Friday & Saturday, September 12-13
MIGUEL CALDERÓN: SPITTING UPWARDS
Artist Miguel Calderón in attendance
Aurora Picture Show presents two programs of experimental films, music videos, and genre-bending documentaries by Mexican multidisciplinary artist, Miguel Calderón. A key figure in Mexico City’s alternative art scene since the 1990s, Calderón’s work focuses on society’s outsiders and hidden underbellies, highlighting power structures through satire and clever truth bending.
Program 1 - Friday, September 12 (8pm)
$10 / Free for Aurora Members
This program features a selection of Miguel Calderón’s music videos and his documentary El placer después (Pleasure Afterwards) retelling events experienced by the caretakers of the Cibeles Fountain after a major earthquake. The screening will be followed by a conversation and Q&A with the artist, moderated by Aurora Picture Show Executive Director Sarah Stauder.
Silverado: Yepa Yepa Yepa (1999, 4:10)
Intesino Grueso: Juventud Cotorrona (1998, 1:59)
Los Super Elegantes: A los 16 (1999, 3:48)
Pallejos: El Gas (2013, 6:23)
El placer después (Pleasure Afterwards) (2019, 30:06)
Program 2 - Saturday, September 13 (8pm)
$10 / Free for Aurora Members
Our second program with Miguel Calderón includes early experimental short films made in San Francisco (Un Nahual Veracru’ and Disritmia Cerebral), narrative short Guest of Honor, and Camaleón, an intimate portrait of a day in the life of a falconer.
Un Nahual Veracru’ (1992, 10:56)
Disritmia Cerebral (1990, 3:28)
Camaleón (2017, 26:19)
Bio:
Miguel Calderón (b. 1971) is regarded as a seminal figure in Mexico’s independent art scene. As co-founder of the artist-run space La Panadería in the 1990s in Mexico City, Calderón created opportunities for artists to gather and present responsive, non-traditional work at a time when their community was culturally isolated and politically oppressive. Rooted in this period, social critique remains at the heart of his practice. Calderón’s multidisciplinary work incorporates a mashup of vernacular references and employs a variety of media, including video, photography, sculpture, and painting. Additionally, his works have gained notoriety in both the art world as well as in popular culture, notably a painting that was featured in Wes Anderson’s 2001 film, The Royal Tenenbaums. Calderón received a BFA in Film from the San Francisco Art Institute and has had multiple solo exhibitions at institutions including Museo Tamayo, Mexico City; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey; Kurimanzutto, Mexico City and New York ; Luhring Augustine, New York; Rochester Art Center, MN; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA among others. Calderón’s films have been screened in festivals and programs throughout the world, including his most recent feature Ajuste de Pérdidas (Loss Adjustment), which was an official selection of the 2024 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam.He has been the recipient of the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation Grant & Commissions program, The Sundance Institute Fellowship, and The MacArthur Fellowship for Film and New Media. Calderón lives and works in Mexico City, Mexico.
Image: Miguel Calderón, Camaleón, 2017. Courtesy of kurimanzutto