Cultural spaces in Oaxaca, México, in pandemic: towards new creation and meeting experiences

Abstract

The SARS COV-2 pandemic affected the ways of producing, showing, and managing the arts in Oaxaca, found in Southeast México. Through a review of some emblematic cases, we outline how the health, economic and geopolitical crises intertwined with creative life in Oaxaca City and the Central Valleys. We examine the adaptations made by public and private museum institutions, and the activity of some virtual and physical independent art spaces founded during the pandemic and were developed and managed through social media. What kind of conversations took place during this time? What was the pandemic’s influence on the local artistic production? How has social media’s hegemony influenced the experience of creating, consuming, and discussing art? Which practices should stay, and which should disappear or transform, to meet the new social needs?