Contrasting dialogs

The HangART-7 exhibition “Una Excursión Mexicana” in Salzburg’s Hangar-7, running until August 28, is a show of works by seven young, very individual Mexican artists. Answering questionnaires, they each describe their approach to art – and share some inside information along the way. Part Five: Demián Flores.

The themes of Demián Flores’ works represent various pairs of concepts in contrast: denial and affirmation, (of historical heroes, for example), power and control, high culture and popular culture (regarding the use of artistic techniques) or tradition and modernity. The thirty-six-year-old artist who lives in Oaxaca, talks about his use of symbols and opening up communication to encourage a new form of language.

How much connects you to the six other artists in this exhibition? And how much separates you?

I’m connected to the other artists because we all have a background in painting and we’re more or less of the same generation. What separates us is the different approach that each of us takes, which is then presented using various means of expression. What’s interesting is the idea behind the exhibition: to give an overview of the production of visual arts in Mexico, thus affirming the significance of this medium in contemporary culture.

What makes your art “typically Mexican?” Why couldn’t it have been created in any other country?

Its location, which can be summarized as follows: identity, where I come from and what I am.

Please give us three words that describe your work process.

The experience of every-day life, the visual presentation thereof and, finally, realization.

... and three that describe your artworks.

My work can be defined as follows: realm, identity and “re-setting” (transference, displacement).

What do you feel when people observe your work and you think it affects them – no matter how?

My work invites an open dialog and, although it has local references, I try and include symbols and signs in every picture that awaken the collective memory.

Could you share with us a very personal anecdote about one of the pieces exhibited in Hangar-7 – or give us some sort of insider information about it that only you have been privy to until now?

The cycle is then complete when art and observer meet, somewhere or in a different context. It’s a means of communication, a language that makes it possible for observers to find dialogs that aren’t related to their own reality or their own historical reference points.