group show:

en llamas (in flames)

Tania Ximena, María Sosa, Oscar Santillán, Mano Penalva, Noe Martínez, Cristian Franco, Lorena Ancona.

Lorena Ancona, Cristian Franco, Julieta Gil, Enrique López Llamas, Felipe Luna, Noe Martínez, Mano Penalva, Frieda Toranzo Jaeger, Bárbara Sánchez-Kane, Oscar Santillán, María Sosa, Tania Ximena

feb 6 __ mar 13

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To be redeemed from fire by fire. (T.S. Eliot, “The Little Gidding”, 1942)

“We’re on fire”, we used to say. Consumed by the fervent busyness of minor chores and duties. By the Luciferian brilliance of existential hustle. We pretended to be flaming, bright little things. We warmed each other up. Smoking. Then came our trial by fire.

en llamas (In Flames) is a meeting of disparate positions in face of a scorched environment, a burned out network of contracts, customs, and beliefs. Political systems in spontaneous combustion, ecosystems, exploding neglect, social eruptions, spiritual burning. A bonzo planet.

Twelve artists address the persistence of creation in the midst of destruction. Burning bushes not consumed by the fire. This persistence can be ritual (Lorena Ancona and Felipe Luna), or be resistance (Cristian Franco and Frieda Toranzo Jaeger), or be representation (María Sosa and Noé Martínez). It can be a register (Mano Penalva, Oscar Santillán, Tania Ximena and Enrique López LLamas) or it can be a revolt (Julieta Gil and Bárbara Sánchez-Kane). Fire against fire.

There is no element more evocative and more contradictory than fire: it comforts and burns. Destroys and feeds. Consumes and purifies. The fire of small catastrophes and everyday mini-infernos versus the primordial fire of eroticism and creation, of almost mystical conception. The smoky plain after the conflagration. The fire of worldly appetites, and the eternal flame of dissatisfaction that depletes us. The wisp of our insignificance, of being smoke and coal. All this, contained yet ablaze in these 57 square meters. If we open the door or window, perhaps the flames will escape and burn everything.

Text: Mario Ballesteros

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