S1699

Curator: Alberto Ríos de la Rosa

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The artist’s position facing the formation processes of a historical speech, such as the instauration of a dialogue between the contemporary aesthetic creation and the modernism that precedes it, are two of the issues on which the artist Marco Esparza (Chihuahua, 1986) based his framework to conceive S1699.

The exhibition adopts its title from the central installation, a leatherette jacket held by a steel cable that visually divides the room into two. The image of Siqueiros’ hands, drawn from a photograph taken on the occasion of the exhibition of his piece Peace Christ [El Cristo de la Paz] (1970) at the Vatican, is shown on its back. By the purest style of Helio Oiticica, the fusion that Esparza achieved, results in a thematic and spatial organic movement. The tension portrayed by the cable is also a metaphor of the tensions that might arise from the fusion/merger between Mexican modernism, punk and the contemporary representations of space.

Hiding the Revolution [Escondiendo la Revolución] shows the saddle belonging to the artist’s grandfather, who participated in an revolutionary armed movement. Without assuming a political or social discourse, Esparza presents symbolic elements in a descriptive manner that incite the interpretation and reflection of the visitor. Also, the space management, fosters the study and reflection of each one of the works of independently. Beyond assuming a collective narrative responsibility, the artist's’ work is parsed from a personal relationship between the historicity and power, as well as the formation of symbols that carry a moral content.