Edgardo Aragón — Mésoamérique : l’effet ouragan — Jeu de Paume, Concorde — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: February 9 → May 22, 2016

Satellite 9 programme

Mexican artist Edgardo Aragón addresses Mexican and global economic and political systems, and zooms in on their effects on Mexican communities.

In his new work, Mesoamerica: The Hurricane Effect, he provides a critical cartography that shows the power lines that define Mexico, the international Mesoamerica development project and its effects on the community of Cachimbo, located on a peninsula on the border between the states of Oaxaca and Chiapas.

In his work, Aragón often focuses on organised crime and conflict, sometimes re-enacting parts of his own family history that involved violence. His videos look deceptively calm, showing peaceful sunny landscapes, but as they unfold, details accumulate to tell very troubled stories about corrupt power relations. Aragón’s landscape portraits bring to mind “fukeiron”, the “landscape theory” developed by Japanese film-makers in the late 1960s, who put forward the idea that the landscapes one encounters in everyday life, even beautiful, postcard-like ones, are an expression of the dominant political powers. In the case of Aragón, the powers he represents in his work are drug cartels, political parties and foreign companies. He shows how their operations are intricately interlinked through corrupt deals.

Mesoamerica: The Hurricane Effect examines in close-up the effects of foreign power in Mexico today, which is reminiscent of the foreign control exerted many centuries ago. Mesoamerica was home to a rich civilization that emerged around 10,000 years BC and out of which grew the rich Maya, Aztec and Zapotec cultures, among many others. These cultures were destroyed by the Spanish, who arrived in the 15th and 16th centuries and used Christianity as a tool to discriminate against and subdue the locals. Today, “Mesoamerica” is also the short name for a multi-million dollar development project that is officially called the Mesoamerican Integration and Development Project and is financed and run by the United States. According to its official statement, the project is intended to help the region develop through investment in infrastructure, electricity, telecommunications and transport systems. However, due to rampant corruption at all levels, the project doesn’t benefit the poor communities and instead helps foreign companies that have holdings in the region.