Things that make a Milpa

Some humans, many more than humans  (corn, beans, pumpkin for sure, but fruit trees, avocado, nopale, agave, bees, pigs, chickens…)

Delicious food (for humans and more than humans)

Healthy food (for humans and more than humans)

Family and community working together (who are humans and more than humans)

Knowledges of the world (made by humans and more than humans, probably the ants know something you don’t)

Transformation (which = creativity)

Hard work (every damn day)

Resistance (to giant multinational corporations that own the food system, to depressive ease)

Leftovers that return to the system (waste is what you make it)

Things that make a Barrio

Roads

Buildings (homes, shops, services)

Services going in (water, electricity, gas, internet)

Services going out (sewerage, waste, internet)

How safe you feel (to walk, to love, to eat, to rest, to drink the water)

Manners and etiquette

Food

The more than human world

Gathering Spaces

Weather

Noise

Light

Community Engagement

Part of our social practice process is to check the assumptions and emphases that drove our work through public interaction with our mapping of what makes a barrio. Our working definitions of what a milpa and barrio are to the right: the blurb that was given to guests (along with a corn crown) is below.

Before the Disorderly House collective came to Guadalajara, we were already in love with the Mexican food system. The Disorderly Housewife (Helen) had taught and researched food systems for years. The Three Sisters and Milpa farming systems, which rely on biodiversity, are held up as exemplars of what sustainable agriculture could be. On top of that, the Mexican government started pushing back hard on genetically modified corn being imported from the United States, because corn is just so central to Mexican culture. Chefs Kiss!! The Disorderly Houseboy (Sasha) ate this all up, literally. He really likes tacos.

In Australia, we don't have a food that is of national importance. We struggle to get fresh food at all, because we have a supermarket duopoloy that fixes prices and their 'fresh' fruit and vegetables are expensive, flavourless and of very limited variety. We have one of the highest rates of ultraprocessed foods in the world, and the bowel cancer statistics to go along with that.

So the time Disorderly House has spent in Mexico has been mainly eating things. Has the produce all come from Milpas? Most likely not. But we noticed that the Barrio we have been staying in is like a Milpa in itself. It thrives on relationships, on grouping like places together (the bathroom district! the printing district! the electronics district!). And it fuels all of this with delicious street food that includes fresh fruit and vegetables, freshly made tortillas and systems that full of give and take and kindness, rather than brutal efficiency.

Other things have also sunk in for us romantic gringos. Like, you can't drink the tap water. Like, your safety depends on some people who may not have truth and justice in their heart. Like, the potholes are REAL.

We have put together this exhibition as our reaction to the daily practices of community as demonstrated through food, water, waste and hospitality. We have tried to honour this barrio's everyday ingenuity and recognise issues at play that make life less joyful.

We also recognise our romance with this city and - in the great words of the internet - Romance is just a lack of information. So we'd love to know what you think about where you live. Have a walk around then you can add to our Things That Make a Barrio wall. Tell us the good and the bad! Don't worry, we won't tell the cops. . . or the tourist bureau. . .

Found pinata, rabbit skin, one eyed Lafufu, corn husks.

Things corn can be:

Kernel (Masa, Tortilla, Tamale, Hominy, Polenta, Cornflour)

Silk (Tea, Mulch)

Cob (Pipe)

Husk (Wrapper, Rope, Sculptural Material)

Owned (Bayer, Syngenta, DuPont)

An Ancestor and Everyday Companion (Mexico)