ARTE INNOVADOR DESDE LA PERIFERIA
una conversación con: Säsäknichim (Margarita Martínez) & Gerardo K’ulej (Artistas mayas contemporáneos de Chiapas, México)
hosted by Thor Anderson and John Burstein
Thor Anderson (HR ’73, graduated ’75) worked as a carpenter, landscaper, and film technician before returning to academia for a PhD in Social Anthropology (UC Berkeley, ’96). A specialist in ritual, the use of public spaces, and visual anthropology, Anderson did fieldwork in Chiapas (Mexico), Basque Country (Spain), and San Francisco (California). While teaching anthropology as a lecturer at various Bay Area universities, he assisted his partner, Consuelo Faust, with her dance company. He is currently splitting his time between volunteering, film projects, working with their dance company, and the duties (and joys) of being a new grandfather.
John Burstein
Founder emeritus, Espacio MUY
Original impetus for this Maya/Zoque cultural center with exhibition space, Burstein has been an activist in civil society organizations since the 1970s, when he first arrived in Mexico as part of the Harvard-Chiapas Project. An applied cultural-anthropologist, John was chief curator of MUY and now co-represents, with MUY’s collective of artists, dividing his time between San Cristóbal de Las Casas and Mexico City, and writing on Chiapanec contributions to contemporary Indigenous art (a project partially supported by the Patronato de Arte Contemporáneo (PAC), in Mexico).
MUY, the…
- Why: champion Indigenous contemporary art
- What: Cultural center and artist-run space
- When: 2015-
- Where: Chiapas, México (SCLC, región maya y zoque)
- Who: More than 13 emerging and mid-career artists and a staff of 4
- How: with exhibition space and for performance and artists’ talks; atelier; archive and collection, and facilitating gallery functions