ExhibitionJune 30, 2025
Aquí empieza la patria (Here Begins the Homeland) by Carlos Vielma
Aquí empieza la patria (Here Begins the Homeland) will be presented at MARCO's Sculpture Courtyard in Monterrey until July 2025. Under the curatorship of Brenda Fernández, this intervention by Mexican artist Carlos Vielma (Coahuila, 1982) seeks to question the meaning of historical monuments based on the loss of Mexican territory on the northern border.
From his background and experience as an architect, Vielma takes up construction materials and links the discursive possibilities in certain exhibition spaces. For example, in many of his artworks, he takes Colombian bricks and rock boards from the United States, characteristic materials from those areas. For this project, the artist works with concrete and recreates structures that come from a public work, the series of obelisks that the U.S. government built to delimit the border. These historical events concluded with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, ending the conflict between the two countries.
The exhibition questions the concepts of borders and boundaries as political and symbolic constructions. The series of plaques in the installation features phrases about land, possession, uprooting, and what a nation means. These texts come from different literary works, some from Alta traición by José Emilio Pacheco and the short story Nos han dado la tierra by Juan Rulfo.
From his background and experience as an architect, Vielma takes up construction materials and links the discursive possibilities in certain exhibition spaces. For example, in many of his artworks, he takes Colombian bricks and rock boards from the United States, characteristic materials from those areas. For this project, the artist works with concrete and recreates structures that come from a public work, the series of obelisks that the U.S. government built to delimit the border. These historical events concluded with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, ending the conflict between the two countries.
The exhibition questions the concepts of borders and boundaries as political and symbolic constructions. The series of plaques in the installation features phrases about land, possession, uprooting, and what a nation means. These texts come from different literary works, some from Alta traición by José Emilio Pacheco and the short story Nos han dado la tierra by Juan Rulfo.
