Melanie Smith’s significance for the Mexican artistic scene from the 1990s onward cannot be underestimated. The artist, who’s body of work transits between one context to another, across a wide range of media –video, painting, performance, photography and beyond – is in conversation with curator and art historian Lassla Esquivel, on the occasion of her exhibition Maria Elena at the UK Mexican Arts Society (1-25 October, 2020). María Elena, 2018 Single channel video projection, full HD, color, sound, 24 min Camera: Julien Devaux and Carlos Andrés Echavarria Alvarez Sound: Felix Blume. MARIA ELENA Maria Elena is a small mining town in the Atacama desert, founded in the 1920’s and developed by the Guggenheim’s to produce saltpetre, used for both fertilizers and explosives. The film explores an ongoing interest in the application and obsolescence of industrial modernity. It also traces the impact of the British in the region, who were heavily involved in the extraction processes of nitrates incorporating it into a satellite of an economic global system. The narrative threads a tale of contradicting montage, whereby crystals become stars, a horse’s ear a mountain and enormous beds of nitrate appear as informel abstract paintings, exposing the geological terror of the past and future. Melanie Smith (b. in Poole, UK, 1965). She lived and worked in Mexico City from 1989 and recently moved to London where she is currently based. The two contexts – Mexico, or more broadly Latin America, and Britain, or a wider Anglo-Saxon or Eurocentric culture – are central to her work. Her trajectory has been characterised by a multidisciplinary practice, experimenting with her own gaze as an artist and producer of images that often create illusions between time and space. Smith engages critically with topics such as industrialisation, urbanisation, colonialism, and the relations and balance of these processes with nature and humans. She depicts chaos and synergy, modernity and contemporaneity, conflict and harmony, an archaeological and anthropological view. The artist creates scenarios that could be (referring) to a very specific place, but they become doors that open many realities simultaneously. Her work has been exhibited in numerous national and international institutions, including: PS1, New York; MOMA, New York; UCLA ́S, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; ICA, Boston; Tate Liverpool; Tate Modern, London; South London Gallery, London; CAMH, Houston; Milton Keynes; CCA, Vilnius; Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam; Museo de Arte de Lima; Museo Tamayo, Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo and Museo Experimental El Eco, Mexico City; and Museo de Monterrey. In 2011 she represented Mexico at its national pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale. Lassla Esquivel UK-based art historian and curator specialising in contemporary art and the art market, more specifically in emerging markets. She has an MA in History and Business of the Contemporary Art Market by the University of Warwick and IESA arts&culture. In 2016, founded Periferia Projects, a curatorial platform creating connections from Latin America and other emerging markets to the UK and Europe to promote collaboration with new galleries, artists and institutions. She has produced and curated shows in Latin America, Asia-Pacific, Europe and the UK. She operates between two strands: one producing commercial and curatorial projects; and another more academic oriented, doing research and teaching. She teaches Art Business for the MSc programme Art, Law and Business at Christie’s Education in London, and for the international postgraduate programmes in Arts and Cultural Management at Iesa arts&culture in Paris. Her research interests currently are focused in emerging markets, private museums and its relation to the art market. Her latest research has been published by Routledge on the anthology: Art Museums of Latin America Structuring Representation. UK Mexican Arts Society The purpose of the UK Mexican Arts Society is to promote British and Mexican Arts and Culture in Mexico and in the UK. Its programme includes exhibitions and live events in its gallery space in London, and across the UK in collaboration with British cultural institutions, championing the arts from Mexico. In addition, it presents a regular programme of contemporary British Art in collaboration with Mexican art institutions. Its artistic offer ranges from art residencies for artists, architects, anthropologists, linguists, writers and anyone interested in Mesoamerican cultures, taking place in its own residential space in the state of Hidalgo, Mexico. The UK Mexican Arts Society creates engaging content such as educational resources, viewing rooms and live interactive events. The UK Mexican Society is supported by the Mexican Embassy in the UK.

Melanie Smith’s significance for the Mexican artistic scene from the 1990s onward cannot be underestimated. The artist, who’s body of work transits between one context to another, across a wide range of media –video, painting, performance, photography and beyond – is in conversation with curator and art historian Lassla Esquivel, on the occasion of her exhibition Maria Elena at the UK Mexican Arts Society (1-25 October, 2020).

MARIA ELENA Maria Elena is a small mining town in the Atacama desert, founded in the 1920’s and developed by the Guggenheim’s to produce saltpetre, used for both fertilisers and explosives. The film explores an ongoing interest in the application and obsolescence of industrial modernity. It also traces the impact of the British in the region, who were heavily involved in the extraction processes of nitrates incorporating it into a satellite of an economic global system. The narrative threads a tale of contradicting montage, whereby crystals become stars, a horse’s ear a mountain and enormous beds of nitrate appear as informel abstract paintings, exposing the geological terror of the past and future.

Melanie Smith. María Elena, 2018. Single channel video projection, full HD, color, sound, 24 min. Camera: Julien Devaux and Carlos Andrés Echavarria Alvarez Sound: Felix Blume.