Kurimanzutto's co-founder on installing a fully functional tattoo parlor in an art fair booth and the importance of being present&nbsp;locally

My first Art Basel: Monica Manzutto

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<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/1182/kurimanzutto" target="_blank">Kurimanzutto</a> first participated in Art Basel in 2004, with a solo project in the Statements sector, dedicated to young galleries and artists. Initially nomadic – exhibiting Mexican and international artists without a permanent space – their Mexico City gallery opened in 2008, with an experimental program launching in New York City a decade later. Here, Monica Manzutto, kurimanzutto's co-founder, reflects on their first Art Basel participation, which featured a fully functioning tattoo shop.&nbsp;

'My first Art Basel experience was in 2002 as a visitor, when the gallery was showing at Liste Art Fair. I never thought that a fair could feel like a museum ­– I thought some of the works were already in public collections. It was an eye-opener: the kind of galleries that participated, the artworks shown, and the dialog between Modern and contemporary art. It triggered [ideas of] what we could do as a gallery, should we have the opportunity to show at Art Basel.

‘Our first presentation was a solo booth by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/13755/Dr-Lakra" target="_blank">Dr. Lakra</a>, a draftsman and tattoo artist. The fair booth became a fully functional tattoo parlor, not just a place to display art. <div>‘It was amazing. Dr. Lakra brought his record player to play music, because that's the way he normally works. We also installed a series of drawings in the booth. He must have tattooed at least six people - collectors, curators, and colleagues. They realized that Dr. Lakra was there and just went for it. For him, tattooing is language, he actively studies it and travels extensively for this research. He is currently making a documentary on the Yakuza in Japan and their relationship to tattoos. It was an extraordinary situation that came with specific requirements that both we and the fair were able to adapt to. The permanence of Dr. Lakra's act is still incredible to me.</div>

‘In Mexico, there are many wonderful museums. However at that time, none of them were making acquisitions, with the exception of Jumex, so we have had the opportunity to establish new connections with a range of institutions at Art Basel. Indeed, over the past fifteen years, there has been a notable shift in terms of European and American institutions recognizing the importance of non-western perspectives and voices.

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		‘I always believed that we have to be present locally. The recent calls for racial and social justice have been central to my conversations with artists and have reaffirmed my belief in the role of the gallery as a platform for voices from Latin America. We have launched a long-term exhibition project called 
	Siembra, which in Spanish means 'sowing', an initiative driven by the importance of diversity to art. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Siembra has also become a platform for us to address the impossibility of separating art from politics. It’s also about creating space for new possibilities, for discovery, and trying to understand what we make of this new way of being.’
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Top image:&nbsp;Monica Manzutto, Wilfredo Prieto, and José Kuri&nbsp;in La Habana, Cuba.&nbsp;Courtesy of kurimanzutto, Mexico City and New York.

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Kurimanzutto's co-founder on installing a fully functional tattoo parlor in an art fair booth and the importance of being present locally 

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Kurimanzutto's co-founder on installing a fully functional tattoo parlor in an art fair booth and the importance of being present locally