Umělec magazine 2007/2 >> Ernesto Muñiz: Altars in the Middle of an Urban Guerrila Warfafe List of all editions.
Ernesto Muñiz: Altars in the Middle of an Urban Guerrila Warfafe
Umělec magazine
Year 2007, 2
6,50 EUR
7 USD
Send the printed edition:
Order subscription

Ernesto Muñiz: Altars in the Middle of an Urban Guerrila Warfafe

Umělec magazine 2007/2

01.02.2007

Jorge Flores-Oliver | street art | en cs de es

No art is more easily recognizable to a traditionally Catholic town than religious art (this in spite of the damage the said religion has suffered due to the proliferation of church-sects that have robbed it of vital space throughout the years). The hordes that overstuff the churches every weekend have accustomed their eyes to the rather gory paintings and sculptures of bloody Christ carrying his heavy cross with a crown of thorns and an expression of physical and spiritual pain on his face. On occasion, if the celebration calls for it, these same people carry Zarzales on their backs, while thrashing their backs and scraping their knees in search of an epiphany. Other times they convince their own kids that they should kneel and try to travel all the way to the temple in that position; therefore, they’ll have something to be thankful for, or to ask for, once they arrive. In good measure, these liters of blood and gestures of pain (plus redemption) have been the aesthetic education of one of the most fervently catholic cities in Latin America. But the aesthetic eye of Catholicism has been shaped by many other situations, each one more bizarre than the next. As with the iconography of church altars, aspects of the catholic faith include votive offerings—homemade altarpieces with delirious miracle scenes of the disabled returning to walk, the alcoholic finding sobriety, and the beaten woman pushing the demon out of her husband. And there are the Miligratos—medals that vary in size in proportion to some desire and are used to help beg a saint to be the intercede with god for various miracles to cure disease or find a stable partner. Also, there are religious picture cards containing images of different saints, virgins and demi-gods in multicolor kitsch designs outside of church, or, with luck, in subway cars, distributed by street kids, drug addicts in rehabilitation, or carriers of HIV, and which are the routine amulets of believers. Altogether, it’s a cult of images that posses not only a religious charge but also the ideology of the belief itself. In that way any passerby can, in a pop transfiguration of the myth of San Juan Diego, can, if providence permits it, become the newly chosen one to take on the voice of the Guadalupano miracle worker. A wormy plank, a vinegar stain on the pavement, a formidably shaped cloud—anything that can be converted into a new altar, in a new ceremonial center for the masses perpetually looking for the Promised Land (even if this can be found in an underground tunnel). The same devotion and the same faith can be found as a new message in the extreme religiosity of the present as represented in the art work of Ernesto Muñiz. In his art, Muñiz has evoked distinct parts of Mexico City. His pieces – “Guerilla Shrines” as he refers to them – are collages. By unifying different objects, he deconstructs images and creates new symbols that become a commentary on the Catholic religion. The message, at least at first sight, isn’t hidden behind any elaborate and exhaustive discourse. Simply put, Armageddon appears to wait in heaven and God’s soldiers are the messenger. However, like some military nightmare from these mediated times, the message is unreadable through the smoke from bombs, because the messengers of destruction can wear masks that protect the rarefied air; Jesus (of the Sacred Heart) carries a weapon, and it is not known whether the imminent end of civilization motivated him to hold up a convenience store in a panic or if he just wanted to get stuff easily –and for free- by pointing his gun. Saint Hyppolite – known as “the first anti-Pope in history” - also goes out into the streets, where he pays for a prostitute. The annunciation is a phone call. Muñiz’s work is found at the indeterminable intersection of urban intervention and street art. While local artists who cultivate this last discipline tend to depend on aerosol, posters and decals, the world of Ernesto Muñiz breaks the rules of guerilla warfare with the intention of being a little bit more confrontational. He does this by constructing ephemeral anti-altars whose messages have a force and clarity that leaves no room for ambiguity. He also experiments with the collage as a medium, expanding his graphic possibilities. The passing of time (at times not even necessarily long periods), gives the pieces an effect desired by Muñiz: the collage’s initial role erodes as passers-by paint over it and the climate continues changing its original appearance. This either hardens the original message or mutates it. Muniz’s collages function as apocalyptic homemade altarpieces; his saints have lost faith, or at least they are shown in their total cruelty; they teach the bloody claws and eyeteeth, with traces of the meat from their prey. The virgins are virgins through denomination, but their purity is promoted by necklines, and they carry arms and live in danger. New miracles should be more shocking or they won’t be considered miracles, not because the town has become jaded and nothing can impress it, but the opposite: the new faith has charged a quota of sacrifices, each one larger than the last, and the deities continually require more of the parishioners, but themselves ask from apparitions which quiet the breath, and if possible, the pulse. In this way, sanctity becomes more human, and because of this, more vicious, more violent and driven by impulse and instinct. There is nothing more to save than your hide. The faith reflected in Muniz’s representations retains a syncretic nature. Elements of traditional religiosity are joined to those of contemporary (violent) life.




01.02.2007

Comments

There are currently no comments.

Add new comment

Recommended articles

Contents 2016/1 Contents 2016/1
Contents of the new issue.
Terminator vs. Avatar: Notes on Accelerationism Terminator vs. Avatar: Notes on Accelerationism
Why political intellectuals, do you incline towards the proletariat? In commiseration for what? I realize that a proletarian would hate you, you have no hatred because you are bourgeois, privileged, smooth-skinned types, but also because you dare not say that the only important thing there is to say, that one can enjoy swallowing the shit of capital, its materials, its metal bars, its polystyrene…
No Future For Censorship No Future For Censorship
Author dreaming of a future without censorship we have never got rid of. It seems, that people don‘t care while it grows stronger again.
Le Dernier Cri and the black penis of Marseille Le Dernier Cri and the black penis of Marseille
We’re constantly hearing that someone would like to do some joint project, organize something together, some event, but… damn, how to put it... we really like what you’re doing but it might piss someone off back home. Sure, it’s true that every now and then someone gets kicked out of this institution or that institute for organizing something with Divus, but weren’t they actually terribly self…
04.02.2020 10:17
Where to go next?
out - archeology
S.d.Ch, Solitaires and Periphery Culture (a generation born around 1970)
S.d.Ch, Solitaires and Periphery Culture (a generation born around 1970)
Josef Jindrák
Who is S.d.Ch? A person of many interests, active in various fields—literature, theater—known for his comics and collages in the art field. A poet and playwright foremost. A loner by nature and determination, his work doesn’t meet the current trends. He always puts forth personal enunciation, although its inner structure can get very complicated. It’s pleasant that he is a normal person and a…
Read more...
out - poetry
THC Review and the Condemned Past
THC Review and the Condemned Past
Ivan Mečl
We are the fifth global party! Pítr Dragota and Viki Shock, Fragmenty geniality / Fragments of Charisma, May and June 1997. When Viki came to visit, it was only to show me some drawings and collages. It was only as an afterthought that he showed me the Czech samizdat publication from the late 1990s, THC Review. When he saw how it fascinated me, he panicked and insisted that THAT creation is…
Read more...
prize
To hen kai pán (Jindřich Chalupecký Prize Laureate 1998 Jiří Černický)
To hen kai pán (Jindřich Chalupecký Prize Laureate 1998 Jiří Černický)
Read more...
birthing pains
Who’s Afraid of Motherhood?
Who’s Afraid of Motherhood?
Zuzana Štefková
Expanding the definition of “mother” is also a space for reducing pressure and for potential liberation.1 Carol Stabile The year was 2003, and in the deep forests of Lapák in the Kladno area, a woman in the later phase of pregnancy stopped along the path. As part of the “Artists in the Woods” exhibit, passers-by could catch a glimpse of her round belly, which she exposed especially for them in…
Read more...
Books, video, editions and artworks that might interest you Go to e-shop
Limited edition of 10. Size 100 x 70 cm. Black print on durable white foil.
More info...
75 EUR
81 USD
This complex literary tetris BPERP (Brexit Post-Emotional Rescue Package), swarming with the „post“ prefixes, was assembled for...
More info...
69,61 EUR
75 USD
collection foliopack / 20 x 12,5 x 2 cm / 22 cartes / 5 passages couleur / Boite sérigraphiée 1 couleur / 200 ex
More info...
25 EUR
27 USD
1999, 43.5 x 35.5cm, Pen & Ink Drawing
More info...
1 116 EUR
1 202 USD

Studio

Divus and its services

Studio Divus designs and develops your ideas for projects, presentations or entire PR packages using all sorts of visual means and media. We offer our clients complete solutions as well as all the individual steps along the way. In our work we bring together the most up-to-date and classic technologies, enabling us to produce a wide range of products. But we do more than just prints and digital projects, ad materials, posters, catalogues, books, the production of screen and space presentations in interiors or exteriors, digital work and image publication on the internet; we also produce digital films—including the editing, sound and 3-D effects—and we use this technology for web pages and for company presentations. We specialize in ...
 

Citation of the day. Publisher is not liable for any mental and physical states which may arise after reading the quote.

Enlightenment is always late.
CONTACTS AND VISITOR INFORMATION The entire editorial staff contacts

DIVUS LONDON

 

STORE
Arch 8, Resolution Way, Deptford

London SE8 4NT, United Kingdom
Open on appointment

 

OFFICE
7 West Street, Hastings
East Sussex, TN34 3AN
, United Kingdom
Open on appointment
 

Ivan Mečl
ivan@divus.org.uk, +44 (0) 7526 902 082

DIVUS
NOVA PERLA
Kyjov 37, 407 47 Krásná Lípa
Czech Republic
divus@divus.cz
+420 222 264 830, +420 602 269 888

Open daily 10am to 6pm
and on appointment.

 

DIVUS BERLIN
Potsdamer Str. 161, 10783 Berlin
Germany

berlin@divus.cz, +49 (0) 1512 9088 150
Open on appointment.

 

DIVUS WIEN
wien@divus.cz
DIVUS MEXICO CITY
mexico@divus.cz
DIVUS BARCELONA
barcelona@divus.cz
DIVUS MOSCOW & MINSK

alena@divus.cz

DIVUS NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIPTION
Divus New book by I.M.Jirous in English at our online bookshop.