Neon Sign, 180x40 cm, Edition of 3+1, Christoph Draeger, 2005

Installation view, Museo Carillo Gil, Mexico City, 2007

Tlatelolco is the name of the square that has become synonymous with the massacre of student protesters committed by the Mexican military on Oct 2 1968, one week before the Olympic games started.  In a turbulent year with massive student protests worldwide, most famously in Prague, Berlin, San Francisco, New York, and Paris, it was probably the biggest massacre of its kind-however, outside of Mexico this remains a little known and almost forgotten fact. By contrast,  the Olympic logo of Mexico68 by the US designer Lance Wyman is still well remembered anywhere, and is frequently recycled in fashion and design. I converted this famous logo for the Olympic Games from MEXICO68 to the word TLATELOLCO, thus superimposing two different layers of historic representation that were intimately connected by time, effect and cause, but which were separated historically and in the collective memory. This simple move was ultimately realized in form of a bright neon sign, as if to advertise this late revelation- but also to burn the image of that word into the retina of the viewer, as a memorial of events that should not be forgotten. 

See also: Arquitectura Contemporánea (with Heidrun Holzfeind)