BORIS VISKIN
Country:
Mexico City, Mexico
Year of Residency:
2024
Location:
Sculpture Gardens
@borisviskin
borisviskin.net
Artist
Artist
MEET BORIS VISKIN

He spent his youth in Israel (Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Kibbutz Galed), and later lived for three years in Florence, Italy, where he began his career as a painter. In 1985, he returned to Mexico City and spent two years attending engraving and lithography workshops at the Academy of San Carlos. “I have always been suspicious and uncomfortable with words. From a very early age, the world of images has always been a more solid and secure space for me. Therefore, painting, with all its limitations, has been the ideal medium for me to weave together my multiple and contradictory personalities. At times I feel like an intuitive caveman; at other times, a conceptual artist.”

ART RESIDENCY
2024

Viskin produjo "TEMPLO DEL (Cielo y el)DESTINO" en el marco de PATIO de ABC Art Baja y permaneció en el Jardín Escultórico para ser reactivado unos meses después. TEMPLO DEL (Cielo y el) DESTINOAcostarse en la hamaca, a una hora que la ubicación del sol permita mirarel cielo, es un rezo. El vaivén de la hamaca pone el ritmo, tu mente laplegaria. Empezamos como siempre por las deudas no pagadas, por lasdeudas no cobradas. Algún tramite pendiente, un pleito judicial en puerta,un divorcio, un dinero perdido, robado, confiscado. Aparece el amigotraicionado, el sueño sacrificado. !Ah! ¡Las encrucijadas! Ella o ella. Él oella. Canadá o Mérida. Tenerlo o no tenerlo. Renunciar o esperar. Huir oresignarse. UNAM o la Ibero. Participar o mantenerse al margen.Suspiras y justo a través del suspiro, ves el cielo. Ves el cielo y lo vesmirándote. Si logras mantener su mirada empieza el verdadero rezo. Peroesa es otra historia.Curioso que los templos tengan techo. Como si quisieran protegernos dever el cielo. Algunos, la Capilla Sixtina como líder, pintan el techo. Quierensustituir el cielo pero solo logran darnos torticolis; lástima que nocuelguen hamacas.Alguna vez tuve una novia que adoraba el I Ching. Cada noche tirábamoslas tres monedas y buscábamos las respuestas que ni la hamaca ni el cielonos daban. Añoro algunos fragmentos de aquel libro grueso. Estar frenteal tribunal de los sabios budistas barbudos que con palabras como“carreta”, “río”, “dragón”, nos asesoraban sobre las deudas no pagadas ono cobradas. Sobre el amigo traicionado. Sobre la Unam o la Ibero. Con eltiempo las “carretas”, “los ríos” y “los dragones” se alinearon parasepararnos.Wikipedia escribe: El I Ching describe o interpreta la situación presente dequien lo consulta y aconseja el modo en que se puede resolver el futuro sise adopta ante él la posición correcta. Y más adelante: El I Ching describeun universo en el que la energía creadora proviene del cielo.Quise crear un techo que mire al cielo. Que distraiga de verlo pero a la vezinvite a verlo. Recordé los sesenta y cuatro hexagramas que conforman elI Ching y sus líneas verticales largas o cortas. Cada uno: una letra de unabecedario extraño. Por un lado símbolo ancestral de profundas raíces,por otro un anodino microchip de pilares binarios.Nos acostamos en la hamaca y miramos el techo de símbolos. Presentimosque el mensaje con la respuesta correcta esta ahí. ¡Es lo que tenemos quehacer! Luego, miraremos el cielo. Pero esa es otra historia.Boris ViskinTEMPLE OF (Heaven and) DESTINYLying down in the hammock, at a time when the location of the sun allowsyou to look at the sky, is a prayer. The swing of the hammock sets therhythm, your mind sets the prayer. We start as always with unpaid debts,with uncollected debts. Some pending procedure, a legal dispute, adivorce, money lost, stolen, confiscated. The betrayed friend appears, thesacrificed dream. Ah! The crossroads! She or her. He or she. Canada orMerida. To have it or not to have it. Give up or wait. Run away or resign.UNAM or Ibero. Participate or stay out.You sigh and just through the sigh you see the sky. You see the sky andyou see it looking at you. If you manage to keep his gaze, the real prayerbegins. But that is another story.Curious that temples have roofs. As if they wanted to protect us fromseeing the sky. Some, the Sistine Chapel as a leader, paint the ceiling. Theywant to replace the sky but they only manage to give us a stiff neck; it's ashame they don't hang hammocks.I once had a girlfriend who loved the I Ching. Every night we threw thethree coins and looked for the answers that neither the hammock nor thesky gave us. I miss some fragments of that thick book. Being in front of thecourt of the bearded Buddhist sages who, with words like “cart”, “river”,“dragon”, advised us on unpaid or uncollected debts. About the betrayedfriend. About UNAM or Ibero. Over time the “carts”, “the rivers” and “thedragons” lined up to separate us.Wikipedia writes: The I Ching describes or interprets the present situationof the person who consults it and advises how the future can be resolved ifthe correct position is adopted before it. And later: The I Ching describes auniverse in which creative energy comes from heaven.I wanted to create a roof that looks at the sky. That distracts from seeingit but at the same time invites you to see it. I remembered the sixty-fourhexagrams that make up the I Ching and their long or short vertical lines.Each one: a letter of a strange alphabet. On the one hand, an ancestralsymbol with deep roots, on the other, a nondescript microchip of binarypillars.We lay down in the hammock and looked at the ceiling of symbols. Wesense that the message with the correct answer is there. It's what we haveto do! Then, we will look at the sky. But that is another story.Boris Viskin

Impermanent Collection

Many of the artworks, murals, and interventions that have shaped the hotel over the years were never intended to exist forever. As artists arrive, spaces evolve, and new conversations emerge, certain works transform, disappear, or make room for new interventions.This constant evolution is central to El Ganzo’s identity. The hotel experienced today is not the same one that existed six months ago, nor the one that will exist six months from now. Through change, the space remains alive, continuously shaped by the artists, musicians, and communities that pass through it.The works featured in this archive are no longer physically on view, but they remain an essential part of El Ganzo’s artistic legacy and ongoing cultural history.

Work