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Washed Up Project by Alejandro Duran

Born in Mexico City in 1974, Alejandro Durán is a multimedia artist now based in Brooklyn, New York. Through photography, installation and video, his work examines the fraught intersections of man and nature, particularly revealing the pervasive impact of consumer culture on the natural world. He received an MA in Teaching from Tufts University in 1999 and an MFA in poetry from the New School for Social Research in 2001. ‘

Washed Up: Transforming a Trashed Landscape is an environmental art project that transforms the international debris washing up on Mexico’s Caribbean coast into aesthetic yet disquieting works.

The process.

Since 2010 Duran has collected the international garbage washing ashore in Sian Ka’an, an UNESCO World Heritage site and Mexico’s largest federally protected reserve. So far he has documented products from sixty countries and territories on six continets. He uses this material to create site-specific artworks that heighten awareness of our environmental predicament.

The process. El proceso.

Durán received En Foco’s New Works Award 2011 and Art With Me Tulum’s Social Impact Award 2018. He was included in the 2012 Bronx Biennial of Latin American Art, was nominated for the 2014, 2015 and 2016 Prix Pictet and the 2016 Prix Thun for Art and Ethics. He has exhibited his work at the Galería Octavio Paz at the Mexican consulate in New York and was Hunter College’s Artist-in-Residence for 2014-2015. Internationally, his work has been featured at Fotografie Forum Frankfurt in Germany and the Mt. Rokko International Photography Festival in Japan.

For more information please visit: alejandroduran.com

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A place where energies become synergies

Last August, when I came up with the idea to open a home décor shop, I actually had a very vague idea of how to do it. My daughter Cecilia was firm of coming with me through my trip in Mexico to meet different suppliers. We had a wonderful journey traveling in Mexico, meeting amazing people, laughing a lot, eating delicious food and driving throughout beautiful landscapes; until one day Kaahal Home became a reality.

It’s been four months now that Kaahal Home is open….. we can say that our small concept store is a success… Not only, we collected incredible manufacture, but also, we became friends with many of the talented artisans we met. We are so proud of them and I think they are also very proud of us.

Our customers are also a beautiful experience; they are kind, nice, and smart. They feel so at ease in the shop, that they have actually helped us to pack when the shop has been crowded. Others even share their adventures with us, bring us chocolate, and even come to say goodbye before they leave Tulum. Kaahal Home makes them feel like at their own home.

And this was exactly my original idea, to create a place where energies become synergies….

Synergies among all of us: artisans, customers, and ourselves cause I am strongly convinced that it is what makes a successful shop!

And now after four months since Kaahal Home opened, we can say “Mission Accomplished”.

Stay tuned…. We have some exciting news coming up soon!