53rd Venice Biennale: What else could we talk about?

Mexican Pavilion, Venice, Italy

Overview
Installation view, Teresa Margolles: What else could we talk about?, Mexican Pavilion, Venice, Italy, 2009
Installation view, Teresa Margolles: What else could we talk about?, Mexican Pavilion, Venice, Italy, 2009

For the 53th edition of the Venice Biennale, Teresa Margolles and Cuauhtémoc Medina were the artist and the curator selected to represent the Mexican pavilion. For this occasion, the pavilion was located at the Palazzo Rota Ivancich, with the installation What else could we talk about?

The installation consisted of a set of seven pieces that subtly intervened the space. However, in symbolic terms, it was impossible to be unnoticed since the objective was to make an approach to encourage and unfold the audience’s reflection. The work of Margolles has been known for confronting violence, death and loss from a provocative and overwhelming posture, and also for using human remains as artistic material. Taking the wave of violence generated in Mexico by the war against drugs as context, Margolles did necro-geographic journeys, where she made visual and sound records of the territories wounded by death. She also picked up waste like mud, blood and pieces of glass, which she later used for the creation of seven installations that reflected abjection and shacked the visitors: blood-impregnated fabrics, glass pieces used in exact replicas of the jewelry used by the criminals, and the sound recordings played in an empty hall. With these works, the artist insists on the importance of art as catalyst and multiplier of questions of individuals in their surroundings.
 
Curator: Cuauhtémoc Medina
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