"Fractura (La Tormenta)/ Fracture (The Tempest)" is a large-scale, research-based installation exhibited at Casa Maauad Gallery in Mexico City. The installation includes prints of images sourced from the Internet and objects acquired and utilised by the artist during a residency in Mexico City. These objects, among them newspapers, old books, cigarette packs, and beer bottles, display texts written in the typographic family Fraktur (also known as Gothic). Some objects were carefully painted with black oil paint.
Fraktur typography has a violent political history, having been introduced in Mexico during the colonial era. By combining these selected images and objects, Ianês emphasises the political impact of language and typography, connecting them to a historical process marked by violence and exclusion, which has also been appropriated and trivialised by Mexican popular culture. The Spanish Catholic church used fonts from the Fraktur family, which later appeared in the official branding of the German NS Party (alongside Blackletter types), and are now utilised by Mexican street gangs and in hand-painted advertisements on city walls.
Fraktur typography has a violent political history, having been introduced in Mexico during the colonial era. By combining these selected images and objects, Ianês emphasises the political impact of language and typography, connecting them to a historical process marked by violence and exclusion, which has also been appropriated and trivialised by Mexican popular culture. The Spanish Catholic church used fonts from the Fraktur family, which later appeared in the official branding of the German NS Party (alongside Blackletter types), and are now utilised by Mexican street gangs and in hand-painted advertisements on city walls.
