She started as a secretary before launching Feria Material in 2014. What inspired you to get into fair trade, and how do you hope to impact Mexico City’s art scene?
I moved to Mexico City in 2007, and since 2008, I have co-directed a gallery called Yautepec with Daniela Elbahara. The early 2010s was a great time for contemporary art in Mexico City. In 2011, this young scene—a mix of young Mexican artists and international artists who had recently moved to the city—started to come together in a project called Preteen Gallery, run by curator Gerardo Contreras. In 2013, it seemed like everyone in Mexico City had a project site. There was Lodos, started by Francisco Cordero Oceguera; NO SPACE, run by artists Andrew Birk and Débora Delmar; Bikini Wax, owned by Daniel Aguilar Ruvalcaba, Ramón Izaguirre, Rodrigo GarcÃa and Cristóbal Gracia; Tanja Nijmeijer Gallery, owned by artist Rachel de Joode; Lulu, curated by curator Chris Sharp and artist MartÃn Soto Climent; Casa Maauad, owned by artist and collector Anuar Maauad; and many others. Yautepec was close to the incident—we were all friends.
Everything felt incredibly alive. Of course, we were all very young and had cocks. But the funny thing is that while these shows were getting worldwide attention through social media (this was the era of Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr; Instagram was just starting out), Mexico City didn’t care much. None of the campus guards attended those shows. None of the collectors were buying the work.
The road to Feria Material began at that time. During the art week in 2013, Yautepec had decided not to participate in ZONAMACO, and instead, we organized a pop-up exhibition called Raw Material in collaboration with galleries we admire, such as Proyectos Ultravioleta from Guatemala, La Central (now Instituto de Visión) from Colombia, DiabloRosso from Panama and Sultana from France. We didn’t have plans for an art show yet, but everything that was done to organize that event and the other galleries was really inspiring, and it got us thinking.
Feria Material grew from that time: our belief that Mexico City had a really exciting new scene that deserved a platform to support it, our conviction that there are small international fairs waiting for the right reason to come to Mexico City and pure entertainment. to create something like Raw Material. That summer, we had partnered with Isa Castilla, and we did an art show.
Now in its 11th edition, Feria Material has become the main platform for emerging and leading galleries around the world. How is it different and compatible with ZONAMACO?
Zélika and the ZONAMACO team have done the hard work of securing Mexico City’s place in the annual art fair calendar. It takes a certain size and strength to do that kind of heavy lifting, and I have a lot of respect for them.
From the beginning, the aim with Material has always been to accompany ZONAMACO with another fair of high quality, but which provides a very close and focused experience. This can be of great help to galleries, especially those who are building a market and awareness of their artists through institutions. The level of people we offer has been critical in ensuring that every advertiser and visitor feels like they are part of a meaningful, relevant and relevant conversation.
What can you tell us about how the show has grown over the years?
I’ve actually been thinking about this lately. Tthe first few years, from 2014 to 2017, were all about experimentation and experimentation. Every fair felt very different from the last—there was a lot of energy and trial and error. But we learned a lot and mostly had fun in the process.
From 2018 to 2020, it was growth and consolidation. We moved to Frontón México, where we presented a multi-level scaffolding structure designed by APRDELESP. Our app, IMMATERIAL—managed by Michelangelo Miccolis—became more ambitious each year. We had excellent graphic design from Carla Valdivia and interior design by Fabien Cappello. This exhibition began to attract the most famous national and international galleries, many collectors, large institutions. For me, at that moment, it felt like the Material had really arrived.
Then, shortly after our 2020 edition, the pandemic unceremoniously threw us into a long, dark tunnel of financial, emotional and existential problems. But, on the bright side, it also gave us pause to think more deeply about what the role of Material can and should be in the grand scheme of things. That led to our partnership with Del Castillo y Castro Abogados and the creation of Proyectos, our two-year program that supports artist-run spaces in Mexico by providing them with free exhibition space, training and workshops. We also present our nationally focused exhibition, Estación Material, in Guadalajara, for us tapatÃo godfather, José Noé Suro.
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Those initiatives were about supporting our close community of galleries, artists, and spaces through platforms that felt very meaningful and fundamental. Finally, as of 2023, I would say that we have entered our growth phase. Returning to Expo Reforma and signing a multi-year contract was a prudent senior decision—it gave Feria Material the stability it needed to fully recover and continue to grow. We simplified the exhibition architecture to make the artwork the star of the show again. We rethought our organizational structure, and hired a great team.
That means we’ve realized that the generation of galleries we’ve grown up with have different needs now than ever before. So our focus is on meeting them where they are and continuing to be the fun they need us to be in the future.
Even with the increased viewership of exhibitors and international accessibility, selection and research have always been prioritized. Can you share more about your selection process and key priorities?
Our priority has always been to maintain a platform that feels relevant and relevant to our advertisers and their artists. We rely on a selection committee that deeply understands our fair, its context, its strengths and its limitations. The selection process is about maintaining a balance that feels relevant and considered—one that balances established and independent voices and fosters meaningful dialogue between them. Ultimately, our goal is for every advertiser to feel part of something special, with the best context to present their artist work.
Feria Material’s low participation fees encourage smaller galleries to apply. How does this strategy on the business side translate into greater accessibility, diversity, and, ultimately, higher quality of storage?
This goes back to the question of a fair man’s measure. The key to that has been keeping stand sizes small in general. For example, the stands in our main section range from 7.5 meters squared to 26 meters squared. As a result, entry costs are low compared to other stadiums, where the smallest stand you can find is almost the same size as our largest stand. In that sense, it is a question of proportion. That said, we make a big effort each year to keep our price per square meter stable. It is definitely a strategy they don’t know. We want our galleries to manage their risk and introduce new artists without worrying that they will have to close their doors if they don’t find the right collectors.
Has your idea of ​​a good business changed since you started?
I think what we need is a healthy ecosystem—built from the ground up rather than a system where thousands of galleries buy expensive lottery tickets to put works by tens of thousands of artists in the same few high-end collections. collectors. Personally, I would like to humbly propose the reconfiguration of the entire art market, where galleries and artists can be proud to grow gradually over time with the active support of collectors and collectors who really understand the context in which those galleries work as well. where their artists’ habits come from, and who can truly champion them. I think in the end, the important questions are: how can good art create context instead of destroying it? How can it support real, thriving ecosystems instead of perpetuating imaginary ones?
Mexico City’s art scene grew rapidly, especially after the pandemic, when new galleries and spaces appeared in different regions. Meanwhile, two recent years of performances and exhibitions have increased worldwide interest in Latin American art, both in institutions and markets. Do you have thoughts to share about Mexico City’s art scene and the broader Mexican art market?
To be honest, I don’t know if I have a clear idea about it now. I just think there is still a lot of work to be done.
