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What follows are works where archival, mythical, political and social themes become intertwined. A concrete sculpture reaching to the sky, holding vulture wings, brings Nezahualcóyotl’s daily life in relation with the divine. The many vulture wings refer to the divine seraphim. The concrete pilar is inspired by the unfinished houses in Nezahualcóyotl. ‘People often don’t finish building their houses, in hope that at one point they will live under better circumstances to realise for example a second floor on their house.’

In another room, two unfinished big paintings on panels of cement fill the walls. They visualize a recurring nightmare that descends from the memory where Galván had to play football with his father and uncles every weekend. But in order to go to the football fields that were close by a huge dumpsite, Galvàn had to cross these mountains of garbage. His vivid dream-like paintings derive from different things such as television, mythical ideas and personal experiences. You see violent police men, a carcass of a dog and a romantic couple. There is a dialogue going on between the past and the present, between the horrific and the beautiful. These dualities are also visible in his choice of materials. The panels of cement, which have a punk DIY aesthetic contrast his academic way of painting.

‘I work a lot with cement, which is already a difficult material, but here it is also different than in Mexico,’ Galván explains. ‘In Mexico I had developed a formula for it, but once I arrived here, it took me a week to discover a new formula that would be right for the materials I had on hands here.’ Working with different and unknown materials is already a challenge, but the difference between working in Maastricht and working in Mexico is even more black and white, he continues. ‘Every day I am confronted with cultural shocks.’

In his works, Galván deals with everything his home environment brings him, at Marres he brings this environment to Maastricht. A typical Mexican sidewalk is recreated, near it stands a catholic cross and some candles. ‘This is something you see a lot in the streets of Mexico,’ he says. ‘If someone dies in the street, from an accident or something worse, they put up this kind of memorial.’ On the wall above the sidewalk portraits are displayed from missing people in Mexico and the founders of Nezahualcóyotl. He realized how similar these portraits were to each other. By combining the two in one installation he creates a place to remember the people that disappeared in silence.

The artworks in the exhibition contain a lot of information. It already takes quite some time to look at every detail. It makes me wonder whether it is important to understand everything that we see. ‘That’s why the exhibition is created like this, with a first part that opened in March, wherein some works are still being completed, and a second part that will open in June when everything will be finished,’ Galván explains. ‘It invites people to visit, revisit and reshape their thinking. The strongest and most impressive art is the one that acts like an enigma. I do not want to show everything in the first impression.’

At the end of our conversation, Galván gives me the booklet about the exhibition. He makes clear that this must not be understood as an academic text: it is an exploration of the poetry and soul of the exhibition. ‘A lot of things happen in layers, like political and social situations. Poetry can bring the horrors and the beautiful things into dialogue. Without poetry this wouldn’t be possible.’