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Announcement

III Tzompantli Monumental Graphic

Nahual Graphics Workshop

Taller de Gráfica Nahual and La Nahuala Galería have the honour to invite the international art community and the general public to participate in the III Tzompantli Gráfico Monumental. 

Tzompantli is a term of Nahuatl origin that means «row of skulls». In pre-Hispanic Mexico the Tzompantli was a sign of Mexica military hegemony that fulfilled a coercive function; today it is an important element in Mexican aesthetic culture related to the celebration of the Day of the Dead. The so-called «Great Tzompantli of Mexico», discovered by specialists of the INAH (National Institute of Anthropology and History) is located in the Historic Centre of Mexico City, a few steps away from the Taller de Gráfica Nahual (TGN) and the Templo Mayor.

Within the framework of the celebration of the Day of the Dead 2021, the monumental Tzompantli will be exhibited on the walls of our facilities, located at the corner of Monte de Piedad and Tacuba, Centro Histórico, Mexico City, and in three venues to be determined. In total, for the exhibition, four banners of canvas prints will be made and a montage for exhibition with the prints on paper.

Taller de Gráfica Nahual has organised this great collaborative project in the framework of Day of the Dead for two consecutive years, in its first edition in 2019, 104 people participated, 66 women and 38 men, for the second edition in 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 health emergency, 135 people participated, of which 89 were women, 43 men, 2 preferred not to say and 1 person answered: other, the average age was 32 years, the youngest person was 4 years old and the oldest was 67. 

People from states such as Durango, Mexico City, Mexico State, Guanajuato, Hidalgo, Jalisco, Michoacán, Morelos, Oaxaca, Puebla, Querétaro, Quintana Roo, Tabasco, Yucatán, Zacatecas, and from different countries such as Argentina, Canada, Chile, England, Italy and Peru have joined in.

The TGN team has printed around four thousand copies to create the monumental pieces that have been exhibited in Casa de la Ciudad, Oaxaca, on the walls of the Cortes building, located next to the Metropolitan Cathedral in Mexico City; and an exhibition has been held in La Nahuala Galería. 

Although the health contingency has not allowed us to work in person, we have demonstrated that through virtual space we can continue to dialogue and create despite the distance, and although the contingency period has been extended during this year, we know that with your participation, collective care, organisation and cheveridá we will be able to break the world record for Tzompantlis Gráficos Monumentales once again.

Rules 

• Teachers, students and interested members of the public, with or without previous experience in printmaking from all over the planet, may participate. 

• Taller Nahual will provide an MDF plate measuring 23×23 cm with a thickness of 3 mm. In addition, if the participant so requires, he/she may request technical and conceptual advice.

• It will be possible to participate with linoleum panels measuring 23 x 23 cm.

• Those who wish to participate and have no experience in the technique of engraving will receive theoretical and practical advice to be able to execute the piece.

• Those who wish to participate from other states or countries must send their engraved plaque ready to print.**.

• The registration and cooperation process will be through the following form: 

• Registration phase: 28 July to 7 september 2021

• Delivery phase of material to be engraved (MDF plate): from 9 August to 7 September ***.

• Delivery of engraved plates: 9 August to 18 September. 

• Deadline for delivery of engraved plaques: 18 September. 

• The recovery fee, per person, which will be used for the purchase of wood, fabric, paper, ink, printing equipment, production, logistics, museography, curatorship and payment for the assembly of the monumental banner, is kept and is $250.00 MXN

For the graphic edition of this great project and the TGN collection, the following will be printed from each matrix:

6 copies on canvas with sizing:

4 copies for the banners that will be exhibited outdoors. 

2 copies for the TGN collection. 

5 copies on paper:

2 printer’s copies.

1 copy of your own print for each participant

2 workshop copies. 

(These copies will be put on sale in order to generate economic resources, considering that the TGN is an autonomous and independent space that aims to give continuity to collaborative projects such as this one). 

Similarly, the pieces will be part of the digital collection to create the project’s catalogue and later generate posters, stickers, digital elements and other applications, with the corresponding credits to disseminate the work of all the participants. ****

About the plates:

Participants will be able to collect their plaques after the end of the exhibition, which will run for three weeks. The protocols, dates and times of collection will be published in October.

We look forward to your valuable participation in this third edition. 

Aspects not covered in this call will be resolved by TGN.

*If you have no experience in engraving and you are enthusiastic to participate, you are welcome to this project, once you make the corresponding payment and registration you can collect your plate, with it we will lend you a tool (gouge) so that you can join the virtual consultancies (remember that with these tools we have shared workshops around the world and if you do not return it you will subtract the opportunity to learn to thousands of people).

**If you participate from another state of the republic or another country the steps to follow are the following: You will have to make your engraving on an MDF or linoleum plate with 3 millimetres of thickness with the measures established in the call for entries (23 x 23 cm).

You must send your engraved plaque by courier on the dates indicated. Once you have made the payment (PayPal) and the corresponding registration, you will be given the delivery address.

Together with your engraved plate you must send a pre-paid guide that will allow us, after the exhibition, to return the plate together with the print of your engraving from CDMX.

Similarly, as an alternative, we will launch a campaign for local engravers and engravers to support participants from other countries, with the idea of generating community at an international level and breaking down borders, it is proposed that artists from abroad send their drawings via email with the required measurements so that the pieces can be engraved in Mexico City, thus facilitating the dynamics of participation.

***Due to the fact that the pandemic is still in force, the workshop facilities are not being opened every day, we are working on strategies to speed up the delivery and reception of plaques. We will publish the calendar with the dates and times of attention, delivery and reception.

We ask that when you visit us or arrange to meet with members of the team, you come with your health safety kit, avoid crowds and help us to speed up all the processes of this call.  

If you take care of yourself, we all take care of ourselves!

**** By registering and paying the registration fee, participants accept the handling and reproduction of their pieces in order to generate resources for this independent space to continue working in the community. Likewise, each participant will be sent a letter of cession of rights that they will have to send with a handwritten signature, digitalised in PDF format by post in order to proceed without problems with the Tzompantli and support this cultural project.