By
Álvaro De Benito
REINTERPRETATIONS BY DEMIÁN FLORES OF VIOLENCE, MYTH, AND REPRESENTATION
The Mexican artist reinterprets colonial-themed prints by Theodor de Bry to question the construction of otherness and denounce neocolonial violence and contemporary conflicts.
May 08, 2026
Demián Flores. Instituto Cultural de México en Madrid
America. New Visions from the Old World is a graphic arts project by Demián Flores (Juchitán de Zaragoza, Mexico, 1971) hosted by the Instituto Cultural de México in Madrid, continuing the line initiated with Collateral Disasters (2012), a series inspired by Francisco de Goya’s The Disasters of War. In this new body of work, the artist presents forty pieces that reinterpret the series The Noble Savage, Anthropophagy, and The Destruction of the Indies, through which Theodor de Bry shaped part of the visual narrative of the New World.
The Belgian engraver worked from the perspective of someone who never traveled to the Americas, yet became one of the most influential printmakers in the construction of the American imaginary during the 16th century, a field where fascination, morality, and politics intersect. In his engravings, Indigenous peoples oscillate between two representations: one idealized, in harmony with nature, and another marked by horror and the imagery of cannibalistic barbarism.
Demián Flores reinterprets and rewrites these images through a contemporary visual language that articulates layered temporalities, in which ideas seem to recur. His work proposes a rereading of signs and symbols, both historical and contemporary, to question the mechanisms through which otherness and violence are constructed and perceived.
From this perspective, the artist challenges the notion of a moral justification within the European or Western discourse that once legitimized colonization. The series also establishes links between colonial narratives and contemporary forms of violence in Mexico, as well as other contexts of conflict and domination.
Demián Flores: America. New Visions from the Old World is on view until June 5, 2026, at the Instituto Cultural de México in Spain, San Jerónimo 46, Madrid.
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