Exhibition
Dr Lakra and Laureana Toledo: PUNXDEFECTUOZOZ. Work in progress
9 Sep 2015 – 23 Nov 2015
Address
- Strzegomski Square 2a
- Wrocław
Lower Silesian Voivodeship - 53-681
- Poland
The punk culture from the city of Mexico in the city of Wrocław (Poland). Fragments of the upcoming documentary by Laureana Toledo and Dr Lakra, photographs, flyers, fanzines and LPs.
About
Dr Lakra and Laureana Toledo are visual artists from Mexico. In 2014, they decided to use the medium of film to trace back the origins of the punk culture in the city of Mexico. As members of the scene, they revisited their friends and the archives in order to construct a narrative, highlighting the complexity of the formation within a broader socioeconomic context. The exhibition at Wrocław Contemporary Museum presents fragments of the upcoming documentary, photographs as well as flyers, fanzines and LPs that once filled the alleys of the flea market El Tianguis del Chopo – the main hub for the exchange of music and debates regarding the ongoing transformation of the city in the aftermath of the earthquakes on the 19th and 20th of September, 1985. Grass-roots solidarity and disagreement with the status quo, which characterised punk attitude, became the key to survival in the destroyed city, where the natural disaster exposed abuse of power, construction scams, corruption and lack of respect for human life.
The exhibition highlights the ambivalence of punk. Fashion-wise, it embodied the cultural colonization coming from the West; however, as an attitude, it constituted the backbone of the protest against the powerplay between the centre and the peripheries. The title "Punxdefectuozoz" also captures the defective side of the presented materials, such as the out-of-focus quality of the photographs. The emphasis on the flaws points to the distinctiveness of the Mexican experience from British punk, which was professionally recorded by official television, embraced by music industry and popular newspapers. The content of the exhibition is intended to reverberate particularly powerfully in Wroclaw, a city which was politically and socially shaken by the introduction of the martial law in December 1981 and, in the aftermath, became the crucial spot for punk and the underground culture.
Curator: Sylwia Serafinowicz
The opening will take place at 9th of October 2015 (Friday) at Wrocław Contemporary Museum, located i the shelter at Strzegomski Square 2a.
Program for the evening:
- 6.00 PM - Ana Punk and Thrasher in conversation with Laureana Toledo
- 7.30 PM - Opening.
The exhibition is prepared in cooperation with Agencia Mexicana de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo
Laurena Toleda is a beneficiary of the FONCA Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte
Media patronage: Gazeta Wrocławska, Odra, O.pl Polski Portal Kultury, Radio Wrocław, Radio RAM, TVP Wrocław