MEXICO CITY.- Beyond the horizon are the most remote places. Eleven artists are part of a two-year expedition, an art-educational process that seeks to expand the limits of their experience through a wide and constant dialogue with other artists. At the end of this sort of trip, an exhibition awaits. What is an opening, but an unknown land.

Yolanda Benalba, Aleph Escobedo, Daniel Evo, Santiago G髆ez, Margot Kalach, Mimi Laquidara, 羘gela Leyva, Roger Mu駉z, Ilazki de Portuondo, Natalia Rodr韌uez Caballero and Miriam Salado -2019 SOMA PES generation-, present Tierra Inc骻nita, exhibition that gathers the result of the reflections, inquiries and experimentations made during their stay in this educational program through workshops, public sessions and events aimed at strengthening horizontal understanding on different aspects of the contemporary art production.

Tierra Inc骻nita, brings together different concerns and materialities: body politics, speculative narration, determined spaces by politic strategies, saturation and cultural chaos, fictional possibilities of photography, space habitability, metaphorical identity construction, satire and humor as subversion strategies, magic and alchemy in the context of globalization, mental health stereotypes, and cultural production linked to illegality.

SOMA was founded in Mexico City in November 2009 at the initiative of a group of artists who had joined forces, resulting in a unique platform in the cultural field.

SOMA is an organization dedicated to cultural exchange and arts pedagogy. SOMA departs from the same interests that, more than a decade ago, motivated its founders to collaborate in spaces of contemporary art production and dissemination, such as La Paneder韆 or Tem韘tocles 44. SOMA is supported by a core group of artists and advisors, including critics, curators and other professionals in the cultural field.

SOMA’s task is to build a platform to collectively investigate what art can become and how it can work in different contexts. The pedagogical program seeks to create a space for horizontal, collective interaction and critical thinking, taking into account the many different creative communities of Mexico City.

SOMA is a space for reconsideration and reflection, where students and participants have the opportunity to critically analyze their proposals and where revisiting the creative processes is encouraged. SOMA’s mission—promoting dialogue and discourse in our society and tracking the professional development of emerging artists—is conceived as three different programs:

1. Artistic Development Program: SOMA Academic Program
SOMA offers a two-year program imparted in Spanish targeted to contemporary artists and cultural producers interested in developing their practices. Participants in this program have access to a number of courses taught by leading artists and curators in the field of contemporary art in Mexico. SOMA stimulates an active and horizontal interaction among emerging artists and artists imparting the courses, by individual meetings, lectures, studio visits, among other activities. The program is directed by a diverse group of six artists. Funded by SOMA’s sponsors, the program awards grants of 90% of the tuition.

2. International Summer Program: SOMA Summer
During the months of July and August, SOMA offers an international eight-week summer program. Facilitated by artist Carla Herrera-Prats, the program is taught in English, and brings together a great group of artists, curators and art-historians from various latitudes who lead seminars and workshops. Every year SOMA Summer focuses on the examination and development of a specific topic. In an environment of intense work, participants have the opportunity to evaluate their practice through individual and group critiques, and to visit the studios of relevant artists in the international art world.

3. Public Program: Mi閞coles de SOMA
This program consists of a series of free lectures and/or presentations open to the public, in which specialists from different disciplines talk about their practices. The program has comprised panel discussions, artist talks, book launches, music events and live art projects, among others.