Fernando Palma RodríguezMotlazohtlaliz ayocmo pepetzca (Tu amor dejo de ser tornasolado)FebruaryFeb 7th - AprilApr 1st, 2023Gaga Mexico City

Motlazohtlaliz ayocmo pepetzca
Your love ceased to be iridescent

This proposal aims to alert us to an increasingly evident environmental phenomenon: the scarcity of water. At the same time, it tries to include us in a discourse that is both aesthetic and of social value through objects of domestic use (most of the time associated with the rural world). The use of the comal (hotplate pan), the metate (flat stone), the chair, the water filter as pictorial-sculptural supports and the use of acrylic colors seeks to lead us to this act, where water is not only the motif but also an intrinsic participant in this discussion.

Transcendentally, the artist’s origin directs us to a territory, Milpa Alta, geographical scenario where this dilemma occurs today in an obvious way; Malacachtepec Momoxco. Today Milpa Alta is the second largest delegation in territory in the municipalities that make up Mexico City.

Milpa Alta is a bastion of wealth in natural and cultural resources, of Nahua origin, its inhabitants have preserved this legacy thanks to their knowledge in the management of natural resources. However, today they are at high risk of being lost, the region is in constant tension, resisting the siege by private interests and the state, the growth of the unplanned urban sprawl, among other factors, in addition to the constant struggle for the recognition of communal lands and respect for their community normative systems.

It is in this panorama that the objects mentioned are not only witnesses of a disappearing culture, but active participants in a dilemma in which we are all invited to participate.

This exhibition also invites us to reflect on the search for healing on a global and personal level, on this human need to stop the disaster we have created in the world. It is no coincidence then, that we can notice the resurgence of ancient ideas from Mesoamerica, the Tao and Buddhism as a healing tool; ancient currents that are becoming part of our consciousness since in the West, with its industrial forms and consumerism, we have not been able to find resolution to the condition in which we find ourselves.

Thus, through fables and metaphors, Mexican cosmogony explains to us the origin of the universe. Tláloc, the god of rain; Chicomecóatl, goddess of fertility; Huehuecóyotl, god of the arts; converge in this space where the comal, the metate, the molcajete and the chair become important elements to tell these stories. The images on the comales are born organically from the contact of water with paint; rabbits, butterflies, horses, fish, constellations, the moon, the sea and the earth; all giving texture and inviting us to this discussion.

Fernando Palma Rodríguez (San Pedro Atocpan, Mexico, 1957) lives and works in the agricultural region of Milpa Alta, on the outskirts of Mexico City, where he co-directs Calpulli Tecalco AC, a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of the Nahua language and agriculture. Recently, he participated in the 59th Venice Biennale (2022), MoMA PS1, New York (2018); he had a retrospective at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Oaxaca (2017). His work has been included in exhibitions at Centre Pompidou-Metz, France (2021); Gwangju Biennial, Korea (2021); Laboratorio Arte Alameda, Mexico City (2021); Taipei Biennial, Taiwan (2020); Ballroom Marfa, USA (2019); FRAC des Pays de la Loire, France (2016); Nottingham Contemporary, England (2015); the Biennial of the Americas, Denver, Colorado (2015); Museo Universitario del Chopo, Mexico City, Mexico (2014); and SITE Santa Fe, New Mexico (2014). His work is part of collections of the Tate, London; LACMA, Los Angeles; Kadist, San Francisco; Museo Amparo, Puebla and MUAC, Mexico City.