Francisco Toledo was recognized with Alternative Nobel
Text and Photos: Askari MATEOS

The artist, cultural promoter and philanthropist, Francisco Toledo was honored with the Honorary Right Livelihood 2005 award, in recognition of his struggle in pro of the culture, ecology and community life of Oaxaca.

Toledo was recognized with this prize, which is also known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize”, “for his commitment and his art in favor of the protection, development and renovation of the architectural and cultural heritage, the environment and community life of his native Oaxaca”, according to the jury.
The Right Livelihood Award was instituted in 1980 by the Swedish-German ex-euro-deputy Jakob von Uexkull, who sold his collection of postage stamps to establish an initial fund of around one million dollars. He did this because the Nobel Foundation rejected his proposal for the creation of two new prizes, one for ecology and the other related to the poor, the great majority of the world population. It has been granted to over 100 people from some 50 countries and is considered the doorway to the Nobel Peace Prize.

This prize is granted in the Swedish Parliament a day before the Nobel Prizes that is why it is frequently referred to as the Alternative Nobel Prize.

This prize, the painter stated, will give strength to the Patronato Prodefensa y Conservación del Patrimonio Cultural y Natural de Oaxaca (Pro-Oax), because “at times we feel we are unprotected”.

For Toledo the prize holds no economic stimulus. The 2 million Swedish Crowns will be split among the other winners: Maude Barlos and Tony Clarke, of Canada; Irene Fernandez, of Malaysia; the First People of the Kalahari organization, and its founder Roy Sesana, of Botswana, who will share the economic prize of 2 million Swedish Crowns (approximately 257 thousand dollars).

On the 7th. of October a press conference of the award winners will be held in Stockholm and the awards ceremony will be held two days later in the Swedish Parliament.

For the 2005 version of the prize there were 77 candidates from 39 countries: four from Africa, four from the Arab world, 20 from Asia, one from Australia, 26 from Europe, 12 from South America and 10 from North America.

To celebrate this award the painter held a huge fiesta in the installations of the Instituto de Artes Gráficas de Oaxaca (IAGO) where one by one people from different social strata and occupations congregated with platters of traditional foods and beer to celebrate the achievement of the “Maestro” as everyone calls him.

It is common to see him in the mornings walking through the streets of the center of Oaxaca, hands in his pockets and shoes untied – he almost never uses sandals anymore -, in shirtsleeves with muslin or gabardine pants, his hair flying and a half grown beard. That is Francisco Toledo’s way, a genius without pretensions, who, despite giving interviews almost every day, continues to be timid when someone approaches him with a tape recorder in hand to ask him something, anything, or takes a photo of him – sometimes he steps back and looks at the sky as if asking for a little peace.

In 1983 he presented the book El Inicio in the Lopez Quiroga , with original engravings, and in 1986 the exhibit of Lo que el Viento a Juarez, which was shown in 1996 in the Museum of Contemporary Art of Oaxaca (MACO). In 1997 the exhibit Francisco Toledo/ La Fragilidad del Alma at the 47th biennial in Venice, Zoologie Fantastique in the Cultural Center of the Mexican embassy in Paris and Inectario 1995-1996 , again in the MACO. In August of 2001 Toledo traveled to Los Angeles, California with the intention of painting for a year, which resulted in the exhibit Francisco Toledo/Recent Painting, in July of 2004 in the Quezalli Gallery in Oaxaca, where in June of 2005 he showed Informe Para la Academia, his most recent graphic work inspired by the title of the same name by Franz Kafka which tells a story of a gorilla that becomes a man, not to reach the heights of animal development, but to find a way our of his uncomfortable cage. This last show highlights Toledo’s interest in representing literature, as he has done before with Jorge Luis Borges and the almost centenarian, Andres Henestrosa.

For many years Toledo has promoted the creation of spaces for art and culture; The Casa de la Cultura of Juchitán, The Museum of Contemporary Art of Oaxaca, the Graphic Arts Institute, The Manuel Alvarez Bravo photography center, The Jorge Luis Borges Library for the Blind, the El Pochote cinema club, the Eduardo Mata Recording library, the Ethno-botanical garden, the Patronato Prodefensa del Patrimonio Natural y Cultural del Estado de Oaxaca (Pro-Oax) and recently, his greatest project: The Arts Center of San Agustin, in the community of the same name, in Etla, Oaxaca, which will be ready before the end of 2005 and will be one of the most important centers for the training of artists in the country.