Mexico is a country of huge clichés that range from tequila and mariachis to Castagneda.
We know even less about Mexican contemporary art, and in the West we have only heard of the Mayas, Frida Kahlo and the Muralists. Nevertheless, there is a group of artists currently active whose work shows certain similarities. They all live amidst the everyday Mexican reality and have very definite ideas on politics, economics and society. The imagery they use to express this often has an erotic dimension that is sometimes very subtle, but which just as often takes on a more extreme form. The explicit imagery in their work is often used as a weapon to denounce the United States or the promised land of America. Mexicans are constantly exposed to American influences, and the aim of these artists is to provide an answer to this as a form of Protest Art. Cartoon-like, highly recognisable images level criticism at issues such as the influence of television on Mexico’s development and experiential world. The influence of television is apparently greater in Mexico than anywhere else, and it is even said that after birth, the first experience of life involves television. Only afterwards does the large majority of Mexicans come to know themselves, and this is a process that goes together with the acquisition of one’s own living space. The creation of one’s own fragile world, in a manner that is both imaginary and physical, is a main source of concern to this young generation of artists. Initially, the Erógena exhibition appears to be based on eroticism and sexual experience. However this is not a theme in itself, but only an image that is used to express the necessity and the craving for a release of pent-up feelings. Superficial eroticism masks vulnerability. Behind each image lurks a contradiction; the majority of Mexicans would do anything to emigrate to the United States. Unconsciously, they give form to what awaits them in the land of stars and stripes: transformed blonde Barbie dolls, muscular naked youths, the cruelty and the obsession. Erógena was compiled by Magalí Arriola and was also held in the Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil in Mexico City. This exhibition was made possible thanks to the support of the Belgian Embassy in Mexico and the Mexican Embassy in Belgium.
