 |
| Mexican artist Javier Marin's "Chalchihuites" is on display in front of the mirror pond at the National Museum of Korea in Seoul's Yongsan District in celebration of the museum's ongoing exhibition, "Aztecs." Courtesy of NMK |
By Park Han-sol
Mexican artist Javier Marin's monumental sculpture, "Chalchihuites," which represents pre-Hispanic and contemporary Mexico marked by the history of 16th-century Spanish conquest, was unveiled at the plaza of the National Museum of Korea (NMK) this week.
The imposing piece created by sculptor Marin arrived in Seoul to be in dialogue with the museum's ongoing exhibition, "Aztecs."
"Chalchihuites" ― meaning "precious stone" in Nahuatl, the language spoken by the Aztecs and the majority of the inhabitants of central Mexico before the Spanish conquest of the region ― consists of two monumental rings that are five meters wide in diameter, with hundreds of fragments of human figurines stitched together.
The ring shape refers to a pictograph that remained significant in Mesoamerican iconography as it can represent water or blood.
The two wheels each symbolize the pre- and post-Hispanic eras of Mesoamerica and reflect the complex historical relationship between the conquerors and the conquered as well as between victims and victimizers, according to the national museum.
 |
| "Mictlantecuhtli, the Lord of the Underworld" (1430-1502), left, and "Skull Mask" (15th century) from the collection of the Museo del Templo Mayor in Mexico on view in the National Museum of Korea's "Aztecs" exhibition. / Courtesy of NMK |
Meanwhile, "Aztecs" is the first exhibition hosted in Korea to revisit and reassess the culture and history of the Aztec Empire, one of the three dominant civilizations in the Americas alongside the Mayan and Incan cultures prior to European colonization.
To this day, the history of the Aztec civilization is mostly remembered in popular fragments. Stories highlighting the brutality of their sacrificial rituals and warfare against neighboring city-states as well as the myth that the indigenous population mistook the Spanish conquistadors for their deity are a few of the only elements that have been seared into popular memory.
However, such images, propelled and justified by European colonizers for centuries, overshadow the role of the Aztec Empire in connecting the large parts of Mesoamerica through a strong governing body that enforced a tribute system and the conquest of other city-states.
The NMK's ongoing exhibition has been organized to broaden and renew understanding of Mexico's indigenous culture, featuring 208 relics and artifacts from the collections of 11 major museums in Mexico, Germany, Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland and Belgium. A handful of items on view are being unveiled for the first time since they were discovered in recent excavations conducted across Mexico City.
The show begins with the presentation of the reproduced Aztec Sun Stone, an iconic, monolithic sculpture weighing 25 tons that portrays the Aztecs' unique worldview and mythologies.
It then delves into the political and economic system of the empire based on wars launched to unite areas in today's Mexico, as well as the tribute system, which was used as a means to govern the distant city-states. Also showcased are stories of people's daily lives contained in the images and pictograms of the Codex Mendoza, a book detailing precolonial Aztec history and daily life dating from 1541.
The highlight of the exhibition focuses on the Templo Mayor in Tenochtitlan, the prosperous capital of the Mesoamerican empire, where significant rituals and ceremonial events took place. Artifacts like the ceramic statue of Mictlantecuhtli, the lord of the underworld, indicate how human sacrifices served as the Aztecs' political and spiritual means to command the population of various ethnic groups within the region.
"Aztecs," along with Marin's outdoor sculpture, will be on view at the NMK through Aug. 28.
![[ANALYSIS] Pandemic awakens demand for data-driven automation](https://img.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/thumbnailV2/2b05d621a193420abef7ee24b95eab3d.jpg/dims/resize/178/optimize)
