By Eugenio Amézquita Velasco
Translation: Metro News Mx
-Lothar Mueller will teach a Photo Performance workshop this December 20 at 11:00 AM.
-The German artist will address the creation of corporal images at Almazen del Bro.
-The activity is part of the 5th edition of the Celaya Experimental Film Festival.
Art that uses the body as a canvas and the camera as a witness arrives in Guanajuato. This December 20, at 11:00 AM, German visual artist Lothar Mueller will lead the workshop What is a Photo Performance? at Almazen del Bro, located at Nicolás Bravo No. 102, in Celaya. This event takes place within the framework of the 5th Edition of the Celaya Experimental Film Festival: What is a Photo Performance?
Photo performance is an artistic discipline where photography is not just used to capture a moment that was already happening, but rather the artist creates and performs a scene specifically to be photographed. To put it simply: imagine that a photographer does not go out into the street to look for a good scene, but instead becomes the protagonist, dresses up, or performs an action full of meaning in front of the camera. In this case, the photo is not a simple record; it is the final work of art. Without that photograph, the performance or the artist's message would disappear.
The workshop proposed by Mueller is an introduction to photo performance from the perspective of both the photographer and the performance artist(s). During the session, various photographic images will be analyzed, such as: art photographs, performance photographic documents, and photo performance.
With my experience as a performance artist and a gallery owner specialized in photography, I will share and discuss my experiences in composition and editing of art photography with the participants, as well as the challenges of commercialization, the artist notes regarding the training objectives. Furthermore, from the perspective of the performance artist, Mueller aims to discuss how to create and produce a corporal image in a specific space.
The history of this practice is intertwined with the desire of artists to use their own bodies and the camera as a complicit witness. Its roots are found in the avant-garde with Marcel Duchamp, who in 1921 allowed himself to be photographed by Man Ray under the alter ego Rrose Sélavy. In the 60s and 70s, with the explosion of conceptual art, Body Art, and the Happening, figures like Ana Mendieta used their bodies in nature to leave a trace that only survived through photography. During that era, the photo moved from being a document to becoming the central piece.
Since the 80s, photo performance consolidated as a tool for questioning identity. Cindy Sherman is the most relevant figure; in her series, she performs as various characters to criticize stereotypes. Sherman acts as the model, photographer, director, makeup artist, and stylist of her own works, such as her iconic series Untitled Film Stills and History Portraits. Her technique dismantles the visual codes of advertising and cinema to show that identity is an artificial construction. Today, with the rise of social media, contemporary artists take these performances to the extreme to reflect on reality and fiction.
Lothar Müller: Career and Thought of a Reference in Queer Art
Lothar Müller was born in Cologne, Germany, in 1956. Founder of Kunsthaus Santa Fe and Kunsthaus Miami, he has exhibited in more than 50 international shows. He currently resides in Celaya, where he continues to develop pictorial, performance, and curatorial work. His artistic philosophy is based on creative freedom, emotion as an expressive engine, and the cultural responsibility of art. For Müller, art is not a thesis, but a way of perceiving the world.
It is not something scientific, you do not have to prove it. It is how you perceive the world at this moment, he states. A defender of figurative art, he has worked with portraits, urban landscapes, and fluorescent paint. His work includes male bodies in suggestive positions, melancholy landscapes, and intimate scenes that reflect emotional authenticity. Concept is fundamental in figurative work so that you can truly express yourself, he maintains.
Müller considers that art is culture and culture is quality of life. In contexts of crisis, art must be a balm and an active proposal. His work functions as an affective archive, a symbolic record of the present. In series such as Memory and Present, he explores homoerotism and sexual dissidence as axes of aesthetic resistance. He has participated in festivals such as GIFF, Manifiesta, and exhibitions like War is Obscene and Post-AIDS, establishing himself as a reference for queer art in the Bajío region.
Influenced by Andy Warhol, Edward Hopper, and David Hockney, Müller reconfigures the gaze from his context: Celaya, San Miguel de Allende, violence, hope, color, and light. The Sweetness is an invitation to contemplate everyday life through painting, to feel the landscape as an act of presence, and to celebrate Mexican identity with the banner of culture held high. His work belongs to private collections in Mexico, Germany, and the United States, and he has permanent exhibitions at the Guanajuato Cultural Center in León, Mexico.
Among his distinctions, the selection in BARCO First Contemporary Art Biennial of the Bajío (2021) stands out; as well as the selection in the Rufino Tamayo Biennial (2020); support from CONACULTA - FONCA for D-ROM Kunsthaus Santa Fe (2002) and for C-ROM 1999 – 2000 Kunsthaus Santa Fe (1999). His recent solo exhibitions include Dirty Old Man Dirty Old Men and Jung’s at Art Space Gallery, CDMX (2022); Twilight Diary at the Queretaro City Museum (2020); Dos de los Topos Gallery in León (2019); Post-AIDS at GIFF, San Miguel de Allende (2019); Memory and Present at ArtSpace Mexico, CDMX (2018), and Puras Mamadas at GIFF (2017).
During the 2003-2016 period, he presented Lothar Müller: Reflections on Reality in San Miguel de Allende (2016); War is Obscene with a tour in Barcelona, London, CDMX, and Guanajuato (2015); the video performance Pandemonium in London (2014); Starting Point in Queretaro (2013); Neo-expressionism from 1982–1989 at Kunsthaus Santa Fe (2012); Industrial Landscapes in León (2011); Piccolinominiestres333 in Miami (2010); Reflections of De-humanity in Chihuahua (2008); José Cisneros Museum of Contemporary Art in Durango (2007); Trip to Poland in Guadalajara (2006); Berlin-Berlin in Queretaro (2005); Industrial Landscapes at the Queretaro Art Museum (2004); and in 2003, Starting Point at El Nigromante and Industrial Landscapes at Puente 15 Gallery.
Between 1999 and 2002, highlights include Industrial Landscapes at Kunsthaus Santa Fe, Objects of Desire in Puebla, Convergences-Divergences in Durango, Open Sky at the State Legislative Palace in Guanajuato, Life and Death in Queretaro, Displaced Secrets in Celaya, Sector 3 at Ex Teresa Arte Actual, Evaporated Images in San Miguel de Allende, and Still Life in Guanajuato.
His group shows include The End at Manifiesta IV, Zocalo CDMX and The Neighborhood: Queer Logics at the State Pinacotheca (2025). In 2024, he participated in Morfolibia, Post AIDS in San Miguel de Allende, Soy Impía, The Neighborhood at UAQ, and Tiroteo. In 2021, he collaborated on the performance documentary Malinche 2020 with Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Beauty Portal, and the performance Woman who knows Latin, stays laughing at a man. In 2020, he was at the BARCO Biennial and Men's Games.
In 2019, he presented PoSNaCional 1.0, DerSteppenwolf in Belgium, and PoSNaCional 2.0 at MUAC - UNAM. Between 2015 and 2018, he participated in La Pocha Nostra in Queretaro, Trámite: Tome 2, Action Art Festival at Ex Teresa, Day After Tomorrow, Anormal, Dirty Game at Sala Siqueiros, Transfontier, Museum of X, The Madness of Idealism, Reencounter 10,000, Dog's Life, and the Interactive International Biennial of Performing Arts at CECUT.
Between 2007 and 2014, highlights include Territory Control, Hypocritical Insurgents, Sustainable Readings, the Art/isan: Artist 3.0 tour through museums in CDMX, SLP, Pachuca, Salamanca, Tijuana, and Puebla; Dilation, Pandemonium at the Museum of Modern Art, Post-porn Trip for 1 2 3 in Chile, Ghosts and Other Realities, Gay Rights are Human Rights in Miami, Art and Human Rights in Guanajuato and Morelia, 45 Traces at El Nigromante, Setback, Temperature at the Top, Neurotic Playground in Toronto, Pinta NY, Urns at the Cervantino, Art LISBOA, Reflections of Dehumanity in Durango, and Arte Urbe at the Cervantino.
He participated in fairs such as Art Miami, Artexpo 2006, ARCO 06 in Madrid, Arteaméricas, Chicago Contemporary and Classic, Art Istanbul 2004, Occurrence Gallery in Montreal, Ecoarte in León, Toronto International Art Fair, Caracas International Contemporary Art Fair, CONTEMPORANEA International Art Fair, Ritual Life and Death in Milan, and Tiemarte in León.
Between 2000 and 2001, he was part of Crossing Borders in Laredo, Monterrey, and Tamaulipas; Landscape? Landscape?, In Search of the Word, Assemblage with works by 15,000 world artists in Tijuana and the Sharjah Museum in the United Arab Emirates, Under Construction, Contemporary Figurative Art in Guadalajara and Casa Lamm, and the Small Format Salon.
Recently, in 2024, he leads the Photo Performance Workshop at the Celaya Experimental Film Festival; in 2023, he participated in the FIAC Symposium Presence of Absence; in 2021, he collaborated on the music video Brvja, gave the talk Regarding BARCO, and the interview in White Chamber, as well as We are the echoes and the voice in Queretaro. In 2018, he taught Dramaturgy of the Image at the University of Guanajuato and was a panelist at The Mark of Faith at Pablo Goebel Fine Arts Gallery. #MetroNewsMx #GuanajuatoDesconocido
