Cultural oasis: Monterrey's booming art scene looks beyond corporate funding.

The dusty, car-clogged streets of Monterrey may not be the art connoisseur's first choice for a cultural tour of Mexico. But, as any serious collector will appreciate, Mexico has far more to offer than just mustached heroes on horses and skeletons in frilly dresses. Things are happening in Monterrey's art scene and not all of them are confined to the big, corporate-sponsored galleries.

Anyone who has visited Monterrey during canicula--the 40-day period running from the end of July through August when the thermometer hovers around 40 degrees Celsius--will know that life in the city becomes a series of strategic hops between suitably air-conditioned buildings. However, it's not just the delicious cool of architect Ricardo Legoretta's downtown MARCO art museum that has drawn some 1.5 million visitors over its 10-year history, but the internationally-renowned artists it has attracted, such as Gabriel Orozco, Jenny Holzer and Sean Scully, as well as holding an impressive and varied permanent collection.

GROWING ART SCENE

"Monterrey has always been an industrial, financial and commercial center for Mexico," explains Eliseo Garza, director of the Casa de Cultura in Monterrey. "Now it's becoming a cultural one."

Eliseo has just finished organizing the 5th Biennial FEMSA, one of the biggest arts competitions in northern Mexico, which attracts some 1,470 works from 686 Mexico-based artists.

The Biennial is a classic example of shared private and public funding of the arts. His gallery funded the exhibition costs, BBVA Bancomer put up a $100,000 peso-prize for each of the three categories, and the French Alliance offered the winners an all-expenses paid sabbatical in Saint Etienne's Ecole des Beaux Arts (one of France's top arts institutions), and the opportunity to display their work in the school's annual exhibition.

Looking down the competition list, it's striking that some 35 of the 155 winners are from Monterrey. Surely some kind of favoritism, I suggest to Eliseo.

"Absolutely not. The artists submit their work under a pseudonym. The five judges come from as far off as France, Cuba, Argentina and Mexico City. How could they have known these artists were all based in Monterrey?" He asks.

The explanation, he goes on to tell me, is simple: Monterrey is a rich city, with over 40 higher-education facilities. Artists come here to study, and then they stay.

PATRONS OF THE ARTS

The city certainly has money to spend on prestigious art venues, and is aided by an almost unequalled level of corporate funding from the huge, established Monterrey companies such as Alfa, Vitro and Cemex. Indeed, a 1997 survey showed that no fewer than 10 of the top 25 Mexican art collectors were Monterrey residents.

"Funding has changed a lot over the last few years," Eliseo explains. "During the '70s boom, big companies were handing out money all over the place, without even asking what it was for. The 1994 crisis and global competition have changed that. The big companies have less money to throw around and they want to know exactly what the project is and what their money will be used for."

At the national level, the Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (Fonca) was formed in 1989 with the task of promoting and funding cultural projects throughout Mexico. Fonca channels government and private sector funds to the artistic community through a number of initiatives. The Programa de Jovenes Creadores, for example, was created to unlock the potential of young Mexican artists and give them the opportunity to work with internationally-recognized art masters, whereas the Fideicomiso para la cultura Mexico-Estados Unidos aims to fund projects with a binational focus.

Funding in Monterrey is largely administered through the decentralized government body known as CONARTE (Consejo para la Cultura de Nuevo Leon), which in 2002 will inject about $26 million pesos into art projects in the area. The three premier city arts venues, the Pinacoteca/Cineteca/Fototeca complex in Parque Fundidora, the Teatro de la Ciudad and the Centro de las Artes all fall under its mandate. It also funds many smaller projects and individual artists.

However, the relationship between artists and these funding bodies is not without its critics. One such critic is Pilar Villarreal, a graduate of the highly acclaimed Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon (UANL) and a renowned artist who has exhibited throughout Mexico, the United States and Europe. "These sponsors can be a double-edged sword. They often end up being ways for those in power to control ideas, only sponsoring projects that back up their vision, which is often way out of date."

She is also a little skeptical about some of the attention that Monterrey is getting as a premier arts venue.

"Economically speaking, Monterrey is the No. 1 city in the country, but culturally, we are very much behind compared to Guadalajara or Mexico City. The fact that companies generate so much money for the arts means that people see art as a consumable product. There is an attitude of consumerism in Monterrey that pervades every aspect of peoples' lives. In this chain of consumerism, art is always relegated to the last position," says Villarreal.

A PLACE OF THEIR OWN

And Villareal is not alone: A growing number of the graduates from Monterrey's art schools are unsure about the links between the large corporations and the funding they provide. Jesus Alamilla, director of the postgraduate faculty of art at UANL, believes there's a split in Monterrey's art world.

"There are two levels at which art operates in Monterrey. On the first, surface level, we have the MARCO, the Centro de los Artes and all of the art influenced by the important people of Monterrey. Then, on a more profound level, we have a type of art that is more difficult to learn to appreciate, or even to find within the city. There are no grants, much of it is ephemeral and exists only on the Internet or in galleries that have no publicity or resources," says Alamilla.

One regio art collective called "Exoticonoreste" has already secured two international exhibitions as a result of showcasing their work via a website created only two months ago.

For Jesus, the city's cultural divisions are most apparent in the Barrio Antiguo, the preserved, old town area beside the Macroplaza. The area is the most cosmopolitan part of the city, and also the hub for Monterrey's notorious nightlife.

"The Barrio Antiguo is a simulacrum of Monterrey," explains Lozano. "It is the dividing line between the world of the rich and the world of the poor, the artists and the rich of the city."

A walk along the Barrio Antiguo's cobble stone streets shows the close geographical proximity of these two worlds. Brightly painted bars and throbbing nightclubs crowd next to small art galleries and alternative spaces such as Cafe Iguana, a popular haunt for students of the public university, and Cafe Infinito, frequented by the artistically inclined in Monterrey.

Other groups have staged impromptu installations in shopping centers, toy shops and other less traditional venues. There's certainly plenty going on outside of the large museums, and asking around the bars and galleries of Barrio Antiguo throws open a whole world of art that is as much a part of Monterrey's cultural fabric as the cowboy hats and decrepit pickup trucks. Just so long as you don't mind the lack of air conditioning.

Stephen Pinches is a Monterrey-based journalist and freelance writer.