Gabriela León
Sunday Walk to the Zocalo of Oaxaca
Essay by Tyler Stallings, Director, Sweeney Art Gallery

A bi-lingual, 40-page exhibition catalogue will accompany the exhibition and will be available in late-November / early-December 2007. It will include several essays and reproductions of the work in the exhibition. It will be Leónís first major publication.

The following provides an extended exhibition description and discussion until the catalogue is made available.


Gabriela León: Sunday Walk to the Zocalo of Oaxaca is a multi-media artistic response to the popular revolt and resistance that has been unfolding in Oaxaca since June 2006. Elements in the exhibition include a ìbarricade dressî and monoprints made from the detritus of the unrest, a video projection of the artist wearing this dress walking among protestors and police, a sound installation that evokes the voices of the crowds, photographs of the ongoing unrest, and a site-specific installation of banners inspired by the temporary living structures at the zocalo during the lengthy protest.

An artistic response to the nationally significant events that unfolded in Oaxaca, Leónís installation at the Sweeney generally reflects an increased attention to the social and political in contemporary art in the U.S. This renewed focus on the social and political generally occurs during times of intense national trauma when individuals outside the mainstream desire an increased voice on collective issues. Right now, concerns over the Iraq war, the impending presidential elections, and a heightened awareness of environmental risk have inspired artists to turn their attention to these issues more so than in the past. This happened during the AIDS crises in the 80s and 90s, for example, which helped galvanize public awareness about the disease, and today artists have taken up the cause of the environment as a national concern. Perhaps they will have the same affect in their new efforts that they did twenty years ago. Often, it is artists that speak out in times of crisis to embody and articulate the concerns of the greater populace.

More specifically, the events of Oaxaca also act as a mirror through which to see the mix of political and artistic actions in a very local context. In this light, Leónís exhibition provides an opportunity to reflect on the Sweeneyís location on a pedestrian mall, situated one block from city hall, perhaps reflecting the same social dynamic between the populace of Oaxacaís zocalo and the governorís offices as dramatized by León. In addition, it also perhaps reflects other confrontations between institutional power and popular resistance. For example, in April of 2006, during the nation-wide protests in the U.S. against anti-immigration laws proposed in Congress, the pedestrian mall in front of the gallery was flooded with Latino families and supporters brandishing U.S. and Mexican flags, yelling "Si se Puede," and giving speeches. In the past few years, several artists, such as Andrea Bowers and Sam Durant, both based in Los Angeles, have been exploring the United Statesí past and current culture of protest, attempting to map the relationships between art and politics, between observer and participant, and between praxis and idealism.

Gabriela León was born in Cuautla, Morelos Mexico in 1973. She makes her home and studio in Oaxaca, Mexico. She has had many group exhibitions which include those at Illuseum Art Space in Amsterdam, Museo de Arte Contempor·neo de Oaxaca in Oaxaca, The Cellars at Shoreditch Town Hall in London, Galleria Ram Chhatpar Slip Nyas GalerÌa in Varanasi, India, Womenís Museum in Dallas and the Setagaya Museum in Tokyo, Japan.

This is Leónís first solo exhibition outside of Mexico; and her first major catalogue accompanies it. The catalogue will be available in late November / early December 2007. Several podcasts are available for listening at the gallery website, sweeney.ucr.edu. They are composed of photographs from the uprising and from interviews between León and Stallings that were conducted as they walked the streets of Oaxaca, revisiting the sites of unrest.