TLALOC

TLALOC
2011
Installation
Foro Sol, Mexico City
Dimensions 750m2
2300 pieces of cloth
Thousands of meters of steel wire
Wind

Tlaloc was an installation in a stadium next to the Mictlan project. Tlaloc who is life, and Mictlantehcutli, who is death, belong to each other. Thousands of flying flags form the sacred face of Tlaloc, the ancient god of water. His face, moved by the wind, is composed of grains of corn and drops of rain. He is the symbol of life and rebirth. It is said that all those whose death is related to water are reborn in his paradise, the Tlalocan. He is accurately depicted in the ancient style of the sacred city of Teotihuacan, a city born circa 100 B.C. Teotihuacan means "Where the gods are born". When brought into our daily life, Tlaloc becomes pixels in our mind screen and this ancient and modern image of him is like a space invader from the classic video game. Tlaloc, like all true gods, is beyond space and time, ever new. Perhaps, for this reason, it was usually children that were offered in sacrifice to him. Legend has it that by command of this god an Aztec king sacrificed his child, the princess Quatzalotzin to Tláloc. She thus became immortal, and from the offering of her heart came the ears of corn that became the sustenance of the Aztec empire, the empire of the fifth sun known as nahui ollin, the Sun of Movement.