Luis Carrera-Maul (b. Mexico City, 1972) is a visual artist, curator and art professor. He received his Master’s degree in arts teaching at the Faculty of Arts and Design (FAD) at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). He completed his Postgraduate studies in Visual Arts at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and the University of the Arts in Berlin (UdK). Luis Carrera-Maul is the founder and director of the LAGOS – Studios and Residencies for artists, created as a platform for experimentation and exchange for national and international artists. He has received several awards and recognitions, including being a Member of the National System of Art Creators (FONCA), and the Acquisition Award in 2010 at the II Biennial of Painting Pedro Coronel. He was nominated for Best Latin American Visual Artist in the United Kingdom (LUKAS Awards, 2015), and nominated for the Prix Thun for Art and Ethics in Switzerland in 2017.

I understand my artistic practice as an exploration of the forms and processes of nature. In this case the exhibition Bodenlandschaften is an exploration of the Landscape as an object of investigation. Landscape as a motif in the pictorial tradition, warns that an observing subject and an object of observation is necessary to define its visual, spatial, and conceptual qualities. In this sense, these pictorial objects resulting from dry soil transferred on canvas refer us to personal experiences in the natural landscape and a recognition of the human being as part of nature.

These works are an indication of the lack of water, of a process of drought and desertification. Water scarcity is one of the most critical problems we face as a civilization in terms of sustainability. In a short time, we have witnessed how large parts of the earth’s surface have changed dramatically and have become desert areas. The periods of droughts are becoming longer and longer because of Climate Change, which, among other reasons, force the displacement of the migrant population due to the lack of water.

Mud, clay, or any ceramic paste has this quality of referring us not only to the Earth as the place where we live, but also to the origin of life itself. From the creation myths of some religions to the very development of civilization, ceramics is a utilitarian, artistic and cult object. The ceramic material is sensual and attractive because it connects us with nature, evokes primal images of our collective unconscious, while confronting us with the aesthetic and ethical, through the artistic experience.