Mar Coyol

Salón Silicón invites you to the opening of the exhibition Macehual. Songs of Creation and Memory by Mar Coyol.

Mar Coyol carries out an act of subversion and critique of the visual tradition of 19th-century costumbrista albums and “galleries of types,” whose purpose was to document and classify inhabitants and their occupations. Unlike the traveling artists whose gaze stemmed from a European curiosity toward the picturesque elements of a so-called exotic land, Coyol portrays the dignity and resilience of LGBTTTIQ+ working-class individuals. In a manner reminiscent of the Florentine Codex, Coyol seeks to give voice and memory to those historically relegated to the margins.

By grouping this series under the term Macehual, Coyol not only highlights the popular roots and Anahuac heritage of the subjects portrayed but also their belonging to the working class—as spokespeople of an intersectional oppression. Her characters confront the viewer with the complex web of exclusion and violence that shapes their lives, the result of systemic intersections of racism, sexism, classism, transphobia, and homophobia.

— Salón Silicón