0:00:07 > 0:00:12In February 1943, Mexico's landscape was transformed.
0:00:14 > 0:00:16After weeks of rumbling within the earth,
0:00:16 > 0:00:19a fissure opened in the ground...
0:00:23 > 0:00:26..and a column of black smoke billowed into the heavens.
0:00:29 > 0:00:32The next day, a flaming pyramid had risen from the earth.
0:00:34 > 0:00:37It was the size of an eight-storey building and counting.
0:00:40 > 0:00:43For the first time in modern history, the complete
0:00:43 > 0:00:46life cycle of a volcano was about to be witnessed.
0:00:52 > 0:00:56Hundreds fled as rivers of lava consumed the local villages.
0:01:02 > 0:01:05But one man edged closer and closer.
0:01:06 > 0:01:11He was an ageing Mexican artist called Dr Atl and he began
0:01:11 > 0:01:15obsessively and recklessly painting the convulsing fire.
0:01:17 > 0:01:22"A river of lava ran towards me," he wrote. "The heat suffocated me.
0:01:22 > 0:01:24"I felt myself burn."
0:01:28 > 0:01:31Dr Atl lived to paint the volcano multiple times
0:01:31 > 0:01:33in works of visionary power.
0:01:37 > 0:01:42When the volcano erupted, the lava covered everything.
0:01:42 > 0:01:47Atl must have been so overwhelmed and, somehow, so inspired by this.
0:01:52 > 0:01:54For Dr Atl, the allure of the volcano
0:01:54 > 0:01:58was as a symbol of radical, unstoppable transformation.
0:02:00 > 0:02:03It embodied an ever-changing Mexico.
0:02:03 > 0:02:07A nation propelled through history by three main forces.
0:02:08 > 0:02:11Land and nature, which have been both the source of life,
0:02:11 > 0:02:15and a cause of conflict and death since the earliest times.
0:02:15 > 0:02:18The struggle for power,
0:02:18 > 0:02:22which has defined this nation's history over millennia.
0:02:22 > 0:02:27And faith, in Mesoamerican gods and Christian iconography,
0:02:27 > 0:02:32which has been ever present throughout its existence.
0:02:33 > 0:02:36They are the beats, rhythms and currents of Mexico,
0:02:36 > 0:02:39and they run through my blood.
0:02:40 > 0:02:43As an artist born here, and with roots stretching back
0:02:43 > 0:02:47generations, I want to take you on a journey, through these three
0:02:47 > 0:02:53great stories, that have shaped not just Mexican art, but Mexico itself.
0:03:00 > 0:03:03In this programme, I want to find out how artists have
0:03:03 > 0:03:07drawn on the landscape and forces of nature
0:03:07 > 0:03:12to transmit their own visions of what it means to be Mexican.
0:03:12 > 0:03:16Because from the earliest times, depictions of Mexico's land
0:03:16 > 0:03:20have never just been about conveying their sublime beauty,
0:03:20 > 0:03:24but about projecting topographies of ideology and identity.
0:03:26 > 0:03:28The art of Mexico's landscape
0:03:28 > 0:03:32has helped project the world views of ancient civilisations.
0:03:33 > 0:03:36It forged new national identities in times of crisis.
0:03:38 > 0:03:41And it established revolutionary imagery,
0:03:41 > 0:03:44that, for the first time, was distinctly Mexican.
0:03:46 > 0:03:49Art that's not simply ABOUT this land.
0:03:49 > 0:03:53Art that could only be OF this land.
0:04:06 > 0:04:09Mexico is a landscape of potent energy.
0:04:11 > 0:04:14An ongoing collision of vast tectonic plates.
0:04:16 > 0:04:191,600 miles north to south,
0:04:19 > 0:04:23the country's length is a distance from Sweden to Spain.
0:04:25 > 0:04:29Snow-capped volcanoes loom over fertile plains.
0:04:31 > 0:04:33Deserts give way to tropical forest.
0:04:36 > 0:04:38At the heart of the country is the Valley of Mexico.
0:04:40 > 0:04:43This fertile plateau sustained
0:04:43 > 0:04:46some of the greatest civilisations of the pre-Hispanic era.
0:04:48 > 0:04:53Ringed by active volcanoes, shaken by earthquakes, this has always
0:04:53 > 0:04:57been somewhere Mother Nature is ever present in people's thoughts.
0:04:59 > 0:05:03And from the earliest art of what we call Mexico,
0:05:03 > 0:05:08depictions of landscape have never been just about the land itself,
0:05:08 > 0:05:11but about the people that produced them.
0:05:19 > 0:05:22Teotihuacan was a civilisation that flourished here
0:05:22 > 0:05:23over 1,500 years ago...
0:05:26 > 0:05:28..long before the more famous Aztecs.
0:05:29 > 0:05:33It was the largest city in the entire western hemisphere,
0:05:33 > 0:05:37and is one of the most important archaeological sites in the world.
0:05:40 > 0:05:43Inside one of its compounds is something extraordinary.
0:05:45 > 0:05:48One of the earliest depictions of landscape in Mexico.
0:05:50 > 0:05:53A mural over 1,300 years old.
0:05:56 > 0:06:00Tatiana Falcon is an art historian who has studied Mesoamerican
0:06:00 > 0:06:01murals for over a decade.
0:06:04 > 0:06:08Tatiana, what would this have been like when it was first painted?
0:06:08 > 0:06:13I cannot, start, you know, imagining what it must have been like,
0:06:13 > 0:06:17but, look at the height of these walls,
0:06:17 > 0:06:19it must have been something very...
0:06:19 > 0:06:21- Spectacular.- ..spectacular.
0:06:24 > 0:06:27The mural depicts a landscape full of people.
0:06:29 > 0:06:33The figures that you see in this mural are all
0:06:33 > 0:06:37doing things that are related to water, for instance it is believed
0:06:37 > 0:06:43that these people, the figures in blue, are people that drowned.
0:06:45 > 0:06:50And then you see these figures down here that are swimming,
0:06:50 > 0:06:52clearly swimming, like this little guy here.
0:06:55 > 0:06:59This mural is about the thing that Teotihuacan revered above all else -
0:06:59 > 0:07:01water.
0:07:03 > 0:07:06You see the, the rivers, the water flowing,
0:07:06 > 0:07:10with the plants growing, from the water,
0:07:10 > 0:07:16and these round green beads, signify the water as being precious.
0:07:18 > 0:07:21The mural has been dubbed, "The Paradise Of Tlaloc".
0:07:23 > 0:07:25Tlaloc was the god of water.
0:07:25 > 0:07:29He sits looking down over this landscape.
0:07:29 > 0:07:33He had the power to bless the land with rain and fertility
0:07:33 > 0:07:36or curse it, with storms and chaos.
0:07:38 > 0:07:41He's one of the most important deities in Teotihuacan
0:07:41 > 0:07:44and in many other Mesoamerican cultures.
0:07:46 > 0:07:51The entire city of Teotihuacan was built in deference to water.
0:07:53 > 0:07:56The most prominent landmark on the mural is a mountain.
0:07:58 > 0:08:01Sacrificial victims appear to fall into it.
0:08:03 > 0:08:05Their blood becomes the water that flows out.
0:08:09 > 0:08:12This is an image of the sacred mountain Cerro Gordo,
0:08:12 > 0:08:16the dormant volcano that overlooks Teotihuacan.
0:08:17 > 0:08:20The mountain was abundant with springs.
0:08:20 > 0:08:22The people here believed
0:08:22 > 0:08:27it was the source of all the world's water, and only through
0:08:27 > 0:08:31maintaining Tlaloc's favour would the water continue to flow.
0:08:34 > 0:08:38So the temples of Teotihuacan are built to honour
0:08:38 > 0:08:39the mountain by their likeness.
0:08:42 > 0:08:46In their art and architecture, the people here venerated the natural
0:08:46 > 0:08:51world around them, because the landscape embodied their world view.
0:08:57 > 0:08:58The realm of gods
0:08:58 > 0:09:02was not something they could master or control.
0:09:03 > 0:09:04It controlled them.
0:09:09 > 0:09:13Teotihuacan was destroyed in the seventh century.
0:09:13 > 0:09:18600 years later, the last great civilisation to rule
0:09:18 > 0:09:21the Valley of Mexico migrated here from the north.
0:09:22 > 0:09:26We know them as the Aztecs, and the natural world
0:09:26 > 0:09:30was the centre of their artistic universe, too.
0:09:32 > 0:09:36The Aztecs recorded their history in illustrated manuscripts,
0:09:36 > 0:09:37called codices.
0:09:39 > 0:09:43Few of these priceless artefacts remain in Mexico
0:09:43 > 0:09:46and those that do are held in maximum security vaults.
0:09:48 > 0:09:53But here, in the Museum of Anthropology, are exact replicas,
0:09:53 > 0:09:56even down to the deerskin parchment they're written on.
0:10:10 > 0:10:13Baltazar Brito is the director of the library here,
0:10:13 > 0:10:18and an authority on these invaluable windows into pre-Hispanic culture.
0:10:21 > 0:10:26This is the Borturini codex, made over 500 years ago.
0:10:26 > 0:10:30Its system of glyphs recounts the great migration the Aztecs
0:10:30 > 0:10:34made, from the north, to found their civilisation in the central
0:10:34 > 0:10:37Valley of Mexico, in the 14th century.
0:10:59 > 0:11:03The final page of the codex recounts the legend behind the founding
0:11:03 > 0:11:05of the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan.
0:11:08 > 0:11:12The Aztecs built their city on an island in a lake, which has
0:11:12 > 0:11:13since disappeared.
0:11:15 > 0:11:19They believed a cactus emerged from the waters to signal where
0:11:19 > 0:11:22Tenochtitlan should be founded.
0:12:02 > 0:12:04For the pre-Hispanic civilisations,
0:12:04 > 0:12:08the natural world was their reference point for everything.
0:12:10 > 0:12:12Their foundation myths.
0:12:13 > 0:12:15Their religions.
0:12:15 > 0:12:16Their calendars.
0:12:17 > 0:12:22For them, the landscape held the power that shaped their culture
0:12:22 > 0:12:24and their art expressed that they
0:12:24 > 0:12:27belonged amongst this sacred panorama.
0:12:29 > 0:12:33But when a Spanish expedition arrived off the coast of Mexico,
0:12:33 > 0:12:38at the beginning of the 16th century, all of this was overturned.
0:12:45 > 0:12:48The Spanish conquest was a cultural holocaust
0:12:48 > 0:12:50for the Mesoamerican civilisations.
0:12:53 > 0:12:58Mexico City was built on top of the Aztec capital,
0:12:58 > 0:13:04symbolic of the almost total cultural over-write
0:13:04 > 0:13:07the Spanish were about to execute.
0:13:10 > 0:13:13The conquered territories were christened New Spain.
0:13:15 > 0:13:18The population were dispossessed of their land,
0:13:18 > 0:13:23reduced to a disposable source of agricultural manpower.
0:13:25 > 0:13:30Almost all forms of their art were denounced and forbidden.
0:13:31 > 0:13:36By denying them their land, and the freedom to even depict it,
0:13:36 > 0:13:40the Spanish were denying the indigenous population their very identity.
0:13:42 > 0:13:47For the Spanish, this was to be Mesoamerica's year zero.
0:13:55 > 0:13:58The colonial hub for the reboot of Mexican art was here,
0:13:58 > 0:14:01the Academy of San Carlos.
0:14:02 > 0:14:05It was the first academy of arts in all the Americas.
0:14:07 > 0:14:13It's still a functioning art school today, where individual style
0:14:13 > 0:14:14and expression are encouraged.
0:14:17 > 0:14:21But in the 18th century, professors from Spain crossed
0:14:21 > 0:14:25the Atlantic to instruct in the European academic style.
0:14:27 > 0:14:30This room is hung with sketches made over the centuries
0:14:30 > 0:14:32by previous students.
0:14:33 > 0:14:37They were examined on their ability to accurately copy
0:14:37 > 0:14:39mock classical sculptures.
0:14:41 > 0:14:46So this painting in particular, which belongs to Louis, would have
0:14:46 > 0:14:48been his exam.
0:14:48 > 0:14:52It's an exact replica of this plaster cast.
0:14:52 > 0:14:56He would have had to precisely copy it according to the methods
0:14:56 > 0:15:01that they'd been taught, of how to create light and shadow with pencil.
0:15:01 > 0:15:03And he would have to be
0:15:03 > 0:15:07extremely precise in order to even pass his exams.
0:15:11 > 0:15:15San Carlos was more than a school, it was a ministry of taste.
0:15:17 > 0:15:20And students were encouraged to aspire to the art
0:15:20 > 0:15:22of just one place - Europe.
0:15:25 > 0:15:31So the early art of New Spain, was a lot like the art of old Spain.
0:15:31 > 0:15:34The style, from baroque, to neoclassical,
0:15:34 > 0:15:36reflected trends in Europe.
0:15:38 > 0:15:42Very little about it seems authentically Mexican.
0:15:43 > 0:15:46The same applied to the subjects of colonial painting,
0:15:46 > 0:15:49predominantly portraiture and historical scenes.
0:15:52 > 0:15:57What's absent in the art of the post conquest is a Mexican landscape,
0:15:57 > 0:16:01leaving the oppressed indigenous masses
0:16:01 > 0:16:05cut adrift from the very source of their identity.
0:16:08 > 0:16:11But the story of the struggle to reunite the indigenous peoples
0:16:11 > 0:16:16with their landscape is a story of the emergence of Mexican art itself.
0:16:29 > 0:16:32This struggle began with an existential crisis
0:16:32 > 0:16:33on a national scale.
0:16:35 > 0:16:41Just decades after Mexico declared its independence from Spain in 1810,
0:16:41 > 0:16:44it was embroiled in a disastrous war with the United States.
0:16:46 > 0:16:50The US annexed almost half of Mexico's territory.
0:16:51 > 0:16:55Soon after, France invaded and briefly occupied Mexico.
0:16:58 > 0:17:02These humiliating catastrophes left this young nation
0:17:02 > 0:17:04on the brink of collapse.
0:17:05 > 0:17:07It was out of this ferment
0:17:07 > 0:17:11that an artist emerged who, through his landscape painting,
0:17:11 > 0:17:16helped forge a new sense of Mexican national identity.
0:17:17 > 0:17:21Jose Maria Velasco was born in 1840,
0:17:21 > 0:17:24and studied at the Academy of San Carlos.
0:17:25 > 0:17:28To understand his works
0:17:28 > 0:17:33you have to understand the regime under which they were produced -
0:17:33 > 0:17:34the rule of Porfirio Diaz.
0:17:37 > 0:17:39He took power in 1876,
0:17:39 > 0:17:43determined to strengthen Mexico after decades of chaos.
0:17:44 > 0:17:47His repressive 35-year dictatorship
0:17:47 > 0:17:49was known as the Porfiriato.
0:17:52 > 0:17:57Velasco's symbiotic link to Diaz can be traced through his most famous
0:17:57 > 0:18:00painting, which, rather fittingly,
0:18:00 > 0:18:02is hanging in the presidential palace.
0:18:05 > 0:18:09Arturo Alcazar is a Mexico City-based artist with a deep
0:18:09 > 0:18:12fascination for Velasco and the Porfiriato era.
0:18:13 > 0:18:16Well, the nature of the Porfiriato I think is this
0:18:16 > 0:18:22importation of ideas to organise a new political class
0:18:22 > 0:18:26and it starts the industrialisation of the country.
0:18:26 > 0:18:29Velasco built his name with paintings that celebrated
0:18:29 > 0:18:32industrialisation during the Porfiriato.
0:18:35 > 0:18:39Realised in the sumptuous romantic style of Constable or Turner,
0:18:39 > 0:18:43they were among the first landscapes of the post conquest era.
0:18:45 > 0:18:47But Velasco's master works
0:18:47 > 0:18:51were the series of views he painted of the Valley of Mexico.
0:18:54 > 0:18:57This is the only one still hanging in Mexico City,
0:18:57 > 0:19:00painted in 1878.
0:19:03 > 0:19:07It helped turn Velasco into the de facto brand designer
0:19:07 > 0:19:10of the Porfiriato's new Mexico
0:19:10 > 0:19:13because it projected a seductive vision
0:19:13 > 0:19:15of what it meant to be Mexican.
0:19:17 > 0:19:21A sense of national pride, that emerges when you read
0:19:21 > 0:19:24the painting as not simply a landscape,
0:19:24 > 0:19:26but a history of the land.
0:19:30 > 0:19:33Velasco starts his timeline with the Popocatepetl
0:19:33 > 0:19:37and Iztaccihuatl volcanoes that dominate the skyline.
0:19:38 > 0:19:41These embody deep geological history.
0:19:42 > 0:19:46In the primary, elementary school, it's teached this way of being
0:19:46 > 0:19:49proud of the landscape of the volcanoes.
0:19:51 > 0:19:55Next, Velasco evokes pre-Hispanic civilisation,
0:19:55 > 0:19:59with the remains of the lake that surrounded the Aztec capital
0:19:59 > 0:20:02and the causeways that once connected it to the land.
0:20:06 > 0:20:10To symbolise the 15th-century Spanish conquest, there is
0:20:10 > 0:20:12the Basilica of Guadalupe,
0:20:12 > 0:20:15an iconic church in Mexico's conversion to Catholicism.
0:20:17 > 0:20:22I think it's of a big importance for Velasco as a Catholic to put
0:20:22 > 0:20:26these, these place which is of a big importance in terms of,
0:20:26 > 0:20:28of the religious control.
0:20:31 > 0:20:36Everything suggests that, with God's blessing, history has led to
0:20:36 > 0:20:38what Velasco paints dead centre -
0:20:38 > 0:20:40Mexico City.
0:20:43 > 0:20:47The capital of the Porfiriato is rendered every bit
0:20:47 > 0:20:51as integral to the landscape as the ancient volcanoes.
0:20:52 > 0:20:54There's very little animal life.
0:20:54 > 0:20:59The absence of animals for me is saying the land is benign.
0:20:59 > 0:21:02There's no danger. You can walk the land.
0:21:02 > 0:21:06It's domesticated, kind of a postcard, you know, like,
0:21:06 > 0:21:09tourist postcard, come and make your industry here.
0:21:09 > 0:21:12It's like full...empty of savage.
0:21:14 > 0:21:18Velasco's works rediscovered the power of landscape to create
0:21:18 > 0:21:19a sense of identity.
0:21:21 > 0:21:23I think they can be seen as propaganda,
0:21:23 > 0:21:29as part of a fiction of...a new representation of Mexico.
0:21:30 > 0:21:33Velasco's landscapes hung in state exhibitions,
0:21:33 > 0:21:35where they won numerous awards.
0:21:37 > 0:21:42He became the first Mexican artist to gain an international profile.
0:21:45 > 0:21:48But was this really Mexican art?
0:21:48 > 0:21:50For all its beauty and power,
0:21:50 > 0:21:55its style was firmly in the European romantic tradition.
0:21:55 > 0:21:58This was still European art, made in Mexico.
0:22:04 > 0:22:08For this to change, and a truly Mexican art to emerge,
0:22:08 > 0:22:12another part of Mexico's landscape would become the focus of art.
0:22:14 > 0:22:17Something reduced to ornamental detail in the foreground
0:22:17 > 0:22:19of Velasco's painting...
0:22:21 > 0:22:24..the indigenous rural peasantry who worked
0:22:24 > 0:22:26the land as near slaves of the colonial elite.
0:22:31 > 0:22:34Their fight to reclaim ownership of the landscape,
0:22:34 > 0:22:37the very source of their identity, would be
0:22:37 > 0:22:41at the heart of a revolution in both society and art,
0:22:41 > 0:22:47an artistic revolution that started with a story of two exhibitions.
0:22:52 > 0:22:53In 1910,
0:22:53 > 0:22:58the Mexican government proclaimed an art exhibition to celebrate
0:22:58 > 0:23:00the 100th anniversary of independence.
0:23:04 > 0:23:07This show was to feature exclusively Spanish art,
0:23:07 > 0:23:10still considered the apogee of aesthetics.
0:23:12 > 0:23:16This did not sit well with a Mexican writer and thinker
0:23:16 > 0:23:17called Gerardo Murillo.
0:23:19 > 0:23:24Murillo had travelled in Europe, returning to Mexico an anarchist.
0:23:28 > 0:23:29Mexican art, he declared,
0:23:29 > 0:23:33was a stagnant imitation of archaic European styles.
0:23:35 > 0:23:38Murillo became a mentor to young artists
0:23:38 > 0:23:40at the Academy of San Carlos.
0:23:42 > 0:23:45He believed it was through the painting of the Mexican
0:23:45 > 0:23:49landscape they could achieve a genuinely national art.
0:23:51 > 0:23:55When Murillo learned of the exhibition featuring Spanish art,
0:23:55 > 0:23:57he staged a competing show,
0:23:57 > 0:24:00featuring works by his many proteges.
0:24:02 > 0:24:06Among them was a landscape that marked the start of a new
0:24:06 > 0:24:08direction for Mexican art.
0:24:10 > 0:24:14At first glance, it doesn't appear a landscape painting.
0:24:16 > 0:24:21But in fact it depicts one of the Mexican landscape's founding myths.
0:24:23 > 0:24:28The story of how the famous volcanoes Popocatepetl
0:24:28 > 0:24:32and Iztaccihuatl, that dominate the Valley of Mexico, were formed.
0:24:33 > 0:24:36The original painting was in three parts.
0:24:37 > 0:24:39This is one of them.
0:24:46 > 0:24:51Popocatepetl was a warrior, an Aztec warrior,
0:24:51 > 0:24:56and his leader's daughter, a princess, fell in love with him.
0:24:56 > 0:24:58They were lovers and when he went to war
0:24:58 > 0:25:00rumour came back that he'd died.
0:25:00 > 0:25:04Completely taken with grief, she went up into the mountains,
0:25:04 > 0:25:08covered herself in snow and ice, and waited to die.
0:25:08 > 0:25:13The warrior returned and, absolutely devastated to find his lover,
0:25:13 > 0:25:14lay beside her.
0:25:16 > 0:25:19The two dead lovers became the volcanoes that now watch over
0:25:19 > 0:25:20Mexico City.
0:25:23 > 0:25:26The grieving princess became Iztaccihuatl,
0:25:26 > 0:25:30the white lady now permanently snow-capped,
0:25:30 > 0:25:34and Popocatepetl, the smoking mountain,
0:25:34 > 0:25:38the iconic volcano, and they really have formed
0:25:38 > 0:25:42a part of the collective consciousness of Mexico,
0:25:42 > 0:25:45the masculine energy and the feminine energy.
0:25:47 > 0:25:52The young artist who painted this was Saturnino Herran,
0:25:52 > 0:25:56and by depicting the ancient myths behind these iconic landmarks
0:25:56 > 0:26:00he was invoking a very different sense of Mexican identity.
0:26:03 > 0:26:06There's a white woman and a brown-skinned man
0:26:06 > 0:26:10and the paintings are extremely sensual.
0:26:10 > 0:26:14And I can't help thinking that, in a subconscious way, Herran might
0:26:14 > 0:26:21be alluding to his parents, his male and female examples.
0:26:21 > 0:26:24His mother was European and his father was Mexican.
0:26:29 > 0:26:34In a milieu totally dominated by Spanish and colonial imagery,
0:26:34 > 0:26:37it can't be emphasised enough how important
0:26:37 > 0:26:41and ground-breaking this synthesis of landscape,
0:26:41 > 0:26:44pre-Hispanic allegory and fine art was at that time.
0:26:46 > 0:26:50But this painting was only the beginning of the new artistic
0:26:50 > 0:26:53trajectory Herran was helping plot.
0:27:01 > 0:27:03He would come here for his masterpiece -
0:27:03 > 0:27:04Xochimilco.
0:27:10 > 0:27:12A network of canals south-east of Mexico City.
0:27:16 > 0:27:20These waterways are home to ancient farms and rural traditions.
0:27:24 > 0:27:26THEY GREET EACH OTHER IN SPANISH
0:27:30 > 0:27:34Luis Vargas Santiago is an art historian who has written
0:27:34 > 0:27:37extensively about the evolution of Mexican art.
0:27:44 > 0:27:49So, we're in Xochimilco and I've been coming here, I think,
0:27:49 > 0:27:54every year since I was born for birthdays or a family trip out,
0:27:54 > 0:27:59but it's usually on a Sunday and it's usually extremely busy.
0:27:59 > 0:28:04It is, I mean it's Mariachi, and music and quesadillas,
0:28:04 > 0:28:05and it's a fun trip for a weekend.
0:28:07 > 0:28:10Today, Xochimilco is a place to take a leisure cruise
0:28:10 > 0:28:13on one of these trajineras, or canal boats.
0:28:15 > 0:28:17At the turn of the 20th century,
0:28:17 > 0:28:19it was an agricultural zone.
0:28:21 > 0:28:24Herran came here, in 1913,
0:28:24 > 0:28:28to paint what, for me, is one of the most beautiful
0:28:28 > 0:28:31and evocative paintings in Mexican history...
0:28:36 > 0:28:39..as well as a stepping stone to a genuinely Mexican art.
0:28:40 > 0:28:42La Offrenda, The Offering.
0:28:46 > 0:28:49It depicts a family of flower sellers transporting
0:28:49 > 0:28:51cempachuitl, or marigolds.
0:28:53 > 0:28:58These flowers are a key part of an ancient rural Mexican tradition.
0:28:59 > 0:29:03It's the Fiesta de los Muertos, or the festivity of the dead,
0:29:03 > 0:29:07so that's why they are carrying the flower of the cempazuchitl.
0:29:07 > 0:29:13It is generally the flower that you take to graves of people you love.
0:29:13 > 0:29:16So the marigold is La Offrenda,
0:29:16 > 0:29:20but it's also a way for Herran to bring the landscape
0:29:20 > 0:29:22into his imagery.
0:29:22 > 0:29:24That's so true.
0:29:24 > 0:29:30In a constrained landscape, the offering, the cempazuchitl,
0:29:30 > 0:29:33makes it to represent the actual landscape of Xochimilco,
0:29:33 > 0:29:36that all Mexicans are familiar with.
0:29:36 > 0:29:40It's fundamental, to reflect the feeling
0:29:40 > 0:29:42and sentiments of the people, that it's depicted.
0:29:44 > 0:29:48La Offrenda draws its power from the time it was painted.
0:29:48 > 0:29:52By 1913, the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz
0:29:52 > 0:29:55had fallen and the Mexican Revolution had begun.
0:29:58 > 0:30:01The quiet dignity of Herran's indigenous figures
0:30:01 > 0:30:05belies the fact that the country was knee-deep in blood.
0:30:08 > 0:30:11They represent every Mexican, in a year that is very conflictive.
0:30:11 > 0:30:15They are expressing feelings like melancholia, sadness,
0:30:15 > 0:30:18so it's about a drama of life and death.
0:30:21 > 0:30:24La Offrenda reflects the suffering of the people
0:30:24 > 0:30:28who lived off Mexico's landscape in the midst of civil war.
0:30:30 > 0:30:34In the Legend Of The Volcanoes, Herran had used the landscape
0:30:34 > 0:30:36to foreground indigenous legends.
0:30:37 > 0:30:41Here, he was dramatising the ordinary lives
0:30:41 > 0:30:43of the indigenous rural poor.
0:30:45 > 0:30:49This was a total shift in subject matter for Mexican art.
0:30:54 > 0:30:58But while the subject matter was new, stylistically
0:30:58 > 0:31:02Herran was still working within a European framework,
0:31:02 > 0:31:05drawing from symbolism and Art Nouveau.
0:31:08 > 0:31:10He is bridging two faces of Mexican art.
0:31:10 > 0:31:13Coming from a European tradition,
0:31:13 > 0:31:16but with a depiction of a local matter.
0:31:18 > 0:31:23The place of La Offrenda in Mexican art cannot be overestimated.
0:31:25 > 0:31:29But Herran's star burnt brightly and briefly.
0:31:29 > 0:31:34Before the revolution ended, he fell ill and died, aged 31.
0:31:42 > 0:31:46But the revolution's upheaval provoked deep introspection
0:31:46 > 0:31:48about what it meant to be Mexican.
0:31:51 > 0:31:53The war lasted ten violent years.
0:31:56 > 0:32:00A million people died, over 10% of the population.
0:32:03 > 0:32:08It radically reshaped the identity of the nation, and its art,
0:32:08 > 0:32:13and the visceral experience of battle led a landscape painter
0:32:13 > 0:32:17to within touching distance of a genuinely Mexican artistic voice.
0:32:20 > 0:32:24His name was Francisco Goitia, and this is a work
0:32:24 > 0:32:28he produced in the aftermath of a battle in 1914.
0:32:30 > 0:32:34It's a complete departure for Mexican landscape painting.
0:32:34 > 0:32:38This is landscape, not as paradise, but as purgatory.
0:32:43 > 0:32:47The story of this painting marks the start of one of the most
0:32:47 > 0:32:50astonishing artistic journeys in Mexican history.
0:32:52 > 0:32:55A journey that began on hostile terrain.
0:32:57 > 0:33:02In 1914, two armies faced each other on this hill
0:33:02 > 0:33:05overlooking the city of Zacatecas in northern Mexico.
0:33:06 > 0:33:10Defending the city were federal troops, advancing with
0:33:10 > 0:33:15the rebel forces under the command of General Francisco "Pancho" Villa.
0:33:23 > 0:33:26Attached to Villa's army as an official artist
0:33:26 > 0:33:27was Francisco Goitia.
0:33:30 > 0:33:33His next subject was to be the bloodiest battle
0:33:33 > 0:33:35of the revolutionary war.
0:33:35 > 0:33:36SINGING CONTINUES
0:33:47 > 0:33:51Pancho Villa's troops swept over this hill
0:33:51 > 0:33:54and routed the federals into the city.
0:33:54 > 0:33:58There was a slaughter and thousands were killed.
0:33:58 > 0:34:00In fact, there were so many bodies
0:34:00 > 0:34:02they had to be burned in the hundreds.
0:34:03 > 0:34:06And Goitia was here to witness everything.
0:34:09 > 0:34:11It was in the aftermath of this battle
0:34:11 > 0:34:13that Goitia painted his landscape.
0:34:26 > 0:34:31How he produced it is every bit as shocking as the image itself.
0:34:37 > 0:34:39A general fighting for Villa had been captured
0:34:39 > 0:34:42and executed by federal troops in the desert.
0:34:44 > 0:34:48His headless corpse was hung from a misshapen tree.
0:34:50 > 0:34:54Shortly after, the general's ambushers were themselves killed.
0:34:56 > 0:34:59Goitia learned of the incident and found their graves,
0:34:59 > 0:35:05and, with admirable commitment to authenticity, he exhumed their
0:35:05 > 0:35:09corpses, hung them from trees, and sketched a study for his painting.
0:35:19 > 0:35:21Both in style and content
0:35:21 > 0:35:24there's nothing like this previously in Mexican art.
0:35:25 > 0:35:27In his many war landscapes,
0:35:27 > 0:35:33Goitia produced images that haunt you, like flashbacks to a nightmare.
0:35:35 > 0:35:38But what fascinates me most is the style.
0:35:40 > 0:35:45You can almost sense him feeling his way to express the full horror
0:35:45 > 0:35:47of what he was witnessing.
0:35:48 > 0:35:54And when the war ended, something incredible happened in Goitia's art.
0:35:55 > 0:35:57His work shed its darkness,
0:35:57 > 0:36:01and his landscapes filled with light and hope.
0:36:02 > 0:36:05This is the Pyramid of the Sun, in Teotihuacan,
0:36:05 > 0:36:07then still covered in vegetation.
0:36:10 > 0:36:14Captured in the pristine midday sun, this isn't a desolate
0:36:14 > 0:36:17image of abandoned ruins, but a monument to life.
0:36:27 > 0:36:30It's completely entombed in vegetation.
0:36:32 > 0:36:37But it's almost as if the area itself is
0:36:37 > 0:36:42pregnant with this pre-Hispanic culture that's aching to be reborn.
0:36:42 > 0:36:46The texture is incredible, it's so sensuous,
0:36:46 > 0:36:49he's done layer upon layer upon layer.
0:36:49 > 0:36:50It's almost 3D.
0:36:52 > 0:36:57Among his post-war landscapes, what I find so incredible
0:36:57 > 0:37:00is how Goitia appears to deliberately play with style.
0:37:05 > 0:37:10Almost from work to work, his style transformed from one to another.
0:37:10 > 0:37:13If you see a room full of his works,
0:37:13 > 0:37:16they almost look like they could have been made by different artists.
0:37:23 > 0:37:28For me, Goitia is perhaps Mexican art's first truly singular voice.
0:37:33 > 0:37:38Like Herran, he focused his painting on what was uniquely Mexican,
0:37:38 > 0:37:40this country's land and rural culture.
0:37:43 > 0:37:44But he combined this
0:37:44 > 0:37:48with freeing himself from any stylistic straitjacket.
0:37:50 > 0:37:53Goitia died in poverty and a hermit.
0:37:53 > 0:37:56His work was not widely appreciated in his day.
0:38:03 > 0:38:07But among those he did influence were a group of other artists
0:38:07 > 0:38:11set on using the landscape to recalibrate Mexican identity
0:38:11 > 0:38:12in the wake of war.
0:38:16 > 0:38:20By evoking ancient connections to the land, these artists would
0:38:20 > 0:38:24create a truly Mexican art that would resonate the world over.
0:38:27 > 0:38:31The revolution ended in 1920 with a socialist alliance in power.
0:38:33 > 0:38:37The war had been fought over land. Who should work it?
0:38:37 > 0:38:39Who should own it? And who should profit from it?
0:38:42 > 0:38:46The new state aimed to restore the bonds between the indigenous
0:38:46 > 0:38:50rural masses and the lands the Spanish had dispossessed.
0:38:51 > 0:38:55Through this, a new Mexican identity would be forged.
0:38:57 > 0:39:02It fell to art to broadcast these ideals, and in the revolution's
0:39:02 > 0:39:07optimistic aftermath, public murals were commissioned.
0:39:07 > 0:39:11One of these is at the Agricultural College of Chapingo,
0:39:11 > 0:39:13outside Mexico City.
0:39:20 > 0:39:23In the old chapel here is one of the most breathtaking
0:39:23 > 0:39:25sights in Mexican art.
0:39:27 > 0:39:32La Tierra Fecundada - "The Fertile Earth",
0:39:32 > 0:39:34completed in 1929.
0:39:37 > 0:39:39It's a work by Diego Rivera,
0:39:39 > 0:39:41the most feted of all the Mexican muralists.
0:39:45 > 0:39:49It's a celebration of the country's post-revolutionary landscape.
0:39:51 > 0:39:53Many say this is his masterpiece...
0:39:57 > 0:40:00..and stepping inside it is a dizzying experience.
0:40:03 > 0:40:07Above, a technique of painting called trompe l'eoil -
0:40:07 > 0:40:09French for "trick of the eye" -
0:40:09 > 0:40:13creates a feeling of standing below statues suspended in the air.
0:40:15 > 0:40:17So sculptural.
0:40:17 > 0:40:18They're very sculptural.
0:40:18 > 0:40:22We see what looks like relief in all of these panels
0:40:22 > 0:40:23but they're flat.
0:40:23 > 0:40:27Diego, very masterfully, uses this illusion
0:40:27 > 0:40:29of three-dimensional space.
0:40:30 > 0:40:35Katharine McDevitt has been artist in residence at Chapingo
0:40:35 > 0:40:37for 23 years.
0:40:37 > 0:40:39She has studied the murals, their artistry
0:40:39 > 0:40:41and their meaning for decades.
0:40:45 > 0:40:48They contain Rivera's narrative of the Mexican soil
0:40:48 > 0:40:51and the people's relationship to it.
0:40:53 > 0:40:57He begins by reaching back, to the deep past,
0:40:57 > 0:40:59evoking a sense of ancient belonging.
0:41:01 > 0:41:07The first panel that you see, on the right side of the door, is Xilonen.
0:41:07 > 0:41:12She's one of the three corn goddesses in
0:41:12 > 0:41:14the pre-Hispanic pantheon.
0:41:17 > 0:41:21Then he portrays how before the revolution the land had been
0:41:21 > 0:41:25monopolised by wealthy landowners and foreign interests.
0:41:27 > 0:41:30We see a worker, who's being searched as he comes
0:41:30 > 0:41:33out of the mine to see that he doesn't have any pieces of silver.
0:41:33 > 0:41:38The overseers of the mine are not Mexican.
0:41:38 > 0:41:42We notice a group of men and women that are bent in submission,
0:41:42 > 0:41:45they are being humiliated, they are being mistreated.
0:41:47 > 0:41:49Rivera then paints how the
0:41:49 > 0:41:54sacrifices made in the revolution will help transform the land.
0:41:55 > 0:41:58Two fallen heroes of the rural uprising
0:41:58 > 0:42:00are shown buried under a cornfield.
0:42:02 > 0:42:09The sacrifice of the leaders allows the corn to grow strong and healthy.
0:42:09 > 0:42:12The earth is fertilised by the blood of the revolutionary.
0:42:14 > 0:42:18Finally, the transformation to a post-revolutionary landscape
0:42:18 > 0:42:19is complete.
0:42:21 > 0:42:25We see this wonderful panel here at the end.
0:42:25 > 0:42:30She represents Mexico and she is pregnant,
0:42:30 > 0:42:33so she's the fertile earth.
0:42:35 > 0:42:40La Tierra Fecundada was a symbol of how the ancient connections between
0:42:40 > 0:42:44Mexico's indigenous population and the land had been restored.
0:42:46 > 0:42:52Actually, it's a very optimistic view of landscape at this time,
0:42:52 > 0:42:56of what the potential of the Mexican countryside could offer.
0:42:57 > 0:43:02And, for me, it's really a distillation of Diego Rivera's
0:43:02 > 0:43:07social concerns, political concerns, artistic concerns.
0:43:07 > 0:43:11And I would even say spiritual concerns.
0:43:12 > 0:43:18He joins the natural cycles of the land,
0:43:18 > 0:43:24the fertility cycles of an agrarian calendar, to the human life cycles.
0:43:26 > 0:43:29And this to me is what art can do.
0:43:29 > 0:43:34It can make poetic leaps that remind us of profound truths.
0:43:38 > 0:43:42Rivera's mural exemplifies how Mexico's rich diversity
0:43:42 > 0:43:46of landscape and cultures had been matched by art
0:43:46 > 0:43:49similarly bursting with potential and possibility.
0:43:52 > 0:43:56This new art, free from imposed European aesthetics,
0:43:56 > 0:44:00and rooted in the Mexican soil, was celebrated around the world.
0:44:02 > 0:44:06The forces of nature that had shaped this country had helped
0:44:06 > 0:44:09turn its art into an international powerhouse.
0:44:18 > 0:44:22But this new artistic voice wasn't just limited to celebrating
0:44:22 > 0:44:24post-revolutionary identity.
0:44:27 > 0:44:32By the 1940s, for many, optimism was turning to discontent.
0:44:34 > 0:44:37The country had become a near one-party state.
0:44:37 > 0:44:42Many had not tasted the agrarian paradise promised by land reform.
0:44:44 > 0:44:47And personal frustrations with lack of change
0:44:47 > 0:44:50were about to find their perfect expression in the shape
0:44:50 > 0:44:55of the Mexican landscape's most awe-inspiring sight.
0:45:01 > 0:45:03The birth of a new volcano.
0:45:03 > 0:45:06Paracutin, newest of major volcanoes.
0:45:06 > 0:45:11Steaming and hissing, the lava moves on at the rate of 200 yards a day.
0:45:11 > 0:45:13Communications are destroyed,
0:45:13 > 0:45:15five whole towns engulfed.
0:45:18 > 0:45:22The volcano of Paricutin burst through a quiet
0:45:22 > 0:45:26cornfield in the state of Michoacan in 1943.
0:45:27 > 0:45:30It was an international sensation.
0:45:30 > 0:45:35The first time the complete life cycle of a volcano was witnessed.
0:45:36 > 0:45:38But it wasn't just a geological attraction.
0:45:41 > 0:45:44Just weeks after the eruption, a bearded white haired man,
0:45:44 > 0:45:48called Dr Atl, arrived and built a hut by the site.
0:45:50 > 0:45:54Day and night for several years he furiously painted
0:45:54 > 0:45:57Paricutin in an incredible otherworldly style.
0:45:59 > 0:46:03It was as if an obsessive mystic had been presented with a vision
0:46:03 > 0:46:05that needed capturing in every detail.
0:46:13 > 0:46:16The awe Paricutin must have instilled in him
0:46:16 > 0:46:17can still be experienced.
0:46:20 > 0:46:23As the colossal lava flow approached the local church, people
0:46:23 > 0:46:30planted wooden crosses in its path, calling on God to stop its progress.
0:46:32 > 0:46:37The lava covered everything and just as it was approaching
0:46:37 > 0:46:40the altar, it seems to stop, to a dramatic halt.
0:46:44 > 0:46:50So here on one side is the lava and literally a metre later
0:46:50 > 0:46:55are the columns, so people come here, pilgrims, locals,
0:46:55 > 0:46:58from all over Michoacan, to leave their ex votos,
0:46:58 > 0:47:03which are their thank yous, their gratitude for miracles.
0:47:05 > 0:47:08During the eruption, the volcano seemed to have the power to
0:47:08 > 0:47:09wipe the old order from the earth.
0:47:12 > 0:47:17It feels like Mother Earth is just crashing her way
0:47:17 > 0:47:22into our buildings, it feels almost like a clash between nature
0:47:22 > 0:47:24and civilisation.
0:47:24 > 0:47:29And I kind of get the impression that Atl must have been
0:47:29 > 0:47:36so overwhelmed and somehow so inspired by this incredible
0:47:36 > 0:47:37natural phenomena.
0:47:43 > 0:47:47The sheer hallucinatory power of Dr Atl's art matched
0:47:47 > 0:47:50the volcano eruption for eruption.
0:47:51 > 0:47:53To understand this obsession,
0:47:53 > 0:47:56you need to understand something about the man.
0:48:04 > 0:48:07Throughout his life, Dr Atl was many things.
0:48:07 > 0:48:13He was a polymath - novelist, poet, polemicist, philosopher,
0:48:13 > 0:48:17as well as someone whose path this story has crossed already.
0:48:17 > 0:48:21He had been born in 1875, in Guadalajara,
0:48:21 > 0:48:24with the name Gerardo Murillo.
0:48:26 > 0:48:29The same Gerardo Murillo who had staged the counter exhibition
0:48:29 > 0:48:33of Mexican art on the centenary of independence,
0:48:33 > 0:48:37inspiring artists like Herran to paint the landscape
0:48:37 > 0:48:39and indigenous culture.
0:48:40 > 0:48:44Now he had changed his name to Atl, a pre-Hispanic word for water,
0:48:44 > 0:48:49and was about to make his own indelible contribution to the
0:48:49 > 0:48:51canon of Mexican landscape art.
0:48:58 > 0:49:02Some of his key works hang at the Museum Of Modern Art in Mexico City.
0:49:04 > 0:49:06He was playing many different interesting roles,
0:49:06 > 0:49:10through history, so it is this kind of visionary Renaissance man.
0:49:10 > 0:49:12He was always sort of
0:49:12 > 0:49:17promoting a certain way of making this country something better.
0:49:17 > 0:49:19Mario Garcia Torres is a contemporary artist who's had
0:49:19 > 0:49:24a lifelong fascination with not just Dr Atl's art,
0:49:24 > 0:49:26but the motivation for it.
0:49:26 > 0:49:29Today, when you look at a painting, you really think
0:49:29 > 0:49:33why was he doing this, what is this sort of bohemian guy going
0:49:33 > 0:49:34out to the landscape and doing that?
0:49:36 > 0:49:38Atl had been of an anarchist art movement,
0:49:38 > 0:49:41who believed artists should rule the world.
0:49:41 > 0:49:44He had originally supported the revolution,
0:49:44 > 0:49:47but believed society needed more radical change.
0:49:50 > 0:49:54He envisaged a country governed from a futuristic headquarters
0:49:54 > 0:49:55called Olinka.
0:49:58 > 0:50:01Well, Olinka was a really quite visionary, I think quite
0:50:01 > 0:50:06a visionary project, he imagined a very big tower and he imagined sort
0:50:06 > 0:50:10of gathering many intellectuals and artists from all around the world
0:50:10 > 0:50:14and put them together to, to work together and really sort of change
0:50:14 > 0:50:19the faith of the world and he wanted to have that here in Mexico
0:50:19 > 0:50:22and I think immediately people thought this was totally insane.
0:50:25 > 0:50:28Atl wanted to transform Mexican society,
0:50:28 > 0:50:30just like the volcano had its landscape.
0:50:32 > 0:50:37Like Olinka, the volcano here, with its vibrant green luminosity,
0:50:37 > 0:50:42seems to possess the potential to create the world anew.
0:50:43 > 0:50:46It's almost like he's alluding to this
0:50:46 > 0:50:51life force of the volcano and green Mother Nature,
0:50:51 > 0:50:54it's almost like from the destruction
0:50:54 > 0:50:55also comes potential life.
0:50:58 > 0:51:02Paricutin seemed to embody the change in the world
0:51:02 > 0:51:04Atl himself was unable to effect.
0:51:07 > 0:51:10The volcano, which in pre-Hispanic times had housed gods,
0:51:10 > 0:51:14now embodied one man's desire for godlike powers.
0:51:21 > 0:51:25The art of Mexico's landscape had shown it could accommodate
0:51:25 > 0:51:28numerous visions, multiple identities.
0:51:29 > 0:51:32It was no longer a canvas reserved for a single,
0:51:32 > 0:51:34all-encompassing world view.
0:51:37 > 0:51:39And increasingly, in the 1940s and '50s,
0:51:39 > 0:51:42foreign artists were feeling the allure of Mexico,
0:51:42 > 0:51:48as not just a natural paradise, but a utopia of artistic liberty.
0:51:51 > 0:51:53Perhaps the greatest example of this
0:51:53 > 0:51:57is the astonishing surrealist idyll of Las Pozas.
0:52:00 > 0:52:04Hidden in a remote corner of the Mexican highlands is
0:52:04 > 0:52:09a spellbinding collision of exotic flora and fantastical architecture.
0:52:11 > 0:52:15Its creator was a wealthy English eccentric called Edward James.
0:52:17 > 0:52:20But while he was born in Britain, his sculpture garden
0:52:20 > 0:52:23could only have been made in Mexico.
0:52:24 > 0:52:26Mexico is full of these places.
0:52:26 > 0:52:33Strange and bizarre landscapes that you slowly discover.
0:52:33 > 0:52:36It can only happen here. Here in this dramatic landscape.
0:52:37 > 0:52:41Matthew Holmes is an architect who lives and works in Mexico,
0:52:41 > 0:52:43and leads the conservation of Las Pozas.
0:52:44 > 0:52:47This garden allows you to explore.
0:52:47 > 0:52:50It allows you to get lost, it allows you discovery,
0:52:50 > 0:52:52and that's maybe its biggest value.
0:52:53 > 0:52:55Las Pozas was a coffee plantation
0:52:55 > 0:52:59when Edward James came here in the 1940s.
0:52:59 > 0:53:02He was a prolific collector of surrealist art,
0:53:02 > 0:53:07and bought the plantation, intending to create an orchid garden,
0:53:07 > 0:53:09until nature intervened.
0:53:10 > 0:53:15They say he had over 15,000 orchids, when in 1962
0:53:15 > 0:53:20a freak frost, snow storm, killed most of them.
0:53:20 > 0:53:24And that's when he sort of rebelled against the forces of nature
0:53:24 > 0:53:27and said now I will do this in concrete
0:53:27 > 0:53:30and nature will never be able to take it away again.
0:53:32 > 0:53:35James worked on Las Pozas for 20 years,
0:53:35 > 0:53:38relying on local builders and artisans.
0:53:39 > 0:53:42For much of his life, he'd been a drifter,
0:53:42 > 0:53:45restlessly moving from country to country.
0:53:45 > 0:53:48In Las Pozas he found a home,
0:53:48 > 0:53:51a retreat where he could carve his surrealist dreams
0:53:51 > 0:53:54into the very landscape.
0:53:54 > 0:53:57He was definitely escaping, there's no question about that.
0:53:57 > 0:53:59But then again so many people say
0:53:59 > 0:54:02that he'd spent all his life escaping.
0:54:02 > 0:54:03This was his paradise,
0:54:03 > 0:54:07the place where he was finally able to get away from everything.
0:54:08 > 0:54:11But there's something more to Las Pozas
0:54:11 > 0:54:13than James's sculpted Shangri-La.
0:54:14 > 0:54:18A bigger artistic statement, that for me speaks to the role
0:54:18 > 0:54:22the landscape itself plays in the creation of art in Mexico.
0:54:23 > 0:54:28Las Pozas was left unfinished when James died in 1984
0:54:28 > 0:54:32and its final revelation was to happen after his death.
0:54:35 > 0:54:39He said he imagined his structures fading into the forest,
0:54:39 > 0:54:43reclaimed by the landscape, like some pre-Hispanic temple.
0:54:45 > 0:54:49And he hoped a future archaeologist would stumble across them
0:54:49 > 0:54:51and be utterly perplexed.
0:54:51 > 0:54:55Nature itself was to apply the finishing touches to Las Pozas.
0:54:59 > 0:55:03His sculptures weren't designed to dominate the landscape,
0:55:03 > 0:55:05but to be dominated by it.
0:55:10 > 0:55:13Today, the interplay between landscape, rural culture
0:55:13 > 0:55:16and art in Mexico has come full circle.
0:55:17 > 0:55:19In pre-Hispanic times,
0:55:19 > 0:55:24the land and natural forces were the wellspring for all art and culture.
0:55:25 > 0:55:29The Spanish severed these symbolic bonds, but they were restored
0:55:29 > 0:55:33by the emergence of a Mexican art that followed the revolution.
0:55:36 > 0:55:40And I think Mexico's contemporary artists instinctively
0:55:40 > 0:55:44and actively reach for our landscape and indigenous culture
0:55:44 > 0:55:47to inspire works exploring Mexican identity.
0:55:51 > 0:55:54Not just in works that hang in galleries and museums,
0:55:54 > 0:55:58but in the vibrancy and informality of Mexico's street art.
0:56:00 > 0:56:03In this courtyard is a mural called The Dream Weavers.
0:56:05 > 0:56:08It's a symbolic landscape representing all of Mexico
0:56:08 > 0:56:11and celebrating what it means to be Mexican.
0:56:16 > 0:56:20It's the work of two artists - Sego and Saner.
0:56:35 > 0:56:39The mural's central motif is a pair of figures in pre-Hispanic masks.
0:56:58 > 0:57:00The diorama is placed in a lake,
0:57:00 > 0:57:05echoing the waters in which the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan, was founded.
0:57:07 > 0:57:11And the mural is dripping in symbols of Mexico's landscape
0:57:11 > 0:57:12and indigenous culture.
0:57:48 > 0:57:51This mural, a romantic representation of Mexico's
0:57:51 > 0:57:55origin myth, was commissioned by the Museum Of Popular Art,
0:57:55 > 0:57:58to celebrate the 200th year of Mexican independence.
0:58:00 > 0:58:04It stands in stark contrast with the official government exhibition,
0:58:04 > 0:58:09100 years earlier, which featured exclusively Spanish art.
0:58:11 > 0:58:15But since the revolution, it has become inconceivable
0:58:15 > 0:58:18that art, designed to celebrate Mexico,
0:58:18 > 0:58:23would not celebrate its lands, its nature and its rural traditions.
0:58:25 > 0:58:28These themes continue to give Mexican art
0:58:28 > 0:58:30its unmistakable identity.
0:58:34 > 0:58:38In the next episode, I explore how artists responded to the struggles
0:58:38 > 0:58:44for power that forged Mexico and how its history has been defined by art.