Art as Redemption
Mexico in your Senses By Willy Souza Mexico City March 4 April 23, 2010 Mexico has recently suffered from negative media attention due to its social and criminal problems. With a major new touring exhibition of his work, "Mexico in your Sense" Mexican filmmaker and photographer Willy Souza aims to counteract, these stereotypes and encourage Mexicans to regain pride in the myriad strengths and strong cultural heritage of their country. This extensive exhibition, sponsored by the federal government of Mexico and offering free admission, was recently on display in the Zocalo (the main plaza) of Mexico City. It incorporates nearly one thousand photographs in the form of prints and video (culled from the 1.5 million photographs Souza has taken across the country in the last eight years) housed in a specially built traveling venue intended through form and hue to look like a Mayan temple. Designed by noted architect Javier Sordo Madaleno, the 13,000 square foot exhibition space includes a snaking main gallery and an exhibition and video room, representing the traditional pyramids of the sun and the moon found at such archeological sites as Teotihuacan. The first room in the exhibition is floor to (20 foot) ceiling close up color photographs (20 x 24 inches) of eyes of Mexican citizens, interspersed with mirrors of the same size. This opening is a statement suggesting that visitors immediately engage in a process of .self reflection. Souza is asking us to consider what we "have stopped seeing," to "stop accepting preconceived notions and interpreting without seeing." (1) The next four rooms of the first building house images of "things representing the human condition," as Souza notes. The vast halls and ceilings of the main rooms are covered with images: still, color, glossy photographs, unmated and unframed, printed large; a few are backlit or printed on scrims hanging from the ceiling. Photographs from across the country are arranged thematically in such categories as masks, landscapes, markets, and tradespeople. Interpretive panels at the beginning of each theme offer background on the subject and smaller keys at the end offer a few identifying details and in all cases in which Mexican state each image was created. Plasma screens throughout the exhibition hall show series of still images, often offering brief visual narratives. In "Fiestas" there are colorful costumes, gold jewelry and a stunning ground view, close up of a pair of aged, brown, cracked feet. "Architecture" displays structures ranging from Mayan ruins to colonial buildings. "Religious iconography" focuses on details of lit candles, crucifixes, figurines of the Virgin of Guadalupe, and bleeding Jesus statues. "Children" work and play across the country. The "Cycle of Life" begins with a Madonna figure of a young mother bathing a baby in a river as if in baptism and concludes with celebrations of the Day of the Dead, in a series of images teeming with the vibrant orange of the cempasuchil flower, which is traditional for this celebration.