Néstor Jiménez – Vieja Disciplina (una revolucion es un perro con rabia y los perros rabiosos viven poco), 2022

Blaise Adilon

Venue

Usines Fagor

Lyon

Born 1988 in Mexico City, Mexico, where he lives and works.

The architectural representations of Néstor Jiménez strip bare the divisions relating to class, culture and geographic origin that are embedded in the built environment. The artist’s new work, Vieja Disciplina, examines the administrative and economic deterioration of the Mexican labour system after the neo-liberal model was introduced in the 1980s. Inspired by the stories and body language of six people who have lost their jobs, Néstor Jiménez has composed a large polyptych, using materials traditionally associated with construction, such as concrete and bone black, a pigment made by charring the bones of cows (an animal historically associated with labour and exploitation). The installation, dominated by dark hues that suggest the atrophic effect and the monotony of labour, acts as a metaphor of the human suffering and existential void caused by being unemployed.