Corn and Industry

€79.00

ISBN: 978-84-19233-70-7

Author: Damián Ortega

Co-published with: MARCO + KURIMANZUTTO
Design: Estudio Herrera
Texts: Damián Ortega, José Esparza Chong Cuy, Aurora Gómez Galvarriato, Julieta González, Guillermo Osorno, Taiyana Pimentel.
Binding: tapa blandas
Pages: 240
Images: 227
Dimensions: 21 x 25 cm / 8.4 x 10 in
Language: Bilingual edition (English/Spanish)
Publication year: 2024

In the press:

Staf Magazine

Accompanying a major exhibition of Damian Ortega at MARCO, the renowned Contemporary Art Museum in Monterrey, Mexico.

Offering readers a comprehensive exploration of the career of Damián Ortega, an artist considered one of the most influential Mexican figures in the international art scene.

Delving into more than three decades of his artistic practice, highlighting his unique blend of philosophy, humor, and spatial exploration.

Providing a fascinating lens through which readers can examine the intersection of art and culture and showcasing how Ortega’s work engages in a close dialogue with the construction of a national culture in Mexico.

Inspired by Mayan mythology and social satire, it offers a thought-provoking perspective on human experience.

With José Esparza Chong Cuy as curator, readers are taken on a guided journey through the artist’s work, focusing on two concepts that function as metaphors throughout the journey: Cultivation and harvesting and industrialization processes. Reflexively, Ortega contrasts these concepts to tell an alternative story of the Mayan myth of creation – where corn is the origin of humanity – to reach the globalized post-industrial era and the chaos caused by longed-for progress. The concepts articulate the notions of energy, transformation, ecosystem and technology, the latter understood as a set of knowledge, instruments and technical resources that man has implemented to influence the world.