Exhibition: "Searching for Queertopia"

Works by Alex Hernandez & Neil Rivas

Saturday, June 2, 2012 - Friday, June 29, 2012

Searching for Queertopia Price Guide>>

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Coverage in NPR - "In Mexico, Mixed Genders and 'Muxes'" >>

Coverage in Mission Loc@l - "Photos" >>

Workshops with Alex Hernandez >>

Searching for Queertopia revisits the experiences of Alexander Hernandez’s participation and Neil Rivas’ visual documentation of what is called, the Vela de ‘Las Intrépidas.’ This event, a 3-day celebration, is held annually in the town of Juchitán de Zaragoza, Oaxaca, México, in honor of its Muxe community.

Exhibition closes Friday, June 29

Artist Statements

Searching for Queertopia is a collaborative exhibition that revisits the experiences of Alexander Hernandez’s participation and Neil Rivas’ visual documentation of what is called, the Vela de ‘LasIntrépidas,’ a 3-day event held annually in the town of Juchitán de Zaragoza, Oaxaca, México, in honor of its Muxe community. Muxe, a Zapotec term for what is commonly known in the English-speaking world as Queer, has existed while evolving since Pre-Columbian times primarily in the southernmost regions of what is now known as Mexico. Hernandez, invested in reclaiming a past that been lost, was interested in what contemporary iterations of Muxe identity look like and how they function in relation to his queer and cultural identities. The series of processions and the preparations for them mark the commencement to a quest that Hernandez calls, his search for a Queertopia. Rivas, a friend and ally who accompanied him throughout the journey, served as its multimedia documentarian. The show brings together Hernandez’s garments, textile works, and object-based pieces that are resulting works of cross-hybridization, and Rivas’ visual remnants of this rite of passage embarked on by Hernandez.