Mauricio Guillén

SOS-Edition 2009
Edition: 50
Numbered and signed ditone print
65 × 46,43 cm
Euro 400,00 per sheet (incl.VAT)
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Mauricio Guillén was born in 1971 in Mexico City. He studied in London at the Royal College of Art, and in New York at Parsons School of Design and the Cooper Union School of Art. During the years 2006 and 2007 he held a visiting professorship at the Royal College of Art.

Mauricio Guillén is a conceptual artist and works with a variety of materials and mediums. His art functions through implicit connections of significance. One of his goals is the “dematerialisation” of the artwork and the inclusion of the viewer. This way familiar perceptions, notions and correlations of the world are challenged, often in a humorous manner. In his artwork, Guillén plays with contexts, meanings and associations.

Guillén grew up in Mexico City and is familiar with the frequently precarious situation of the local children. His SOS Edition is about the insignificance and thus a symbol of the work of the SOS Children’s Villages in Mexico. He says he has liberated a piece of paper from its abject condition and therein lies the analogy for the rescue of the children from the insignificance.

Guillén has participated in many international group exhibitions.
His works were shown at the National Gallery in Prague, at the Domus Artium in Salamanca, at the Falckenberg Collection in Hamburg-Harburg as well as at the Barbican Centre in London. In 2007 he exhibited his art at the Tate Modern in London. In 2009 he participated in the Third Riwaq Biennale in Ramallah. In 2011 his work was shown at the Beige Cube in Frankfurt am Main and at the Kunstverein Frankfurt.

He had solo shows at the Dörrie Priess in Hamburg in 2008 and at the Grieder Contemporary in Zürich in 2007. He has been living and working in Frankfurt, Germany since early 2009.

SOS Children’s Village, Mexico City

Mexico City with its population of nineteen million is one of the world’s largest cities. In 1971, the country’s first SOS Children’s Village was founded. After forty years, its work is not less important than it was on day one. The escalating social problems are making more and more children lose their parents. For many of these children, the acceptance into an SOS Children’s Village means they are finally able to grow up in a family and with their siblings.

After decades of use, the SOS Children’s Village had become dilapidated and was in urgent need of reformation. The goal was to restore the SOS Children’s Village to a suitable condition to ensure that also in the future, orphaned children in Mexico City could be given a home and future prospects. For cost reasons, it was decided that the family homes would be newly built.

Within one year, twelve houses for up to 108 children were constructed. They are earthquake-proof, bright and functional. They have water and energy saving measures in order to take care of the environment. In mid 2010, the SOS Children’s Village families were able to move into their new homes. When needed, the Village can be extended by building additional family homes.