Pedro Friedeberg

"Mano" - Mini version of Hand Chair by Friedeberg, sculpture, tiffany

2023

A piece from the exhibition "Cosmic Duality" by artist Mr. Mitote. Mitote is a term we use today to describe a lively, noisy, and excessive gathering. It’s also used to depict tumultuous gatherings marked by disorder, commotion, and sometimes even quarrels. In the colonial past, mitote was a celebration commemorating the establishment of the New Spain kingdom, blending local pride with imperial solemnity. However, throughout both ancient times and the present day, mitotes serve as rituals embedded in the culture and religiosity of various indigenous groups in Mexico, such as the Nahua, Cora, Tepehuan, and Huichol. Adorned in rich attire, gathered around a fire amidst the sounds of musical instruments, and under the intoxicating influence of alcoholic beverages, mitotes serve as occasions to invoke sacred beings—whether protective deities of nature or Christian saints associated with agriculture—to pray for bountiful harvests. Mitotes encompass and have always embodied rites, myths, and life. In homage to the artist’s name, this exhibition is presented as a mitote: a celebration displaying the intimate mythologies of its creator through various artistic expressions such as sculpture, artwork, and video. Cosmic Duality is a concept wherein Mr. Mitote delves into memories of his childhood from a contemporary perspective. His mother introduced him at a young age to the traditions and customs of her native Maltrata, Veracruz, a town steeped in the memory of a noble past wherein it fought for its autonomy. Every year on January 1st, to invoke prosperity, the dance of the huehues (meaning “old people” or “elders” in Nahuatl) is performed. According to oral and local traditions, these characters embody foes in a mocked and vanquished manner, dancing beneath the lash of a tiger or devil. Their costumes feature pre-Columbian symbols merged with elements evoking nature, alongside nods to contemporary entertainment culture. Through the observation and interpretation of nature, numerous ancestral cultures created dual cosmologies. Far from viewing opposites, they conceived of dual complementary systems such as chaos-order, cold-heat, humidity-drought, feminine-masculine, and life-death, among others, to uphold cosmic order. Placed within the context of Mexico City, Mr. Mitote reimagines these enduring principles from ancient religious practices alongside contemporary languages. He does so through vibrant entities that blend tradition and innovation, memory and fantasy, past and present, ancestral ceremonies, and urban rituals. Each artwork serves as a reminder that across all latitudes and human territories, culture thrives, tradition evolves continuously, the past is revitalized, and the present shapes the path forward into the future. The body has served as the quintessential conduit bridging two dual dimensions: the human and the divine, the earthly and the celestial, the microcosm and the macrocosm. In several of his artworks, Mr. Mitote invokes propitiatory dances, and ritual practices, aimed at attracting abundant rain and fostering good harvests, many of which entail risking the physical well-being and even the lives of participants. The tiger hunt...

A piece from the exhibition "Cosmic Duality" by artist Mr. Mitote. Mitote is a term we use today to describe a lively, noisy, and excessive gathering. It’s also used to depict tumul...

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