Possessing Nature. Mexican Pavilion at the 56. Venice Biennale

Abstract

The piece Possessing Nature was presented by Tania Candiani and Luis Felipe Ortega at the 2015 Venice Biennale, its content and context were transcendental for the historical memory of the Mexican participation that restarted in 2007. The conceptual piece is a metal structure where water flows, and in its shape and angles recalls the topographical path the Mexican pavilion has had in various exhibition places in Venice. The water flows with the help of a hydraulic pump and the piece is complemented by the projection of photographs that refer to the water relationship between Mexico City and the city of Venice, both cities being built in lake environments. Thus, this article examines the fifth pavilion of Mexico at the Venice Biennale by addressing the historical context of the national pavilion in the 21st century and the symbolic content of the piece, since in its analysis the cultural policies that have led to the Mexican pavilion at each Biennale, together with the reflection and evidence that the artists made around water as an element dominated and even avoided by modernity, all related to the proposal of the artistic director of the 56th Venice Biennale, the Nigerian-American Okwui Enwezor and which he called All the World’s Future.