Carmen Parra seeks to leave an artistic mark on the Costa Grande of Guerrero

The artist and cultural manager Carmen Parra will celebrate her 80th birthday with the opening of a branch of El Aire Centro de Arte in the Buenavista town on the Costa Grande of Guerrero. The painter’s birthday is November 12; However, the inauguration of the southern headquarters of El Aire will be on Saturday the 9th, so that people can reach.

This gallery-studiolocated in the confines of his house La Querencia, will open its doors with an exhibition of his and Emiliano Gironella Parra’s works. It will function the same as El Aire de la Ciudad de México, located at Reforma 17, Tizapán Pueblo neighborhood, founded in 1997 by Parra and his son, by sharing cultural activities in the intimate space.

A second activity, scheduled for early December, is organized with the nearby community of Troncones, a tourist town. It will consist of a collective exhibition of local artists with the theme of the turtle, which lays its eggs on the Coast. This is a kite contest with images of this chelonian which, in turn, is in honor of the artist Francisco Toledo (1940-2019), who made these flying objects.

decades of work

Parra has been going back and forth between Buenavista and Mexico City for 30 years; Currently, he alternates six months in each place. In this area of ​​the Costa Grande of Guerrero there are almost no cultural activitiesdespite the fact that “many artists have come here, but they have not left their mark. We hope that with work on our part there will be more interest in the culture of this area.

A few years ago I did a Mexican Pacific cooking workshop through the Directorate of Popular Cultures, which supported me to do a project in the town of Pantla. The workshop with the chefs from the area was successful and they continue to be invited to Mexico City through a program of the Los Pinos Cultural Complex. It is about leaving our grain of sand based on our experience.

According to the painter, We artists are here to protect the memory with our souls on fire and transmit it through our own language. It is a flame of visions, a magical look to contemplate the labyrinth of feelings. Create images from the depth of life, the desire to stop time.

Regarding its operation, this extension of El Aire will be, like its headquarters in the capital, a self-sustaining gallery with activities. For example, I am going to invite the actress Ofelia Medina to present a showindicates to The Day. As the art world has changed radically over the years, We have adapted to new ways of relating to the public, something that is now very difficult because contemporary art has a globalized language and we remain rooted in this Mexican land. We have a different language to this globalization and it has cost us a little work; However, here we go.

Projects

Supporting the Archaeological Museum of the Costa Grande, in Zihuatanejo, which was restored, is another project in which Parra, who studied anthropology, is involved. The building had had several functions, including the former customs office. It was in pieces; However, federal resources were obtained for its repair. Now, archaeologist Rodolfo Lobato, from the Center of the National Institute of Anthropology and History in Guerrero, will be in charge of the museographic part.

According to Parra, the archeology of the Costa Grande de Guerrero is little known because it is based on adobe, whose structures have disappeared over time, although there are many areas with remains of these constructions.

Currently, the cultural manager’s efforts are concentrated in Guerrero and this year has been very active for her. Among other things, he participated in the second season of A trajectory, a collectiona series created with the purpose of disseminating a part of the artistic heritage that makes up the Payment in Kind and Heritage Collections under the protection of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit.

He made the painting Tennessee for the recently inaugurated Leyes de Reforma Cultural Center, in the port of Veracruz, and participates with his work in the exhibition Angels: The heavenly hosts on earthat the National Museum of Art, open until the 10th of this month.

Parra goes back to his arrival in Buenavista: We are pioneers, since there was no road, water or electricity. We built a palapa, a large flower, that has given us shade all these years facing the Pacific Ocean, which covers more than half of the earth. That sea tells us about the origin of the world and ourselves. It reminds us that we left there a short time ago. He is a wise companion, he does not judge, and he is an infinite beauty that cannot be grasped..

Reiterates: The ocean is my daily companion, and the sunsets are my television.