MEXICO / ART CONRETE MIRRORS Detournement of reality Industrialisation, mass media, climate change… These are only a few of the themes these two young painters have explored in their bids to critique contemporary day-to- day realities. Both reappropriate Mexico City’s urban landscape and unintentionally mirror one another’s work with imagery that starkly contrasts with the Nordic climate we've become so accustomed to, bridging a gap between two worlds. A mirror interview and translation from Spanish by Natalia Lara Díaz-‐Berrio Cecilia Barreto 1. Why do you paint the landscape of Mexico City? I’ve always lived in Mexico City and I really love walking around and biking through the city. I think the link between painting and urban landscape is born from this daily experience. My painting references movement, the constant changes in the city. But in my work, the city space is neutralised: there are no elements that are characteristic of Mexico City. Instead, I use a common language linked to large-‐scale industrialisation. I want to spark a moment of contemplation, a moment of questioning. 2. What’s your creative process? I start with a basic drawing and photographs I’ve taken in the city. Then I’ll get some images on the Internet to create montages by using silkscreening techniques and painting. I process fragments of the painting in different ways aesthetically, by creating a rupture with the parts that allude to digital aestheticism. I establish a visual canvas where the limit between physical reality and virtual reality is almost imperceptible. It’s my way of commenting on the oversaturation of images and their loss of value within a consumerist society. 3. Why do you paint billboards, and especially skiers? There are so many billboards in Mexico City. By including the billboard in the landscape, I’m playing with the notion of a space contained within another space, some mirror play, simultaneous realities. The billboards allow me to introduce the frame as an isolating element, in the same way that ads potentiate their images by playing with our desires, by creating an illusion.
1
I think the image of skiers attracts me because they’re a beautiful metaphor for controlling one’s own body. And the images of skis contrast with the images of the generic Mexican ad depicting a hot country. This way we confront social consensus and the skiers become fiction. 4. Is painting skiers in Mexico City validating a utopian concept? In my work, I draw parallels between contemporary advertising and its means of distribution. In that sense, my intention is more so to question our society, rather than to allude to a utopian state. 5. Do you believe that painters hailing from Mexico City share any characteristics in particular? The art scene in Mexico City is hungry, competitive and consuming. Consequently the artists’ discourses and works are of excellent quality. It’s a city that overflows with art centers, exhibits, museums and other institutions. But there is a lack of support for that culture, especially with the new government PRI (for its initials in Spanish)1, which, in my opinion, is contemptuous of the importance of art in our society.
1
The Institutional Revolutionary Party (IRP) is a right-wing party whose discourse is a mix of nationalism and populism. They were in power between 1928 and 2000, and then again since 2012.
2
Diego Narváez 1. Why do you paint the landscape of Mexico City? As citizens of big cities, our relationship with the landscape is quite poor: we live it while totally absorbed with ourselves, without really ever knowing it. In my case, the landscape has allowed me to study light, space, transparency and the different densities of matter. My painting isn’t critical, it’s sensual. I paint spaces that are cracks in the system, and these spaces are all found in cities. They are impersonal, transitory spaces, spaces that are in construction or abandoned, that are alive, mysterious and changing, all at once. I don’t want to be an ambassador of Mexico City. I prefer creating imaginary realities that can intrigue any spectator. 2. What’s your creative process? I start by travelling through the city and I look for spaces that interest me. I’ll draw on the spot, and then I’ll work in the studio. I’ll go back to take a second look and often the place will have already changed. I work on black backgrounds, and I’ll add elements to it. Gradually I’ll erase certain parts, I’ll create others. I don’t work in a methodical fashion. I work intuitively. 3. Why do you paint snow in a landscape that has never seen any? I personally have seen snow: it snowed in Ajusco2 for two days when I was five. Since then I’ve been fascinated by snow. In 2011, I did a residency in Antarctica and I am going to Iceland for a few months to live the cold next year. The icebergs seemed alive, visually and aesthetically rich. Plus snow allows me to point the finger at climate change and the subsequent changes in landscape. In my painting, the snow creates a narrative set in Mexico City. It’s a tool for the spectator to stop, observe, and question. 4. Is painting snow and ice in Mexico City validating a utopian concept? I’m not interested in the idea of utopia. I’m interested in the aesthetics of mystery, of the sublime. I want to invent something exceptional in the landscape that invites people to contemplate it, something that inspires a new perception of the daily. 5. Do you believe that painters hailing from Mexico City share any characteristics in particular? I think the majority of painters here take their trade very seriously and work a lot. They have excellent techniques. The artist must have an internal crisis, searching for 2
Ajusco is an extinct volcano South of Mexico City. It belongs to the neo-volcanic mountain range.
3
new challenges outside of the routine, because comfort leads to stagnation. The nature of the city enables this state of resourcefulness, of renewal. As for the art circuit in Mexico City, it does get good funding. Mexican art is in a good period, internationally. It’s young, it’s transgressing. It’s the city – it pushes us to be in constant movement.
4