Mexican Contemporary and Interdependent Art Scene, Biquini Wax EPS: The Temple of Sub-Critique Studies

Biquini Wax EPS is an interdependent contemporary art space in Mexico City run by artists Paloma Contreras Lomas, Ramón Izaguirre, Israel Urmeer, Cristóbal Gracia, Daniel Aguilar Ruvalcaba, and Eric Valencia, writers Gustavo Cruz, and Sandra Sánchez, art historian Natalia de la Rosa, and curators Roselin Rodriguez Espinosa Julio García Murillo, and Nika Chilewich, also directors of the Yacuziz, a collective of Sub-Critical Studies. The Yacuziz began with casual meetings geared towards the religious study of critical theory on contemporary art in Latin America - a meeting which occurred every fifteen days in Biquini Wax. We adopted the term "temple" to communicate the collective's commitment to irrational beliefs and its supernatural or magical goals, in place of scientific or academic aspirations, borne from our understanding of knowledge as a poetic experience. We use the prefix "sub" to confront canonical Western traditions, and to assume the complexity of our economic and cultural relationship with the North, a gesture which emphasizes our affiliation with the colonial histories that unite Mexico, where the Yacuziz are based, with the rest of Latin America. By using this theoretical and conceptual platform, our understanding of criticism obtains an 'other' temporality, one with the capacity for radioactivity without the need for advanced weaponry, particularly the development and use of nuclear bombs as a post war tactic.