Art et pouvoir au Mexique : loyautés et divergences

This article reveals the inherent tensions between an art history that identifies itself with the nation-state and an alternative form of artistic reflection that attempts to deconstruct the unshakable edifice of nationalist historiography and the visual constructs propagated by the State as means of building identity. This self-reflection, which distinguishes itself from official discourse, explores images and reveals the complexity of their multiple meanings; these images are constitutive elements of the imaginations that are necessary to move beyond the idea of an eternal, and petrified, national identity. This critical exploration includes the revaluation of certain religious icons and the analysis of historical periods other than that of the Revolution of 1910, both of which participate in generating a national imagination. The State experienced a strong push towards modernity beginning in the last decades of the nineteenth century. In other words, the creation of a centralized power structure capable of artificially uniting diverse histories and ethnicities became a necessary prerequisite of modernity. Reacting to this centralizing concept, different critical movements, both artistic and art-historical, came into being to tackle issues related to the art-power nexus. The student movement of 1968, which questioned the canonical image of official power, represented an important break with the past in this regard. The rethinking of the visual structuring of the regime that it engendered has since continued, with contemporary art becoming a means to upend national symbols and their relations to power.