Txema Novelo
Déjalo Ser - Film - 23min - 2017
presented as part of the exhibition panorama 19
There is a myth in the region of the Sierra Mazatec in the state of Oaxaca in Mexico, that the Beatles arrived there in the sixties to try the psychedelic mushrooms that have been used as prehispanic medicine for centuries in the region. The myth also states that Paul McCartney had a bad trip during the session, hosted by shamanic Mexican icon Maria Sabina. The story goes that she helped Paul trough the session by telling him repeatedly “Dejalo Ser”, spanish for “Let it be”. Nobody know for sure if such thing ever happened, or if the Beatles song was written after the experience. But the meta myth serves as the backbone of this movie, recreating it in the form of a road trip. The Beatles embraced by four members of a Mexico City new wave band, called “Los Rata” and a mysterious foreigner female character, embracing Yoko Ono as the ultimate inspiration for the band and the trip, characterized by Swedish Pop Social Network Super Star, Molly Nilsson.
Biographie de l’imaginaire
Born in 1959 in Mexicali Baja California, he was one of the 3 unrecognized sons of Mexican American rock and roll hall of fame icon Ritchie Valens.
He was raised by his mother, a sage woman of the Wirarika tribe who healed with medicinal plants and prehispanic medicine.
In 1968 at the age of ten, he crossed the border alone, and settled in East Los Angeles. He recalls of those days that he decided to live in a trash can inspired by the Hanna Barbera cartoon "Top Cat". There he joined the radical political party "The Brown Berets" were he was the youngest active member at the time. After two police raids on his trash can, he put his two most beloved material possessions (Mao's Red Book and a Chet Baker record) on a hobo stick and hitchhike all the way to New York City. There he responded to the first newspaper ad he saw were they needed an assistant sound recorder. After faking his papers he showed up on his 11th birthday to the recording session at the Hit Factory Studio, for the first day of recording of they first record album of the Stooges, produced by John Cale. Surprised by his age and absolute lack of technical experience, Cale took him to a party that night at the Andy Warhol factory for pleading if Warhol could allow him to crash on his couch for a couple of days. That night the Velvet Underground played, and this event changed his life dramatically.
He served for six years as Warhol's right hand, displacing Gerard Malanga as camera man for Warhol movies such as "Kiss", "Sleep" and "Hamburger" and also as a silkscreen assistant. In 1976 he was asked to bring four Warhol pieces to a private collector in the U.K. He spend a weekend in London were he saw a performance of the art collective "Art & Language" with live music by the Red Crayola. He described the experience as one of the "holiest moments of his childhood" and went backstage to convince the group he was willing to donate the Warhol silk screens as a token of his admiration. The next day he was part of the collective and for two years he was touring around playing bass alongside Mayo Thomson. In 1978 touring with the band in the north of England they perform in Kingston upon Hull, alongside Throbbing Gristle.
Breath taken by the presence, the performance and the beauty of Cosey Fanni Tutti, Novelo fell in love instantly and talk his way through bed that night. The rest is history, after 35 years of pioneering synth pop from the duo's two main musical projects "Cosey & Txema" and "Tutti Novelo", Txema decided it was not too late to go for his ultimate dream, making movies in his beloved and forgotten land, Mexico.
He applied to the first school he found on a newspaper ad that was willing to give free money for such cause, and that's how he create the microcinema master piece common now to all the cinema compendiums known as "Dejalo Ser"....
Txema Novelo
Through remapping Western and Oriental Holy Scriptures upon the mythologies of twentieth century popular music and culture, Novelo is trying to reintroduce a sense of the sacred into contemporary art. This within the realms of video, installation, performance and sculpture.
He has participated with his work in various international and national art fairs and festivals such as the 3rd SAPS Public Art forum in Mexico City, the Havana Biennial 03, the Image Festival of Toronto 2002 / 2010, the Contemporary Art Fair MACO 04 /06 /11 in Mexico City, the Contemporary Art Fair ARCO 05 in Madrid, Spain (Mexico was the invited country for this year) and in the VII International Call for Young Artists for the Luis Adelantado Gallery in Valencia, Spain. He also took part in the the FRIEZE 06 Art Fair in London, UK, in the International Contemporary Film Festival of Mexico City FICCO 2007, in the 2nd SIVAM Visual Arts Contest in Mexico City, as well as the International Art Biennial of Mexico-California 09/10 and the 2nd Moscow Biennial of Young Art 2010.
His work has also been exhibited individually and collectively in museums and galleries from Canada, USA, Poland, Spain, Argentina and Mexico. Among these, are the Ramis Barquet Gallery in Monterrey, Mexico and the Carrillo Gil Art Museum in Mexico City, the ‘Zamek Ujazdowski’ Contemporary Art Museum of Warsaw, Poland, the ‘Reina Sofia’ National Museum of Art and ‘La Casa Encendida’ New Media Art Space in Madrid, Spain and the Fundación Telefonica’Art Space in Buenos Aires, Argentina among others.
