her Head", Mexico, 2006. Juliana Beasley.

"Victoria and Beer", Mexico, 2006. Juliana Beasley.

I want to escape. Not forever. Just now. These photos are sweet reminders of past getaways.

I Miss You Mexico Part Two

More of Mexico photos from 2006. It's amazing how time passing can change your mind about how you perceive photographs. These following photographs I took randomly during my vacation with Victoria along the Yucatan Riviera. I will return to posting photographs of the small reportage I did on Joshua and his family. For now these.

I really miss traveling and the excitement of all senses... picking up my camera and recording it and editing with my mind's eye when I snap the shutter.

I miss Mexico. I think I can write that again and again.

 "She Caught My Eye", Yucatan Coast, Mexico, 2006. Juliana Beasley

 "The Cake", Yucatan Coast, Mexico, 2006. Juliana Beasley

"She Showed Me Her Bedroom", Yucatan Coast, Mexico, 2006. Juliana Beasley

Back to Mexico. I Miss You!

I was looking for a photograph that I took of Victoria from our trip to Mexico about 5 years ago. I love those pictures and she is so wonderful in front of the camera. And then I came upon these.

 "Joshua on His Couch", Yucatan Coast, Mexico, 2006. Juliana Beasley

I had brought my first dSR with me-- a Canon 3D. I had only shot with it maybe once before and I thought the trip down to the Yucatan Coast would be a great opportunity to pull it out of my Domke bag. After all, I knew I would have some time alone while Victoria went scuba diving. And it has just become impossible to go on any trip without wanting to stop the car and get out and take a photograph. My brain spins into creative mayhem once I get outside the urban jungle.

I was riding a bicycle along the dirt roads of a small fishing village not far from the Belize border. I passed a soccer field and saw a group of young teenagers training and suddenly, a fair skin kid with reddish hair caught my eye. He was completely out of place, as much as I was. He was lanky and taller than the rest of the Mexican kids and his skin was burnt. At first, I thought he might be a girl. I was intrigued.

I approached him and began to speak to him in the Spanish I had concocted from years of Italian lessons and French conversations. He responded in English.

"My name is Joshua," he told me.

I sat down next to him on the sidelines and he eagerly asked me many questions about the United States and specifically, New York City.

When I was getting ready to leave, he invited me to his house to meet his family the next day.

Here are some of the pictures I took. I had previously posted one of the images. More to come. I miss Mexico.

 "Portrait of Joshua's Mother as a Young Woman", Yucatan Coast, Mexico, 2006. Juliana Beasley

I Gavel Online Auction with Daniel Cooney Gallery

"Joshua and His Brother"

One of my photographs entitled "Joshua and His Brother" is part of the I Gavel Online Auction represented by the Daniel Cooney Gallery. The image is up for grabs at the starting bid of $200. for the next 17 days.

I took this image while in the south of Mexico in 2006. Joshua the older son comes from a family of 6 children and two parents. The mother was once a Mennonite who had abandoned the community . Her second husband and father to 4 of the children is a Mexican fisherman. They live in a crowded 3 room shack on stilts, sharing bedrooms.

I plan to continue this project in April of this year, living for one month with one family in a Mennonite farm community.