Dialogue about the work “Relámpagos de la memoria” by Guillermo Arreola at the MAM

MEXICO CITY (apro).- After the success of the exhibition “Relámpagos de la memoria” by Guillermo Arreola at the emblematic Museum of Modern Art (MAM), the exhibition will be extended a few more days, until June 16; and in this context, tonight the artist will give an open talk to the public about the relationship between visual arts and literature.

The talk will take place this Thursday the 13th at 7:00 p.m. at the MAM, with the presence of Arreola and the writers Geney Beltrán and Mijail Lamas, and the curator of the exhibition Carlos Segoviano.

About this dialogue the artist – whose pictorial heroes range from Goya, William Turner, Francis Bacon, Anselm Kiefer, and from Mexico Lilia Carrillo, María Izquierdo, Tamayo and Francisco Toledo – comments:

“It will be an interesting talk where I would like to highlight the relationship between the visual and my literary work as a writer, but also the relationship with other literary works, I think that this encounter between art-literature as a form of interaction and coexistence is very appropriate, it will be interesing”.

The exhibition, which presents a series of paintings based on multi-directional spaces and fragmented scenes, explores between abstraction and the figurative, and is divided into three cores:

‘Archaeologies of memory’ that deals with the way in which the traces of what we have experienced acquire unusual forms and how the representations of what we cling to and do not want to forget are blurred. Followed by ‘Disturbing Atmospheres’, where the theme of landscapes becomes a pretext for Arreola to present abstractions in which dark colors predominate, illuminated by splashes or sgraffito that descend on the canvases as if they were lightning bolts.

And ‘Masks and Palimpsests’ where some of the artist’s most experimental works are shown by making use of supports that already have an image or information previously recorded by another author, on which the artist inserts new brushstrokes that dialogue with the previous information. to generate a new plastic proposal.

Regarding how the artist describes his exhibition, he says:

“It is my own review, it made me understand the risks of self-evaluation, which is not easy, and I was very pleased with the curatorial result carried out by Carlos Segoviano. It has also been a way of integrating the generosity of other perspectives into my own evaluation, also an identification with my own processes”.

“It is also a ratification of a continuity, perhaps a stylistic one, although I have never had that intention, rather I attribute all of this from certain aspects or threads to a form of composition, and in much of it is the theme of color.

Regarding the latter, he emphasized the very diverse ‘coloristics’ of the exhibition, and especially that which can be seen in his first works from the eighties.

–So it is a retrospective for the years it covers, is that the concept?

–More than a retrospective it is the dialogue of different periods, the intention is to bring together representative work and give more emphasis to the dialogue.

Arreola, a self-taught artist, described the MAM as a “wonderful and unique space” to exhibit:

“This museum represents a lot in the history of Mexican art, in addition to the architecture, the fact that they have placed me in the ‘Sala Fernando Gamboa’ gives me great pleasure, it is an emblematic room, with a particular history, it gives the shows a character of what is proposed as thematic curatorial axis, and this becomes clear when you go to see the ‘Disturbing atmospheres’ section, there is no better description.

–Are you worried about what is happening in art these days? In reference to new tools and technologies, what do you think of the new generations?

–I am interested in all that and it matters to me, but this is preceded by a certain first rejection in the case of ‘technology’, I am interested in technologies as mere tools that do not invalidate.

“And regarding the new generations, I see everything they do as positive, but always with the awareness that the art or the form has to be from one’s own decision, not determined by ‘trends’. Personally, I am interested in venturing into new forms and explorations that may or may not work.”

“Lightning of Memory” is on display until June 16 at the MAM, located at Paseo de la Reforma and Gandhi s/n first section, Bosque de Chapultepec, from Tuesday to Sunday, from 10:15 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. hours.