gabriel orozco, minerva cuevas, eduardo abaroa, abraham curzvillegas, damián ortega, philippe hernández, gabriel kuri, sofía táboas, jonathan hernández, fernando ortega, alejandro carrasco, luis felipe ortega, rirkrit tiravanija, daniel guzmán, dr. lakra

“Kurimanzutto @ Chantal Crousel: One gallery inside another; a gallery as a transportable organization of creation and negotiation. The gallery ceased to exist in Mexico City to thus exist elsewhere. Two parallel structures, neither one subordinate to the other: spatial, administrative negotiation; a gallery without a space or geographical location. It can open its doors anywhere. The gallery opened spaces within itself that are normally off-limits- storerooms, offices, the fire scape- and that offered new perspectives for the presentation and consumption of aesthetic experience.”

A Tale of kurimanzutto, SITAC I Exchanges in Contemporary Art. Chronicles, Controversies and Bridges, January 2002.

original press release:

kurimanzutto was founded in August 21st, 1999 in Mexico City by Mónica Manzutto, José Kuri, and Gabriel Orozco together with thirteen artists to collaborate and represent their work: Minerva Cuevas, Eduardo Abaroa, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Damián Ortega, Philippe Hernandez, Gabriel Kuri, Sofía Táboas, Jonathan Hernández, Fernando Ortega, Alejandro Carrasco, Luis Felipe Ortega, Rirkrit Tiravanija, and Daniel Guzmán. Ranging from 25 to 38 years old, these artists come from very different backgrounds (a cartoonist, a tattooist, a tennis player, an art student...) and go in very different directions (terrorist, teacher or... whatever). But right now, they share a common energy in continuous expansion that has given place, as a natural result, to the creation of this “company”. Their collaboration has already produced publications, workshops, exhibitions, tournaments, trips, and a few great parties.

These people work through an artistic “language” that has struggled to find its place into the current gallery structure in Mexico.

kurimanzutto responds to the artists’ needs.

kurimanzutto does not have a set space so, for each project or exhibition the gallery helps the artist or group of artists find the best suited location and/or setting.

The gallery's fourth project could be called “a gallery within a gallery”: responding to an invitation by Gabriel Orozco, French gallery owner Chantal Crousel came to Mexico and met kurimanzutto's artists, that encounter would be the origin of a joint project and future collaborations.

For this experiment many boundaries are crossed: between the international and the local, individual and collective work, dealer and partner, artist-curator and promoter; artists produce art objects that travel differently throughout the spaces in the contemporary market.

press reviews:

“After orchestrating various other events (including film and video screenings in a movie theater and a party at a carpet shop), Kurimanzutto was transported overseas, to the Galerie Chantal Crousel in Paris (from May 13 to June 29), thanks to the initiative of Gabriel Orozco, who also enjoyed a major one-person show this summer at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (see above). In Paris his work could be found alongside that of the thirteen aforementioned artists and a piece by the enigmatic Dr. Lakra.

The result is a cocktail of joyous bric-a-brac spread throughout the gallery space, which opened a few of its usually inaccessible corners to the visitor. Among the twenty-seven works on view were Philippe Hernández's Gazstation (all works 2000), a rubber mat bearing a simple line drawing of a man filling up the gas tank of his car; Gabriel Kuri's Carretilla 5, an old wheelbarrow filled with gold and silver Christmas tinsel garlands; and Jonathan Hernández's Bonnes affaires (Good deals), an installation that combined banners bearing the words “succès” (success), “vente massive” (giant sale), “achat vente” (buy sell), and of course “bonnes affaires” with advertisements, cans of dog food, and a video showing a wild crowd of shoppers stampeding to the opening of a department store. At the prompting of Minerva Cuevas, the Chantal Crousel gallery agreed to provide a personalized letter of recommendation to anyone who asked for it (relief for the art world's unemployed?). Union-Séparation boasted a hand-cranked, rotating platform on which its creator, Damián Ortega, mounted a camera: A film produced by the activation of this primitive machine was projected on a glass door in the basement of the gallery. But no matter how engaging the individual works, it was the playful spirit of the whole that prevailed over the sum of its parts. Who knows what Kurimanzutto's future will bring ––a concert? a soccer match? a press conference? Perhaps even the launching of a few artistic careers.”

Criqui, J-P. (September, 2000), Galería Kurimanzutto, ArtForum (Vol. 39, No.1)