QUIERO UN PRESIDENTE (I WANT A PRESIDENT)

Quiero un presidente (I Want a President) is a public art project in collaboration with artist Zoe Leonard and her poem I Want a President (1992), and the free Spanish version of the Mexican poet Luis Felipe Fabre.

Mexico City, June 18, 2018 –  Within the framework of the presidential elections in Mexico and with the intention of reflecting on the political moment, without affiliation or support to any particular candidate or party, Ruta del Castor in collaboration with artist Zoe Leonard and the Mexican poet Luis Felipe Fabre, and with the support of different organizations, community groups and members of civil society, presented Quiero un presidente (I want a president).

Quiero un presidente is a public art project based on the poem I Want a President by Zoe Leonard, written in the 1990s during the AIDS crisis and the US presidential elections in 1992. Since then the text has been activated, declared and presented in different institutions and public spaces of the world. Despite having been written 26 years ago and from a different political context, Leonard's poem remains in force, thus adapting to the current socio-political situation in Mexico, advocating for gender rights and sexual diversity and fighting against different forms of systemic oppression.

In order to activate the text collectively, on Saturday, June 30, 2018 at 1:00 pm, a group reading of the adaptation in Spanish took place at the Hemiciclo a Juarez of the Historic Center of Mexico City. The invitation and participation was extended to the general public.

The text was also activated in the sound landscape of the City, through a recording made by members of the LGBTTTI community and transmitted by groups of cyclists convened and coordinated by Bicitekas A.C. We thank CiudArte for the support in production consulting of this project.