June 2, 2009
 The botanical garden in the capital's Chapultepec Park has authorized the lending of over 450 different plants as part of an art installation in the park's lake.
Artist Sofia Taboas has created five floating gardens that will stretch across the park's lake in what she describes as a "displacement of someone's naturally perceived environment."
The work, which is being sponsored by the Kurimanzutto Gallery, will run till the end of the month and is open to the public.
Each floating garden is made from an array of fauna including African iris, ferns, and strips of palm laid out on circular wooden platforms that are 3.5 meters to 1.5 meters in diameter and are secured by a surrounding metallic mesh.
The location of each garden was predetermined by the artist throwing a stone while she crossed the lake in a small boat. A team of divers then proceeded to place each garden according to where the stone landed.
"I like leaving things to chance and this is an implicit theme in my work," Taboas said. "I'm also keen on the idea of change and within a month the plants in each garden will have either grown or withered away. It's interesting to me that a piece of art has a life-cycle and doesn't remain static," the artist added.
Taboas has worked on several projects with plants before and has created installations that utilize the immediate landscape. Last year she filled a fisherman's raft with vegetables and then sent it out to sea from the beach resort of Puerto Vallarta. "Chance" and "nature" would ultimately decide the raft's fate according to the artist. Taboas is also recognized for using cotton candy and caramel in many of her works.
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An Expat's View to the Swine Flu Outbreak
April 27, 2009
As an expat living in Mexico City for the past 11 years, the recent outbreak of swine flu that so far has officially been responsible for 22 deaths (although the figure will probably rise to over a hundred in the coming days) has been a sobering and surreal experience.
When the first news flashes appeared last Friday that an epidemic had broken out in the city I have to say my reaction was indifferent at best. Lets face it, at the time reports were coming in of a few people who had died of influenza in a hospital far away from where I lived. Was this going to ruin my Friday night? I say that not because I'm an entrenchant party animal but I'm also co-owner of a bar - the Black Horse in the Colonia Condesa - and business-wise this was our biggest night of the week.
However, once I switched on the television and started seeing the news coverage I reconsidered my stance. What really brought it to home was when the international news channels - CNN and BBC World - made it their lead story. Mexico hardly ever makes it onto international broadcast unless there's been an spree of drug violence at the border or a U.S. President comes to visit and this usually is never the main story. Unfortunately, Mexico was very much the main topic with words like epidemic, alert, swine flu, influenza, possible pandemic, all flashing angrily across the screen. By that stage any Dutch courage I had was gone. This was the real deal and there seemed to be no letting up and it left me with confusion and fear.
Although we did open the bar for business on Friday as expected not many people showed up. With a day to assess the situation, we decided to open again on Saturday but that idea was short-lived as a governmental decree, announced later that evening, ordered nightclubs and bars with a capacity of more than 200 people to close until May 6.
Meanwhile, thousands if not millions of people were wearing surgical masks on the streets. It was with a weird sense of trepidation and also at the same time a feeling of anti-climax just making a trip to the local supermarket. It's hard to fight something that you can't see, smell or touch but just five minutes in front of the television and all your horrible fears come flooding back. What's more frightening? Swine flu or the news coverage? I'm not sure.
It's now Monday morning and I sit at work wondering whether I should be here or at home. The paranoia is unflinching. To cap it all off I just experienced a 5.6 earthquake on the richter scale. That's right an earthquake amidst a possible pandemic!
I remain in your prayers.
You can also check out an interview I did regarding the outbreak for the UK newspaper The Daily Telegraph
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False Frida Paintings Claim Stir Controversy
April 13, 2009
 "Frida Kahlo is producing more work dead than when she was alive," mused one art expert recently after it was revealed that there are some 400 false works of art of the iconic Mexican artist in circulation.
The most recent case of this massive fraud was when art collector Jose Antonio Castelazo claimed he owned five oil paintings by Kahlo which were then cited as false by a string of respected luminaries in the art world. Magdalena Zavala, director of the National Institute of Fine Arts (INBA), art critic Teresa del Conde, Josefina Garcia, Director of the Dolores Olmedo Museum and Carlos Phillips Olmedo, Director General of the Dolores Olmedo, Diego Rivera-Anahuacalli and Frida Kahlo museums, have all jointly claimed the paintings in Castelazo's collection are forgeries.
Although none of the experts have actually seen the paintings at firsthand they called a press conference to defend their evaluation. One of the more questionable pieces in Castelazo's collection is Kahlo's "La Mesa Herida" (The Wounded Table) which has been categorically documented as missing. The panel referred to written testimonies that say the painting was exhibited in the former Soviet Union during the fifties and that it remains there to this day in a warehouse belonging to an unspecified museum.
"In my thirty-five years as an art critic there have only been five paintings that have appeared after Frida Kahlo's death which were authenticated as real," said Del Conde.
Del Conde, who is the former director of the Museum of Modern Art, and Zavala explained that to legally certify the authenticity of a painting it needs to be carried out under the presence of the artist. If, in the case of Kahlo, the artist is deceased then a panel of experts have to convene and examine the work to pass judgement. Further to that, a series of tests including chemical analysis, the validation of documents and iconographic checks have to be taken into account; overall, it is a time-consuming and expensive process.
"It would be invaluable if such a team were to analyze all the registered Kahlo paintings (there are around 248 registered works of which 45 percent are in Mexico) to verify their authenticity," proposed Phillips Olmedo, who suggested this task could be carried out by the Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo museums in conjunction with the INBA.
However, Zavala pointed out to verify each and every Frida Kahlo painting would be a mammoth undertaking and would bear a great economic burden on the INBA's resources.
"Lamentably, the institute doesn't have the money to carry out such tests," said Zavala.
With regards to Castelazo's paintings neither the INBA nor the Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo museums will take any legal action despite the accusations of forgery. The art collector has presented a letter which he claims was penned by Kahlo proving the validity of the paintings. However, Josefina Garcia has questioned whether the letter itself is real describing the prose style and grammar in the letter as markedly different from others written by Kahlo.
Apart from Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo is Mexico's most recognized international artist and her paintings sell for huge amounts of money at auction prompting the recent surge in forgeries, said the panel.
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Mexico's Shaky Road to the World Cup
March 25, 2009
 Trying times abound for the Mexican national soccer team as they head into their World Cup qualifying game this Saturday on zero points after their humbling - although expected - 3-1 defeat to the United States last month left them at the bottom of the CONCACAF table.
For years Mexico's passage to the World Cup has always been a shoo in. This time around, CONCACAF - the soccer sporting body that oversees North and Central America - decided to divide the qualifying round into four stages. Mexico, as with 11 other nations, were given a bye to the second round. At that early stage the competition was negligible for a side ranked 23 in the world. Mexico thrashed neighboring Belize 9-0 (on aggregate) and qualified for the third round with no real idea if they were playing well or badly - Belize are ranked 178 in the world to put things into perspective.
With a new manager at the helm of "El Tri" - as Team Mexico is affectionately known - many soccer pundits expected the side to cruise through the third round especially as many of its star players are based in Europe which boasts the best leagues in the world. Unfortunately, Mexico managed to just scrape through to the final round and only on a better goal difference.
Sven Goran Eriksson, who had been unveiled last year as the manager to turn round the national side's fortunes, came under a torrent of abuse for his erratic selection policy. The Swede, who had previously coached the likes of England and Italian side Fiorentina, was criticized by the local media as just another foreigner who was here for the money - Mexico has the richest league in Central and Latin America and attracts many foreign players and coaches. Eriksson has insisted on including European-based players in his first XI despite the fact many of them don't play regularly for their clubs. With a string of poor results, critics are clamouring for him to field players that are performing well at club level. However, Eriksson confounded everyone last week by not including playmaker Antônio "Sinha" Naelson in his squad even though the player has been in exceptional form for Toluca who currently top the Mexican soccer division. His reasoning was that Naelson didn't fit in with the system he wanted the national team to play.
There are six teams from the CONCACAF division vying for three guaranteed places in the World Cup finals next year in South Africa. Right now it's conceivable Mexico might end up in fourth spot which would see them face off in a two-game playoff with the CONMEBOL fifth-place finisher. CONMEBOL is the South American divison and currently double World Cup winner Uruguay lies in fifth place. That is definitely a game Mexico would want to avoid at all costs.
Meanwhile, former Mexico coach Javier Aguirre, who was fired from Spanish side Atletico Madrid in February, is the people's favorite to take over the reins from Eriksson if the Swede fails to score a win in Saturday's game. The Mexico Soccer Federation maintains they will stand by their man especially as Eriksson will be due a hefty compensation pay out should they release him before his contract expires but the idea of not qualifying for the World Cup is unthinkable for a nation who has participated in 13 finals and has hosted two.
*Sven Goran Eriksson was fired as Mexico's national coach after their disappointing 3-1 away loss to Honduras on April 1, 2009.
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