CANAIA, the Cámara Nacional de la Industria Artística (The National Chamber of Art Industries, or SCOUNDREL, its Spanish acronym) was an independent institution created in response to the need for strengthening existing independent cultural structures in Mexico. They sought to break the inertia of the current dependence on the dominant official cultural apparatus and to broaden the specter of the contemporary art scene in México. CANAIA called for an urgent redefinition of exhibition spaces and of their involvement with politically engaged artistic practices. In a time of Mexico’s increasing global engagement, CANAIA aimed to diversify the discourse on culture and to generate alternative models of thinking about contemporary cultural practice in and outside of Mexico.
CANAIA’s activities included not only curatorial projects, conferences and debates, but also cultural proposals that didn’t otherwise have access to official institutions such as museums and commercial galleries. CANAIA also generated new forms of private patronage in an attempt to break the cultural dependency on state funding sources. They felt doing so was the only possibility for the development of an independent critical discourse on the role of culture and its influence in a plural society.
CANAIA operated as an independent public space linked to the teratoma group, a collective think tank comprised of curators, artists and cultural practitioners.