Brilliant Ideas Episode #13:
Abraham Cruzvillegas

Abraham Cruzvillegas was born in Ajusco, a district in the south of Mexico City with a landscape of volcanic rock. It was there in his hometown that the artist acquired an important aspect of his work. The artist's parents moved to Ajusco after the Mexican oil boom made rural farming difficult. Ajusco was not included in the urban development project at the time, and was little more than a wasteland. To survive the harsh environment, they had to build their own home, with the help of the village community. The community helped one another with building homes, constructing rooms, altering existing ones, fixing roofs. The community did not receive government support nor was anyone wealthy, and had to rely on whatever materials they could find around the community. Bricks, discarded timber, and plastic materials of different sizes, and even paint cans were used to construct living spaces, built by the voluntary participation of the village people. Through the process of construction, useless materials become useful, transformed into objects that embody the community's independence and identity. The voluntary and participatory attitude of the community became a rallying point for regional development and their fight against government corruption, creating close community ties and gradually making the district a better place to live.

Cruzvillegas' exhibition at Tate Modern's Turbine Hall keeps course with his past works of contextualizing 'found' objects. A unique aspect of this exhibition is that the primary material is dirt. In the same vein of bringing found materials into a new context and giving them as a work of art, Cruzvillegas has invoked a material that is seemingly just lumps of earth to observe what new values and messages it may sprout.
The large-scale installation which makes full use of Turbine Hall, Empty Lot (2015) may be described as a large triangular structure reminiscent of a bow on a ship, and can be viewed from above or below the platform. Underneath the platforms, the supporting scaffolding present a sturdy geometric architecture. Above the structure, a grid of 240 triangular wooden planters with a total 23 tons of soil are geometrically organized, interspersed with grow-lights that the artist made himself. The materials used for the lighting fixtures were also collected from waste, by request to the curators and other colleagues who participated in the installation project. Long rods, bathroom door, and other seemingly unrelated objects were used to create light fixtures. The soil in the planters were sourced from several different parks and gardens around London. By preserving the natural environment of where he sourced the soil, Cruzvillegas allowed nature to carry on its natural order of things. The artist awaits an occurrence to come from the soil, while providing lighting and hydration. The visitors also await. The waiting is to see whether or not something will happen.

Abraham Cruzvillegas is a conceptual artist who was born in Mexico City in 1968. He majored in philosophy, painting and pedagogy at National Autonomous University of Mexico and was a professor at the same university. He creates installations using abandoned, forgotten and useless objects like garbage. The important aspect in his works is that he ‘reuses’ the objects.
Through his work process, those abandoned objects become unfamiliar structures, so we can take away the original meaning. He is influenced by the term ‘autoconstrucción (Self-construction)’ which refers to the culture of people who migrated in the 1960s from rural areas to metropolitan Mexico City. This generation, which included Cruzvillegas’ own parents, developed houses and their community mainly through recycling and adaptation of found materials. Mexicans’ independent and open-minded attitude when accepting newly discovered objects has been an inspiration and is an important motif for Cruzvillegas.