CARLOS GINZBURG'S MEXICO TRAVELS, AT HENRIQUE FARIA, THE BEST BOOTH IN ZONA MACO, MEXICO

Carlos Ginzburg

México, 1980

From the Series “Los viajes de Ginzburg" 1972-1982

Silver gelatin print on board

21 Panels 40 1/8 x 48 in. (101.9 x 121.9 cm.) each

Unique piece

As part of a project that will take him across the world, in a sort of documentation frenzy or a topographical study of the globalization of the world rather, Carlos Ginzburg created a series of photographs that until now have remained hidden from us. The work, a series of 21 panels comprising eight photographs each, was realized during Ginzburg’s visit to Mexico in and around 1979. As a study of the “Americanization” of the tourist experience, as the artist would explain, the work is subdivided into three categories; that of ‘Marker,’ ‘Tourist’ and ‘Sight.’

Representative of the expansion of the means of knowledge and communication, that became increasingly accessible during the 1970s an 1980s, Ginzburg embarked in a global expedition that would take him from Argentina, starting in 1972, all the way to its conclusion in Nepal in 1982. Always ‘acting’ the role of the tourist, Ginzburg engaged the “microevents” he so faithfully depicts with full force. The quasi-aggression of the motives that took him around the world can be read as a performance of touristic endeavor; it stands as an amalgamation of the artist as social documenter and performative actor.

In Mexico, the series in question, the artist traveled to well recognized location such as “Chichen Itza,” “La torre Latino Americana” and “The Anthropological Museum.” In subdividing the tourist experience in his work, Ginzburg is able to document his global performance. The ‘Marker’ acts as the information, diluted in a series of photographs that give the viewer a contemplative, if rather idealized, idea of the location. The ‘Sight’ stands then as an interpretation of the location through the artist’s perception of the place, a less idealized view. The ‘Tourist’ then stands as conflagration of the experience. The artist in his \role of actor fully engages the location and willingly takes part of the ‘tourist experience.’

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