Teresa Margolles and the Pathology of Everyday Death

Abstract

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