Daniel Aguilar Ruvalcaba, How to suspend the fall of the Mexican Peso using Photoshop CS5, 2016

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General Electric, BMW, Pepsi, Bacardi, Tide, Yamaha, Motorola, Bayern, Lucky Strike, Starbucks y la NASA levitan en un espacio fantástico como si fueran superpoderes esperando ser tomados por un personaje de videojuego, cada uno aumentará las capacidades del que pueda saltar lo suficientemente alto para tomarlas. Y suspendido en el mismo cielo fantástico, encima de un peso mexicano, se ha formado una montaña sobre la que se levanta en dos patas un unicornio, mientras una cascada de agua cristalina desciende al vacío, bañando a su paso a ninfas, creando un arcoiris. La montaña sagrada del balance presupuestal, del bienestar fiscal y de la fortaleza de la moneda nacional se elevan en armonía.

El recorrido fantástico, producto de las propuestas patafísicas en forma de tutoriales de Youtube de Daniel Aguilar Ruvalcaba, nos lleva a través de un camino sinuoso y descendente hacia otro pequeño terruño flotante del que se levanta un cadaver vigilado por un dron: el siempre asechante fantasma de la crisis, la devaluación, el endeudamiento.

De esta imagen que juega con la estética de lo cutre, lo pirata y del global kitsch ubicada en el techo del espacio de exposición flotan, como si fueran estalactitas milenarias, pesos mexicanos reales que flotan sobre nuestras cabezas como por arte de magia. ¿Cuál será la fórmula alquímica que debemos encontrar los mexicanos para llegar a las alturas de los iluminados, ser atractivos para la inversión extranjera, y evitar la crisis? En el video que completa la instalación, el artista muestra en un tutorial a la Do It Yourself, cómo se puede salvar el peso mexicano usando Photoshop CS5, creando una solución imaginaria al problema real de la eterna precariedad de la vida frente a nuestra dependencia a los superpoderes flotantes del norte que nos observan desde sus nubecitas de paz y armonía. Si el cambio está en todos, solo necesitas desarrollar tus capacidades en Photoshop para alcanzarlo.

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General Electric, BMW, Pepsi, Bacardi, Tide, Yamaha, Motorola, Bayern, Lucky Strike, Starbucks and NASA levitate in a fantastic space as if they were superpowers waiting to be taken by a video game character, each one with the potential to increase the abilities of whoever can jump high enough to take them. Suspended in the same fantastic landscape, on top of a single Mexican peso, a mountain has formed upon which a unicorn stands on two legs, while a waterfall of crystalline water descends into the void, bathing nymphs in its path, creating a rainbow: The sacred mountain symbolising budget balance, fiscal well-being, and the strength of the national currency rise in harmony.

This journey, product of the pataphysical proposals in the form of YouTube tutorials by Daniel Aguilar Ruvalcaba, takes us through a winding and descending path towards another small floating terroir from which a rising corpse is watched by a drone: the ever-stalking zombie of crisis, devaluation, indebtedness, México’s eternal migraine.

From this image printed in flexible vinyl that plays with bootleg, shabby and global kitsch aesthetics located on the roof of the exhibition space, we find floating, as if they were ancient stalactites, real coins of 1 Mexican pesos that hang over our heads as if by magic. What is the alchemical formula that we Mexicans must find to reach the heights of the enlightened, to be attractive to foreign investment, and to avoid the ever-recurring crisis? In the video that completes the installation, the artist shows in a tutorial à la Do It Yourself, how you too can save the Mexican peso using Photoshop CS5, by creating an imaginary solution to the real problem of the eternal precariousness of life in the face of our dependence to the floating superpowers of the north that watch us from their little harmonious clouds. If the change is in everyone, you just need to develop your Photoshop skills to achieve it.

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“Drawing, sculpture, video and performance are the media that frame my pataphysical theories. By pointing out the links that art has with other social fields —specially the economy— I'm also trying to refuncionalize the contemporary art field. For me, socially engaged art stands for the politicization of aesthetics, the author is a producer of social relations.

I explore the connections, tensions and disputes between images, economics, and desire. My projects are meant to be a critique of political economy. Along with J.G. Ballard, I think the world is already shaped by fictions —politics, economics, culture— so an artist should not make or add new ones, but actually attempt to produce reality.

Growing up and living all my life in an agitated country like Mexico showed me that there is no neutrality in image production. Images are social, ideological constructions. Thus, the art I'm entangled with does what I call critique of ideology in images. From a vulgar lacanian perspective, I fantasize myself as a post marxist pataphysicist that does not pursuit to solve real problems but to look for the Real in imaginary ones.”

Daniel Aguilar Ruvalcaba