Work in progress | SOON to be released l Zona Maco Artfair l 2025 l Mexico City

Aldo van den Broek’s Lotería de los Muertos transforms Mexico City’s discarded fragments into a visceral exploration of identity, power, and transformation. The series draws on lotería and Día de los Muertos, reimagining archetypes through works constructed from cardboard, wood, fabric, and soil—materials collected from the city’s streets. Scarred by time and abandonment, these fragments carry the memory of urban decay and renewal, becoming both medium and metaphor for the fragile cycles that shape human and urban existence.

“Living on the margins teaches you one thing: nothing is permanent. The city spits these materials out, and I rebuild them—not to save them, but to show how little control we really have.” For Van den Broek, a self-taught artist whose life has been shaped by instability, destruction is not an end but a beginning. His process of layering, scraping, and rebuilding mirrors the collapse of systems and the chaotic attempts to rebuild them. The works are raw, tactile, and scarred, bearing the weight of history and the possibility of renewal.

At the heart of the exhibition are archetypes that reflect both collective struggles and personal truths. El Rebelde (The Rebel), a riotous crowd in protest, and El Conquistador (The Conqueror), a lone figure on horseback, speak to cycles of rebellion and power that shape societies. La Muerte (Death), a haunting pile of skulls, serves as a stark reminder of mortality, while La Ofrenda (The Offering), a delicate bouquet, embodies resilience in remembrance and transformation. More introspective works include La Revelación (The Revelation), a figure illuminated by an unknown light, which captures the tension between clarity and mystery, and El Exilio (The Exile), a man sitting alone with a bottle of mezcal in a ruined landscape, evoking solitude and the search for meaning amid collapse.

In a world fractured by war, political unrest, and collapsing systems, these works feel eerily familiar. “It’s like a global lotería now—the cards keep turning up worse: death, rebellion, conquest. And the deck feels stacked against us.” Rooted in Mexico City’s cultural traditions but resonating far beyond, Lotería de los Muertos uses the city’s symbols as a lens for exploring global instability.

Yet even within collapse, rebirth emerges—fragile and fleeting. “Everything rots, but what follows isn’t always renewal. Sometimes it’s just another kind of chaos.” These works leave us with a question: What remains when systems fail? And how do we rebuild from what’s left?

Homecoming Gallery
DUO presentation with Johnny Mae Hauser
Zona Maco Artfair, 2025, Mexico City, Mexico
February 5 until February 9, 2025