Tate has appointed Cuauhtémoc Medina as associate curator of Latin American Art. The post, which has been generously funded by the Tate International Council, is for three years during which time Medina will advise Tate on acquisitions, exhibitions and displays. This is the first such post to be created by Tate.
Tate aims to broaden the scope of its Collection beyond the traditional focus on Europe and North America. The appointment of Cuauhtémoc Medina as an associate curator of Latin American Art is a significant step towards achieving this aim. In addition Tate has created a Latin American Acquisitions Committee to support the purchasing of works of art in this area and to work in collaboration with Medina, who is based in Mexico.
Born in 1965, Cuauhtémoc Medina has an international reputation as an independent art critic, curator and historian. He studied for his PhD at the University of Essex and is on the International Advisory Board of the University of Essex Collection of Latin American Art (UECLAA). Since 1992 he has been a full time researcher at the Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas at the National University of Mexico. He is currently a member of Teratoma a group of curators, critics and anthropologists based in Mexico City and is on the advisory committee for the 2004 Carnegie International. He has served as a visiting professor at the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College (New York State, USA).
Medina most recently curated Francis Alÿs’s action Where Faith Moves Mountains in Lima, Perú, in April 2002 and the exhibition 20 Million Mexicans Can’t be Wrong currently at the South London Gallery (until 17 November 2002). Previously he was a contemporary art curator at the Carrillo Gil Museum of INBA (Mexico City 1989 - 1992) and member of Curare Critical Space for the Arts (1992-1998), an independent critics and curators group. From 1999 to 2000, he was Adjunct Curator of the team lead by Ivo Mezquita that tried unsuccessfully to organise the XXV Bienal de Sao Paulo. He curated the 2001.3 Residency at ArtPace in San Antonio, Texas, USA. He also directed the 8o. International Forum on Contemporary Art and Theory (FITAC) ‘Commodified aesthetics and critical commodities’ (held in Monterrey, Mexico, 2002).
His recent publications include Graciela Iturbide (London, Phaidon Press, 2001); ‘A Ghostly Museum for a Vampire-like Figure/Un Museo Fantasmal para un Personaje Vampiresco’ in Vicente Razo: The Official Museo Salinas Catalogue (Los Angeles, Smart Art Press, 2002); and ‘Abuso mutuo/Mutual abuse’ in Klaus Biesenbach Mexico City. An Exhibition on the Exchange Rates of Bodies and Values (New York, PS1 and Berlin, Kunstwerke, 2002). Medina has written for academic and art journals such as FlashArt and Third Text. He was guest editor of Parachute 104, special issue on Mexico City (Oct-Dec 2001). He writes a regular column for the Reforma newspaper in Mexico City.