Giant Olmec sculptures have been heading into DuPage County throughout June for the outdoor exhibit, “Olmec Trails: Culture and Legacy.”
What is “Olmec Trails: Culture and Legacy”?
The new exhibition features large-scale Mesoamerican Olmec heads, hand-painted by 33 artists across North America. The project was started in late 2022 by the Mexican Cultural Center DuPage and Meztli, Mexico, in partnership with the College of DuPage Public Art Project and the DuPage Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Its purpose is to celebrate Mexican heritage and the ancient Olmec civilization, a group that crafted stone heads between 1400 BCE and 400 BCE in the area that is now the southern part of Veracruz, Mexico.
“It’s one of the original civilizations. So, sometimes it’s not one of the ones that are most spoken [of], you know? And so with that came a lot of great history,” said Fernando Ramirez, president of the Mexican Cultural Center DuPage (MCCD).
Artists across North America arrive in DuPage County to paint the sculptures
In May, several artists arrived at the McAninch Art Center (MAC) at the College of DuPage to kick off the painting process. Each artist was given the creative freedom to use their sculpture to showcase what the Mexican and Olmec cultures meant to them.
“All the Mesoamerican cultures were also very interested in the spirituality after death and so on. So there’s a connection to this, an actual trail on the head that’s [the] color green, that starts in the back of the head. If you follow the trail all the way around, which then comes to the front all the way to the top, it symbolizes the connection between the past and the present, and this spiritual quest that we all have been into for millennia,” said Sergio Gomez, Olmec Trails artist.
Others added a more personal touch to their sculptures.
“I kind of wanted to incorporate Mexican culture to kind of tie in the Olmec culture with the Mexican culture. So the design on the front is Day of the Dead inspired with the corazon, the heart, in the center, kind of to tie in the old and the new into one encompassing heart. So I kind of wanted to just embrace my culture and put it all into one,” said Liz Gonzalez, Olmec Trails artist.
College of DuPage will be the home of 10 Olmec heads, while the rest will be scattered throughout DuPage County, with two placed in Naperville. The “Olmec Trails” website has a map showing where to locate the giant heads and a list of all the artists and pictures of their sculptures.
“Olmec Trails: Culture and Legacy” kick-off event
There will be a free kick-off event on June 30 from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Lakeside Pavilion behind the MAC Art Center. Guests will hear live music from Mariachi Monumental, see a performance by Ballet Folklorico Quetzalcoatl, and enjoy visual art and mural painting for children.
The MAC will also feature a historical exhibit explaining the history of the Olmec civilization. The heads are scheduled to stay in DuPage County through October.
“I think people are going to get a really nice wide range of approaches of paintings, approaches of ideas, approaches of concepts, and we hope to, you know, enrich their cultural history,” said Gomez.
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