Since 2005, photographer and visual artist Diego Berruecos began documenting the documentation of elections in Mexico-the repetition of documenting is not a coincidence, much less a misprint. "I started by going to the newspaper archive," says Berruecos. "There I found these photos of Mexicans voting on the day of the presidential election." What at first seemed like a portrait of the country soon revealed itself to Diego as a story of recurring characters. Thus was born this visual chronicle of the Mexican elections.
A chronicle of cutbacks
"I began to see that there were certain characters in political life that you met before, during and after their heyday," he says. "You start to find Carlos Salinas as secretary of state, then as a candidate, then as president, then as former president...". This collection of clippings forms a visual chronicle of the elections in Mexico. In the series we can see from the ordinary citizen to the politician in high office. In between, all kinds of citizens: actors, writers, actresses, military men, musicians, nuns, etc.: the rich and wealthy in between. Et cetera: the rich and endless fabric that we Mexicans are made of.
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The piece was exhibited for the first time at the XII Biennial of the Centro de la Imagen, in 2006. At that time it was entitled "Chronology of Power (1932-2000)". At la memoria de la BienalBerruecos makes an intriguing point. "Taking into account that the vote is secret, these portraits of people voting provoke a great intrigue in me: there is something in those photographs that cannot be known". This secrecy can also be the beginning of a questioning: what happened with those votes after the photo, "especially in that PRI period in 1976 when the PRI won with 97% of the votes because there was no rival candidate", as Diego rightly points out.
In the selection of photos we made from Diego's archive we found a suspicious chronicle of Mexican democracy. Berruecos continues to feed his archive every six years. This Sunday, a new batch of clippings will be added to his archive.
