Meca Endures For A Third Edition, Despite The Obstacles In Puerto Rico

Since Meca (an abbreviation for Mercado Caribeño) held its inaugural edition three years ago in San Juan, Puerto Rico has had its shares of ups and downs. There was the debt crisis that led to a recession, “Despacito” became a number 1 hut that put the island nation on the global stage, Hurricane Maria ravaged its homes and delicate flora and fauna, putting many out of food and electricity for weeks, and just last summer its citizens marched on the streets in a vocal outcry for the resignation of Ricardo A. Rosselló, who stepped down on August 2 after weeks of protests. Yet, despite the challenging conditions, Meca has endured, returning to the Antiguo Arsenal de la Marina Española in Old San Juan for its third edition from November 21 to 24. 

“The main section first year was 15 main exhibitors,” said Danny Baéz, who co founded Meca with Tony Rodríguez. “The second year we had 17. This year's we have 26. I would say that's the biggest difference right now as we speak—and also the fact that we have more galleries and more experience with different other countries that we never had before.”  

The 26 galleries in the main section for Meca 2019 included 47 Canal, Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, and Bridget Donahue from New York; Misako & Rosen from Tokyo; Embajada, National, and Petrus from San Juan; and Reyes/Finn from Detroit. 

Several of the exhibitors incorporated work into their stands that commented on Puerto Rico. At False Flag, artist Eddie Negron, who grew up in Puerto Rico before moving back and forth between New York and Miami as a teen, looked at the idea de aya fuera (from out there), reflecting on his Puerto Rico and Stateside roots through digital collages that mixed together iconic Puerto Rican symbols—the flag, Roberto Clemente (Negron was a baseball prospect when he was young), the coquí frog—with American imagery—Sonic the Hedgehog. “Puerto Ricans that grow up in the States and kind of this diaspora state where it's like, we're not really sure if they're Puerto Rican, we're not really sure if they were American,” said Luis Rivera. 

At Embajada Christopher and Maneula Paz-Rivera used the black Puerto Rican flag—which emerged as a symbol of mourning against the corrupt government during the protests—as a starting point for a group exhibition of black and white art by about 45 artists. “I would like to think that it was a revolt lead by creativity,” said Christopher. The couple, who are also artists, contributed work, along with Manuel Mendoza Sánchez, who painted Puerto Rican symbols over a ceramic vase; Gabriella Torres Ferrer, whose neon hand pointed at the gallery sign; and Peter Fend, whose Spanish word art read “EN EL SUELO CON LA CITY POR EL AIRE Y LAS AGUAS” (IN THE FLOOR WITH THE CITY BY THE AIR AND THE WATERS).  

At Guatemalan gallery Proyectos Ultravioleta, Jorge de León painted a series from news images based on perreo combativo—parreo is the dance style of reggaeton—the movement of peaceful protest against former governor Ricardo Roselló that included dance and banging on pots. “There was a series of protests that were staged in the steps outside of the cathedral, where women and the queer community came out and used their body to protest,” said Proyectos Ultravioleta co-founder Stefan Benchoam.  

“I think that many of the artists who came to the fair from other countries use this opportunity to showcase something that would make sense to the actual political climate of Puerto Rico or make sense of the actual political state of the world right now, especially with the United States and Trump,” said Baéz.

Meca also gave Puerto Ricans a chance to see the latest in the world of contemporary art. Larrie showed a solo booth of Detroit-based artist Bailey Scieszka’s surrealist portraits, Reyes/Finn displayed Rafael de la Cruz’s whimsical paintings, Bridget Donhue exhibited a solo booth of Los Angeles-based conceptual artist Martine Syms, and Gavin Brown’s Enterprise showed Ella Kruglyanskaya’s drawings of female figures. 

Saturday gave visitors a chance to interact with Puerto Rico’s collectors through a visit to The Berezdivin Collection at Espacio 1414, “That was one of the main reasons that we open this space to try to change the view of art into contemporary by showing contemporary art,” said Diana Berezdivin. “The Puerto Rican art scene has become much more interesting lately, but they still don't have that much visibility.” Later, a group headed to Naguabo, to visit the home of César and Mima Reyes.

Later that night, Meca and Magna presented Music Arsenal, with sets by four female musicians—ILe, Andrea Cruz, BuscaBulla and RosaMalia in an attempt to attract an audience who wouldn’t normally be interested in art. “Sometimes when people go around and see all the works, they like something else to keep people entertained,” said Baéz. “They will come just to see what's going on here to stick around consume, you know, stay longer, maybe they have a time to decide they want to purchase a work or not.”

 Baéz hopes the momentum for Meca will continue next year. “The goal is to create a solid ecosystem of the art market that is international but can sustain itself in on this side of the world,” he said.