THERE WHERE WATERS JOIN, 2007
Photographic installation, 6 inkjet prints 110 x 90 cm mounted on aluminum, Ferme-Asile, Sion
At about 700 years ago, there was a lake called Texcoco in over 2200 meters of altitude, where today is Mexico City. The old capital of the Aztec empire, Tenochtitlan, was built on one of its islands in 1325. During the Spanish conquest between 1519 and 1521, most of Tenochtitlan was destroyed and the conquistadors founded the town of Mexico City there. Today, as the Texcoco lake was gradually drained, all there remains are Xochimilco gardens and the urban area of Mexico City, a true megalopolis being stretched on nearly 1,500 km ², with over 20 million inhabitants, the third biggest city of the world.
This series of photographs were taken in one of the subway stations of the downtown area of Mexico City, Tacubaya. This station, where lines 1, 7 and 9 cross, is one of most occupied.
In 1967, during the construction of the first line, the rate of illiteracy was extremely high, a system based on the visual colors and signs was conceived to facilitate movements. The logo of the Tacubaya station represents an earthenware jar filled with water and its name, which finds its origins in the surrounding district, means in nahuatl “There where waters join”. In regard to the mural, this one was carried out by the sculptor and Mexican muralist Guillermo Ceniceros, and illustrates the wandering of Aztec, their fixing on the lake Texcoco and the radiation of their civilization.
Beyond the anthropological fact represented and its photographic reproduction, the pictures show the place in which the mural is located : at the same time museal space, crossing point and place of meetings. In their turn, the people appearing take seat in the representation. This series thus takes note of the pre-Columbian past, its integration in contemporary Mexico and of the coexistence of times in the present. The carryforward of the underground lines concerned puts in perspective time and space.
