The Voyeur

Nowadays, gender is considered a concept that transcends systems like social constructs, and is interpreted as well through the lens of colonialism. Speaking about gender forces one to consider what the ancestors went through with the given prejudices we have today. In reality, it has been sexual identity that has contained greater fluidity, as with what traditionally was the case in Mayan cosmology. There was no “masculine” or “feminine” There was no unity without collectivism. And without collectivism–no “Mother Earth,” no “Father Sky.” Thus, humans were created to be with each other.

“The Voyeur” forms part of Daniel Uranga’s exploration of the symbolic analysis of vestiges of Mayan culture, and their relationship with the present systems of sex/gender that are present today in Mexico The artists looks at how, beyond these representations, the Mexican State sought a greater level of control of its society, specifically by only exhibiting archelogical pieces that exhaulted the masculine ideal, and who evoked a ritual quality, and which included a way of maintaining a close relationship with daily social life, all while limiting the accessibility of those works that were linked with the range of ancient sexual conduct.

Text by Raymond Tobechi and Tan Uranga

Photographs by Fernando Etulain.