Cuauhtémoc Medina on Mexico 1968 and the Age of Discrepancies

In an interview with Svitlana Biedarieva, Cuauhtémoc Medina discusses the 2008 exhibition "The Age of Discrepancies: Art and Visual Culture in Mexico 1968-1997" at MUCA in Mexico City, co-curated with Olivier Debroise, Pilar García de Germenos, and Álvaro Vázquez Mantecón. The exhibition traced art movements from the late 1960s through the 1990s, a period marked by three peso devaluations and the 1994 NAFTA trade agreement. Medina focuses on the impact of the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, which featured innovative urban design but was overshadowed by the Tlatelolco massacre on October 2, 1968. He argues that the Salón Independiente '68 marked a rupture in artist-state relations, leading to a depoliticized art world and radical experimental practices. The Cultural Olympiad, including figures like John Cage and Yevgeny Yevtushenko, aimed to legitimize experimental art but instead deepened political divides. Lance Wyman's graphic identity for the subway system and Mathias Goeritz's Ruta de Amistad sculpture are cited as lasting legacies. Medina notes that the 1970s, not the 1960s, were the radical decade in Mexico, with groups like Los Grupos emerging. The interview also covers student protests, the government's crackdown under President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, and international connections with French post-1968 thought and Latin American guerrilla groups.