Two Mexican artists display at cultural centre
Having shown off their traditional culture at Memorial Park for the last several days, you’d think the folks at the Mexican Embassy would be content to kick back and nurse a goma. Not so. With the Cultural Institute barely cleaned up from independence festivities, it is now home to a new exhibition.
Patrick Jones, Reporting
The nude figures in the sand are not Belizean beauties soaking up some rays at the beach. They are Mexican artist Daniel Rosel’s documentation of a particularly painful point in Mexico’s recent past.
Daniel Rosel, Artist
“The pieces are made of clay and sand. The name of the piece is called “Red Juarez” and it refers to the murders of women in Cuidad Juarez, Chihuahua, and which are very disastrous incidents which happened on the Mexican border with the United States.”
Seven pieces make up this part of the exhibition at the Mexican Cultural Institute. While most artists who put their work on display prefer hands off viewing, Rosel says his work is laid out in such a way that people will come in contact with it, in some cases even destroying parts of it. This kind of interaction Rosel says, will help the viewer to appreciate the message behind the show.
Daniel Rosel
“Like any artist, I am concerned about different social and political topics too, and not only about aesthetics. But I wanted to create a consciousness about this particular issue.”
It took Rosel five months to painstakingly craft the details into his work, using sand and ceramics. But he hopes the images will remain with his viewers long after they walk out of the showroom.
Daniel Rosel
“I expect that those who come to view the show will understand the subject of the exhibition. The people can walk around the pieces and I expect that they will destroy some of them because they are made of sand. By walking around, maybe you will destroy part of one. I want the public to reflect on the fragility of life, because these are representations of dead women.”
While Rosel’s work chronicles murder and death, Mariana Gullco who joins her compatriot in the exhibition, uses her art piece, dubbed Yin Yang, to express life, and how a little bit of harmony can make it easier to live.
Mariana Gullco
“This is a piece that is a swing for two people. And the main idea is equilibrium between things, people, relationships. For swing you have to be in contact with the other person which is next to you, because if you don’t you cannot move.”
Gullco has been on the art scene in Mexico for the last nine years and has adopted traditions of local artisans in her work. Now she is experimenting with ideas well outside the normal art box.
Mariana Gullco
“I weave it with plastic and the structure is wood. And I use the technique of weaving hammocks in Yucatan, I learn how to weave it and I use this new material to do this kind of structure. Of swing, which is in part a hammock, but it’s another thing too.”
“I want people to experience the piece. To interact with it and to create a reflection in that sense. Not just by observation without this kind of interaction. I am interested in that and I am interested in this little line between what is allowed or not in art.”
Patrick Jones, for News 5.
The show runs until October tenth and is open to the public daily from eight a.m. to five p.m.
