lawrence

toby

Language is imbued with social, cultural, and political biases. With Definiciones (Definitions), Carlos Colín explores the impact, limits, and ruptures of language in our everyday lives, and the ways in which language shapes our thinking about life, social structures, race, culture, geography, politics, and art. As a Mexican artist working in a Canadian context, this project presents a series of definitions in English and in Spanish to generate dialogue around human rights and established power structures by questioning what a democracy means, or a society means, and how we can reclaim language that is inherently colonial.

As a Latin American artist, Carlos Colín investigates how to use local knowledge, lived realities, and histories as new expressions of social and cultural progress. His research topic explores and connects the core cultural, theoretical, social, political, artistic intersections between art, society, and decolonialization. He has studied baroque as a colonial legacy in contemporary Mexico, and by extension, Latin America. One of the goals of his research and art practice is to encourage new generations in Latin America and abroad to be exposed to Latin American theories, culture, and knowledge. Colín's interdisciplinary research areas of interest include History, Art History, Latin American Art, Contemporary Art, Latin American History, Anthropology, History, and Indigenous Knowledge Systems.