The Struggle of Memory

On the first night of my first visit to Mexico City, in 2020, a fellow guest at a dinner party asked if I would take in any other parts of the country during my stay. When I confessed I wouldn’t—I had less than a week to see the capital—the guest reflected, ruefully, that: “if you haven’t seen Oaxaca, you haven’t really seen Mexico.”

For those who, like me, are yet to visit Oaxaca (or Oaxaca de Juárez, to give it its full name), there’s a chance to sample a taste of the city’s cultural flavor at this year’s Frieze New York, in the form of the Maestro Dobel Artpothecary installation at the fair. Titled “Oaxaca: A Lens on Tradition & Innovation”, this presentation features works produced by two Oaxacabased creatives: architect Marissa Naval and design studio founder Javier Reyes, celebrating the city’s tradition of crafts and making, and its thriving community of makers and designers. Past iterations at Frieze of the Maestro Dobel Artpothecary, billed as “a creative platform that spotlights and celebrates Mexican art and hospitality”, have presented icons of Mexican modernist furniture designs, in collaboration with Clásicos Mexicanos, and works by Latinx contemporary artists such as Eduardo Sarabia.

“I was visiting family in Oaxaca for the first time in 2017, and saw that this was a Mecca for craftsmanship techniques,” explains Javier Reyes, founder of studio rrres, which has operated from the city since early 2018, producing woven objects, textile hangings, rugs and ceramics.

Born in the Dominican Republic, Reyes was at that time based in Barcelona, but was so inspired by his encounter with the craft practices in Oaxaca he spent a year traveling back and forth from there, to “research the city’s history and explore museums to learn about its craft and culture”, before relocating full time to the city, where studio rrres now occupies an ochre-colored traditional building in the city’s Barrio de Jalatlaco. “It’s structured almost like a showroom,” Reyes continues. “Everything is made custom-ordered to ensure that all of my work is ethically sourced and produced. I host workshops for local Oaxacan artisans, where everything is made completely from scratch using our traditional methods.”