On a Friday at the cusp of spring, we began to speak on the transcendence of food, art, and humour. María José Casillas, Ella from MalaCara, and myself are each calling in from separate time zones, and all brimming with anticipation.
Sun kisses the street in Guadalajara, Mexico and pedestrian voices decrescendo into white noise. Warm light floods the Zoom background and María José Casillas smiles wide in the forefront. Without pause, she introduces herself as ‘Majo,’ an artist and chef. Thanks to MalaCara—a curatorial project that curates spaces, collaborates with artists, and creates artwork of their own—a dream of Majo’s recently became a reality: her artist debut.
Somewhere between finger-painting turkeys in kindergarten and snapping our laptop shut at five o’clock, we lost our proclivity for fearless experimentation. Modern life bombards us with constant reminders of our social identities. Social media, texts, emails—they define us. In embracing information tracking and self-categorization, we’ve become prisoners of our own personas; our culture has muted any penchant to experiment, to try on different hats, to explore. MalaCara’s latest event series, Playground, speaks directly to this cultural milieu.