Lille Festival honors the art and culture of Mexico

The vitality of the Mexican culture and the utopian search that characterizes it will fill the streets of the French city of Lille for seven months, which dedicates its Eldorado festival to Mexico, through its heritage, popular art, and contemporary creation.

Calaveras typical of the Day of the Dead festival, alebrijes, imaginary animals of papier-mache wood or clay, painted in bright colors, and urban art reflecting pre-Hispanic codes and current concerns are some elements that adorn the center of that city of France to honor the cultural richness of Mexico.

"It is a beautiful occasion to strengthen the friendship between our nations at a time when relations between the United States and the countries of Latin America are weakened and they turn their gaze towards Europe," said the mayor of Lille, Martine Aubry, at the opening. This year, the theme is around the myth of El Dorado, the mystical search of a dreamed world "as a current social question in a world marred by social inequalities".

With a great diversity of events, more than 700 according to the organization, Lille invites its visitors to discover "the strength of the Mexican imagination" with a cultural program estimated at around eight million euros.

The program contains exhibitions such as Intenso / Mexicano, a permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico that includes 48 paintings, hand-made engravings, and photographs by artists such as Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and Francisco Toledo.

Facing the migration crisis, the US-Mexico Border exhibition presents 60 works on border and migration issues in the context of these two countries.

"In US-Mexico Border, we imagined El Dorado as perhaps we, the Mexicans, imagined the United States as a better world," said the curator, Ana Elena Mallet, who brought together a group of 35 artists who explore the border issue. from identity, imagination and its various possibilities.