As part of Antenna’s Gallery MonuMental Call for Imaginative Revisions of 19th-century and early 20th-century New Orleans Monuments, my proposal focuses on the Benito Juárez Monument, and the the scaling of violence in Mexico as an international issue that no longer seems to belong to Mexicans anymore. It is an opportunity to confront the fact that my country has become synonym of bloodshed, drug cartels and lack of governance. A headless nation.

The core idea behind this project was the growing number of Benito Juarez’s beheaded statues appearing in different throughout Mexico. What I fond incredibly ironic was that the choosing of Benito Juarez figure is essential, specifically a national and historical figure that embodies his famous phrase: “The Respect of the Other’s Rights is Peace”.

Beheading a figure that stands for respect towards other’s rights, marks the end of peace and the becoming of a headless nation. By decapitating digitally Juárez’s statue in New Orleans, I wanted to represent the notion of a beheaded government severed by it’s own lack of ethics.

Antenna Gallery
New Orleans, LA