Yollotl Gómez Alvarado, Estado del tiempo 1519-1919, 2018

For English, scroll down

Las épocas viejas nunca desaparecen completamente y todas las heridas, aun las más antiguas, manan sangre todavía, asegura Octavio Paz en su Laberinto de la soledad. En una búsqueda por encontrar un sentido místico, natural, a algunas de esas heridas, tragedias fundacionales y eventos que han formado lo que hoy llamamos México, Yóllotl Gómez Alvarado estableció su serie “Estado del tiempo”. En ella, el artista traza vínculos entre la actividad volcánica y hechos históricos, como el comienzo de la Conquista de México en 1519 y el registro que el mismo conquistador, Hernán Cortés, hizo en su Segunda Carta de Relación sobre la fuerte actividad del volcán Popocatépetl. Una laja de piedra volcánica, entre estela testimonial y lápida mortuoria, guarda la memoria del aspecto histórico, mientras que una escultura en forma de monolito blanco y geométrico abatido por un bloque de obsidiana negra, expresa el encuentro brutal de dos mundos.

Otra "1919" de la misma serie, acompañada esta vez por una estela de ladrillo rojo, refiere la historia de la actividad volcánica recogida por el artista, geólogo y vulcanólogo autodidacta Dr. Atl cinco siglos después, y que Gómez Alvarado relaciona con la fundación del Partido Comunista Mexicano en 1919. La escultura que acompaña esta historia es una estrella de ladrillos rojos -símbolo de industria moderna a pesar de su historia milenaria- sobre la que se apoyan un martillo y una hoz de obsidiana en una traducción literal del símbolo internacional del comunismo.

•

Old times never completely disappear and all the wounds, even the oldest, still flow blood, says Octavio Paz in his Labyrinth of Solitude. In a search to find a natural, mystical sense to some of those still-bleeding wounds, foundational tragedies and events that have shaped what we now call Mexico, Yóllotl Gómez Alvarado established his series "State of Time". In it, the artist traces links between volcanic activity and historical events, such as the beginning of the Conquest of Mexico in 1519 and the record that the conqueror himself, Hernán Cortés, made in his Second Letter of Relationship on the strong activity of the Popocatépetl volcano. A volcanic stone slab, between testimonial stele and headstone, keeps the memory of the written historical aspect, while a sculpture in the form of a white, geometric monolith rammed by a block of black obsidian, expresses the brutal collision of two worlds.

In "1919" from the same series, this time accompanied by a red brick stele, tells the story of the volcanic activity collected by the self-taught artist, geologist and volcanologist Dr. Atl five centuries later, and that Gómez Alvarado relates to the founding of the Mexican Communist Party in 1919. The sculpture that accompanies this story is a red brick star -a symbol of modern industry despite its ancient history- on which rests an obsidian hammer and an sickle in a literal translation of the international symbol of communism.

+ + +

“This work arises from the intuition and the need to establish a link between the most significant eruptive events that the Popocatepetl volcano in Mexico has shown throughout its history with the social and political events that happened alongside volcanic manifestations. The continuity of relationships over time forces us to understand that there are no coincidences, that the volcano has somehow set guidelines in our history. The series of textual inscriptions on plates made with volcanic materials are an invitation to think about the ways in which the historical accounts are written, at the same time, sculptural/documentary objects become material encounters that invoke a past time and make up a kind of offering to the volcano.”

Yóllotl Gómez Alvarado