As the global health crisis in relation to COVID-19 continues to evolve, we understand that the most important thing is people's well-being and mutual care. With this in mind, we have decided to postpone the second edition of Materia Abierta until the summer of 2021. Our program is designed to encourage in-person gatherings and the socialization of ideas and spaces. The nature of the project, unfortunately, contrasts with the preventive measures necessary to reduce the spread of the virus. This is a moment where distancing is an expression of respect and an act of solidarity.

The decision was not easy. After an enriching first edition and many months of work, we were excited to spend the summer with you. It is particularly difficult because the activities we were preparing for this year’s edition resonate so strongly with the situation at hand. Curated by Mônica Hoff and Eva Posas, under the title Ni apocalipsis ni paraíso, the program addresses the many prescriptions and attempts to confront and postpone the end of the world — not just its occurrence, but its representation. The feeling is that the future has been inserted into the present, exhausting its link with reality and exploiting its condition of existence. We are facing the exhaustion of a civilizing project built under the order of reason, and of temporalities defined by patriarchal epistemologies of conquest, dispossession, and domination. The end of the future is, therefore, also a rhetorical strategy, or one more excuse, to erase ourselves from the present and forget the debts we have with the past. The program is intended as an encounter to participate in this debate from other places, voices, bodies and narratives, as well as a search to learn from other ways of living. Not to guarantee the future, but to be able to inhabit other presents. These will remain the guiding concerns for Materia Abierta next year.

It is important to face uncertainty with civic responsibility, as it is to keep critical dialogue active in times of adversity. Although we are postponing the program and its events, we do not want to be absent. Our team will be attentive and, when conditions allow, we will seek to share resources and create spaces for contact and connection.

We greatly appreciate the trust and continued support of the people with whom we collaborate and especially of our partner institutions, who are also rethinking their programs and social commitments in the face of this difficult situation: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Cultura UNAM, Programa de Arte, Ciencia y Tecnologías (ACT), Cátedra Max Aub en arte y tecnología, Casa Universitaria del Libro (CASUL), Casa del Lago Juan José Arreola and Museo Universitario del Chopo.

The world is likely to be different after this experience, but Materia Abierta will return. Let's use this pause to re-channel our energy, fortify relationships, and reorganize our priorities. Take care of yourself, your families, your friends, the communities at risk and the people most impacted by this pandemic. We wish you great health and strength.

Warmly,

Ana, Cinthya, Daniela, Eduardo, Eva, Federico, Mônica.