MM y SHIRLEY PAES-LEME

Sin/Cien ambulantes, estructura-acción (Without/Hundred street vendors, action-structure)| Historic Center, Mexico City | May 16th, 2008

BY ALEJANDRO GÓMEZ ARIAS

In the context of the Historic Centre of Mexico City, the Medios Múltiples Seminar collaborated with Shirley Paes- Leme to create an action- structure entitled “Sin/Cien ambulantes”, which consisted of a hundred modules built during five days, in the hall of the San Carlos Academy, with tree branches collected at the plant nurseries of  Coyoacán. Each module we built was driven by one person, so together they were able to move as a single organism with the capability of fragmentation and rhizomatic mobility. The idea was to emulate the behavior of street vendors and the dynamics through which they occupy the public space with their mobile, unstable and removable stands.

On May 16th 2008 at 10 am, the public intervention began on the Academia Street, just before the campus. The dynamic structure went on a tour around the Plaza de la Constitución and nearby streets. In the end we went back to the San Carlos Academy, the modules were destroyed and a huge nest was made with the branches. This way, the first production workshop that was ever performed by Medios Múltiples with an invited artist ended with a potential bonfire in the middle of the main hall of the campus.