Zona Maco 2023 Visitors Courtesy Zona Maco
This year, Mexico City’s Zona Maco art fair, the largest in Latin America, celebrates its 20th anniversary. It presented itself as a discreet corporation founded through Zélika García to advertise the Mexican art scene and has grown to become a mega-fair with 208 exhibitors from 25 countries, staying true to this original vision.
Initially introduced in Monterrey, the fair soon moved to Mexico City, which García considers “the middle of the world” due to its excellent air connections and countless cultural offerings. Since its beginnings with about 40 galleries, it now gathers a large number of exhibitors. in the Centro Citibanamex complex. ” I am proud to do anything for my people and offer local and foreign galleries a platform as well as strengthening the local collector base,” says Garcia.
This year’s edition will feature a celebratory program such as the Forma initiative showcasing old or site-specific projects that the fair carried out through some of the long-standing local exhibitors, such as Arróniz, Galería de Arte Mexicano, Kurimanzutto and Galería OMR. It is also the first edition since the hiring of Cuban curator Direlia Lazo as artistic director of the fair, succeeding Juan Canela. And the fair will award an unprecedented prize of $100,000 to the artist and exhibitor who receives the most votes from visitors.
Zélika García, Founder of Zona Maco. Courtesy of Zona Maco
Zona Maco has evolved throughout Mexico’s new art scene, which began to flourish in the late 1990s, but has a rich culture that dates back decades with artists, galleries and fairs like Expo Arte Guadalajara leading the way. “Zélika knew how to read for a while and brought together the main actors of the time,” says Patricia Ortiz Monasterio, co-founder of the OMR Gallery, which opened its doors in 1983. Over time, the fair and local scene have evolved in tandem with the country’s collector base. , which has expanded to include well-known figures such as Eugenio López, who, coincidentally, was the first to acquire a stand in Zona Maco through his Chac-Mool gallery in Los Angeles, which later closed, with Esthella Provas.
“Maco is a reflection of the developing local scene that the fair is a part of and which propelled it to the next level,” says José Kuri, co-founder of Kurimanzutto, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year and is opening a highly anticipated exhibition through by Gabriel Orozco this year.
Zona Maco 2023 Visitors Courtesy Zona Maco
“The fair grew into a catalyst for other projects resulting from the collaborative efforts of the local art community,” says Cristóbal Riestra, the owner of OMR. This is reflected in the emergence of satellite fairs, like Material (launched in 2014) and Salón Acme (2013), but also in the programming staged in galleries, museums and public spaces around the city during the week of the fair. Zona Maco “offers both the fair and Mexico City”, says Gustavo Arróniz, the owner of Arróniz, to which gallerist Enrique Guerrero, participating in a commemorative 20th edition talk at the fair, adds: “Zélika took a big risk and ultimately succeeded as nowadays Maco gathers all the local galleries and showcases the city’s unique gastronomy and culture.”
However, a Mexican fair also poses challenges connected to the country’s economic crises, fluctuating currency, cuts to cultural budgets and staggering inequality—41.2% of Mexico’s wealth is held by 1% of the population, according to a 2023 report by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. Local and global catastrophes like the 2017 earthquake and Covid-19 have also had long-lasting impacts on Mexico City. The pandemic accelerated a phenomenon that was already changing the city in a variety of ways: waves of foreigners, mostly digital nomads from the US, to neighbourhoods like Roma and Condesa. “More than half of our visitors are foreign and affluence has increased substantially,” says Rafael Yturbe, the director of Galería de Arte Mexicano, one of the city’s oldest galleries.
Zona Maco 2023 Visitors Courtesy Zona Maco
This supercharged gentrification isn’t limited to residential real estate; Even before the pandemic, several European galleries had opened spaces in the city, such as Travesía Cuatro in Madrid and Nordenhake in Stockholm. Since 2020, this has accelerated with the arrival of Morán Morán in Los Angeles, Mariane Ibrahim in Chicago, the Deli Gallery in New York, and the upcoming opening of the König Galerie in Berlin.
“This new presence is causing foreign establishments to look at the town with new eyes,” says García. He adds that in 2023 the Zona Maco recorded a record number of visits by museum groups, and that this year foreign confirmations go back “The city is big enough for everyone, this renovation attracts existing players and is part of a global phenomenon. “