Teresa Margolles and the Pathology of Everyday Death

Many countries have been defined by stereotypes of cultural production of limited historical meaning but tenacious shelf life, and few more so than Mexico. The visual culture of Mexico has been laden with the weight of representational meaning since the first contact of Europe and the Americas in the fifteenth century. The flora and fauna of Mexico has been explained and described, its inhabitants recognisably characterised for both internal and external audiences. Definitions of national culture have ranged from simplistic stereotypes to complex attempts at reconciling the political tensions of a racially divided post-colonial society but the visual manifestations of these processes of definition draw on a shared heritage of symbolic representations. For artists, Mexican identity has become a commodity to be packaged, sold and resold. Containment of its meaning has applied a patent copyright that allows for the themed fast food restaurant or the decoration of European suburban homes in a 'Mexican style' purchased at the local superstore. A longstanding theme of this commodified Mexico, however, has been the association of 'death' and 'Mexicanness', from the fascination with Aztec deities through to the popularity of the 'day of the dead' phenomenon. For many audiences and curators alike death remains a keyword in the evocation of Mexican culture. In many ways the association of art and death is so accepted a signifier of 'Mexicanness' that for international audiences it has become a required characteristic of authentic cultural expression and geographically determined meaning. It can be seen in the popularity of José Guadalupe Posada's skeletal caricatures on T-shirts and accessories, to the visions of barbarism underpinning a film such as Mel Gibson's Apocalypto. In fact, obsession with the physicality of death and Mexico are frequently constructed as synonymous. Descending from the propagandist polemics of the Spanish conquest and given new impetus by the complex debates of post revolutionary Mexico, the role of death, and its imagery, has long been a constituent part of constructions of 'Mexicanness'. A fascination with the forensics of death is not in itself an unusual focus of interest for such artists and curators but recently the work of Teresa Margolles has attracted the attention of an increasingly large audience. Her reputation has been growing since the 1990s, based on her work as a founder member of the Mexico City based collective SEMEFO (an acronym derived from Servicio Médico Forense /Forensic Medical Service). In recent years it has become established outside of Mexico and expanded from dedicated followers of her work to encompass a more general critical interest, with her intervention at the Venice Biennial 2009 receiving widescale critical acclaim. While deeply political, the themes of Margolles' art grow out of her fascination with what she has called 'the life of corpses' and the ways that even in death, social hierarchies and injustices remain. The materials that she uses in her art break taboos of realism even in the reality-addicted societies we inhabit and the re-use in her art of human remains, body parts and fluids contaminated with the 'real' processes of the afterlife, repel and frighten many, but nonetheless force her audiences to encounter those aspects of the passage of death usually hidden from conscious thought. This lecture will discuss the intersecting of traditions of cultural stereotype with the processes of contemporary cultural production and how this relates to the specifics of Mexico

The Currency of Art: a collaboration between the Baring Archive and the Graduate School of CCW.

This publication arises from a collaborative project undertaken by The Baring Archive and the Graduate School of CCW (Camberwell College of Arts, Chelsea College of Art and Design and Wimbledon College of Art, three of the constituent colleges of University of the Arts London). In 1995, ING acquired the business of Barings plc, after Barings became insolvent as a result of unauthorized trading. Along with the acquisition of the company came a collection of archival material relating to the long history of Barings, whose origins stretch back to 1717 when John Baring of Bremen settled in Exeter and set up business as a merchant and manufacturer. In 1762, his three sons established the London merchant house of John & Francis Baring & Co., later known as Baring Brothers and, by the nineteenth century, the firm had expanded to become a leading financier for overseas governments and businesses. Documentation and objects relating to the illustrious history of the bank were augmented by portraits – eighteenth and nineteenth century paintings of the Baring family by leading practitioners of the period, such as Thomas Lawrence, Benjamin West, John Linnell, Ambrose McEvoy and William Orpen. From the 1970s onwards, a distinguished collection of water-colours was added to the historical archive, containing works by artists such as Paul Sandby, Francis Towne and David Cox, and Barings, with great discernment, had also accrued an impressive group of modern British artworks to hang on its office walls.Prunella Clough, L.S. Lowry, Paul Nash, Matthew Smith, Stanley Spencer, Keith Vaughan and Carel Weight are just a few of the artists represented. The Currency of Art is one outcome of a collaboration initiated with ING seven years ago. Staff and students from Wimbledon College of Art, and pupils from three of its neighbouring secondary schools, were invited to create new works in response to the painting collection which now hangs in ING’s offices at 60 London Wall. The staff, students and schoolchildren – diverse communities in themselves – brought fresh perspectives, distinct from those of financial historians or more traditional academics, to the collection. Residencies, symposia and workshops generated responses to the paintings, culminating in two exhibitions hosted by ING, re:MAKING and re:INVENTING, whereby the newly created works were hung alongside the originals that had inspired them. This represented an unusual opportunity, given the problems associated with conservation and stewardship that often inhibit such a combination

Boissonnas in Egypt

Catalogue of essays to accompany the exhibition of the same name held at the Royal Geographical Society November 2nd-30th 201

Teresa Margolles and the Pathology of Everyday Death

This essay takes as its theme the fascination with the forensics of death as a focus of interest for artists and curators and looks in particular at the the work of Teresa Margolles, a Mexican artist who has attracted the attention of an increasingly large audience. In discussing her work as an artist it is recognized that responses to it are interwoven with recognition of her training as a forensic technician and her role within the morgue in Mexico City. This essay questions in relation to Margolles, how important is the juxtaposition of geography and theme?; of death and Mexico? Is the combination of gender, geographical location and iconographic tradition of relevance in understanding responses to her work? In this exploration of the theme of death and ‘Mexicanness’ I suggest that the cultural stereotypes created by writers such as Octavio Paz, Malcolm Lowry, and Surrealist Andre Breton in the early modernist period continue to have an impact on contemporary practice. The research grows out of a long standing interest in questioning the relationship of contemporary practice to cultural stereotype. I was particularly interested in publishing this research in Spanish and Portuguese to reach audiences in Europe and Latin America

Engendering New Worlds: Allegories of Rape and Reconciliation

Introductory essay to' New Art from Latin America' guest edited edition of A&D magazin

Fred Boissonnas: The Sinai Expeditions 1929-1933

In 1933 Frédéric Boissonnas (1858-1946) embarked on a photographic expedition to Sinai, following the route of the Israelites as recorded in the book of Exodus and photographing the traditional biblical sites that he encountered on his journey. The photographer’s interest in the wanderings of the Israelites dated from an earlier trip to Egypt in 1929. Boissonnas prepared for his second journey by doing extensive research on Sinai in the Geneva public library, where he consulted books on archaeology, Biblical scholarship and literature, as well as early travel books. His project was at once quasi-scientific, cultural and very personal, the culmination of a lifetime’s study of Greek civilization and the Mediterranean

Fred Boissonnas in Egypt

Curated exhibition - Benaki Museum Athen

Teresa Margolles: from Carousel to Dance Floor

Essay in Barbican publication to accompany the exhibition"ANOTHER KIND OF LIFE: PHOTOGRAPHY ON THE MARGINS at the Barbican Art Gallery, the Barbican Centre London 28 February and 27 May 201

Nostalgia for a New World

Essay in special edition of Third Text Journal to discuss the 500th anniversary of the European encounter with the Americas

Ancient Mexican Sources of Art Deco

In the essay I explore the relationship of concepts of civilization and barbarism to constructions of ideas of Ancient Mexican art in the early modernist period