Published in the catalogue Item: reading an inventory from 1709, Spanish Cultural Centre, Mexico, 2002

Item.

Item is an exhibition about the history of the building occupied by the Spanish Cultural Centre and the uses it is going to have from now on. In this house from the old town of Mexico city, an inventory of the goods of Tomás Lozano was made in 1709. The proposals included in the exhibition are based on this document.

Four artists read the inventory, previously studied by the historian María Concepción Amerlinck, and choosed objects to locate them in a new context. The works by Luciano Matus, Jorge Méndez Blake, Carlos Ranc and Héctor Zamora are known for their contemporary, even technological language, which establishes a counterpoint with the historical heritage. Their ways of reading cross each other and mould time, they spread, contradict and melt. New readings can arise from the readings than Item suggests, trying to enrich our relationship with the city's memory.

The objects used in the exhibition neither belonged to the house nor necessarily date back from 1709, however, they're settled in the interpretation field. In these projects the acts of reading and imagination are more important than the strict respect for a historical "truth". In short: isn't history a process of reconstructions that allows us to generate ideas to be used in our present?

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