Colecciones de arte

Victoriano, Batesville, 1997

DESCRIPTION

The series of portraits carried out in Basteville, which, as in his other portraits, gives rise to the title of the series -next to each person's name, which individualises the images- are an exception in Männikkö's work, for they are photographs taken of people who are far from their habitual settings and in an absolutely different set of circumstances.

In Texas, the Finnish artist found a population very similar to that he was used to portraying in his own country: a group of people banished from society, estranged from its customs, with few belongings and without much to do during the day. Mexas is the name with which Männikkö has dubbed this strange but foreseeable fusion of Texas and Mexico, a fusion he portrayed by individualising its subjects in an aesthetic style resembling that of his earlier works.

In this series, the image of the subjects is foremost. Whereas in the earlier series, the importance of the objects and the simple décor of the living quarters were all important, on this occasion the physical features of each individual are highlighted in each picture. Here , we once again observe the importance of the frame as visual enclosure of the photograph, an enclosure that is inevitably representative of to the central figure of the image, reinforcing that poor nature and belonging to a certain rural and kitsch aesthetic that emphasises the sociological character of these works. R. O.