During the last decade, Aguirre has found in words – written language and its signs – a tool with which he builds ideas and generates thought. For this exhibition at MODO, the artist worked with a set of Picot Songbooks, belonging to the museum´s collection, and from which he selected a series of phrases from Mexican popular songs in which degrading references are made towards women. Thus, through the five pieces generated for this exhibit “Od_a a la mujer”, Aguirre evidences misogyny, the contempt for the feminine gender, a phenomenon perhaps imperceptible but common at the time when the first Picot Songbook was published in 1928.
Verses that describe common situations of love, heartbreak and deception, are exposed by the artist as ambiguous phrases, loaded with double meaning and in which women are referred to as a deplorable beings who deceive and betray. Following the playful process of ambiguous language, Aguirre plays with formal resources – light, color, moving images – and creates pieces that aesthetically seem to be an exaggerated set of graphic procedures that seek to generate a sort of attraction in the viewer. However, when carefully looking at these pieces, a judgement is revealed towards a situation that has not changed – at least not substantially or in a general way – in our society.
The exhibition was presented from October 21 to April 30, 2011.