The Mexican Embassy in Korea has organized an art exhibition featuring iconic representations of Mexican landscapes and lives at the Mun Gallery of Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul.

The event “Geographies, Contemporary Mexican Art in Korea” runs through next Tuesday free of charge. It has been arranged in collaboration with the Seoul Design Foundation.

From the vigorous hues of deserts to vivacious tapestries of urban life, and from the virginal marine life to visionary imagination of topographies, the exhibition showcases works of renowned Mexican artists -- installation artists Betsabee Romero and Maria Jose de la Macorra, photographer Alfredo de Stefano and digital artist Enrique Rosas.

“‘Geographies’ is a brief yet representative display of quintessential contemporary Mexican art, bringing together 42 works of our four renowned creators who share the love of the Mexican landscape and life,” said Mexican Ambassador to Korea Bruno Figueroa in a speech. 

“As you may know, Mexico has been recognized around the world for our rich and complex cultural traditions within Latin America. Ours is a culture deeply rooted in ancient Indian and Spanish heritages, which have helped their promotion on the world stage.”

Despite being under the sway of key European cultural influences, Mexican art has managed to create its unique voice and style, he added, noting that the two-decade-long revolution in 1910 gave birth to epochal styles -- the muralism and the rupture movement, among others.

“And while many of the millions of international visitors who come to Mexico, who numbered 39 million last year, focus their attention on the Pre-Columbian and 20th-century art exemplified by Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, we are trying to stress through this exhibition that today’s Mexican artists also draw their inspirations from our nation’s aesthetic traditions,” he highlighted. “Many of our artists nowadays fulfill an important role of art, which is to try to answer complex questions of the modern life in Mexico and the world.”

The installation piece “To Dream of Cities on Concentric Circles” by Remero features concave mirrors illuminating horizons and stars, while another installation piece “Oceans” by Jose de la Macorra depicts the virile energy of splashing waves.

De Stefano’s photographic collection “All the Deserts are My Desert” comprises 20 colorful pictures captured across seven deserts around the world: the Sahara, Gobi, Atacama, Nazca, Thar, Great Basin and Chihuahua. Rosas’ “From Geometry to Geography” highlights visual changes stemming from 2-D to 3-D geometries -- based on Mexico’s natural landscapes and medieval colonial architecture -- accentuated in different angles and directions.

The exhibition was previously displayed at national galleries in Bangkok and Jakarta.

Ambassadors of Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Chile, Colombia, Ivory Coast, Ecuador, Guatemala, Switzerland, Turkey and United Arab Emirates and other diplomats participated in the opening ceremony on Wednesday, alongside Korean diplomats Chun Bee-ho and Lee Bok-hyung.

The opening ceremony featured a traditional musical performance by group Mariachi Quevedeno, who traveled from Mexico to Korea also to participate in events parallel to the PyeongChang Olympic Games.

Figueroa expressed his gratitude to Dongdaemun Design Plaza and Seoul Design Foundation, as well as corporate sponsors Highland Foods, Mando Corp. and the Mexico Tourism Board in Korea.

By Joel Lee (joel@heraldcorp.com)