Artium Museum of Contemporary Art of the Basque Country presents the exhibition Mariana Castillo Deball. Amarantus (A2 Gallery, until 13 March 2022). The exhibition brings together an extensive selection of works produced primarily over the past decade in which we can trace Castillo Deball’s interest in the way in which knowledge and culture are produced, represented and disseminated, and specifically in the processes of appropriating and re-coding pre-colonial Mexican history. Artium Museum has produced a publication to accompany the exhibition that includes an essay by the exhibition’s curator, Catalina Lozano. Amarantus has been organised in collaboration with Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen (Germany) and Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo (Mexico).

Amarantus presents a selection of artworks by Mariana Castillo Deball (Mexico City, 1975) who, ever since her early works, has been interested in the way in which knowledge and culture are produced, represented and disseminated. Working diagonally between the visual arts, science and fiction, the artist has looked into how pre-colonial Mexican history has been investigated, appropriated and re-codified at various times.

Mariana Castillo Deball (Mexico City, 1975) has shaped a vast body of work that tackles the way in which knowledge and culture are produced, represented and disseminated, positioning herself in the junctions between science, fiction and the visual arts and their relation to the ways that pre-colonial Mexican history has been appropriated and investigated at various times.

Castillo Deball uses a kaleidoscopic approach to her interests to explore archaeology, science, literature and technology, and she has collaborated with museums and institutions outside the realm of contemporary art.

Ever since her early works, the artist has explored how chance – the product of time passed, erosion, fragmentation and human interventions, among other factors – largely determines the way that we learn to describe the world and the narratives we create. This interest has led her to explore the history of specific artefacts – which she calls “uncomfortable objects” – their paths, reproductions, appropriations and disappearances.

Her formal strategies are often akin to the methodologies employed by archaeologists to “trap” their discoveries. These objects, or surrogate images, are conceptually similar to the ancient Nahua notion of ixiptla, which can be interpreted as representation, image and substitute, but also skin. This concept is crucial for exploring many of Castillo Deball’s projects over the past decade.

The word amarantus, which gives the exhibition its name, comes from the Greek Αμάρανθος and designates a flower that never dies – like the amaranth, an indispensable plant in traditional Mexican diets that never withers. The amaranth flower evokes the persistence of these “uncomfortable objects”, the material remains of random historical events that fascinate Castillo Deball.

In collaboration with the Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen (Germany) and Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo (Mexico).