Edgardo Aragón. Family Effects

The thirteen episodes that comprise Edgardo Aragón’s video Efectos de Familia (Family Effects) (2007–9) resemble children’s games intensified with disturbing violence. The work’s staged depiction of assassination, punishment, and interment are based on actual events that involved Aragón’s extended family and their brushes with what the artist describes as “organized crime, [the] abusive pursuit of land ownership, and involvement in social corruption.” In one sequence, a group pretends to kill a car driver by firing a barrage of bullets at the vehicle; the segment is based on the actual murder of Aragón’s cousin in the 1990s. By inviting young family members—cousins, nephews, and the artist’s younger brother—to enact the roles in the places where Aragón used to play as a child, the artist further compounds the role of family in his work. According to Aragón, the adolescents in his video are all too young to have had direct experiences with the events they recreate, and were unaware of this side of the family’s history, although repercussions continue to be felt via social stigmas and other means. By making the video with family members, he seeks to prevent the cycle of violence from perpetuating on to another generation.

Edgardo Aragón (Mexican, b. 1985) lives and works in Oaxaca and Mexico City. He graduated from ENPEG La Esmeralda, Mexico City, in 2008. Aragón currently has a solo exhibition at the LAXART Off-Site Initiative at the Luckman Gallery, Los Angeles. His work has been included in international festivals and venues including the 12th Istanbul Biennial; the 8th Mercosul Biennial; Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; Museo Amparo, Puebla; BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels; LABoral Center for Art and Industrial Creation, Gijón, Spain; Ambulante Documentary Festival, various cities in Mexico; and the Festival of Contemporary Art, Prague. Forthcoming exhibitions include the opening of the young artists program in MUAC-UNAM, Mexico City, the Moscow International Biennale of Young Art, and the International Documentary Festival of Marseille.

Edgardo Aragón
Family Effects
Kurator: Christopher Y. Lew