Mixpantli: Space, Time, and the Indigenous Origins of Mexico

(Los Angeles—September 16, 2021) The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) presents Mixpantli: Space, Time, and the Indigenous Origins of Mexico, coinciding with the 500th anniversary of the fall of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan (modern-day Mexico City). This exhibition subverts the traditional narrative of the conquest by centering the creative resilience of Indigenous artists, mapmakers, and storytellers who forged new futures and made their world anew through artistic practice. Nahua scribes and painters gave the name mixpantli, or “banner of clouds,” to the first omen of the conquest, depicting this omen as both a Mexica, or Aztec, battle standard and a Euro-Christian column enveloped in clouds. Mixpantli, then, reflects the bringing together of both Nahua and Christian worldviews, and the efforts of Indigenous peoples to reorient space and time in a new world and era. 

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