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Readers of this blog should know my love for Mexico City by now, so it\u2019s with great pleasure that I announce my participation in Postopolis DF! A 5-day conference-conversation on urbanism in one of the world\u2019s most amazing cities\u2026 In other words, if you were thinking of coming to DF this summer, now\u2019s a great time\u2026 And don\u2019t worry gringos, vamos a tener realtime Spanish-English translation for y\u2019all. It\u2019s going down the second week of June, June 8-12, at El Eco\u2026\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Oh wait, I didn’t write that (though I share<\/a> the sentiment). DJ Rupture did<\/a>. Which is yet another reason that I’m totally thrilled to be a part of <\/p>\n
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I didn’t write this either:<\/p>\n
From 8-12 June 2010, Storefront for Art and Architecture, in partnership with Museo
\nExperimental El Eco<\/a>, Tomo<\/a> and Domus Magazine<\/a>, will host the third edition of Postopolis!, a
\npublic five-day session of near-continuous conversation curated by some of the world?s most
\nprominent bloggers from the fields of architecture, art, urbanism, landscape, music and design.
\n10 world-renowned bloggers from Los Angeles, New York, Turin, Barcelona, London and
\nelsewhere will convene in one location in Mexico City to host a series of discussions, interviews,
\nslideshows, presentations, films and panels fusing the informal and interdisciplinary approach of
\nthe architecture blogosphere with rare face-to-face interaction. <\/p>\nEach day, the 10 participating bloggers will meet in the magnificent courtyard of Museo
\nExperimental El Eco, designed by Matthias Goeritz, to conduct back-to-back interviews of some
\nof Mexico City?s most influential thinkers and practitioners \u2013 including architects, city planners,
\nartists and urban theorists but also military historians, filmmakers, photographers, activists and
\nmusicians. The talks will be conducted in either Spanish or English, and translations will be
\navailable. Each day of talks will end with an after-party hosted by some of Mexico City?s most
\ninfluential music blogs. <\/p><\/blockquote>\nBut I’ll be writing a lot while there, no doubt. (They’re turbo-charging the internettings at El Eco for the occasion.) And I’m really excited about how my slate of invites is coming along. <\/p>\n
Not surprising to readers here, I’ll be staging a conversation (or two) around hip-hop in DF. Minding that the conference is concerned, in a rather capacious way, with questions of space and design, I’m aiming to focus on what we might consider hip-hop’s institutional embeddedness in Mexico City. Mil gracias to my man on the ground, Camilo Smith<\/a>, a former writer for the Source<\/em> and the LA Times<\/em> (and smokingsection<\/a>!), who’s been grinding in DF for the past year, looking hard into the local hip-hop scene(s). Check out this post on transnational “cholo rap<\/a>” for a taste (or see the comments here<\/a>). <\/p>\n
With Camilo’s help, I’m plotting to bring in an assortment of MCs, DJs, and other practitioners as well as people who are directly involved in manufacturing, distributing, and, in a variety of ways, producing<\/em> hip-hop there (in the form of shows, CDs, magazines, etc.). I’d like to ask questions about what it entails to run an independent label in DF, how the spaces where shows are held and music is exchanged fit into the larger music\/media topography of the city, what’s the character of the interplay between locally and foreign produced stuff, not to mention, at the more symbolic level, how questions of race and place come into this. We’ll see how much of that we can jam in \/ tease out over a couple 15 minute blocks!<\/p>\n
Camilo also turned me on to some striking visual artists working in the city and making stuff that really resonates with other longstanding curiosities of mine. One such, who I’m thrilled to announce is confirmed for Postopolis, is Said Dokins<\/a>, whose work is very much in the vein of contemporary subversive street art which finds deep inspiration in graffiti style and practice. Take for example the recent piece, “Avionazo en la Plazuela<\/a>,” a project pasting paper planes in the Plaza del Aguilita in Mexico City which the artist describes<\/a> as “a satirical reflection on the mechanisms of threat and power in which we are engaged, the political farces and scenarios created at the expense of the suffering and disruption of others”:<\/p>\n
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