Melanie Smith: Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Limmatstrasse, Zurich

Parres is a little town not far from Mexico City. Although politically belonging to the megalopolis, it lies lost between city and countryside. In addition, Parres is no longer part of the state of Morelos, which is well known for its tropical vegetation and its volcanic origin. Parres no longer belongs therefore to Mexico City, but owes much to the urban context, because most of its inhabitants still commute. The new inhabitants don’t move to Parres for the air quality, but rather for cheaper living conditions.  Housing development is fast and with few or no official permission to build. Parres is a town without identity; there is no centre, and little sense of community. The population has little relation to the town, although most are native Mexicans, they often come from far away and from poorer areas of the country. During the rainy season the badly fixed roads are not passable, then a brown mud flows beside the simple houses built of stone, wood and corrugated metal. In contrast to this setting the houses are beautiful painted in yellow, pink or green.

 

Melanie Smith will show new paintings, which are titled Parres or refer to it, and other ”disappearing” landscapes. Furthermore there is a 35mm film, converted on DVD. One sees a fair skinned woman with a bag standing outside in the pouring rain in Parres. It seems that the rain does not disturb her. The protagonist gives the impression that she doesn’t know where she belongs. Maybe she is asking herself where she belongs or respectively if she is a part of the Mexican society. In another room we present large format paintings. These images display landscapes/views of the unspecific identity of the town of Parres, painted in the tradition of photo-realism, in colour and black and white, but without any traces of human life.