Artists use black talavera in memorial for murdered environmental activists

An installation made up of 3,285 black tiles, in honor of the environmental defenders murdered in Mexico since 1994, the year the North American Free Trade Agreement was signed, completely covers the floor of the room known as the white cube from the Le Laboratoire gallery.

On 332 of them, hand-painted, you can read the names, surnames and the dates on which these activists were murdered or disappeared.

Floor, piece conceived by the artists Eugenio Merino (Madrid, 1975) and Pierre Valls (Pierrelatte, 1977), is intended as memorial o countermonumentwhile generating a reflection on the situation of environmental defenders, who In the end they are the voice of those who have not had onesays Merino. Both work on social and political issues, both on a global and local scale.

The viewer can only observe Floor from above, since you will not be able to step on it.

The tiles were produced by hand by the Talateca workshop, in Puebla. The use of black in Talavera can be considered a formal dissidence that breaks with the norm of polychromy, generally used in this technique, which, in addition, questions its colonial legacy. The project had the collaboration of the Mexican Lucía Velázquez Hernández, whose line of research is socio-environmental conflicts.

Diomedes, another proposal

This project derives from others that Merino and Valls have worked on together. “I met Eugenio when I lived in Spain. We started collaborating more strongly three years ago. As to Floor, A year ago we were looking for a way to formalize it,” explains Valls, who has lived and worked in Mexico for 11 years, especially on issues such as migration, human trafficking and organ trafficking, among others.

Besides, We are interested in the topic of neocolonialism from which the economic model of extractivism derives; that is, the excessive extraction and plundering of natural resources. That brings us to activism in Mexico, one of the countries with the most murders of environmentalists and land activists in the world..

It is a job very collaborative. Pierre and I basically work in front of a computer, books and research, from which we generate projectsMerino points out.

Floor of dialogue con Diomedes, Pierre Valls exhibition mounted on the upper floor of the gallery. This explores global climate issues, such as the controversial Willow Project, one of the largest oil exploitation plans in Alaska’s history, which has been harshly criticized for its devastating effects on local ecosystems and its contribution to climate change.

The installation Floor will remain until January 25 at the Le Laboratoire gallery (General León 56, San Miguel Chapultepec neighborhood), and Diomedes concludes tomorrow.