Teresa Margolles
Mexican, born 1963
Esta finca no será demolida (This property will not be demolished) presents an unflinching and unromanticized view of the decaying buildings of Ciudad Juárez, a Mexican city along the United States border that has long suffered from drug-related gang violence. The title reflects the artist’s belief in the power of art to act as a memorial: Teresa Margolles began documenting the buildings before they were demolished. For the artist, the project of photographing Juárez’s buildings is an indirect means to record, without sensationalizing, the effect of prolonged violence on its residents, who struggle to operate their businesses or otherwise carry on with their lives. Like these buildings, although they may have suffered, these people, too, “will not be demolished.”