Imperium | Che viva Mexico!

IMPERIUM: The dismantlement of a geopolitical discourse towards the splendour of the artistic imaginary

Galeria Hilario Galguera, Leipzig (DE)

Participating artists: 

Gustavo Artigas (Mexico) 

David Bailey (England)

James Brown (United States) 

Carmen Brucic (Austria)

Daniel Buren (France) 

Antonello Curcio (Italy)

Damien Hirst (England) 

Athina Ioannou (Greece)

Jannis Kounellis (Greece)

Francisco Larios (Mexico)

Daniel Lezama (Mexico)

Mauricio Limón (Mexico)

Oliver Marsden (England)

Sante D’Orazio (United States)

Benjamín Torres (Mexico)

Omar Rodríguez-Graham (Mexico)

Christine Schulz (Germany)

Víctor Hugo Pérez (Mexico

It has become clear since the decade of the sixties that the birth of the contemporary art scene was the result of a widespread process of globalization across the various cultural scenes in the Western world. Each artistic region has since constructed its incorporation to a world circuit, without forfeiting a potent connection to local or national identity. On the other hand, the professionalization and development of the network of museums, galleries, cultural hubs and art events and fairs, has played a decisive role in the configuration of the post-avantgarde. In conclusion, notwithstanding the interest in international dialogue set in motion by recent art production and cutting-edge theory, the fact remains that the aforementioned network of institutions dedicated to the exhibition, interpretation, promotion and marketing of art, when addressing cultural content, has been the key promoter of the exchange of aesthetic knowledge in a global environment.

Imperium proposes a dialogue operating on two different le vels. First, it includes the participation of international artists working with the gallery, both Mexican and European, with works that address their personal connections to elements of Mexican culture or related to the Mexican experience. Secondly, it seeks to establish a correspondence between these contemporary works and a selection of images (movie stills, extracts, documentation) from ¡Que Viva México! (1931) by pioneer Russian director Sergei Eisenstein. These dialogues are grounded on the artistic adventure of Eisenstein himself, that (as is the case of the experience of many of the artists invited by the gallery for this project) found a place in the vast saga of journeys to Mexico undertaken by painters, philosophers, writers and dreamers entranced by a powerful and timeless culture and driven to find an anti-Colonial re velation, in the opposite end of conquering strategies and efforts of geopolitical annexation.

Artwork
Space intervention of 5 oil paintings (immersions)
Each unit: 215 x 160cm
Total dimension of composition: 480 x 1780cm
Linseed oil on coloured fabric, graphite (recto/verso), nails
Photo © Athina Ioannou
2009