Gibrán Turón: Walking as a Method to Slow Down Urban Experience

Anny Ventura Puac writes about Gibrán Turón, an artist from Tepic, Nayarit, whose practice centers on walking through popular streets as a method for creating paintings, murals, and signs. Turón's work challenges the aspirational aesthetics of large cities by documenting everyday Mexican urban life. His drawings and writings, collected in the publication "Vagamente" (vol. 1, 2, 3, and 3 3/4) since 2019, form an "Archivo Vago" that celebrates idleness as a form of resistance. Turón's imagery includes a yellow taxi with the phrase "Ni volviendo a nacer" and a steel curtain from a chicharronería, which offer alternative readings of the city against neoliberal development. His practice began as a self-taught exercise during the violence of the War on Drugs (2006–2018) and the COVID-19 pandemic (2020). The text is written from Espacio/C in Chichicastenango, Guatemala, a project dedicated to exhibitions and micro-residencies, which connects with La Guerrera in Mexico, run by Gerardo Muñoz. Turón's work proposes an aesthetic surveying of the landscape through contemplation and occupation, using visual elements from Mexican popular culture.