LABOR is thrilled to announce Teresa Margolles’ first solo exhibition in Belgium at the Hainut Providence Art Museum BPSS22, called “Te alienas o te alineamos (You fall in line or they put you in line)"
The exhibit is Teresa Margolles' response through video, photography, sculpture and installation, to the devastating violence in Mexico, her country of origin, as well as the rest of the world, and the search to testify the consequences that it has on society.
The title of the exhibitions comes from a piece that Margolles made in 2007 called “Decálogo / Decalogue”, referencing the 10 commandments of the catholic religion. Like the commandments, she wrote down 10 messages that drug dealers had left after different murders. “You fall in line or they put you in line” is the eight commandment of this decalogue.
The exhibit reveals, not only the limits that violence and crime impose on you, but also the domination that social norms and poverty have over humans.
The first part of the exhibition is centered around the physical, psychological and economic violence suffered by women and how they resist it.
Charleroi is center to the second part of the exhibition, Teresa Margolles found industrial remains, abandoned buildings, young stray drug addicts, wild prostitution, etc. things she never imagined to find in northern Europe, that also reminded her of Ciudad Juarez.
In this section, Margolles shows the economic decline of the city and its current transformation that has led to the marginalization of different individuals. She presents a collaborative work with people she met in the streets showing their faces and words, trying to restore their dignity and their struggle against the social exclusion they suffer.