NOW PLAYING AT CAFÉ SISMO LISTENING ROOM
El Centro Histórico is an iconic barrio in México City, home to colonial buildings, pre-hispanic ruins, museums, cantinas, and homogeneous blocks full of industrial and consumer products where one can find almost anything desired. It’s also home to the art and architecture studio, Tezontle, where founders Lucas Cantú and Carlos Matos work and play. The studio, normally seen during the light of day, is just as, if not more transporting at night induced by the impressive collection of large scale sculptures, maquettes, floor to ceiling shelves full of ceramics and stonework objects. During Art Week, Tezontle and Carlota Jofre co-hosted a nighttime studio visit slash celebration to launch Café Sismo—an ode to the listening rooms of Japanese audiophiles—complete with natural wine, a trancelike sonorous performance and human connection.
FOTOGRAFÍA LIZ ZEPEDA
MATERIA: What is unique about the creative community in México City and the culture you’ve created at your studio?
TEZONTLE: México City has an interesting and creative crowd and when we have opened our space for small gatherings and events we have been the lucky hosts. We meet a lot of people through our work and studio visits. We’ve had a number of happenings at the studio: small concerts, dance performances, food and wine things, movie screenings, workshops, cumbia parties, and just casually gatherings to talk, chill, and listen to good music.
MATERIA: Tell us about Café Sismo? What was the inspiration for this latest evolution of your studio space?
TEZONTLE: Our studio space has been in constant change since the beginning adapting to whatever is happening with Tezontle.
After the pandemic we decided we wanted to make a big shift with the direction of the space both physically and conceptually. We had been fantasizing with hi-fi sound systems and the listening room’s of Japanese audiophiles, a room specially made to listen to quality stuff! We had been messing around with the idea of a small venue for experimental performances and with post pandemic times we feel it is the proper time. We are remodeling the studio, keeping part of the space for Tezontle and calling the other half “Café Sismo”. We paired up with our friends from Fritto Club in Monterrey, México and they will be curating wines and nibbles for the Sismo events.
MATERIA: Is there a song you can share that represents the sound of the listening room?
TEZONTLE: Ageispolis by Aphex Twin
MATERIA: What do you value most at Tezontle and what are you hoping to communicate through your art practice?
TEZONTLE: We value deep and thoughtful work, we have been lucky enough to have opportunities that can allow this. We hope to keep manifesting our ideas and have a body of work that will outlast us and speak for itself.
MATERIA: Your studio is in constant conversation between art and architecture. Can you explain more about your perspective on the relationship between the two?
TEZONTLE: They can be quite different. Art has an abstract and free spirited function while architecture can get technical and many compromises must be made. Before modernism stripped architecture to the bare minimum, buildings were ornamented and you could find sculptures and artists working on the building site. This is not a new concept and at Tezontle we are looking back at this.
MATERIA: What is next for Tezontle? Is there anything exciting you’re currently working on that you can share more about?
TEZONTLE: We have a solo exhibition at Liga in México City. Starting to build a sculptural bathhouse in Upstate NYC. A sculpture commission on the coast of Oaxaca. A few residential projects—currently in the making…fun stuff happening! Too much to mention!
PHOTOGRAPHY BY LIZ ZEPEDA
PHOTOGRAPHY BY LUCAS CANTÚ OF TEZONTLE
PHOTOGRAPHY BY NOEL HIGAREDA
