
Two axes compose the exhibition: the impermanence of the monumental and the permanence of the ephemeral. Mesa infinita (2020) represents the first axis: the transformation of the castle suggests that the views of history represented by monuments are also subject to profound changes with the passing of time. Their importance is clear when we consider how Mexico has built and rebuilt its own past. Throughout centuries, the figure of the pre-Hispanic has set the pattern for the origin of what is Mexican; where, in the 19th century, the indigenous was seen as a classical past and a present to be overcome through modernization, in the 20th it was redefined as a tragic past in need of recovery before Spanish legacy, though yet subjected to a modernizing discourse.
The canon of national narratives, which is known among historians as the “history of bronze”, makes of monumental representations the leading current of the country’s history. In it, what is Mexican is conceived as a monolithic identity in which the indigenous constitues a distant, petrified past, ignoring the contemporaneity and diversity of the communities living in the country. The installation that makes up the second axis of the exhibition alludes to the history upon which Mexico’s everyday life is built, and that the history of bronze pretends to immobilize, excluding the continuities between past and present that turn all those great national events into a sand castle. Traditions and daily practices will continue evolving beyond our days, and the works shown, closer to the earth than all those monuments that pretend to reach the skies, awaken emotions and thoughts that seek not to praise the nation, but show its concrete existence.
Through reuse and recycling, Diego Pérez’s artistic practice resignifies everyday objects whose relationships with history are complex, reminding us that they change constantly. In other words, this history of sand is an aesthetic approach to the problem of how the nation creates its own narrative in objects and images. Pérez helps us remember that not everything is sacred, that what unites us are not so much the monumental silhouettes of the history of bronze but its discarded fragments of everyday life, the small and profound narratives we have in common and whose destiny is change. After all, when we grasp a handful of sand and let it go, there always remain subtle traces upon our skins.
Diego Pérez
Prócer anónimo, 2015
Carved concrete
43h x 24w x 20d cm
16 118/127h x 9 57/127w x 7 111/127d in
Unique
Diego Pérez
El perro y la serpiente, 2020
Volcanic stone
40h x 40w x 40d cm
15 95/127h x 15 95/127w x 15 95/127d in
Unique
Diego Pérez
Muro sin nombre, 2020
Carved construction bricks
Variable dimensions
460 construction bricks
21 carved construction bricks
Unique
Diego Pérez
Piedras sin título, 2015
Carved stone
Variable dimensions
10 elements
Unique
Diego Pérez
El Perro del Vasco, 2018
Carved lava stone
124h x 56w x 55d cm
48 104/127h x 22 5/106w x 21 83/127d in
Unique
Diego Pérez
La casa del cantero, 2020
Carved lava stone
32h x 36w x 36d cm
12 73/122h x 14 22/127w x 14 22/127d in
Unique
Diego Pérez
Silla del cánido colmilludo, 2020
Volcanic stone
70h x 67w x 40d cm
27 19/34h x 26 17/45w x 15 95/127d in
Unique
Diego Pérez
El palacio con dos escaleras, 2020
Carved marble on wood base
114h x 100w x 30d cm
44 97/110h x 39 10/27w x 11 73/90d in
Unique
Diego Pérez
Mesa infinita 1, 2020
Sand on basalt base
Base Dimensions:100 x 150 cm
39 10/27h x 59 1/18w in
Variable dimensions
Unique
Diego Pérez
Mesa infinita 2, 2020
Sand on travertine base
Base Dimensions:75 x 57 cm
29 19/36h x 22 41/93w in
Variable dimensions
Unique
Diego Pérez
Mesa infinita 3, 2020
Sand on travertine base
Base Dimensions: 67 x 57 cm
26 17/45h x 22 41/93w in
Variable dimensions
Unique
Diego Pérez
Piedra abnea IV, 2016
Basalt
6h x 20w x 41d cm
2 46/127h x 7 111/127w x 16 17/120d in
Unique
Diego Pérez
Piedra 2, From series: Piedras para abnea, 2018-2020
Carved lava stone
9h x 26w x 37d cm
3 69/127h x 10 30/127w x 14 72/127d in
Unique
Diego Pérez
Piedra 3. From series: Piedras para abnea, 2018-2020.
Carved lava stone
7h x 33w x 33d cm.
Unique
Diego Pérez
Piedra abnea VI, 2016
Carved lava stone
6h x 30w x 49d cm
2 46/127h x 11 73/90w x 19 37/127d in
Unique
Diego Pérez
Piedra 5, From series: Piedras para abnea, 2018-2020
Carved lava stone
12h x 23w x 50d cm
4 92/127h x 9 6/109w x 19 37/54d in
Unique
Diego Pérez
Piedra 6, From series: Piedras para abnea, 2018-2020
Carved lava stone
12h x 8w x 10.50d cm
4 92/127h x 3 19/127w x 4 17/127d in
Unique
Diego Pérez
Piedra abnea V (larga roja redondeada), 2016
Basalt
10h x 20w x 41d cm
3 119/127h x 7 111/127w x 16 17/120d in
Unique
Diego Pérez
Piedra de Erwan para descender al fin de los tiempos, 2016
Basalt
7h x 36.50w x 40d cm
2 96/127h x 14 37/100w x 15 95/127d in
Unique
Diego Pérez
Piedra 9, From series: Piedras para apnea, 2018-2020
Carved lava stone
5h x 15w x 37d cm
1 123/127h x 5 115/127w x 14 72/127d in
Unique
Diego Pérez
Apuntes para la mesa infinita #1, 2020
Archival pigment print
40h x 59w cm
15 95/127h x 23 8/35w in
Diego Pérez
Apuntes para la mesa infinita #2, 2020
Archival pigment print
40h x 59w cm
15 95/127h x 23 8/35w in
Diego Pérez
Apuntes para la mesa infinita #3, 2020
Archival pigment print
40h x 59w cm
15 95/127h x 23 8/35w in
Diego Pérez
Apuntes para la mesa infinita #4, 2020
Archival pigment print
40h x 59w cm
15 95/127h x 23 8/35w in
Diego Pérez
Apuntes para la mesa infinita #5, 2020
Archival pigment print
40h x 59w cm
15 95/127h x 23 8/35w in
Diego Pérez
Apuntes para la mesa infinita #6, 2020
Archival pigment print
40h x 59w cm
15 95/127h x 23 8/35w in
Diego Pérez
Apuntes para la mesa infinita #7, 2020
Archival pigment print
40h x 59w cm
15 95/127h x 23 8/35w in
Diego Pérez
Apuntes para la mesa infinita #8, 2020
Archival pigment print
40h x 59w cm
15 95/127h x 23 8/35w in
Diego Pérez
Apuntes para la mesa infinita. Vista Panorámica 1, 2020
Archival pigment print
60h x 90w cm
23 28/45h x 35 13/30w in
Diego Pérez
Apuntes para la mesa infinita. Vista panorámica 2, 2020
Archival pigment print
60h x 90w cm
23 28/45h x 35 13/30w in
Historia de arena. Diego Pérez
Historia de arena. Diego Pérez
Historia de arena. Diego Pérez
Historia de arena. Diego Pérez
Historia de arena. Diego Pérez
Historia de arena. Diego Pérez
Historia de arena. Diego Pérez
Historia de arena. Diego Pérez