Mexico City Artist Pedro Slim at Galerie Nordenhake

Un Chant d' Amor: Unseen Portraits, 1993-2023

This afternoon I was headed across town on my way home but I knew I wasn’t quite ready to return for the rest of the evening. It was only 5:00. I had enjoyed a late lunch with some friends. I had a few diversions in mind but as I was thumbing through my instagram I saw the above picture on a friend of mine’s reel advertising Una Inaugración del Arte at Galerie Nordenhake in Roma Norte.

I had not heard of the Gallery before and I was particularly interested in the fact that the Mexico City location, was the third of three branches, the other two being in Berlin and Stockholm.

It was the kind of summer afternoon that I loved in Mexico City. Grey, cold, and rainy. All through the dry hot spring I had prayed for afternoons like these when the cold rain would cool things off.

The rain came down slowly so that you could still walk around without getting soaked. Somewhere between a mist and a rain, but nowhere near a downpour that would make you stop and run for shelter.

The gallery was a nondescript warehouse looking building with a large garage door that doubled as the front entrance to the gallery.

La Inaugración was scheduled to begin at 5 and end at 8, with a curated walk from 7-8. I was on track to arrive at 6 and although I would have loved to have attended the walk, I didn’t want to stick around until 8.

There were a few groups talking to each other when I walked in and I knew that none of them would even as much as look at me let alone chat with me for an hour while we all waited.

Fortunately they had printed out a very well written introduction of the Artist, Pedro Slim, and the background of his long term series, part of which made up the exhibition on display until August 19.

As I read the summary above, I instantly connected to the exhibition in ways which I rarely connect to most art exhibitions. This show, Un chant d’ Amor deals with a desire evoked by and a form of self exhibition among a group of men in Mexican society.

At almost every traffic light in Mexico City there are always men who ask for money in various ways. Some wash windows in exchange for money, others juggle, others paint their face or body and perform acrobatics.

What few acknowledge is that the majority of these men are extremely sexy and are usually shirtless. This type of sexual desire on display is so commonplace in Mexico City that it often blends into the chaos of everything else.

With his long term series, From the Streets to the Studio, Mexico City based, Lebanese Artist, Pedro Slim takes these men from the street, into his studio, where they model for the camera.

Seeing the models on public display, left me with the feeling that I was not the only one who was aware and taken by the sexuality of these men.

While most of these men are assumed to be homeless, I once dated a young guy, a college guy, who enjoyed putting on a red clown nose, a vintage hat, taking his shirt off, and juggling at the traffic lights. He got off on the attention and he also told me the money was good.

Pedro Slim puts front and center a piece of life of Mexico City that everybody knows about and sees and engages with to some extent of their own. Rarely have I seen art so beautiful that connects so directly with my own lived experience.

If you can make it, this exhibition is worth a visit.