Community art, weapon against violence

Mexico requires public policies that convene and articulate the artistic experiences that arise at the government, civil society, and private initiative. It is indispensable to join forces, assures Lucina Jiménez , social anthropologist, adding that "violence is winning.” Lucina Jiménez was the Director of the National Center of Arts ( Cenart ) and she currently serves as the Director of the AC International Art Consortium ( ConArte ), a citizen initiative that she founded in 2006 .

Among its multiple projects, ConArte introduces artistic activities to public schools in the Historic Center of Mexico City and works with those affected by the 7.1-magnitude earthquake hit the country on September 19.

Community art as a means to contain violence and as a catalyst for social reconstruction is not a new issue in Mexico, but according to specialists, it is crucial in violent times. A story of international resonance was raised in Chiapas in 1998 , when, in the context of the Zapatista movement, the cultural promoter Sergio Checo Valdez coordinated the Taniperla community —in the Ocosingo municipality — in order to paint a mural that later on would be destroyed by the military, yet the very same model was reproduced in San Gregorio , Xochimilco , in 2017 , to revalue and strengthen its historical memory.

These works of art are an important vehicle for public space and involve both citizen and civil construction through the community that occupies the public space, explains Cristina Híjar , researcher at the N ational Research, Documentation and Information Center for Plastic Arts ( CENIDIAP ).

Cristina Híjar points out that with these creations there is a greater possibility of bewildering those who remain indifferent or simply do not have information about what is happening around them.

Art with a dose of imagination and creativity allows us to portray different scenarios that summon, call and unite the community, she assures. In this type of creation, it is impossible to separate the aesthetic and the political, both dimensions of the human.

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