Mexican Embassy
text by Esther Planas
"I never pass a wooden fetish, gilded Buddha, or Mexican idol with out telling my self: that may be the true God"
Charles Baudelaire
"I dreamed I was a member of an exploring party in Mexico. After crossing a high, primeval jungle, we came upon a system of aboveground caves in the mountains where an order had survived from the time of the first missionaries till now, its monks continuing the work of conversion among the natives. In an immense central grotto with a Gothically pointed roof, Mass was celebrated according to the most ancient rites. we joined the ceremony and witnessed its climax: toward a wooden bust of God the Father fixed high on a wall of the cave a priest raised a Mexican fetish. At this, the divine head turned thrice in denial from right to left."
Walter Benjamin, "Mexican Embassy", from One-Way Street, 1928
The Mexican Embassy took place Sunday 15 of January at Residencia 134, Esther Planas; studio flat in London, a place that has been also a "refuge" and short residence for various artist and friends for the past five years ... The idea was to have a few issues present and leave the spirit of the day take its time and lead the happening. Regarding the guests, some arrived early, and maybe had to cook or cut onions... some just talked to each other relaxed, but were puzzled about what was supposed to happen... this feeling of an imminent "thing about to occur" floated in the space making the non-event a surreal paralel to Buñuel's The Exterminator Angel...
Some of the guest were too similar to Salvador Dali, the antagonist of Luis Buñuel , after he denounced Luis of been a "commi " to the authorities in New York forcing his ex-friend exile to Mexico and some how creating or becoming the cause of what later would be some of the best creations that Buñuel delivered as a Film Maker during his Mexican period...
At some point, the host of the Embassy, after having made some Hot Hot Chocolate... was possessed by Luis Buñuel spirit.... The video shows fragments of the event...starting with the medium session and followed by the reading of Walter Benjamin's dream Mexican Embassy by guest star, the mexican ambassador himself, Pablo Leon de la Barra, acting as himself, (or as a Mexican version of Benjamin with poncho) one great mexican agent provocateur, curator and dilettante... finally by late night a bolero wanted to be played and heard... the great guitar playing of Venezuelan musician and performer Daniel Moncada made it possible.
The installation at Residencia 134, is a project by Esther Planas related with her supposed first solo show eternally delayed by various odd reasons (maybe it was that God) in Mexico City... Preparing the show, there where issues found and issues compiled as for raw material to be later distilled and synthesised... One very relevant text and the title of the event, is Walter Benjamin's Mexican Embassy, a description on a dream he once had... The idea of myth, travelling as to re-discover and re-trace. The idea of an Embassy, a space where all things "nation", could happen inside... the little portion of magic territoire where one could pray at the Gods of others. If we understand God as religion and religion as culture, opposed to ritual as folklore in the way The West has managed to represent the Otherness of such places as the lands where due to different politics of Colonisation at least one can still walk next to the real owners and natives of the territoire... The knowledge of Planas ancestors having lived somewhere in the country... a note about her grand father doing his first communion at one very complicated to pronounce address... Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz and the idea or "her room" at the convent, a place full of books and instruments where to study and write and play... The dream about Peyote rituals that have been narrated to her by friends travellers, a pop video clip that was shot on location in the towns of Garcia, Xilitla, and the Icamole Desert in Mexico... The notes, films compiled, about Caridad Mercader and her son The Killer of Trostky, Las Aventuras de Olmeco Beuys by Pablo Helguera, plus a whole stream of conscience like references to other works, lectures and material that has been found along the journey of preparation for a show that maybe never touches Mexican ground...
The context is the residence /studio/ house of Planas and there lots of works hung related to this project, Gold Monochromes inspired by Mathias Goertiz, Mayan Magic Penetrables, Ritual Dress, unfinished Panels... The event is about a call to the spirits of such ancient Gods from "a petite coin du monde anglaise" as if in a Mexican Embassy more close to the sort Des Esseintes would have created at his house than a real one... The idea of Mexico trough out the topics of narration and memories of all sorts of non Mexican people, The Visitors, The Colonisers, The Exiled... The Ultimate Outsider Dream...
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http://estherdeplanas.blogspot.com/
