LEARN MORE ABOUT PERIFERIA

We asked Zaickz Moz about Periferia and the importance of representing the territory and personal experiences through photography.

​

Collaborators of the first stage of the project

Texts and research:

ALAN MOSQUEDA

FERNANDA ESCÁRCEGA

Photographic Documentation:

ZAICKZ MOZ (FRANCISCO MOSQUEDA)

​

ZAICKZ STUDIO

Originally from the State of Mexico, Zaickz Moz, director of Zaickz Studio -like so many thousands of people around the city- has spent long hours of his life. However, unlike most, Zaickz assumed the road as the space to get out of himself and get lost in the prints outside. Little by little, the impulse of his career as a photographer released him towards interests that at times he thought were everyday but that hid the depth of a documentary vocation, which reconnected him with the subject that has most fascinated him until now: the city. 

Starting with photographs that looked beyond the surfaces, his lens remained on the construction but the focus began to be more on the human aspect. Suddenly, the kilometers of thought traveled over the years began to be expressed in series that narrated life situations and reflected on the conditions of inhabited spaces.

What is the origin of the project?

Periferia was born from a first photographic exercise carried out in the municipality of Ecatepec de Morelos, after a year of research, interviews and photographic documentation. Soy de Azteca (the name under which the project began) was exhibited for the first time at ATEA, an art and cultural space in the La Merced neighborhood.

Why should we talk about limits and places through photography?

Today, everyone - inhabitants and non-dwellers of Mexico City - knows about the monstrous dimension of the capital. However, who can say where it begins and where it ends? 

Arístoles said that - "city" is a moral concept, not geographical or demographic, city is defined by its purpose and not by the number of inhabitants, every territorial extension is called "city"-. 

So photography speaks of a whole.

What is Periferia?

Periferia is a project that, through photography, seeks to highlight the elements of identity and the expressions of community of the inhabitants in the areas commonly referred to as peripheral.

​

Within the photographic narrative there are themes that range from the anthropological to the urban architectural:

- Social, cultural and economic dynamics

- Appropriation of public and private spaces

- Expressions of identity and community

- Housing and infrastructure

- Urban densities and boundaries

How were the themes of the presented photo essays chosen?

Opening a dialogue on the importance of each of the municipalities in the metropolitan periphery of Mexico City, drawing attention to their own characteristics and expressions and highlighting the cultural, economic and social impact they generate, was complex to capture in a single photo or in a single series. That is why the project is divided into 4 axes:

​

Aerial notes, Typology, The neighborhood and Life stories. In the first one, the conditions and the urban outline in which it has been developed are fully observed; in the second one, the facades of the houses are approached, on which the history of growth of the families and the type of relation that is established with the neighbors can be read. The neighborhood captures emblematic places that, for its inhabitants, capture the local essence. Finally, in Life Stories, the photographs portray the faces and spaces of those who daily make the "periphery" their center.

How does your practice relate to architecture, and where do you see its impact on the future of the discipline?

The complex relationship between these cities and the metropolis has motivated the development of the project. Talking about the city and documenting the city is talking about personal experiences and being the voice of the people behind the portraits that have transformed and lived the city according to their reality and need. The project is developed in the bowels of the city to try to understand how a community in the periphery works and the impact it has socially, economically and culturally outside this socio-demographic division. 

​

The project seeks to reach more than 20 municipalities adjacent to Mexico City with the intention of replicating the same scheme for the development of a printed compendium on the topics mentioned above. The doors are open to anyone who seeks to add and contribute to the development of the project.

For today's political boundaries do not mark borders; because each colony is its own nucleus and because it is the engine of the city, we bring the periphery to the center and open the dialogue.

Systems Everywhere: New Topographics and Art of the 1970s

Greg Foster-Rice

Walkspaces: El andar como práctica estética

Francesco Careri

Metamórfosis de la modernidad

Onnis Luque

Objetivo modero. La fotografía de Julius Shulman y la construcción de la imagen de la arquitectura del sur de California

Daniel Diez Martínez

La ciudad de Aristóteles

Luis Cervera Vera