Conozca Mexico by Jonathan Hernandez

Jonathan Hernandez
based in Mexico City.

Jonathan Hernandez’s art practice has been an ongoing exploration of the urban space in the streets of Mexico City. From postcards to photography, installation to video-performance, Hernandez investigates the impact and repercussions of living in contemporary society. He makes a direct critique by presenting the viewer with images in which the artist himself serves as a witness to a quasi touristic experience. Through his works, he represents the social, economic and political factors that put in motion the machinery one of the biggest cities in a globalized society.

In Conozca Mexico Hernandez confronts the viewer with four vistas of Mexico City which the artist presents as a series of postcards and four C- prints. These views that he portrays are not the characteristic touristic sites which an ordinary visitor can visit. With the project Conozca Mexico, Hernandez instigates visitors to learn aspects of the city that would not be included in their leisurely activity. In fact, these postcards point to dysfunctional details of Mexico City. Like blind spots these sites mark interstitial spaces that indicate the failure of economic progress. It is also a comment on the clash between developed nations and so called developing countries. These images are indicative of the historical layered construction of Mexico City from which outbursts of the absurd act as disruptive devices of a hybrid culture.

Hernandez has presented his work in solo exhibitions, Bon Voyage at Centro de Arte Contemporaneo de Malaga, Spain; 2002. Traveling Without Moving at Galeria del Aeropuerto de la Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico in 2002, and The World Is Yours at Galerie im Parkhaus in Berlin, 2001. He has participated in numerous group shows in Europe, Latin America, and the United States, like Universal Experience: Art, Life; The Tourist’s Eye in 2005