19 February 2008

Miki

When asked to write about my favorite emerging artist in Mexico, I chose Miki Guadapur partly because he defies the very category of what it means to be emerging’ onto a contemporary scene driven more at times by flagrant careerism than a consistent desire to articulate something, whether that something have popular appeal or not. I say this after almost a decade of working in artist-run, alternative spaces, most of which quickly become subsumed into an endless cycle of discovering new talents to the benefit of more mainstream institutions, and then having to start the whole process all over again. It’s not a very interesting structure is it?

Miki Guadapur is a musician, visual artist, and most importantly, an entertainer who, over the course of the last decade, has become a cult figure in Mexico City, and abroad. He is adored and respected by many but still assumes an attitude of self-deprecation and marginalization that says more about his unwillingness to participate in the system, than his ability to do so. He exudes a creative energy that is at once, weird, sweet, funny and intensely critical (at times bordering on unbearably negative). Above all he is completely and utterly sincere and suffers because of it. He’s like that adolescent freak whose genius was recognized by so few-shunned by the popular kids you knew would never amount to anything. But then you grew up and you realized that the world is controlled by those same kids, or maybe others who learned how to play the game a little later on in life. And that’s why you love Miki so much.

Michèle Faguet


Michèle Faguet


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