Resumen inglés

This Doctoral Thesis; Vegetable era. Botanic references in Mexican contemporary sculpture (1990-2010), is dedicated to the study of expression and implications that the vegetable kingdom has had on contemporary Mexican sculpture. By means of the documentation provided in this study, as well as analysed botanical references in artistic performance, it is clear that the use of botanical references in artistic practice over the last decade of the 20th Century and beginning of the 21st is without a doubt, an important sign of the interest that arises in the relationship between Art and Nature in the Mexican context. This proves the importance of the natural construct and its conceptual ramifications in the field of research and creativity in contemporary art. 

The investigation carried out starts off with an approach to the vegetable kingdom and the historical and cultural relationship between the human being and plant life. This has been approached by authors of varied backgrounds and from different angles of knowhow, such as, Homero, Demócrito and Lucrecio, to Goethe, Foucault and Guattari. This referential has allowed us to work from different interdisciplinary perspectives in areas such as, symbology, mythology, anthropology, aesthetics and/or sociology. As a result, our study starts off with reflexions and contributions from Worringer, Dorfles, Tatarkiewicz, Deleuze or Eliade, Cirlot and Bachofen, among others.

During the preparation period of this doctoral thesis (1990-2010), Mexican sculpture has shown an increasing interest for the use of plant elements. There are previous records for such practice: Helen Escobedo, Jan Hendrix, or Marta Palau. Starting with the work of these artists, the research analyses a number of uses of vegetal references in a wide compilation of art works and artists aligned with this trend, expressed themselves in three different discursive lines.

First of all, our study addresses a number of artistic proposals that focus on the use of the plants as formal, structural and symbolic reference. In these works, the representation of the vegetal element or parts thereof is imperative. These works may also show a trend towards abstraction and synthetical representation.

Secondly, the analysis focuses on art works and projects with a concern for environmental issues as a basis for their discourse. The main aspect of these works are twofold; on one hand, the strong link between art and life and on the other hand, the relationship between art work and the artist himself as a human being, as part of one ecosystem.

Finally, a third analysis deals with those artistic expressions where vegetal presence is used as work material and as a concept linked to a particular process and specific time frame. In these cases, the artistic representation of the plant is substituted, in situ, by the plant itself, bringing a fundamental change in the treatment and artistic results achieved.

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