“Se compran colchones…” Informal Labor and Contemporary Mexican Art

Abstract

This article explores the intricate relationship between informal labor and contemporary Mexican art, tracing its evolution from the 1970s to the present through selected works. Informal labor, a significant socio-economic phenomenon in Mexico, encompasses unregulated, precarious forms of work that sustain millions of individuals while shaping the country’s cultural and urban landscapes. Artists such as Francis Alÿs, Eduardo Abaroa, Gabriel Kuri, and Mauricio Limón de León have found in the dynamics of informal labor aesthetic elements that inform their artistic strategies.

The analysis begins with the artist collectives of the 1970s, which challenged institutional elitism through street exhibitions and community-based interventions. It then examines how later artists like Alÿs and Abaroa incorporated the precariousness of informal work into their creative practice. In the mid-2000s, Mauricio Limón de León proposed a more transparent relationship with informal laborers, integrating their strategies as a way of analyzing current Mexican society.