The first edition of the Week of Art Yucatán arrived in Mérida to host the art scene of the south of the country.
For the first time, Yucatan experienced something that many of us felt necessary: an art week, WAY (Week of Art Yucatan). It arrived in Mérida as a collective exercise that brought together local artists with creators who traveled from different parts of the world. More than an event, it was a clear sign that the scene was already there, waiting to be articulated.
I have been living in Mérida for six years, and from that closeness – more everyday than circumstantial – it was evident that something like this was needed. The city had been building, almost in silence, a solid, dispersed, but alive creative scene that needed a moment of articulation and visibility. WAY came to occupy that space.
The most valuable thing about this first edition was not only the quality of the proposals, but also the way in which the city responded. The main venues – Salón Gallos, Nepantla and Plantel Matilde – set the pace for the week, while galleries, haciendas, private homes, restaurants, bars and shops were activated in parallel. The interesting thing was to see how locals and visitors coexisted naturally: art became a pretext to walk, talk, and share.
As José García, organizer of WAY, explains, “the initiative seeks to strengthen the exchange and give greater visibility to the artistic ecosystem of Yucatán, generating for a week a real meeting point between artists, audiences, and cultural agents from different contexts.”
In that sense, just as Guadalajara and Monterrey have been activating a solid agenda in the days leading up to Art Week in Mexico City, Mérida was not far behind. WAY worked as a natural preamble but with an energy of its own. Here, there was no hurry or saturation: Mérida offered time, closeness, and a human experience, also taking advantage of the growing interest in the city and the natural flow of those who travel to fairs such as ZSONA MACO.
Within this wide map of proposals, some spaces captured the spirit of this first edition especially well, and I had the opportunity to visit these spaces during these days.
With six years of experience, Salón Gallos has been confirmed as a key point for the local artistic community. During WAY, it functioned as the base house of the program, hosting talks, screenings, exhibitions, and the closing meeting, reaffirming its role as a cultural articulator.
Nepantla, located in Telchac Pueblo and curated by Ángela Damman together with Nadia Guitteau, unfolded among the jungle and the ruins of an old henequen factory, owned by Ángela, an American artist who arrived in Yucatan more than fifteen years ago. Nepantla—a Nahuatl word that alludes to the in-between—explored crossings between cultures, times, and materials. Photography, objects, textiles and ceramics coexisted in an environment where the landscape was an active part of the experience. Among the participating artists were Ángela Damman, Ric Kokotovich, Genaro Hoepfner, Natalia Tannenbaum, and Ernesto Azcárate, among others.
At Plantel Matilde, located in the community of San Antonio Sac Chich and an initiative of the sculptor Javier Marín, a clear look at contemporary sculptural production in the region was presented. Conceived as a workshop, residence, and exchange space, the space hosted the exhibition ‘In the line where the sky touches the earth, objects cease to exist’, curated by José García Torres and César Rendón. The exhibition brought together 36 artists, including Mario García Torres, Pedro Reyes, Yutaka Sone, Randy Shull, Claribel Calderius, and received more than 600 visitors, who also toured the Sac Chich Clay Workshop, a community project promoted by the Javier Marín Foundation.
The Casa Escuela of Mónica Calderón and Ezequiel Farca presented Hot Served Cold, Milena Múzquiz’s first solo exhibition in Mérida. Installed in an old school in the historic center, Casa Escuela functions as a multidisciplinary residence where art, design, gastronomy, and well-being coexist organically.
One of the most memorable moments for me was Elements, by Omar Barquet, in Lux Perpetua. The exhibition proposed a sensitive exploration of memory, landscape, and the traces that remain after the disaster, consolidating this space as a key node of contemporary art in Yucatán.
Finally, within the framework of WAY, Casa Colón Gallery inaugurated a collective exhibition with works by Carlos Jorge, Ángel Ricardo Ríos, Julia Martins, Pedro Covo, Thomas Broadbent, and Teresa Zimbrón. The inauguration was also one of those moments where the scene feels alive: conversation, meetings, and community.
Week of Art Yucatán was a first step, with a lot ahead of it, that made it clear that Mérida has the sensitivity, the community, and the desire to sustain an art week with its own identity. More than replicating existing models, this first edition demonstrated that the city could build its own: close, generous, and deeply connected to its context.
Source: Vogue
