The end of the world
Yesterday, during Artbo, the large international art fair here in Bogotá, I found a little book for sale by Mexican artist, Magali Lara . In it, Lara writes on “The End of the World:”
“Is it an edge and then nothing?
"Some messages started to appear on the internet about an asteroid colliding with the Earth and the arrival of a second Sun. I’m certain it was based on some scientific theory, and it was very similar to the plot of Lars von Trier’s Melancholia. Although, to be perfectly honest, it also reminded me of some Superman stories I read as a child.
"When or what is the end of the world? Old age? Illness? Death? Not believing in love?
"The violence we have both witnessed and been victims of over these past years challenges the idea I grew up with that the future is a promising place. Is it the end of the world then not to be able to think about a future, to live day by day?
"Against this dark pall I have thought about color -about how color brings me joy. I’ve decide that using color is a good way of remembering other things besides the institutionalized violence from which politicians reap economic rewards. That violence unnerves me and I often dream of death and devastation. It’s easy to believe that’s all there is. I think of Antichrist, also by Von Trier, as that pitch black. Plus he equates this with women. How terrified we are of the body!”
Magali Lara

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