Victor Alvarado aka El chico paletas, Mundo de Caramelo, 2021

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The work of Victor Alvarado, a.k.a. El chico paletas, catches the attention of passers-by on rue vieille du temple, a central street of old Paris, today lined with fashion boutiques. The language of the shop window is familiar to this artist memenpreneur, expert in the paradigmatic self-exploitation of our time: he is a strategist, marketer, creative, technician, producer, communicator and salesman without EVER losing his smile. Carrier of the comic chromosome, Victor expresses himself with emojis and he easily transforms his ideas into caustic memes that appear all over the exhibition space as an insistent advertisement from which the algorithm does not let us escape. 

The form his work takes is that of familiar Mexican candies modified to suggest phrases around self-exploitation, injustice and precariousness, questioning the promise of a “candy world”.

Alain Servais discovered his work at Biquini Wax, an important and dynamic artist-run space in Mexico City. Victor explained to him that he was disturbed that now that he just finished art school, he felt compelled by the system, including the art market, to produce "eye candies", works with a lot of seduction and very little content. Victor therefore decided to create this entire colourful and seductive installation and Alain recognized the universality of Victor’s message in an art market more and more deeply separated between cultural and commercial value. The form his work takes is that of familiar Mexican candies modified to suggest phrases around self- exploitation, injustice and precariousness, questioning the promise of a “candy world”.

In the artist's own words, "If this false neoliberal promise forces us to build a self-managed and independent subject that adscribes to the description of the neoliberal entrepreneur, this project leads the premise of turning ourselves into an integral entertainment company to absurdity, using creative work to signal the inconsistencies of trying to adhere to these regulations, and the multiple crisis that arise when trying to live and survive the art world."

Some phrases in Victor Alvarado's candy-like sculptures include: "Gain as much as you like", "2 years of experience", "Damn poverty", and "I no longer want to be an adult".

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Victor Alvarado aka El chico paletas, Mexico City, 1995

Victor Alvarado aka El chico paletas plays with the Mexican imaginary of the 90's and 2000's, subverting it to question the false neoliberal promise present in the creative industries. He is a Master in Visual Arts with specialization in Art and Environment by the Postgraduate in Arts and Design UNAM, he studied the Bachelor of Visual Arts at ENPEG La Esmeralda. She has 4 solo exhibitions in spaces of the CDMX as Biquini Wax EPS, TACO Talleres de Arte Contemporáneo and La Celda Contemporánea at UCSJ. More than 15 group exhibitions in physical and digital spaces. Participated in the second art week inside it within the guest program of the Material Vol. 8 Art Fair, in the space Radio28, curated by Save The Artist and RGE, the BADA 2020 Art Fair at Campo Marte, representing the ENPEG "La Esmeralda" and the first edition of the FAIN 2019 Art Fair at the Recinto Escandón with the organization of the Casa Equis gallery.

Victor Alvarado aka El chico paletas: @elchicopaletas

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Le langage du site vitrine est familier à cet artiste mementrepreneur, expert de l'auto-exploitation propre à notre époque : à la fois stratège, marketeur, créatif, technicien, producteur, communicant et vendeur, il ne se départ JAMAIS de son sourire. Porteur du chromosome comique, Victor s'exprime avec des emojis et transforme facilement ses idées en mèmes caustiques aux accents publicitaires, au rythme d’un algorithme implacable. Son travail prend la forme de célèbres bonbons mexicains modifiés qui suggèrent des phrases autour de l'auto-exploitation, de l'injustice et de la précarité, remettant en question la promesse d'un « monde de bonbons ».

Selon l'artiste, « si cette fausse promesse néolibérale nous oblige à construire un sujet autogéré et indépendant qui répond à la description de l'entrepreneur néolibéral, ce projet rend absurde l’idée de se transformer en une entreprise de divertissement, en utilisant le travail créatif pour souligner les incohérences de l’adhésion à de telles règles et les multiples crises qui surviennent lorsqu’on essaie de (sur)vivre dans le monde de l'art. »

Alain Servais a découvert cette œuvre à Biquini Wax, un important et dynamique espace géré par des artistes contemporains à Mexico. « Victor m'a expliqué qu’il était perturbé par le fait que, maintenant qu’il avait terminé ses études, il se sentait poussé par le système, y compris le marché de l'art, à produire des sucreries visuelles, des œuvres séduisantes mais avec très peu de contenu. Dans son installation colorée, j'ai reconnu l’universalité du message de Víctor dans un marché de l'art où les valeurs culturelles et commerciales sont de plus en plus séparées. »