Debora Delmar Corp.

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Installation view of "MINT," 2016; courtesy Debora Delmar Corp.; Duve, Berlin; photo: Timo Ohler

Founded in 2009 in New York, US
Débora Delmar * 1986 in Mexico City, lives and works in Mexico City

Débora Delmar mines the iconography and commodities of health-driven lifestyles to address themes of class and upward mobility. Dedicated to the health food trend of “green juice,” her operational juice bar takes its name both from the minting of currency and “MINT”, the acronym for the developing economic powers of Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Turkey as emerging markets for investment—countries that often export the fruit that then becomes a much more expensive liquified juice product sold in boutique packaging. Delmar’s juice has been produced in cooperation with a local company. Visitors can relax in Delmar’s juice bar on upcycled eco furniture, surrounded by celebrity green juice paparazzi photos, and a sculptural installation of matcha and wheat-grass infused plaster figures, cast lettuce, and watermelon totem poles.  Commenting on the displacement of value, food as a luxury item, and the marketing and economic structures that underlie trends and health products, the project takes on the perennial “greenwashing” of commodities and how social consciousness is reinforced by consumer habits.

List of works

MINT, 2016

Juice bar, furniture, prints
Courtesy Debora Delmar Corp.; Duve, Berlin
Commissioned and coproduced by Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art
Supported as part of the programme of the Dual Year Mexico-Germany by the Embassy of Mexico, Berlin
With the support of Patronato de Arte Contemporáneo A.C.
Thanks to bJuice

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Installation view of MINT, 2016; courtesy Debora Delmar Corp.; Duve, Berlin; photo: Timo Ohler
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Installation view of MINT, 2016; courtesy Debora Delmar Corp.; Duve, Berlin; photo: Timo Ohler
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Installation view of MINT, 2016; courtesy Debora Delmar Corp.; Duve, Berlin; photo: Timo Ohler