Marcos Ramírez ERRE

(Tijuana, 1961)

Proposal

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With Century 21 Tijuana artist Marcos Ramírez ERRE created a piece that captured significant public attention. Located prominently on the plaza of the Centro Cultural Tijuana, Ramírez replicated a common Tijuana shanty house and thereby placed the issue of socioeconomic disparity where it would be difficult to avoid. The artist drew a sharp contrast to that of the modern façade of the CECUT, and this apparent tension was further underscored when one ventured inside the building to find the trappings of common Mexican life. The installation included documentary photographs of five similar shanty homes. The artist stated that with this work he wanted to point to one of the sore spots of Mexican society and also posit that while some people may live in poverty they live equally with dignity and pride as members of the same society.

Curator: Comité Baja California
Organizers: Departamento de Cultura Municipal, Tijuana; Instituto de Cultura de Baja California; Centro Cultural Tijuana; El Colegio de la Frontera Norte; Universidad Autónoma de Baja California; Universidad Iberoamericana Plantel Noroeste.
Venue: Centro Cultural Tijuana

Process

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Proposal

<p>Marcos Ramírez ERRE, <em>Toy an Horse</em>, INSITE97 (proposal).</p> <p>Marcos Ramírez ERRE, <em>Toy an Horse</em>, INSITE97 (proposal).</p>

For INSITE97, Marcos Ramírez ERRE collaborated with several artists to construct Toy an Horse, a monumental wood and metal replica of the iconic Trojan Horse. Installed directly on top of the monument marking the border about fifty meters from the border cross-checkpoint at San Ysidro, the horse was visible to the 50,000 people crossing the border by car every day. Ramírez stated that the purpose of the project was to use the narrative symbolism of the Trojan horse to stimulate discussion about the border, invasion, cultural exchange, and dependency.

A second component of the project was engaging the craftspeople who make plaster souvenirs that are sold at the border to create replicas of the horse. The replicas were then sold in the traffic lanes at the San Ysidro Port of Entry—thus enlisting unwitting commuters to effect the “invasion” of the horse from Mexico to the US.

Curators: Jessica Bradley, Olivier Debroise, Ivo Mesquita, and Sally Yard
Venue: San Ysidro

Acknowledgments

Collaborators
Hugo Josué Castro Mejía (México, 1956)
Francisco Javier Galaviz Villa Obregón(México, 1952)
Armando Páez (México, 1960)
Alejandro Zacarias Soto Guadalajara (México, 1960)

Walther Boesterly

Rodolfo de la Torre
Marco Figueroa
NAVA EXPRESS
Jaime Ruiz Otis
TC Townsend