Damián Ortega: Corn and Industry gathers an important selection of works by the artist that span three decades of practice and testify to the close dialogue that his work has maintained with the construction of Mexican culture.

The exhibition focuses on two concepts that work as metaphors throughout the show: on the one hand, sowing and harvesting, and on the other, processes of industrialization. Ortega reflects on the contrast of these two concepts, telling an alternative story of the Mayan myth of creation––where corn is at the origin of the human race, reaching the globalized post-industrial era, and embodying the overall chaos brought about by the pursuit of progress. These concepts articulate the notions of energy, transformation, ecosystems, and technology, the latter understood as the set of knowledge, instruments, and technical resources that humankind has implemented to influence the world they live in.

Curated by José Esparza Chong Cuy, the exhibition is organized non-chronologically with an introduction and three conceptual blocks: Harvest, Assembly, and Collapse, all of which suggest the artist's wide vision.