LA REPUBLICA
MUSA ALTERNATIVE ART SPACE
My exhibition started with a local newspaper called La Republica. I live in Laredo, Texas, a city that borders Mexico. The newspaper is a local Mexican publication and their censorship laws are very different from ours. But since our culture is so enmeshed with that of our neighbors across the border practically all of our convenience stores carry these lurid publications which often feature gruesome scenes of cartel violence. The reason this one stood out to me, however, was because of the title. La Republica is spanish for The Republic, which is the title of Plato’s most widely read dialogue. In this dialogue, a tremendous variety of subjects are discussed (knowledge, vice and virtue, good and bad, the family, the role of art in society, and even the afterlife). The Republic represents early ideals for Western civilization, and La Republica represents its current reality. My aim for the exhibition was to pose the two in stark contrast to each other. The ideal vs the reality.
Exhibited works
