Together with curator Catalina Lozano, in early 2012, I began visiting the Community Museum of Xico Valley, in the municipality of Valle de Chalco Solidaridad led by Genaro Amaro Altamirano, co-founder and chronicler of the museum. From its inception in 1996 it has grown to include today more than 5,000 Pre-Hispanic objects donated by local residents who found spontaneously while building their houses or working the land.
The museum does not receive any funding, instead it is maintained through the volunteer work of the local community. The collection is recognized and classified by the INAH (the National Institute of Anthropology and History), but many of the pieces have lost some of their archeological value, as they were not analyzed in their original context. The museum also runs its own parallel classification system that follows specific empirical archeological and historical criteria, which was developed by Don Genaro in the years following his arrival in Valle de Chalco. This classification system often differs from that used by the INAH.
This attitude of opposition to officialdom, in which symbolic and affective value exist together with the scientific aspects, is the place from where Killing Pots emerges.
A selection of 18 pre-Hispanic pieces from the Xico Valley was copied in meticulous detail, using the same type of material. All of these pieces are functional objects that are now being used by their owners, after spontaneously finding them. Each copy was split into two pieces and those were then reproduced again with the particularity that each fragment contains a piece of the others, so that the smaller piece is converted into the larger piece, and the larger piece into the smaller piece.
The title comes from the interpretations on the custom of various Mesoamerican cultures of, on occasion, drilling a hole in or break domestic utensils in order to consecrate them before burying them with the dead so as to make an offering.
72 stone pieces. Different sizes
With the collaboration of Museo Comunitario del Valle de Xico, Genaro Amaro and Xico inhabitants. With the assistance of Oscar Garduño, Manuel González and Juan Fraga's workshop.
Produced by Labor with the support of
Museo Experimental El Eco.