In addition to the mapping of the diverse routes followed by the current art scene in Mexico, the Contemporary Art Collection of the Museo Amparo has incorporated to its reserve bodies of work or specific research within the trajectory of various artists. In the case of José León Cerrillo (San Luis Potosí, 1976), the installation that makes up Gnomon/Cómo leer un mapa [Gnomon/How to Read a Map] (2015), synthesizes the results of a critical inquiry the artist has carried out throughout his practice on the traditions of minimalism and abstraction, formulating different ways of challenging the viewer's perception.
This installation displays a set of elements that create a sense of misplacement. Its base corresponds to a 1:1 scale tennis court, dislocated within the exhibition space. The circular elements placed on the wall, could represent a sun traveling across the sky during the day or a tennis ball bouncing on the court. The artist simultaneously proposes a game based on time and space: while the gnomon is the part of a sundial that casts the shadow and at the same time tells the time, the intervention on the floor configures a sort of map or playing field.
For Cerrillo, much of his work resides in the idea of interpretation itself. The installation, including its title, functions as a mise-en-scène for the various elements that transmute from one form to another: the metal structures generate a virtual volume that in turn continues as a drawing by connecting with the lines of the tennis court, which then can represent markers or indicators for the structures themselves. Likewise, there is the sun or the tennis ball, which crosses the court or the wall and becomes the central axis of the paintings and cyanotypes, presented as a visual map.
