Voices from the Mexican Underground: Festival Nrmal, Part One

When I arrived at 11199955, I wasn't sure I was at the right place. From the outside, the venue appeared totally anonymous, a blank white surface apart from a small sign which read 195. I entered through an unmarked doorway, wandering through a hallway scattered with young people, some smoking cigarettes, others just hanging out. I walked into the dimly lit main room. To my right was a wall-length bar. In the front of the room was a raised stage framed by large projection screen, which read "INSTANT CULT FILMS" in white typeface against an aquamarine background.

It was the first showcase of Festival Nrmal, a five-day music festival in Monterrey, Mexico, a rich, cosmopolitan city less than 150 miles from the Texas border. Co-curated by Nrmal and New York independent show organizer Todd Patrick, the festival presented a diverse lineup of acts from Mexico and abroad, focusing on emerging Latin American and U.S. bands. Festival passes cost just 350 pesos, the equivalent of about $28 U.S. dollars, which included access to the main event on Saturday, March 9 and more intimate showcases and afterparties throughout the week.

This showcase, called Never Really Malicious, was a collaboration of ObjectNotFound, a nonprofit show space, art school and residency program founded by Monterrey-based visual artist Ruben Gutierrez, and the Netherlands contemporary audiovisual arts nonprofit Impakt.

The night began with a series of obscure video-art shorts, including experimental music videos, politically charged animations and a photo essay film, selected by Ilga Minjon, a curator for the Impakt Festival on media culture and the shifting paradigms surrounding arts and technology.

After the screening, I talked with Minjon and Gutierrez about Monterrey's art community. The two met during Gutierrez's Impakt residency program last year. His video "The Best Way to Cover Up a Lie" was featured the series. Minjon was in the midst of her 10-day residency with ObjectNotFound, giving presentations and meeting with students throughout Mexico.

"There was a lack of these kind of projects in the city," Gutierrez said, referring to ObjectNotFound. "I started this project for emerging artists that didn't know how to infiltrate the systems of the galleries. The idea was to have a space that was free of the structures of these systems. It's a platform to make these things happen and establish networks between artists and curators from here and abroad. As an artist, I have exhibitions in many countries, and I try to bring some of the people I get to know there here when possible."

"Monterrey was an amazing city for the arts in the 90s," Gutierrez said. "It was the city to be in for art exhibitions and music, and then that changed a bit recently because of security issues. Because of that, a lot of artists emigrated to the states or Mexico City. But right now, this upcoming generation is making really interesting work even more complex and sophisticated than the 90s. So I think it's a new beginning for Monterrey in that aspect. Festival Nrmal is a really good example of that."

"People here are very committed to having to improvise because of the basic infrastructures in terms of arts education and presentation--there's not so much funding for independent projects," Minjon said. "The artists feel that their education is kind of poor. Within these systems, artists don't really have the opportunity to look outside so much. It's just a matter of passion, because nobody is getting rich. It's just people making it happen. For me, it feels as if it's an amazing time for that."

The video art series ended with a music video by Norwegian director Lars Åndheim for Lasse Passage's "Say Say Say," a surreal psychodrama in which a man kills and devours his female lover, which segued nicely into a performance by Vegan Cannibal, the moniker of Carlos Olvera, a noise musician living in Mexico City. Formerly based in Monterrey, he started performing solo four years ago, after his band Mockinpott broke up. We talked briefly before his set about the concept of Vegan Cannibal and punk in Mexico City.

Using analog keyboards, drum machines, and a vocal mic, Olvera creates gritty landscapes of improvised noise. "It's experimental dance music. I have bases, but I'm always trying to do something new," Olvera said. "I bought my first synthesizer 10 years ago, and I felt that this was my instrument. Noise boxes, things like that, these are my things to make music."

According to Olvera, there's a thriving DIY punk community in Mexico City right now, producing bands like Crimen, and this ethos reverberates throughout his music. Besides performing, Olvera does illustrations and helps run the art collective/studio/show space where he lives called Neter Proyectos. On March 9, they hosted Zin Amigos, the largest zine festival in Mexico.

"I like to think of the power of being in front of people," Olvera said. "Sometimes someone won't get what I'm doing, and I'm okay with that. I don't want perfection. I don't want everybody to love me. I want to make some fucking noise, and maybe somebody will love it. I always have a great time doing my shit. If someone else can get into it, that's amazing."

This was one of eight showcases/afterparties at three Nrmal-owned-and-operated venues and two scenic mountain mansions which frequently host house shows in Monterrey. Nrmal provided free shuttles between the venues and from the hotel where bands, press and festival staff resided for the week. Aside from 111999555, which I learned was modeled after 285 Kent in Brooklyn, Gomez has a sophisticated bar with a patio stage. Sergio's, the newest venue, has a skylit room with a small bar at the entrance that connects to the performance space through a hallway painted with neon graffiti art.

Two of the showcases highlighted exciting, young independent Mexican record labels. The first featured bands on the eclectic Vale Vergas Discos, based in Mexico City. Some memorable performances were Soledad, an emotionally charged post-punk two-piece featuring drummer/singer Esteban Aldrete and guitarist Brett Schultz, as well as Selma Oxor, a singer/guitarist/beat-maker combining goth, dance and punk with a sexual edge. The second showcase centered on artists on the electronic music net-labels Exstasis Records and Finesse Records; it also presented a handful of US electronic musicians and producers including Laurel Halo and Physical Therapy. One showcase was devoted to Chilean bands, while other showcases combined independent Mexican acts and US-based groups like island-pop Grand Resort and noise-punk Tom Blacklung & the Smokestacks. Perhaps most importantly, these events were opportunities for bands and festival goers from different corners of the world to come together and engage in real personal and cultural exchange. The last event of the festival—the Casablanca Pool Party—was an easygoing ending to what more or less felt like summer camp for experimental music enthusiasts, with performances by Venezuelan dream-pop artist Algodón Egipcio and Puerto Rican punks Los Vigilantes and Las Ardillas.

Ali Carter's report on the Mexican indie scene will continue. She's on Twitter - @alikaycarter