Mexican Pavilion Analysis

Mexican Pavilion

Carlos Amorales is an artist who explores the limits of language as well as other translation systems. Amorales’ work in the Mexican Pavilion combines a coded language, musical instruments, and a video to convey his message. Viewers must continually be translating meaning from one language to another, from one format to another, as they experience the values of universal acceptance and open communication Amorales shows.

Physical work
The installation itself in the Mexican Pavilion includes seventy-four flat shapes that were used to make an alphabet, that then was translated into musical instruments. These instruments and abstracted language were used to create a video telling the story of a family of immigrants who were
With this, communication can occur openly without fear of being silenced (Life in the Folds). In the digital and polarized world of today the bubble effect of news and information on Facebook and the internet in general is becoming more and more common. You see only what is within your own realm of politics and values, making you see only what you want to see, because the algorithm has pre-selected it for you, filtering the other side and preventing the user from having to critically consider the ideas and works that are presented to them (Sartore). The incomprehension of the language Amorales created forces the audience to face an encrypted world where they will have to decipher the messages and question the diverse interpretations of reality in our world today. The video as well pushes for a more universal view, while it shows a story about a family, it could be any family, not necessarily Mexican. By leaving identities and understandable language behind, Amorales evokes a sense of universal empathy from his
There has been an upswing of fundamentalist and isolationist values and ideas as a reaction against our world today. If the world is advancing towards a place of “self-destruction, towards an existential crisis in which new far-right-wing fascism—characterized by ignorance, racism, xenophobia, violence against difference, machismo, misogyny, homophobia, and transphobia, as well as the violation of the rights of individuals and of society—seems to be becoming the norm” what can we do? (Mexican Pavilion at the Venice Biennale). Many people are content to live in their safe Facebook bubble where they do not have to question or approach ideas that are outside their personal views. One of the best ways to work with uncomfortable and potentially polarized ideas is by using a variety of ways to convey the ideas. By using different modes and abstraction as a way to portray something in new ways it becomes more approachable. “Visual images, design elements, written language and photography for example all use different material and semiotic resources to represent meanings” (Serafini). No mode is able to capture a concept entirely, each medium will have different strengths and weaknesses. By combining many mediums and embracing each one’s own strengths, Amorales creates an exhibit that is hard to walk away from without reconsidering the ideas