The leading experimental art gallery in Mexico for more than two decades, kurimanzutto opened its new home in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York in November with a group exhibition of 39 artists, “TODOS JUNTOS (All Together).” ArtAsiaPacific spoke with co-founder Mónica Manzutto about the gallery’s artist-first approach to making exhibitions and how the gallery sees its position between its roots in Mexico and network of artists working around the world.
In 1999, you envisioned a gallery “with no space that responds to the freedom artists had at the time in Mexico.” How do you see this spirit of “freedom” and experimentation developing in your new neighborhood in New York?
One of the most relevant aspects of kurimanzutto is that it was conceived by an artist, Gabriel Orozco. After Gabriel approached my partner, José Kuri, and I, we then opened up the idea to a very specific group of Mexican artists in Mexico who did not have gallery representation at that time. The only international artist invited from the very beginning was Rirkrit Tiravanija, who was a long time friend of Gabriel in New York. Gabriel made another important proposal that was crucial to the formation of the gallery; he proposed that instead of establishing a permanent space, kurimanzutto should function as a gallery that responds to specific projects in Mexico and abroad.