ALIAS EDITORIAL LAUNCHES OPEN CALL FOR CRITICAL ESSAYS ON CONTEMPORARY MEXICAN ART

For the first time since its founding in 2006, Alias editorial is launching a public open call open until February 20, 2026, for submissions to build, through collective thinking, its new collection of critical essays on contemporary Mexican art: FUSIL.

This first edition invites authors to examine the artistic and cultural practices developed in Mexico from 1968 to the present, with the aim of fostering new research and compilations that critically revisit the narratives about Mexican art within this period, which is marked by intense artistic experimentation, institutional transformation, and the emergence of new languages that continue to resonate today.

Proposals must fall within one of the three historical periods established by the call: 1968–1985, 1986–2006, and 2007–2027. Essays may examine processes, works, spaces, networks, publications, archives, and forms of collaboration that expanded the notion of artistic production during this period. In addition to the plastic and visual arts, the call considers interdisciplinary, performance, film, music, publishing, architecture, and design practices, among others.

The call stems from the critical challenges of the present and from the need to reinvent our relationship with memory through writing. FUSIL proposes to imagine new approaches to historical periods that continue to speak to the genealogical needs of the present, through new forms of writing, inflections, disciplinary crossings, and departures from established narratives. The collection seeks to delve into significant microhistories, bring visibility to little-studied practices, artists, and archives, and champion a diversity of voices in order to foster the circulation of multiple points of view on artistic and cultural history in Mexico.

With an open theme, and giving priority to those without a current institutional affiliation, FUSIL will accept proposals in two formats: an unpublished essay on one or several topics linked to an original perspective, or a compilation of texts by individual or collective authors that includes an introductory critical commentary by the applicant.

The call is open to artists, researchers, historians, curators, critics, and anyone interested, with no age limit or nationality requirement. The full terms of the call are available on the publisher’s official website, and applications must be submitted exclusively through the online form.

The call will remain open until February 20, 2027. The reading committee will select around three essays for print publication in February 2028. Authors will receive a full advance on royalties of 10% on the first print run of 500 copies, in addition to complete editorial management by Alias throughout the editing, printing, distribution, and promotion of their publications.

Conceived by Mexican artist Damián Ortega, Alias is an editorial project that publishes valuable references for contemporary art: works that have not been translated or circulated in Spanish, or whose earlier editions are out of print or were never distributed in Mexico. Since 2006, the publisher has released more than fifty titles across its collections: Alias, Antítesis, and Artistas por artistas, the latter co-published with Dia Art Foundation. Its catalog now expands with a fourth collection, FUSIL.