MEXICO CITY — A gaggle of anti-gentrification protesters vandalized the up to date artwork museum of the Nationwide Autonomous College of Mexico (UNAM) on Sunday, July 20, as demonstrations towards rising housing costs and the rising displacement of native residents proceed throughout town.
Black bloc protesters graffitied and broke home windows on the campus earlier than arriving on the cultural heart, which homes the Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC), a live performance corridor, a number of theatres, and different amenities, together with the Julio Torri Bookstore, which they broke into and ransacked. Protesters smashed the glass balustrade surrounding the museum’s angled façade and cracked half a dozen tempered glass panels, which dangled close to a small pile of burning books on the esplanade whereas others graffitied Rufino Tamayo’s monumental outside sculpture “La Espiga” (1980). Protesters didn’t achieve entry to the museum, and no different artworks sustained injury.
Protesters smashed the museum’s glass balustrade and panels.
Shards of damaged glass strewn outdoors the museum entrance
Based on one of many organizers, Náme Villa del Ángel, the protest was not meant to reach on the UNAM’s campus, however had branched off from the deliberate route after being harassed and kettled by riot police. The day prior to this, organizers had explicitly referred to as for a peaceable protest on social media, citing the chance that the march may face a smear marketing campaign. Police, who don’t normally enter the campus due to the college’s self-governing standing — though they don’t seem to be legally barred from doing so — had been now not on the scene when demonstrators arrived on the MUAC. The UNAM, Mexico’s largest college and an essential civic image, was on a three-week summer time break, with the campus sitting largely empty.
“We are fighting for dignified housing for Mexicans,” reads a protest signal.
Among the many signatories was artist Magali Lara, whose ongoing profession retrospective on the MUAC is seen from the gallery home windows dealing with the esplanade.
“It looks more like ‘shock groups’ than a real protest,” mentioned Lara, referring to the historic use of paid teams to subvert righteous causes in Mexico. “I think it is very dangerous that the UNAM or any other public institution be exposed in this manner to groups that are bent, it appears to me, on destruction.”
Essentially the most notorious of Mexico’s shock teams was the Halcones (“Falcons”), a paramilitary group concerned within the Corpus Christi bloodbath of June 10, 1971, when a scholar protest in favor of college self-governance resulted in bloodshed. The “Halconazo” marked the start of the interval generally known as the “dirty wars,” a time of elevated social repression within the nation.
Warning tape surrounds the realm close to Rufino Tamayo’s sculpture outdoors MUAC.
Supporters of the anti-gentrification motion framed the occasions inside the context of a city-wide dispute over public house, water, and housing.
“There is a lot of anger, there is a lot of outrage,” mentioned Villa del Ángel. “Contemporary art represents elitism and an elitization of spaces that were initially created for the working class, like the UNAM.”
The affect of gentrification in Mexico Metropolis has been felt profoundly by a lot of its residents, and its root trigger is a subject of heated political debate. A measurable improve in demand for short-term leases — particularly by means of Airbnb — in centrally positioned, stylish neighborhoods has fueled a notion that so-called “digital nomads,” who work from town remotely and earn in stronger currencies than the Mexican peso, drive the difficulty, displacing much less prosperous renters to town’s periphery.
Graffiti on the ground reads “Mexico for Mexicans.”
That is the second time in lower than a 12 months that the MUAC’s constructing has been focused throughout an illustration. Final fall, an exhibition by Argentinean artist Ana Gallardo generated protests for its inclusion of derogatory language towards aged intercourse employees. The museum apologized, eliminated two works from view, and arranged a collection of public packages in collaboration with the aggrieved events.
Whereas sympathetic to the anti-gentrification motion, Lara is skeptical that the latest protests will assist the difficulty.
“We live in a complicated moment. But that does not justify the destruction of an institution whose function has to do with learning, connection, critique, and dialogue,” she mentioned. “The MUAC may have many flaws, but not these.”
Protesters graffitied poster stands and banners.
Graffiti on the bookstore window
Indicators learn “Housing is a right, not a business” and “Dignified housing for workers.”
