press release
20 Million Mexicans Can’t Be Wrong
21 January–1 March 2003
20 Million Mexicans Can’t Be Wrong
presents new and recent works by some of a growing community
of Mexican and international artists who operate with relatively
scarce commercial or institutional support within Mexico City
today. By investigating the social and political tensions present
in the city, the wide range of works on display both illuminate
the uneven spatial and social fabric of Mexico City and situate
a gaze upon the multi-layered, and sometimes conflicting, aesthetic
of this Third World megalopolis.
In emphasising the structures that belie artistic practice,
this exhibition also urges us to consider the conditions under
which art exists and is produced within the Mexico context.
In so doing, 20 Million Mexicans Can’t be Wrong stimulates
critical reflection upon the risks associated with artistic
or cultural exportation and asks us to think about the relationship
of culture, art, production and consumption to space. Do the
works and all that they represent remain intact despite their
displacement to the UK? Or is our appreciation of them constrained
by our First World positioning? And what relationships are invoked
between practitioner and viewer when much of the work is produced
and consumed in such different cultural, political, social and
geographical contexts?
A great deal of the work on display engages the viewer in a
participatory way, and several pieces oblige the gallery visitor
to both reinforce the concepts behind the work, and simultaneously
produce and consume its aesthetic. Nowhere is this dual process
more apparent than in Carlos Amorales’ piece, Flames Maquiladora,
2001–2002. Reflecting the numerous manufacturing sweatshops
established along the Mexico/U.S. border during the 1990s in
order to take advantage of cheap Mexican labour, Amorales’
work invites the visitor to take part in the production of wrestlers’
trainers — products which will later be exhibited and
sold as art objects. By involving the visitor in the production
process, the artist exploits our labour and turns the gallery
into a workshop where First World visitors are compelled to
work for the profit of a Third World artist.
Organised by South London Gallery and curated by the writer,
art historian, critic and curator, Cuauhtémoc Medina,
the exhibition is funded by the Arts Council of England’s
National Touring Programme, The Jumex Collection, the Mexican
Ministry for Foreign Affairs and The Felix Trust for Art.
A limited edition boxed set of multiples by each artist and
a text by the curator has been produced by way of a catalogue
to accompany the exhibition. These will be available from the
Gallery Bookshop for a special exhibition price of £30.
