40 Km

2014 - Photography (Photography)

40 x 30 cm each

Teresa Margolles


Stretching between San Pedro and the beach in Altata, Sinaloa, there is a 40 km road where there are three invisible borders controlled by rivalling armed groups. There is a price to pay for crossing these territories. This series of 21 photographs by Teresa Margolles, titled 40 Km , resemble snapshots of peaceful lands, but also bear witness to the reality lived by the local people in this area. Under the control of these groups, the inhabitants surrounding this stretch of road are unable to mobilize; they end up trapped in their original territory, constantly under threat of violence and death, turned into prisoners of a land they used to call their own. The landscape is strewn with altars, each one marking the site where someone was killed. There are more than sixty-five altars for men, women, and children. These names, dates, prayers, and tributes are almost lost in the green countryside, among crops of corn, tomatoes, and mango trees. In this work, Margolles introduces the viewer to the reality of death and violence, its proximity, and its madness. 40 Km marks an important moment in the artist’s career in which she left behind the explicitness of previous pieces that dealt with systemic violence in México. In this series the artist’s risk-taking is more nuanced; the photographed territories are dangerous not only to the populations that inhabit them, but to any outside witness, such as the artist, that might want to document them.


Teresa Margolles’s work examines the social causes and consequences of violence. For Margolles, the morgue as a symbol accurately reflects society, particularly that of her home country of México, where deaths caused by drug-related crimes, poverty, political crisis, and the government’s brutal military response have devastated entire communities. Margolles has developed a unique, restrained language in order to speak for her silenced subjects: the victims discounted as ‘collateral damage’ in cold statistics. The landscapes she portrays are specific to México but the themes and conflicts her work brings to the surface are universal, as we witness violence spread across all borders.


Colors:



Related works sharing similar palette

Caring for the Carers: How Malaysian artists working with communities hold space
© » ARTS EQUATOR

Caring for the Carers: How Malaysian artists working with communities hold space | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia ArtsEquator Viewpoints Courtesy of Syarifah Nadhirah August 12, 2021 By Rahmah Pauzi (1,300 words, 5-minute read) I had forgotten how loaded the words “how are you,” or “apa khabar,” can be...

Antoine Grumbach — Les Yeux du Ciel
© » SLASH PARIS

Antoine Grumbach — Les Yeux du Ciel — Jeanne Bucher Jaeger | Paris, Marais Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris Login Newsletter Twitter Facebook Antoine Grumbach — Les Yeux du Ciel — Jeanne Bucher Jaeger | Paris, Marais Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris English Français Home Events Artists Venues Magazine Videos Back Antoine Grumbach — Les Yeux du Ciel Exhibition Architecture, urban art, drawing, installation.....

Vibrant Mixed-Media Collages Give a Fresh Perspective on African American Ancestry
© » MODERN MET ART

Stan Squirewell's Mixed-Media Collages Give a Fresh Perspective on the Past Home / Art Vibrant Mixed-Media Collages Give a Fresh Perspective on African American Ancestry By Jessica Stewart on December 2, 2023 “Mrs...

Fucking Good Art
© » KADIST

KADIST welcomes editors and artists Robert Hamelijnck and Nienke Terpsma of Fucking Good Art (FGA), Rotterdam, for the 6th year of its magazine residency...

The Ugly One
© » KADIST

Eric Baudelaire

2013

With the war-torn Beirut cityscape as its backdrop—urban alleys, glistening beaches, abandoned buildings—Eric Baudelaire’s complex film, The Ugly One , unfolds in a time and place that vacillates among revolutionary narratives of the past, the fragile and ever-changing political situation of the present, and attempts to piece together the memories of those that live, or once lived, in the city...

Oreille Coupée
© » LENS CULTURE

Oreille Coupée - Photographs by Julien Coquentin | Book review by Justin Herfst | LensCulture Book review Oreille Coupée Investigating the remarkable return of a lone wolf to south central France, Julien Coquentin’s “Orielle Coupée” uses cyanotypes, landscapes and portraits to tell its story...

Inclined uncertainties
© » KADIST

Prabhakar Pachpute

2020

Calling attention to campaigns for land rights, survival, and sovereignty, Prabhakar Pachpute’s recent works consider how farmers in India use their bodies in performative ways during acts of protest...

Ticket
© » KADIST

Kaoru Arima

2015

Arima’s free brushstrokes gesture towards traditions in Expressionist painting, and Ticket could be seen as an attempt at “pure painting” in which the aesthetics of the medium supersede content...

The Incurable Image
© » KADIST

About the event Elhaik says: “as an anthropologist and a moving-image curator I often encounter volatile material that erupts unexpectedly and threatens the psychic economies of all those engaged in the conversation...

Marwa Arsanios
© » KADIST

In conversation with Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez Together they will talk about Marwa Arsanios’ last video “ Falling is not collapsing, falling is extending “, 2016, presented recently at the Hammer Museum (Los Angeles), that looks into the garbage crisis in Beirut and the city’s recent real estate boom...

Start here: Impressionists on Paper
© » ROYAL ACADEMY

Start here: Impressionists on Paper | Blog | Royal Academy of Arts Edgar Degas, Dancers on a Bench, c.1898 (detail)...

And Europe Will Be Stunned
© » KADIST

Yael Bartana

2007

Yael Bartana received great international attention for the trilogy series And Europe Will be Stunned (2007 – 2011)...

Acquired Nationalities
© » KADIST

Rossella Biscotti

2014

Rossella Biscotti’s “10×10” series investigates the relationship between demographics, data processing, textile manufacturing and social structure...

L'exigence de la saudade
© » KADIST

L’exigence de la saudade Curated by Zasha Colah and Sumesh Sharma, Clark House Initiative, Bombay With: Padmini Chettur, Prajakta Potnis and Zamthingla Ruivah And the participation of: Nalini Malani, Krishna Reddy, Jean Bhownagary, Maarten Visser Intervention in the public space by: Justin Ponmany, Prabhakar Pachpute The exhibition brings together three artists from distant geographies within India – Padmini Chettur, a contemporary dancer, Prajakta Potnis, a visual artist, and Zamthingla Ruivah, a master weaver, whose works are conceptually engaged with remnant cultural forms, not as endangered traditions, rather to reinvent them in the present...

Exchanging between Turkish Lira and Euros in Istanbul until there is nothing left
© » KADIST

Yoshinori Niwa

2011

Yoshinori Niwa’s investigation into the monetary system and material goods is witnessed across a range of his works...

Floral art by Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet and other artists on display at private Deji Art Museum in Nanjing, China
© » SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST

Floral art by Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet and other artists on display at private Deji Art Museum in Nanjing, China | South China Morning Post Advertisement Advertisement Art + FOLLOW Get more with my NEWS A personalised news feed of stories that matter to you Learn more The exhibition ‘Nothing Still About Still Lifes: Three Centuries of Floral Compositions’ at Nanjing;s Deji Art Museum features more than 100 modern and contemporary artworks, including (above) “Les Amoureux au Bouquet de Fleurs” (1935-1937), by Marc Chagall...

Life and Death Explored At Art Stage Singapore
© » ARTREPORT

Life and Death Explored At Art Stage Singapore – Art Report News ARTISTS Artist Highlights Artist Interviews Studio Visit VIDEOS ART+ Community Listicles No Result View All Result News ARTISTS Artist Highlights Artist Interviews Studio Visit VIDEOS ART+ Community Listicles No Result View All Result No Result View All Result Life and Death Explored At Art Stage Singapore by Christina Lee Jan 25, 2016 in NEWS 0 Portrait, Nunzio Paci...

The Reverse Sessions. Litophone
© » KADIST

Tarek Atoui

2017

For The Reverse Sessions , the artist reversed the order in which instruments are usually created, taking the sounds of a collection of ethnic musical instruments from The Dahlem Museum as the starting point...

Recovered Van Gogh Masterpiece Takes the Spotlight Again
© » ART CENTRON

Recovered Van Gogh Masterpiece Takes the Spotlight Again - Artcentron Home » Recovered Van Gogh Masterpiece Takes the Spotlight Again ART Feb 10, 2024 Ξ Leave a comment Recovered Van Gogh Masterpiece Takes the Spotlight Again posted by ARTCENTRON Vincent van Gogh, The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring (1884)...