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Market Murals in Mexico City
Conceived, perceived and lived space in Mexico City's Markets
Markets are an important element of everyday public life that when framed in Henri Lefebre's and later Edward Soja's theories regarding the production of space can be analyzed as the convergence of three realms: 1) conceived space, 2) perceived space and 3) lived space which are often referred to as Lefebvre's Spatial Triad. Conceived space is the space of specialists. It is the material result of the multidisciplinary work of specialists such as politicians, urban planners and architects. Perceived space is slowly constructed as society makes use of and appropriates it. Finally, lived space is constructed in society's imagination and is the result of how we interpret our lived experiences within these spaces. From this perspective, markets are much more than sites of commercial exchange, but rather, they are socially constructed spaces filled with intentions, meaning and history.
This Story Map intends to re-evaluate public markets in through the lens of Lefebvre's Spatial Triad. Specifically, public markets in Mexico City are not only sites of commerce but unique repositories of past and present cultural expressions that may influence the daily lives of their patrons. In this regard, the map explores the conceived intentions of seven public markets in Mexico City and how there have been attempts to give them additional meaning through the murals that adorn them. Simultaneously, daily life of local inhabitants prevails and provides the foundations to test Lefebvre's concepts regarding public space. This Story Map is divided in three sections: markets as conceived space, murals as means of cultural resignification and markets as spaces of everyday life.
I. Markets as Conceived Space. A history of their intentions.
There are over 200 public markets in Mexico City, most built on public land and are places where locals, visitors and tourists partake in a wide variety of activities. Over the years, traditional and public markets in Mexico City have gone through a number of changes in order to compete with modern shopping centers. However, some have maintained their traditional structures due to their cultural significance. In fact, some of them are not only centers of traditional commercial and social exchange, but they also serve as repositories of art and historic monuments. On the other hand, traditional practices are more at risk in markets that do not posses inherent cultural or historic value. In revitalization and conservation efforts, many have been subject to cultural and artistic interventions and some have been re-branded as modern shopping centers with mixed results. The following map explores the origins of seven markets in the city.
II. Murals as means of Cultural Resignification in Markets.
In this section, we explore how politicians and artists have historically made efforts to give new meanings or "resignify" these markets in Mexico City through the use of murals. Some of these are permanent and conserved as important parts of the city's history, others are the result of programs and efforts to revitalize traditional markets. Although the end results, intentions and effects vary, the efforts to inject meaning to these public spaces is the common denominator.
Additional photos of Mercado Abelardo Rodriguez
Additional murals by Raul Gamboa, Pedro Rendón and Ángel Bracho.
Additional photos of the Abelardo Rodriguez market.
Additional photos of Mercado de Jamaica
Additional images of the murals in Mercado Melchor Muzquiz
Mercado Juárez
Mercado Juárez is located in the Cuauhtémoc borough in the heart of the city. This area is perhaps the most visited by tourists. The current mayor of this borough has made an effort to "clean" the area of its picturesque graphic elements and replace them with one or two colors. Mercado Juarez was not the exception. This has been met with resistance from locals, art collectives and even other politicians.
According to Ana Torres of Universidad Iberoamericana, this mural was originally painted by Colectivo Chiquitraca and tells the story of the market. The borough's current mayor, Sandra Cuevas, has promoted a standardization of all markets and street food stands and painted many with one or two colors, and the mural was covered with plain orange paint. This measure has generated backlash for the politician, because the colorful signage in Mexico City's markets and street vendor stands have become somewhat representative of Mexican popular culture.
The mural on the left, made by Sego (Obval) who has worked with companies such as Nike and MTV was also covered with orange paint under the government of Sandra Cuevas. She also had murals on residential towers removed in Tlatelolco and replaced them with large scale posters of herself promoting her government.
Due to pressure from the general population, art collectives and even other politicians, Sandra Cuevas commissioned artists to paint murals to replace the one her government covered with orange paint. This picture of the new mural was taken in December 2022 but reactions to the new murals still await.
In what seems an effort to recover from the political repercussions of her "clean up" policies, artists were also commissioned to paint portraits of local members of the community in the new replacement murals. These murals are apparently still a work in progress.
Additional photos of Mercado Juarez
Additional images of murals in Mercado Juárez.
Mercado de la Bola
Mercado de la Bola is located in the southern borough of Tlalpan near the Autonomous National University of Mexico (UNAM). It is known for being not only a market but a node of cultural activities. It is also home to a mural by Dr. Lakra and Carlos Cons. There are other news articles that mention murals in this market that date back to the early 2000s, however no evidence of this was found.
From left to right. Carlos Cons and Dr. Lakra during the production phase of the mural. A panoramic shot of the the right side of the mural.
Jeronimo López Ramírez, a.k.a. Dr. Lakra is a visual and tattoo artist from Mexico who operates out of Oaxaca. He has been featured in international art expositions in the Tate, Yokohama Museum of Art, as well as a number of galleries in New York city.
This closeup of Dr. Lakra's work in Mercado de la Bola show it was made with cups, trays, plates, spoons and aprons. According to an art blog, this mural was created with household items that were on sale in the market itself which is perhaps the artists' way of recognizing the relevance of everyday life in these markets.
Central de Abastos
Central de Abastos was built in the early 1980s in order to decongest the saturated markets in the center of the city. It was designed by Abraham Zabludovsky, known more for being a TV personality than an architect. However, as with many markets in Mexico City, this area has concentrated foodstuffs trading since pre-hispanic times. Its size allows it to be home to over 50 murals organized by Central de Muros and We Do Things has been praised by the United Nations because it is considered to contribute to their Sustainable Development Goals.
Mural by Eduardo Bastida Guzmán aka Trasheer , a graffiti and visual artist from Mexico City who has been commissioned to work in Mexico and the United States for both the private and public sector.
This mural was created by Kenta Torii a Japanese born artist that is active in Japan, Mexico and the United States. The heading states "God of the Magic Tree."
Close up of mural by Gonzalo Areúz circa 2017. Areúz is known for reinterpreting images from pre hispanic folklore. This mural is a based on Tonantzin Tlalli Cuatlicue, goddess whom gave birth to the moon, stars and Huitzilopotli (god of sun and war).
Scarlett Baily is a Chicana visual artist from El Paso, Texas. She has participated in a number of street projects in Mexico including Central de Muros, where she collaborated with this mural in Central de Abastos market.
The story of this mural is perhaps one of the most compelling ones in the Central de Muros project.
Daniel Gómez a.k.a. El Hielos or The Ice, pictured right, actually works full time in the market as an ice delivery man. He was one of the artists commissioned to create this mural in 2018.
According to a publication by the UN:
"Cultural heritage — both tangible and intangible — and creativity are resources that need to be protected and carefully managed. They can serve both as drivers for achieving the SDGs as well as enablers, when culture-forward solutions can ensure the success of interventions to achieve the SDGs." (Hosagrahar, 2017, p. 12)
The United Nations Central de Muros, the Central de Abastos market and the muralists in 2018 and collaborated in the production of one of the murals.
After all the politicking is done, life in the market for locals is likely just "business as usual." To the artists, its an attempt to stir things up in one of the most violent boroughs of Mexico City. In the end, we agree with Lefebvre and Edward Soja, and believe the market as a public space will be the result of a messy combination of the political intentions of the conceived space, the perceptions of those who dare to appropriate it and the stories of those who actually live in it.
Additional photos of murals in Central de Abastos
Additional photos of murals in Central de Abastos taken from El País .
III. Life goes on in the Lived Space.
It is evident that the everyday lives of those who live near these markets goes on regardless of the conceived intentions of planners and the perceived realities of the artists who intervene them. Photos reveal that local daily life carries on in spite of all political and commercial intentions. In this respect, further studies could include analyzing whether or not the murals actually have had an impact on those who live around these markets. Additionally, it is worth noting how political agendas are currently absent from contemporary murals. In fact, muralism seems to have evolved from tools to disseminate national political ideals to a heterogeneous landscape that confront commercial intentions and grassroots movements. This may be a reflection of the country's evolution as well which could be analyzed from historic and aesthetic perspectives.
We would like to close with three brief reflections. First, the analysis of public markets is often limited to their worth as places of commerce and their capacity to satisfy the daily needs of citizens that visit them. However, as it has been shown in this map, they are complex places where politics, ideologies and mundane daily life coexist. Analyzing these spaces through Lefebvre's Spatial Triad helps us better understand how complex public space really is. Specially in contemporary urban design, the goal is not to design new cities, but to transform ones that already exist, we believe that a better understanding of public space will surely contribute to better designed and planned cities. In order to design inclusive and at the same time functional public spaces those who are in charge of conceiving these spaces should take time to consider these complexities.
Secondly, many of these markets have become temporary canvases for ephemeral and contemporary cultural expressions, often in the form of street art. In many cases, the only evidence of this is found in blogs, social media, local newspapers and personal archives. Very little information about the history of the murals and the markets themselves was found. Thus, records of these expressions could potentially end up deleted or lost in the ever expanding memory of the internet. In this sense, tools such as Story Maps can be tool for conserving local collective memory, as well as more practical guides to the markets themselves for researchers, casual flaneurs and tourists.
Finally, the role of interactive maps, such as those created with Map Stories, is flexible and could potentially begin to change the way information is transmitted; including in academia. We encourage the use of these types of tools in academia which is traditionally very rigid in its publication forms. However, during these times of "post-truth", the main challenge for tools such as these concerns the field of communication ethics. Tools as flexible, easy to use and effective can prove to be a double edge sword as it has happened with social media.
Academic references Carp, J. (2008). “Ground-Truthing” Representations of Social Space: Using Lefebvre’s Conceptual Triad. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 28(2), 129–142. https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X08324685
Ortiz, V. (2013). Jamaica Vive. Jamaica Siempre Vivirá A.C.
Soja, E. W. (1998). Thirdspace: Journeys to Los Angeles and other Real-and-Imagined Places. Capital & Class, 22(1), 137–139. https://doi.org/10.1177/030981689806400112 Stanek, L., & Schmid, C. (2011). Theory, not Method: Henri Lefebvre, Urban Research and Design Today. Urban. Revista Del Departamento de Urbanistica y Ordenacion Del Territorio, 02, 59–66.
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