Border art duo's latest exhibit, 'Tianquiztli,' was inspired by a constellation of stars and how mercados and community markets are important social centers
The appropriateness of meeting up with Cog•nate Collective at the Eighth Street Market in National City is not lost on me. Yes, they live in the area, but given the subjects they’ve explored in their work, it seems all the more fitting to be speaking to them among the bustle and business of a neighborhood market.
“We were trained more in art history than in art production, so I think we always had some inkling that, whatever we did, it would be heavily research-based,” says Díaz. “That opened up an interesting proposition to go and find spaces and communities that are contending with border issues that are particular to them, but that are part of the everyday experience of living there.
“Ideas are more interesting than individuals, than personalities,” Sánchez Arteaga adds. “I’d rather the ideas that we work with are what is remembered rather than me or us.”The two first met as art history major undergrads at tUC Los Angeles. They shared a common experience in that Díaz grew up in Tijuana, but attended school in San Diego, while Sánchez Arteaga grew up in Imperial Valley, but would often travel to Mexicali to visit family.
The idea for the exhibition came to them during the pandemic. With most communal spaces either restricted or shut down, Díaz and Sánchez Arteaga had to adapt their approach. What’s more, they began to understand more fully the importance of neighborhood marketplaces and how they serve both a functional purpose , but also as a community’s social center where people congregate, hang out and catch up with friends.
The resulting exhibition will have a re-creation of a stall the duo set up at the swap meet, along with a monitor displaying video of some of the interactions that took place in National City. There will also be documentation of other installations where the two sourced particular objects from various markets and swap meets in San Diego County and Tijuana and would bunch them altogether at their stall, thereby recontextualizing them.
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