REDCAT’s MXLA summit seeks to push back against anti-Mexico rhetoric as it connects L.A. and Mexico City
Political relations between the U.S. and Mexico may be fractious, but cultural institutions on both sides of the border continue to connect with each other in interesting ways — and the California Institute of the Arts, as part of its Latin American Initiative, wants to improve the connections further.
The art school, based in Valencia, has teamed up with the Mexican Consulate in Los Angeles, to organize the MXLA Creative Economy Forum, a two-day summit set to take place next week at REDCAT in downtown Los Angeles. It is to explore cultural exchange between Mexico City and L.A.
“There is much moving back and forth across the border,” said former CalArts president Steven Lavine, who helped organize the forum. “In light of the anti-Mexican rhetoric, my hope is to make more visible the huge scale of what is going on.”
“If you take the top filmmakers in Hollywood, you end up with Mexican filmmakers like [Alfonso] Cuarón, [Alejandro] Iñarritu and [Guillermo] Del Toro,” Lavine added. “There is a long history of connection between the film industry in Mexico and the United States.”
Fashion designer Carla Fernandez, deejay Camilo Lara, Museo Jumex chief curator Julieta Gonzalez, artist Eduardo Abaroa and filmmaker Jonás Cuarón (son of Alfonso Cuarón, of “Gravity” fame) are some of the noted Mexican cultural figures set to speak at MXLA..
Participating from the U.S. side will be Tomas Cookman, the founder and CEO of Latin indie label Nacional Records, Sony Pictures Chairman Tom Rothman, former MOCA curator Alma Ruiz, author and MacArthur Fellow Josh Kun and artist Harry Gamboa.
And there will be figures who straddle the border, such as artist Ruben Ortiz-Torres, a CalArts alum who was born in Mexico and is now based in Southern California.
The hope is that in connecting people from disparate areas of culture, there can be an opportunity to find new ways to cross-pollinate and perhaps pool resources.
Nacional’s Cookman, Lavine noted, has been adept at bringing together small record labels and indie artists in ways that allow them to work independently while sharing distribution and other commercial infrastructure. Perhaps there is an element in that model that could be employed by book publishing, for example.
“A lot of culture turns on distribution, how stuff gets where it needs to go,” Lavine said. “One of the questions we want to address is how can you make processes of distribution function better?”
“The government looks at the big-ticket items, but some of that might stifle culture in the process.”
By putting everyone together in a single room, Lavine is hoping to spur some of those conversations — and perhaps some new relationships.
But it won’t all be talk. In addition to the various speakers, a special, surprise performance is also scheduled.
MXLA Creative Economy Forum
When: June 26, 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., and June 27, 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Where: REDCAT, 631 W. 2nd St., downtown Los Angeles
Admission: Free with RSVP
Info: mxla2017.calarts.edu and redcat.org
Sign up for our weekly Essential Arts & Culture newsletter »
ALSO
As Trump aims to build a wall, Los Angeles architecture school SCI-Arc builds bridges to Mexico
Mexico City’s art scene is booming, but even with deep roots, political uncertainty keeps it fragile
The naked guy at graduation is just one of Steven Lavine’s memories from 29 years of running CalArts
The biggest entertainment stories
Get our big stories about Hollywood, film, television, music, arts, culture and more right in your inbox as soon as they publish.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
