the comeback highway

On the esplanade of Mexico City’s Zocalo, ERRE placed 50 shallow wooden molds arranged in a long line. The trail symbolized the highway connecting Los Angeles with Mexico City. The artist and four volunteers mixed cement which they poured into boxes before walking the path and leaving their footprints in the wet cement. ERRE added thirteen signposts which bore the names of the cities that lie between these points and indicated the distance between them. The artist walked the path from north to south, from Tijuana to Mexico City, alluding to his family’s migration but in reverse; while the people from Mexico City walked from their place of origin to the Los Angeles end, returning metaphorically to Aztlán, the ancestral home of the Aztec peoples. The idea was to “unwalk” the migrations of their ancestors. After the performance, passersby could retrace their footsteps or enact their own journeys home. The artist has compared the resulting piece to Pre-Columbian codex.
1998. Exhibited: Plaza de la Constitución (Zócalo) in Mexico City, commission for Ruta T.iJ.uas-D.eF.e, Ex Teresa Arte Actual.