Premio Combat Prize

From the series “Collateral Damage from the war of Calderón”
The former President of Mexico, Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, during his incumbency between 2006 and 2012, waged a ”frontal struggle”, the “war of Calderón” as the citizens from the entire country have called it, against the organized crime. Nevertheless, the method used in order to combat the criminality led to the opposite results, creating a grotesque image of Mexico: increase of the continuous violence of human rights, scarce legal system, corruption and the ”new barbarism” without ending, used by the groups of criminals.
The victims, of all ages and social statuses, have been defined by the Mexican government as ”collateral damages” and are expressed solely by numbers. Yet, behind the statistics lies a personal story and every number represents a small part of the huge social cloth, which day after day is being destroyed. This situation leads to the loss of the native values of the Mexican culture, which is being modified towards a direction that goes beyond our worst catastrophic expectations.
The portrait “#50,382 México, November 2011” is depicted by using the traditional technique of oil on canvas and after its completion has been partially burnt in order to symbolize the mutilation of the social cloth -here represented by the linen of the canvas- provoked by the ’war’ combated with the wrong mediums and a strategy self-destructive for the country.
Born in Mexico in 1979, Francisco Rojas Miramontes earned his BFA in visual arts from the University of Guadalajara, Mexico, and his MFA in visual arts from IUAV University of Venice, Italy. Currently lives and works in Venice.