#Chavis Mármol

[neshamama]

chavis mármol, "untitled destruction project," 2024, nine-ton quarry stone replica of colossal olmec head dropped on blue tesla model 3

[mudwerks]

(via Mexican Artist Crushes Tesla Model 3 Under 9-Ton Statue)

Mexican sculptor Chavis Mármol dropped a nine-ton replica of an ancient Indigenous Olmec head onto the roof of a Tesla Model 3 in Mexico City as a brilliant commentary on modern society’s obsession with materialism, excess, and capitalism. 

Mármol eloquently explained the significance of his sculpture in an interview, which translated roughly to,

The Olmec head imposes itself before the technological object, bursts it, crushes it, and in the end this glorified object with all that technology is just that; it is just a product of a capitalist system when in reality what really matters is where we come from, what we are, and what we have been, generation after generation.

[cosmonautroger]

Chavis Mármol

[fromthedust]

Chavis Mármol (Mexican, b.1982)

[hassandarwiche]

Chavis Mármol (b. 1982)

Neo Ta Memes (I don’t Care) Series, 2024

Roma Norte, Mexico City

"The Olmec head imposes itself before the technological object, it bursts and crushes it and in the end it is glorified before this object, which no matter how technological or how much it is an object of desire, in the end it is just that, just a product of a capitalist system, when in reality what matters is what we came from, what we are and what we have been generation after generation"

[expectsomuch]

Artist Crushes Tesla With Colossal Olmec Head Sculpture

[tielt]

->

Chavis Mármol

[edwordsmyth]

Chavis Mármol, Tesla Crushed by an Olmec Head, 2024.

[gloamglozer]

Chavis Mármol, Tesla Crushed by an Olmec Head (2024)

[sorrysomethingwentwrong]

Chavis Mármol's Neo-Tamene (from the series)

Sculptor Chavis Mármol has never owned a car, but that’s never inhibited his drive. Earlier this month, the 42-year-old Mexico City-based artist (who travels largely by bicycle) dropped a nine-ton replica of an Olmec head onto the roof of a blue Tesla Model 3.

The car was donated by Colima 71,, a boutique hotel in Mexico City.

The work is a mix of humor and criticism that explores the Mexican pre-Hispanic past from a Western neo-colonial perspective.

All photos by and courtesy the artist

[troutreznor]

Chavis Mármol 2024

[fundgruber]

Artist Chavis Mármol dropped a nine-ton Olmec head made of quarry stone onto a blue Tesla Model 3

"Mármol cited the late artist Jimmie Durham’s piece “Still Life with Spirit and Xitle” (2007) as an inspiration for his performance. A satirical critique of the historical colonization and present-day corporatization of Mexico, Durham’s work consisted of the destruction of a 1992 Chrysler Spirit by way of dropping a smug-faced volcanic boulder onto the vehicle’s roof."

[temporalmandala]

9 ton replica of Olmec head crushes a Model 3 Tesla (part of the Neo-tameme series), by Chavis Mármol (2023).

[conversart]

Bertrand Lavier & Chavis Mármol