The Siamese Company celebrates four decades of artistic work

▲ Arturo Guerrero and Marisa Lara turned paintings and drawings into letters, after “traveling through all times and eras with a host of authors from all over the world.” Photo: Jorge Pablo Ángel García

Reyes Martínez Torrijos

La Jornada Newspaper, Tuesday, August 26, 2025, p. 2

The Siamese Company spent years developing the book Visual Bipolarity, which revolves around their life and four decades of unified artistic work. In the text, which will be released on August 30, the duo captured the story of "a double heartbeat, painting, installation, performance , photography, etc.; it's sarcastic and has a sense of humor. There are intimate confessions, unknown questions about the birth of our works, in addition to being a reflection on art."

The creative duo, Marisa Lara and Arturo Guerrero, shared in an interview with La Jornada some of their artistic convictions, the importance of books in their work, and the goal of their artistic work also being translated into writing. "We have painted worlds, and now we narrate worlds as accomplices," Guerrero said.

On the day of the presentation at the Museo del Estanquillo, some codes will be hidden in the rooms where the eponymous exhibition is on display. Those who find them will receive a free copy of the text.

Marisa Lara explained that they have drawn from history, literature, philosophy, and authors they find endearing, such as Bachelard, Baudrillard, Cervantes, and Borges; they find the German Schiller fascinating, who in the 18th century spoke of the need for artistic education as a bridge between intelligence and the heart.

Miracle of communication

“For many years, we have worked hard to connect with the public so they can enjoy art, visual art—in this case, a book—so they can enjoy it. There are no setbacks or boundaries, like the idea that contemporary art is inaccessible and incomprehensible, but rather a living pulse where the miracle of communication with others occurs. That's why the argument and principle of otherness, the 'we others,' is Siamese twins, it's living flesh, it's soul.”

The volume involves characters such as the anthropologist Guillermo Bonfil Batalla, the chronicler Carlos Monsiváis, the singer Celia Cruz, the dancer Ninón Sevilla, as well as the stay of Siameses Company in Paris, with its fabulous Montmartre and living in Lepic, the routes between the Moulin Rouge going up and the Sacré-Cœur basilica, passing through the Moulin de la Galette ballroom.

That play space was painted by Renoir, and, Arturo Guerrero commented, they had exhibited at the Salón Los Ángeles on Guerrero Street. “There are similarities, constant dualities. Right now we're exhibiting at the Museo del Estanquillo, which was the old jewelry store in La Esmeralda. We're La Esmeralda graduates. We go from Esmeralda to Esmeralda. So we tell a lot of crazy stories.”

The artists mentioned almost unanimously that these are stories somewhere between the true and the hyperreal, about "how we emerged from our egg, which was harvested and incubated by colors; about our fears, the things we've had to face, what we haven't succeeded in doing and what we have. An intense life story that can perfectly embrace the desire to connect the arts."

The title is appealing, they considered, "because it's based on the idea of ​​a mirror, which we always work with. If we don't reflect ourselves in others, others won't reflect us. The mirror brings together bipolarity, echo, reflection, empathy, and a sense of humor. Without them, we wouldn't function as artists."

For Arturo Guerrero, books are accomplices to the "crazy adventures" that have been part of his Siamese twin : "We have traveled through all times and eras with a host of authors from all over the world. Literature is universal, like the visual arts, and they express who we are as human beings."

Therein lies the origin of their decision to transform lines, paints, colors, and drawings into letters, which they captured on pages "like a kind of procession, in which they had already been painted, imagined, recreated; sometimes they have been sculptures, photographs, engravings, etc., over the course of 40 years."

Guerrero stated that writing is one of the first ways of relating to art, since each writing is like a drawing.

Marisa Lara alternated: "There were endless days of dragging the pen and hitting the keyboard, correcting, and doing it again in one voice because the book shows experiences we've shared: memories, yearnings, heartbreaks, desires, and falls. We're sure anyone who's had to rebuild themselves will love it."

There's a direct connection between the text, Guerrero noted, and the exhibition of the same name at El Estanquillo, which brings together more than 300 pieces: "a puzzle of images that is now a puzzle of letters. From there, you rediscover who you are. Writing has helped us understand what has happened to us in depth and in a different way."

The text is a translation of what they think writing is: "a version of visual artists writing about their experiences, but with all their heart." Arturo Guerrero added: "We let ourselves be carried away by our bipolarity, this madness that is necessary for creation. The book expresses the relationship between dreams and the reason or unreason of things."

From the beginning, they focused their work on combating indifference and apathy, giving meaning to seemingly meaningless phenomena. In this endeavor, they found reflections and mirrors that have interested people. In their travels, they discovered that this is their vision of what reality can be, and thus they have allowed themselves to be carried away by their wildest dreams, for life is a dream, as Calderón de la Barca would say.

Siamese twin Lara sees great aesthetic value in the book; although it contains more than just images and words occupy the majority of the space, it integrates drawings related to the stories it tells. "It will be a very interesting tool of knowledge and enjoyment for whoever reads it, because it will connect words, images, and stories."

The book Visual Bipolarity , by Siameses Company , will be presented on August 30 at 1:00 p.m. at the Museo del Estanquillo (Isabel La Católica 26, Historic Center).

Eirinet Gómez

La Jornada Newspaper, Tuesday, August 26, 2025, p. 3

In the context of its 50th anniversary, the Museo Universitario del Chopo was celebrated as an exhibition center, laboratory, meeting place, refuge, and social center where a network of creative complicities is woven, capable of questioning, challenging, and imagining possible futures.

During the inauguration of the commemorative activities for its half-century of existence—which will be celebrated on November 25th—El Chopo's director, Sol Henaro Palomino, emphasized that El Chopo has established itself as a space where diverse communities and generations come together to see an exhibition, attend a concert, witness a live arts program, watch a film, or take a workshop.

"This site has hosted, disseminated, generated, and offered a comprehensive set of cultural content and has defended the right to culture," he noted.

Henaro Palomino recalled that the street name—formerly Álamo, now Dr. Enrique González Martínez—gave the museum its surname and reflected: “This solitary tree could have given rise to a forest. It didn't remain isolated; it intertwined with others, and together they formed a landscape.”

Currently, El Chopo's collection consists of 367 works, including The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo , by the engraver Jesús Álvarez Amaya, a member of the Taller de Gráfica Popular, and Flight to the Open Cage , a habitable sculpture by the artist Jerónimo Hagerman, located in the garden of the venue.

“This collection is a testament to its time and to the internationalist solidarity movements the museum was a part of, especially during the 1980s. These pieces show how the museum was open to debate and responded to the crises of its time,” the director explained.

In a context where “hatred, individualism, and conservatism threaten,” Henaro Palomino called for a recalibration and a broader projection of the museum's role: “Celebrating 50 years is an opportunity to reflect, but above all, to strengthen our cultural muscles and reaffirm our commitment to continue being a social center disguised as a museum.”

Silvia Yorgelis Saucedo, president of El Colegio de México, defined this space as "a dynamic, lively, and daring cultural project that seeks a balance between the preservation of memory and open access to that heritage through digital initiatives." She emphasized that honoring the museum means recognizing those who have been part of it over five decades.

She celebrated the inauguration of a room named after Elena Urrutia, the first director of El Chopo, in the context of this anniversary. "A driving force of projects, a builder of institutions, a spark of questions, Urrutia is a good example for highlighting the role of women in cultural projects and initiatives within UNAM."

Site open to reflection

Abraham Cruzvillegas, a conceptual artist and member of the museum's advisory board, emphasized that El Chopo fosters the connection between national and international artists, but is also an open space for reflection on a society in constant transformation.

He recalled the significance of the first Lesbian-Gay Cultural Week (1987): “a spectrum opened up for us, a rainbow of many possibilities, both discursive and in terms of formal, conceptual, but also political languages.”

▲ The Chopo University Museum after reopening in May 2010. Photo by María Meléndrez Parada

For Cruzvillegas, El Chopo's difference from other museums lies in its openness to the marginalized and dissidents: "It's not near UNAM or on the tourist circuit. It's located in what we used to call the peripheries, not only geographically, but also culturally and politically."

He also highlighted the role of the free workshops promoted by the cultural center, which have trained several currently active artists. "It's a museum of living arts with a set of experimental practices that forge connections between theater, dance, visual arts, and artistic research, without losing sight of memory, its politics, and the configuration of its archives."

Rosa Beltrán, coordinator of Cultural Outreach at UNAM, believes that El Chopo works against the current: “Here, it is the community that, through its requests, but also through its activism and the history it writes with its body, determines what will be brought and what will be exhibited.”

He emphasized that this space embodies the university's capacity for reinvention. "What began as an industrial exhibition hall, later housing the Museum of Natural History, is today a vibrant cultural center that has established itself as a beacon of contemporary creativity."

Among its milestones, it stood out as the home of the LGBT+ community, hosting the Gay and Lesbian Cultural Week, which later became the International Festival for Sexual Diversity. It also hosted cultural events in the fight against AIDS.

Leonardo Lomelí Vanegas, rector of UNAM, recalled that El Chopo arose from the need to open a free meeting space capable of hosting emerging or marginalized cultural and artistic expressions.

"This anniversary invites us to reflect on how the university has played its role in society, not only as a space for the generation and transmission of knowledge, but also as a public actor that supports cultural processes and transformations, and that promotes imagination, creativity, divergent thinking, and the construction of collective identities and meanings."

Over the course of five decades, he stated, this museum has served as a link between UNAM and sectors historically excluded from the cultural conversation: "Its relevance is not merely heritage or symbolic, it's pedagogical. It has shown us that another museum model is viable. One where the archive is the critical tool, programming isn't top-down, and youth aren't a passive audience without living interlocutors."

At the start of the activities to celebrate El Chopo's half-century of existence, a minute of silence was observed to honor the memory of Mariana Gándara, playwright, stage director, interdisciplinary artist, and UNAM Culture collaborator, who recently passed away at the age of 41. In addition, the commemorative exhibition "It Was a Tree and It Became a Forest" was inaugurated.