Abraham Cruzvillegas on Autoconstruction and His Zurich Exhibition

Mexican sculptor Abraham Cruzvillegas (b. 1968) discusses his concept of 'autoconstruction'—a practice rooted in his childhood in Ajusco, a Mexico City neighborhood where residents built homes from volcanic stone in the 1960s. His work explores the relationship between urban space, community, and identity, challenging modernist perspectives that separate subject and object. Cruzvillegas, a key figure in Latin American avant-garde alongside Damián Ortega, Gabriel Orozco, and Gabriel Kuri, participated in the Taller de los viernes workshops. His upcoming exhibition 'Autorreconstrucción: Social Tissue' at Kunsthaus Zurich (February 16–March 25, 2018) transforms the museum into a participatory workshop space featuring film screenings (e.g., 'Uccellacci Uccellini,' 'Zabriskie Point,' 'Serenghetti' by Carlos Reygadas) and artist collectives. The exhibition disrupts hierarchical relationships between people and their environment, embracing uncertainty. Cruzvillegas notes that the catalog texts are by friends, not himself, reflecting a polymorphic approach to authorship. He references geographer Franco Farinelli's critique of perspective as a trick and Jane Jacobs' defense of use over representation. The work recalls a time when Earth was called 'Chton'—the abyss, the dark, the invisible, which Virginia Woolf associated with the future.