Abraham Cruzvillegas on Reconstruction, Performance, and Pandemic Art

Abraham Cruzvillegas (Mexico City, 1968) presents "Autoreconstrucción o Insistir, insistir, Insistir," a new iteration of his Autoconstrucción series, at The Kitchen in New York City. The work is activated by choreographer Bárbara Foulkes, who dances to music by Andrés García Nesitla, streaming live from Mexico via Skype due to a denied US visa. The performance uses found objects from the streets, which are violently assembled and disassembled by the dancer, reflecting the necessity of destruction in reconstruction. Cruzvillegas also discusses his 2019 exhibition at the Arts Club of Chicago, where he created sculptures from Chicago debris and materials from Michoacán, Mexico, using traditional "maque" lacquer and native plants. During the pandemic, he produced drawings on paper for Thomas Dane Gallery in London, spontaneous monochromatic works in ink and graphite. He teaches at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, emphasizing horizontal pedagogy. The interview covers his views on identity, migration, and the role of destruction in creative processes.