(n.) An object surviving from an earlier time / something from a beloved one that is taken care of.

op.cit. is proud to present “Relics”, a solo exhibition by Christine Rebet in Mexico City.

Composed by a selection of two bodies of work that delve into ancient myths (sumerian and nahua), “Relics” is an exhibition that comments on the parallelism of those stories that tell about the foundations of cities, rising red suns, and bird gods, as they consider land as characters of struggle, renewal and reanimated life.

“Thunderbird” (2018), is a 5’ 50’’ film from 16mm to digital, based on the ancient myth of the construction of Girsu, one of the first cities known to humankind, and built by Prince Gudea. The research work was carried out by Rebet after lengthy conversations with the chief archaeologist of the "Iraq Scheme" initiative of the British Museum in London, Sebastien Rey, and is presented as a response to the destruction and looting of archaeological sites in the Middle East through the reconstruction, translation and symbolic/subjective preservation of some of these survival fragments of antiquity.

“Bocetos para un Sol posterior”, (2021) es un díptico de pinturas realizadas durante el último viaje del artista a México, y hace referencia al mito nahua de la “Leyenda de los Soles” donde se narran los viajes de cinco soles sucesivos, que terminan en escenarios catastróficos que dan lugar a nuevas eras. Esta antigua leyenda a veces se entiende como un presagio apocalíptico relacionado con las devastadoras consecuencias del cambio climático, con sus incendios catastróficos, inundaciones épicas, contaminación ambiental generalizada y dislocación social que estamos experimentando en el tiempo presente.

The dialogue between these two pieces, and Rebet’s solo exhibition “Relics” as a whole, present us with vestiges of multiple interpretations that have traversed historical time, where, as the artist says: “images become cinema, a paper cinema”: thousands of drawings become a materiality of memory, the repetitive dimension of animation become devotion, and drawing reveals itself inseparable from language, from handwriting, and from storytelling.

Christine Rebet (b. 1972, Lyon) is an artist that lives and works between Paris and New York. She has exhibited and held performances in various international contexts, including: Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris; Bureau, New York; LACE, Los Angeles; Human Resources, Los Angeles; Kunsthal KAdE, Amersfoort, Netherlands; Grieder Contemporary, Zurich; AlbumArte, Rome; Unge Kunstneres Samfund, Oslo; Sculpture Center, Long Island City, New York; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Singapore; Site Sante Fe, New Mexico; Le Magasin, Grenoble; Shanghai Art Museum; Parasol unit, London; Kamel Mennour Gallery, Paris and Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo.

Rebet’s work is part of the collections of Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France; MAC VAL | Musée d’art contemporain du Val-de-Marne, Vitry-sur-Seine, France; and KADIST, Paris, France, and San Francisco, CA, USA.