Mexico City Art Week - with Alfredo Fosado

Latin America Correspondent Jon Bonfiglio speaks to founder and director of Dolores 54 Alfredo Fosado about Mexico City Art Week, and the unique art and residency space that is Dolores 54.

For more information about Dolores 54: https://www.dolores-54.com/

To read Jon Bonfiglio's review of Mexico City Art Week, copy and paste the link below:

https://glasstire.com/2026/02/06/mexico-city-art-week-making-sense-of-the-labyrinth/

Transcript

Jon Bonfiglio 0:01

Hi everyone, welcome back to Latin America Correspondent with me, Jon Bonfiglio. I'm here in the midst of Mexico City Art Week, the art fair in which there's a huge uh amount taking place from uh huge art markets, like the sort of the the main feature that is Zonamaco, right down to um uh I mean scores of different small affairs, all of which have their sort of different entry points, their different ideologies, their different uh focuses. Uh and I'm delighted to say that uh joining me here today uh is Alfredo Fosado.

Alfonso Fosado 0:36

Hi everyone. I'm very happy to be here with you. Thank you for the opportunity.

Jon Bonfiglio 0:43

Thanks, Alfredo. Um Alfredo, uh you are the the founder and the the director uh of the Dolores 54, the Dolores 54, right here, right in the in the center of uh of Mexico City. It's just to describe it a little bit, it's a beautiful house. It's very hidden from the street, so it's like a secret surprise when you do find it, when you do when you do enter. Um you walk up the stairs in in what is a traditional sort of uh Mexican house of over a hundred years uh old, and then it serves, it functions as a residency space for artists, as a gallery, as a multi-use uh space as well for a whole variety of events, and it and it has a really beautiful uh feel, I think.

Alfonso Fosado 1:25

Yeah, well I I believe it it um the reason of the mystique of this space has to do also with the uh origin and the genealogy of of the project. Um everything happened in in in the middle of the pandemic that we were living, and there there were this there was this group of people, this group of friends that we were thinking on what to do in order to find different channels to continue expressing and giving space to the creative energy, and we found this space. And this group of people started interacting with the space and each one projected different things on the space and then we we started um well uh organizing pop-up exhibitions and also dinners and workshops. So each member of this group uh kind of uh had this role as this curator committee. So each one projected different things on the space and and so those iterations uh kind of gave shape to the project. So from the beginning uh it wasn't uh decided that the model would be something specific. Um it is part of the DNA of the space that it would become different, different things. So the the venue uh has uh host different different projects and those projects um set the horizons of what whatever we could do in the future. So right now we're we are on the on a stage where we are trying to give coherence to all of those uh things that happened, and we are trying to give direction to all of these things, and that is why we have this model where we are not one thing. We are not just a gallery, we are not uh just a space where dinners or fashion shows or parties take place. Uh but we we are a space we are a space or a project where we are trying to uh give the opportunity to different disciplines to polonize each other. So uh yeah, and and and and I believe the we we are very uh privileged that we are on this space where we are in in the downtown area but not in the core of the downtown area. We're very close to this circuit of other areas of the city where uh we we are still connected to to some other modern uh areas. Um that also allows us to feel like we are on a hidden space. So uh that uh I think that is the reason why we receive like a kind of people because not everyone decides to come to this space. So that that is kind of a like a I don't know how to to express it, but it's like that give us uh the guarantee that only certain kind of people with some uh receptive attitude comes here, right? So I think that is part of the personality of of the project, and we are very happy to maintain that mystique.

Jon Bonfiglio 5:17

Yeah, I think you're totally right, and you and you can feel that. There's almost a kind of an inbuilt, a designed like flexibility, malleability to to the space, and again, I um it's definitely not an obvious space. So, you know, uh there's a lot of much more, let's say, high profile, sort of commercially uh focused uh events taking place during the the art fair, but this is definitely um I'm gonna say on the fringes of the art fair, but I but I but I mean that positively. I mean that as a kind of a human scale thing that people have to come here and find it and sort of give to I like the idea of giving to the space rather than demanding from the space.

Alfonso Fosado 5:58

Totally. Uh I I believe you you you arrive with a different uh feeling with a different attitude here. And also we have to say that Art Week uh has I mean each each each year it is growing exponentially and of course everyone thinks about Sonamaco when we are talking uh about Art Week. Some some people even uh confused uh and speaks uh of Art Week and Sonamaco as if they were the same thing. But uh as a cultural space, uh we feel compelled to give shape to the Art Week in some other ways that are not only under the logic of these huge first as Sonamaco. So um of course we are very happy to take um part of this of this week with our own program and on under our own under our own terms uh because the art scene is is very diverse now. So I I feel we are kind of obligated to uh offer something different and and make people realize that the art week in Mexico City is not only about these huge fairs and that of course are under the logic of the capitalism and on and the money, no? So so yeah, we're trying to offer like a different experience from from those uh those projects.

Jon Bonfiglio 7:38

And just just contextually so Zonamako, yeah, is is almost the sort of the highest profile international fair within this, all of these different events during Mexico City Art Week, and um there's over 300 um galleries that are taking place from over th over 30 countries. Last year there was a turnover of over 600 million dollars in sales alone there, and there's an expectation of uh in excess of 80,000 visitors taking place this year. Um here at the Lotus 54, we're not we're not looking at 800 visitors, are we?

Alfonso Fosado 8:14

No, no, totally. We receive a couple uh of maybe we we we will have like a couple of dozens uh visitors during uh during the day. Uh and and yeah, we're trying to offer a different experience because also we are trying to uh pay attention also to the experience of visiting a space where where art is exhibited. Uh I believe the experience in most of the galleries, not all not only during art week, but in but the the whole time and and Sonamaco are the experience is is really uh frivolous and and and very superficial. I feel sometimes you don't even feel very welcoming when when you go and when you enter to these kind of affairs and and and people won't pay attention to you if you don't give signs that you probably will buy something. So it those spaces are not very like uh I mean the the hospitality experience is not very good and and you don't feel very welcoming to those spaces sometimes. So we we are also very uh very focused on uh making people feel very welcome to the space and uh trying to pay attention to to them and try to uh I don't know, uh at least giving them the experience that they felt like heard and uh attended when they visited the space. And and yeah, I mean I I think uh in in the art world we should pay more attention to to the experience of the people independently or regardless if they're going to buy your art or not.

Jon Bonfiglio 9:56

Yeah, it's it's pretty clear that um there's a sort of a frenetic, uh there's a frenzy to a lot of these big art facts, which as you say, they're not driven by the art, they're driven by the the sort of the kudos of owning the art, of having the art, of talking about the art, and of purchasing the art. It's it's it's uh economy driven. It strikes me that this space of the Lorez 54 is uh is um really beautiful because there's a in direct contrast to the likes of um Sonamaco, there is a a peace to the space, uh there is a quietness to the space. I think even if you come in uh accelerated if you if you come in sort of off the street, as soon as you come into the house, um it like time moves differently, I think, in here. And it's sort of and and I just I also just don't see how you can see art when you are in that sort of accelerated, sort of frenetic mentality. When time slows for you, then you have um an ability to look at a piece of work. The other thing which I really value about the Lotus uh single of the Lorez 54 is that there's this this uh whole sort of uh myth that we that we we exist with in the art world about the fact that art needs to exist in a Y cube in isolation, which to my mind is palpably nonsense. And that the physicality of walking into the Lotus 54 where you don't even know necessarily where you're going, you're walking through a couple of shops and then you emerge out into this into this uh again sort of uh beautiful house, beautiful island. It it sort of transforms you, takes you uh somewhere, and you you have to go through that experience and go through the house and experience the house before you get to the work. It's like a medium, it's like a filter before you get to the work, which is an unusual, I mean it's not hugely unusual, but it's definitely I would say sort of countercultural as regards contemporary art.

Alfonso Fosado 11:48

Totally. I mean the fact that you enter through a shop store, uh the a a bulb uh shop, a bulb where you you where you uh buy uh candles and light bulbs, I mean, that completely gives you a different disposition. Uh as you were saying, I mean, you walk through that corridor and then you you you you have to prepare to something else. I mean, and then as you uh walk uh and walk up through the stairs, uh you realize that you're entering a different space where as you were saying, you you won't you won't find a white uh cube. Uh there is there are these walls that uh have their own texture, and then you realize that you you won't be on a space that uh has the logic of the retail business where you will find an art piece uh completely abstracted from its context or the intention, original intention of the author of the painter. I mean here the pieces uh will have to dialogue with the space and with the architecture, and we'll have to uh receive also the different layers of meanings that goes uh along with the space and with the story of the space and not only the space but the context of its surrounding context. I mean we are in the middle of a very commercial area, uh like it is the downtown area, and and then that obligates you to situate yourself in a completely different uh perspective. Um here we are trying to give an experience where it's not uh a very uh plain experience where you're going to see uh the art pieces. Here you will have to have a conversation uh not only about the pieces but where where are they placed, and and and of course that I I believe uh gives a completely different uh experience on how you exhibit and and contemplate the the art.

Jon Bonfiglio 14:11

Yeah, it feels like the the art is part of the experience, but it's not by any stretch of the imagination, the entire experience. Um Friday, I just want to say a big thank you for uh for being with us here today for giving of your of your time and just for for listeners uh we will link in the show notes to the space at the Lores 54, the Lores 54, and also there was um uh a review, uh a feature piece that I wrote for Glass Tire uh which came out today, which we'll also link to on the Mexico uh City Art Fair, which we'll also link to in the in the show notes. So thanks again, Alfredo.

Alfonso Fosado 14:46

Thank you, Jonathan.