El Dorado
France is looking to Mexico for the theme of the 5th edition for Lille3000. With the "Eldorado" event, the whole city is pulsing to a new rhythm of urban metamorphoses, between grand exhibitions and eclectic events
De La Torre Brothers installation for Lille3000 explores El Dorado both as a metaphor for greed and utopia. Central to the installation is the result of desiring El Dorado, a dinner table set in opulence and decadence as greed begets more greed. Eyes look at you from the coffee cups because El Dorado always comes with the guilt of taking other peoples wealth. The heart topping it all cannot have another bite.
El Dorado means The Golden One. The original El Dorado comes from the Muisca (also called Chibcha) tribe in Colombia, they initiated new chiefs by covering them in gold dust and submerging them in Lake Guatavita. The the wall paper at the end of the installation room features a dorado chief about to be dipped in a Lake of Mayhem. El Dorado by De La Torre Brothers is represented by a sculpture of the Turkmenistan’s leader, Saparmurat Niyazov. Above Niyazov, there is the bull fighting arena that is situated right at the US-México border. To the right, one can see a “Voltaire vortex”. Voltaire wrote about El Dorado in his famous book “Candide”, in which Candide searches for a utopia. Eventually Candide finds it as the kingdom of El Dorado, but Candide, unsatisfied, leaves. The wall paper on the left wall features an image of a revolution as a cyclical vortex of desire for utopia. The left wall also features an image of the fence that separates the US and México, the fence runs in to the Pacific Ocean. On the American side one can see San Diego as EL Dorado for immigrants. The wall paper on the right side features a wall made of organs and cactuses, and here, the Brothers keep the ambiguity as to on which side El Dorado resides.
A sky blue wall with sleeping Mexicans ascending cloud to cloud like a video game can be found at the other end of the gallery. The sleeping Mexicans ascend by doing nothing, propelled by an aztec calendar made of modern symbols; the ascending sleeping Mexicans are also cut down by aztec calendar-pack mans, and some, eventually reach El Dorado.
Einar and Jamex De La Torre: El Dorado: US - Mexico Border
Curated by Ana Elena Mallet, Lowery Stokes Sims
April 26 – July 27, 2019
Association lille3000, 105 Centre Euralille, CS 80053 F-59031 Lille Cedex, France
ElDorado-lille3000.com
