For the Terreno Baldío gallery, the idea behind the exhibition Encontrar Se, presented during Gama Week in Mexico City, stemmed from a desire to bring together a group of women artists who have lived in Mexico at some point in their lives. All of them have been represented by the gallery at some point, which in a way reaffirms an implicit commitment. Luisa Bordas, Ana Teresa Fierro, Alex Hochstrasser, Anette Kuhn, Aurora Noreña, ORLAN, Erandine de Saint Phalle, and Elisabeth Strebel.
“We find this concept very much in tune with the current moment in Mexico. I think we’re all at a point where we’re trying to find our bearings, to understand what’s going on,” says Eduardo Mier y Terán, the gallery’s founder, in an interview with Art Weekends. All of the artists have some connection to Mexico, but there isn’t a single, obvious common thread. The idea is for both the public and collectors to discover that connection for themselves.
In the aforementioned exhibition that Terreno Baldío is presenting during this weekend’s tours in Mexico City (September 3–6), a common thread emerges: diversity.
Eight Artists, Different Perspectives on Mexico
What the works in the exhibition clearly have in common is that they were created in Mexico based on images, situations, narratives, or everyday events: “For example, Luisa Bordas, one of the artists, works with the vibration of stones. She is a Chilean woman who emigrated to Mexico and found a Mexico full of color and vibrancy, and from that, she seeks to develop a language,” he explains.
“Then there’s another German artist, Anette Kuhn, who has also lived in Mexico for many years and whose work involves a very artisanal process: she cuts images into strips and weaves them back together, blending countless images,” she explains.
“The pieces are somewhat comparable to the barrage of images we’re now exposed to through social media. If you compare it to the number of images we used to see before all these social media platforms existed, we now see thousands of images in a single day, and by the end of the day, your mind is shaped by 20 situations you saw online.”
Stories That Intertwine
Once you’ve seen the exhibition, you’ll encounter another artist who is also a craftsperson and comes from a family of artists. Her story blends a European artistic tradition linked to Niki de Saint Phalle with the artisanal tradition of Michoacán. Maque, a technique characteristic of Uruapan made with natural materials, is part of that heritage.
Thus, she is the heir to a tradition of craftsmanship, but also to a European artistic tradition. And she ended up living in Mexico due to a very unique story, much like those of the other artists.
Then you start to find some threads; for example, ORLAN, a French artist who began working with her own body in the 1980s.
When you hear that the exhibition brings together eight women, your first impression is that it’s a feminist exhibition. But after seeing the work, hearing what it’s about, and understanding the meaning behind the name of Encontrar Se, it becomes clearer that it is not a feminist exhibition. I think it has more to do with a perspective on Mexico as seen through different voices.
“Yes, we definitely wanted to avoid making it an exhibition with a feminist slant; we didn’t want to address that issue—or approach it from a perspective that tends to divide society and turn men and women into enemies, which could sometimes serve a ‘divide and conquer’ purpose—but rather, we didn’t want to address the issue because we’re all finally coming together.”
An exhibition about women, not a feminist exhibition
For Eduardo, galleries are forming partnerships to recognize one another and strengthen the promotion of their work among the public. A great example is GAMA Week 2026, now in its sixth year.
“It’s really great because we’ve become closer, more like friends—we keep each other in the loop, give each other tips, and message each other on chat: ‘Hey, who needs to send stuff to Guadalajara? Because I have to send something.’ We send a shared truck, and that’s how we’ve been organizing certain things. And this week is like a celebration where we all showcase something, and these routes are organized so people can visit the galleries.”
Furthermore, for Eduardo, these kinds of tours and synchronized exhibitions make it possible for anyone to become a collector. In fact, he takes this idea even further: “We’re all collectors. Some people like to collect more expensive things, and others, very simple things. But I believe that art is a language that can touch a lot of people.”
GAMA Week: Galleries That Build Community
Perhaps that, too, is part of the meaning of Finding Oneself: walking into a gallery, looking at someone else’s work, and discovering—even without having sought it out—what part of yourself is reflected in the artwork.
Terreno Baldío is open regularly from Tuesday through Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. During GAMA Week, it will host activities from Thursday through Sunday. Terreno Baldío Arte is located at 177 Orizaba, at the corner of San Luis Potosí, in the Roma Norte neighborhood, Cuauhtémoc borough, Mexico City.
Learn more about the galleries participating in GAMA Week in Mexico City in AW Magazine.
