Citroën DS Art On Display in Mexico City
If you are in Mexico City between now and August 3, 2025, pay a visit to Gabriel Orozco’s “Politécnico Nacional” exhibit at Museo Jumex. “Politécnico Nacional” is the name of a prestigious public school in Mexico City and also, at least ostensibly, what Orozco currently identifies as: a poly (as in many) technic (as in media), national artist. It is his first museum show in Mexico for almost twenty years, and on display is an art piece called La DS Cornaline (2013).
Viewing it from the side you might wonder what the art factor is in this DS? It looks like a complete Citroën DS21 when seen from the side, the eye only seeing something amiss when the car is viewed from an off-angle.
In La DS, Orozco was trying to achieve ‘anamorphisms’, which creates the illusion of the deformed as a whole. Orozco meant to force the viewer to confront the duality of power and impotence. In an increasingly materialistic world, people tend to assign certain symbols to objects they create, just like the power and speed illusion of La DS. Yet when this symbolism is removed, the inanimate object remains impotent – of no use, just like the engine-less La DS.
Orozco created the first La DS in 1993 — a silver colour slimmed version identical in dimensions to the red replica that he made in 2013.
The idea germinated during his childhood when he imagined that a sleek car would be faster.
For the first La DS, Orozco disassembled a Citroën DS with the help of his friend and assistant Phillipe Piccoli. They removed the middle part of the vehicle, then reattached the two outer sections transforming the DS into a two-seater — one space in front and one in back. La DS’s doors and windows can be opened and locked.
On the occasion of 20 years of the first La DS and during a stay in Havana, where vintage cars are plentiful, Orozco was inspired to create a second edition of La DS.
Both editions of La DS have made tours in Northern America and Europe alongside Orozco’s other works in photography, painting, and sculpture.
The “national” part of the Mexican exhibit’s name has caused a stir among local critics as Orozco has refuted his Mexican-ness in displaying his art internationally and only now has he returned home to embrace his country.
