La Tierra Tropezaba Con El Sol

My final project will be in the form of an online exhibition to introduce audiences to the ecological evolution of Lake Texcoco, located in Central Mexico, as experienced throughout the last 500 years. Once home to the Aztec Empire, the lake provided the indigenous communities with a source of identity, dependency and of divine intervention. The lake is also the location of environmental and religious reciprocity. Where the human and nonhuman were present and facilitators of the sustainably of the universe.

The aim of this exhibit is to explore how various peoples have understood their relationship to these ancestral waters by examining visual culture as environmental media. Using the lake as a location of colonization from both Aztec and Spanish domination, I will explore how the waters located underneath and surrounding present-day Mexico City have fueled ideologically the expansion of empire building while simultaneously providing an identity to the city and its people.

 The exhibition is divided into three rooms: the Pre-Hispanic, Colonial Period and the Present. By diving the rooms into these three epochs, we can approach how relationships between the lake and its inhabitants have contributed to the maintenance or depletion of this ecosystem.

Furthermore, an objective of mine is to push the boundaries of how we analyze ancient art. Oftentimes, objects from the Aztec Empire, is seen as historical documents or are approached from the context of its culture. However, if we can learn to understand how these objects function as a form of communication, then we can perhaps learn to listen about these objects can tell us about the environment and our own modern role within this relationship.

Similarly, by the act of listening, we can also expose hierarchical systems that have led to the exploitation of the earth and those who found sacred value in the waters (ecofeminism). Consistent throughout all the rooms, is the theory that visual culture, whether sculpture, codices, maps, religious offerings, and art are to be considered a form of environmental media. Through this lens, we can approach how, they mediate knowledge, data, spirituality, wisdom, and creativity used to communicate perceptions of the environment as well as human and nonhuman presence.

The last room, “El Presente”, will introduce audience members to an array of international artists who aim to use art as a method for preservation and reconstructing our knowledge of the environment.