Antipodes exhibition with Andrés Monnier opens during Mexico Art Week 2023

Their inaugural exhibition Antipodes debuted during Zona Maco this month, and the exhibition will remain on view until April 2023. New works by Mexican designer Andrés Monnier and Argentine artist Pilar Zeta are on display, curated by Alban Roger and Jorge Brown Cott.

By definition, an antipode is the direct and diametric opposite of something else. For this exhibition, Philia shows the contrast between two minds, two worlds, two universes, and features two bodies of work linked by one common thing: rock. Andrés Monnier and Pilar Zeta create a nostalgic feeling of an ancient synergy between humans and stones.

Rock, an ancient material, is impossible without time. Formed over thousands, or millions, of years, rocks bear the weight of time. Human beings, on the other hand, are in constant pursuit of immortality, yet our average lifetime is nothing compared to the process of rock formation. A contrast between our ephemeral and their perpetual existence. Antipodes was born from the idea of questioning the perception we have about time, our ephemeral and rocks perpetual existence.

Andrés Monniers’ pieces invite us to connect with our genesis, and to the origins of human design. To provoke people and make us question how we are leading this human world and the planet we think we posses. His Pyrus installation alludes to our ancestors and the collective amnesia we play a part of by forgetting from whence we came. Created with rock, fire and metal, Monnier’s rock pyramid sculpture alludes to the architecture of Mesoamerica. The affinity of choosing rocks as a material for our human world is the link we have with our ancient cultures and past. The appreciation and malleability of rocks are present despite human evolution.

Ultimately, Antipodes ask the question: “Humans are capable of transforming matter, to intervene the natural process of a stone and create a whole different philosophy, but are rocks capable of transforming humans?”

February- April 2023
Av. Ejercito Nacional 676
Polanco III Sección,
Miguel Hidalgo, 11540,
CDMX, México

Curation: Galerie Philia Jorge Brown Alban Roger