Cumbia de mi Tierra
April 11 4:00 pm – April 26 6:00 pm
Gallery Hours: Friday- Sunday, April 12th – April 26th, 12pm – 6pm
Opening event on Saturday, April 11 from 4pm – 9pm.
Opening event on Saturday, April 11 from 4pm – 9pm
Dance performance by Club Inspiración Mexico.
Sonidero performances by Sonido La Rumba and El Tropical San Pancho.
Live music by cumbia group Dolores y su Conjunto. DJ sets by Ganas, El Kevin and Sonido Dolores.
Record store pop-up by Innovation Records and Discos Rolas.
Ceviche by Correas Mariscos.
Film screening on Saturday, April 18 at 6pm
Screening of Sonidero Metropólis and Kumbia Net, both directed by Alvaro Parra, and Grupo Kual
Musica de Barrio, directed by Discos Rolas.
DJ sets by Noche Romantica, Que Madre, Dave Salvaje, Sonido Sapo, Kumbia Net, Space Primo, Discos Rolas, Xandao and Ganas.
Q&A with director Alvaro Parra.
Record store pop-up by Innovation Records and Discos Rolas.
Closing Celebration on Saturday, April 25 from 4pm – 9pm.
Dance performance by Cali All-Stars.
Sonidero performances by Rafael Pamatz and Tropical San Pancho.
DJ sets by Ritmo Santanero, Discos Rolas, Mas Exitos.
Record store pop-up by Innovation Records and Discos Rolas.
More related programs to be announced.
Cumbia de mi Tierra is an art exhibit and installation that celebrates cumbia music from Mexico through ephemera, material culture, and art. From humble beginnings at family gatherings in Tepito and Peñon de los Baños, Mexican cumbia transformed the folkloric, regional dance music style from Colombia as it took roots in Mexico City and Puebla and in the diaspora in New York, New Jersey and LA. Independent labels including Discos Dancing, Discos Room, and Discos Lambda released records of Mexican cumbia groups alongside bootleg compilations of South American cumbia. Sonideros such as La Changa, La Conga, Sonido Samurai and thousands of others not only set up mobile soundsystems throughout Mexico but also DJ their vast collections and perform saludos (shout-outs). Groups such as Super Grupo Colombia and Los Angeles Azules emerged in Mexico City innovating the cumbia by imitating the bass-heavy and mediated sound of cumbia sonidera.
Curated by artist Gary Garay, the exhibit brings together collector, Jose Hernández, photographer Stefan Ruiz, and artist Yair Sarmiento. Drawing on the extensive collection of Jose Hernández, Gary Garay tells a story of cumbia sonidera in Mexico through curation and the creation of new work based on this archive. Consisting of flyers, posters, stickers, sonidero business cards, and cassette mixtapes and cassette recordings of specific bailes from the 1980s and 1990s Mexico City constitute a counter-history of print and graphic design. With its wild appropriation of Looney Toons, Hannah Barbera, Betty Boop, this visual vernacular helped transform cumbia from rural folkloric popular dance music from Colombia into a modern, urban, soundsystem-based culture. From the printing press to the record press, typewritten and Xeroxed cassette covers, screen printing, this fast-paced, inexpensive independent media culture of the marginalized masses.
Dancer and record collector, Hernández is an organic archivist of the cumbia sonidero scene who grew up in Mexico City and in the 1980s and 1990s and built his massive collection around the various ephemera of the scene. Garay documented, archived, and curated Hernández’s vast collection—which had been spread between California and his mother’s house in Mexico City. Inspired by the collection, Garay’s new work amplifies details that matter to diggers—record label logos, album cover photographs of dancers and sonideros—by screen printing on materials such as silver, tarps, and brick. The metallic color recalls platinum records, Mexican silver mines, Pop Art, and roll-up galvanized metal shop doors for places like Sonoramico Records and Discos Cali. Long part of Garay’s art practice, the tarp acknowledges improvisation, making do, hiding, and taking care—a temporary roof or wall at swap meets, alleys, bailes, and Hélo Oiticica’s Tropicália.
Finally, Stefan Ruiz will have five large-format photographs from his 2011 photo essay documenting the “Cholombiano” street style of young cumbia and vallenato fans in Monterrey, Mexico.