Kicking off efforts to promote itself as the 2020 Artistic Capital of Latin America, Mexico City will host a series of events on February 6-9 to be collectively known as Contemporary Art Week.

Taking advantage of the exposure generated by Zona Maco, Latin America’s biggest contemporary art fair held February 5-9, the program will include four other fairs at venues throughout the city: Salón Acme, now in its eighth year in the Juárez neighborhood; the Material Art Fair in the Frontón México building in Tabacalera; Feria Maroma in the Roma neighborhood’s Foro Frontera; and BADA MX in the Campo Marte event venue in Chapultepec Park.

The art week will bring together artists, curators and gallery owners from 27 countries, Mexico City Tourism Secretary Carlos Mackinlay and representatives of the fairs said at a press conference on Wednesday.

Mackinlay said the Capital Bus tourist transportation service will offer a special route to take visitors to each of the four sites through the week.

Salón Acme will host a series of talks on art from Oaxaca and Yucatán focusing on such themes as “Art and Autonomy” and “Art and Combat,” along with various art performances.

The Material Art Fair, to run February 7-9, will exhibit the work of 78 galleries from 21 countries and 37 cities.

Held on the same days, Feria Maroma aims to provide a space for artists to create large, spectacular installations, said fair representative Samantha Calderón.

“Upon entering, attendees are going to see structures four meters tall and hanging art of creative and distinctive design. Art is inclusive and we’re interested in showing people that art can be presented differently,” she said.

“We believe that the art world has become very elitist. There are people who are afraid to enter a gallery or a fair and ask for the price of an artwork. We can’t close off art to the people; that’s how the idea for Maroma came about, as a critique of that part of art. People are going to be surprised.”

BADA MX will host a special exhibition featuring the work of Mexican painter Rafael Cauduro. Entitled “The other side of things,” it will include 12 never-before-shown pieces.

Many Metro stations will be part of the fun as well, with the Bellas Artes, Hidalgo, Mixcoac, Insurgentes and Auditorio stations all hosting exhibitions.

From February 3-9, the Insurgentes Metro station will host Pabellón by Colombian artist Mateo López, a surprising structure made of pipes and cloth that will purportedly engage visitors in an artistic dialogue. There will also be performances by artists Anaïs Bouts and Tania Solomonoff.

Metro Auditorio will host an exhibition called The People’s Mandate from England’s Chalton Gallery for the entire month of February. The featured artists created pieces that complement the station’s British-oriented imagery and comment on such themes as continuity, claustrophobia and coexistence.

Source: Proceso (sp), Time Out Mexico (sp)