Maris Bustamante
Patente de Taco
Since her first happening in 1971 Maris Bustamante (*1949, Mexico) — a graduate from the Escuela Nacional de Pintura y Escultura La Esmeralda at Mexico City—began “a search for non-traditional supports” or what she called “non-objective art.” In 1977, with three male artists, she started a movement of “savage vanguard” called “No-Grupo” (No-Group). As they declared, “No-Group is a workshop of critique, of attitudes and positions.” With No-Grupo Bustamante created humored and caustic performances where gender was a major source material. In 1983, Bustamante and Mónica Mayer founded the first feminist art collective in Mexico, Polvo de Gallina Negra (Black Hen Powder).
In Patente de Taco (Taco Patent), Maris Bustamante patented this Mexican cultural and culinary symbol to use it as “a weapon for cultural penetration”; the artist utilized the taco’s visual and formal image in a variety of ways, including erotic ones.
Courtesy Maris Bustamante