An analysis of the relationship between Mexican art and design and the contemporary migratory historiography of the country.
Art as a social complaint
The article entitled “Mexican art and design as reflection and social denunciation of migration. Interview with Betsabeé Romero, 2019 ”, arose from the invitation that the National University of Colombia, Palmira headquarters, made me to participate in the seventh International Forum of Design as a Process. The main theme of the Forum was the analysis of the interrelation between the multiple dimensions of the conflict and design, mainly from economic and social inequalities, environment, identity processes, populist ravings, migrations, population aging, cultural transformations and gender equity and identity.
The questions that were intended to be answered were: what are the emerging processes of applied design to mediate conflicts that may occur in the territory? How to establish dialogues between design, processes, the project and society that allow understanding, intervention or construction in the territory?
To answer these questions, I started from the idea that several Mexican artists and designers have proposed changes and reflections of the experiences around the reality of migrants from 1930 to date and have encouraged society to reflect on the subject. There are several social, social anthropology and urban studies on the subject of migration such as those carried out by Angela Giglia, Luis Valarezo and Lourdes Arizpe, as well as monographs on the works of visual artists and photographers such as Eniac Martínez and Gerardo Suter. However, there is no document that has relationally analyzed contemporary migratory historiography in Mexico and artistic productions in the country.
The text was divided into three parts. In the first, the concepts of culture and identity were analyzed; in the second, the historical process in correlation with Mexican artistic proposals for the general understanding of the art of emigration, with special emphasis on the movements of Mexicans to the United States. And finally, the work of Betsabeé Romero, a Mexican visual artist interested in contemporary and popular Mexican art, was exhibited.
The analysis of the conceptual framework helped to understand more clearly what contemporary art and visual artists have wanted to express through their works throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. A historical recount was made of the artistic works that have represented the economic inequalities that migrants have suffered. Works that express that despite being far from their homeland they are important as human beings; facilities that have sought a way to unite two nations that are divided or simply to highlight the suffering that migrants go through in their different stages.
Finally, the interview with Betsabeé Romero where she explains that her art, considered contemporary, is a mixture with popular art focused on denunciation and social issues such as migration, traditions and miscegenation. In the conversation, he makes it clear that the link between contemporary art and design with the social and political sciences has generated impacts and questions before society, such as the case of migrants.
It is from their contributions that their works generate an impact even more tangible than a text, since “the true work of art is not the physical object produced by the artist, but consists of” concept “and” ideas, such as says Adolfo Vásquez Rocca (Vásquez Roca, 2013) *.
You can read the full article at the following link: Mexican art and design as reflection and social denunciation of migration. Interview with Betsabeé Romero, 2019
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Dr. Carolina Magaña Fajardo and author of this article is a researcher at the Faculty of Design from the Universidad Anáhuac México. He studied the Bachelor of Architecture, the Master of Analysis, Theory and History of Architecture and the Doctorate in Architecture. He has collaborated in various research projects and has published more than 13 articles in various national magazines on the History of Architecture of the 20th century.
* Vásquez Roca, A. (2013). Conceptual and post-conceptual art. The idea as art: Duchamp, Beuys, Cage and Fluxus. Nomads. Complutense University of Madrid.
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