May 14, 2007

The Museum of Amexican History

Inverting History to Understand It

“Smoking Mirror” Exhibit Asks Provocative “What If?”Welcome to the Museum of Amexican History, says a sign at Bert Green Fine Art in downtown Los Angeles. It looks like a typical collection of artifacts and artwork illustrating a vanished culture—until you realize exactly which culture it is. Amexica (“not-Mexico”) is the land formerly known as “U-rop” (Europe).

The occasion is “Smoking Mirror,” an exhibition by Ecuadorean artist Eduardo Villacis. Villacis’s goal is to examine our society by looking at its mirror image. What if Mexico had conquered Europe, he muses, rather than the other way around?

1 comment:

Rob said...

Response from Eduardo Villacis:

Hi Robert!

Thanks for that thoughtful article and taking the time to write it. In the booklet (not in the show) I misquoted Bertrand Russell. His exact words were:

"War does not determine who is right, only who is left."

Best wishes,
Eduardo

PD I am looking for other venues outside the LA area to show it again. if you know any, please let me know.