In Idols before Altars, the artist seeks to approach and comprehend the work of communities neighboring the Museo Anahuacalli. In this offering may be observed the participation of La Candelaria, a local community that completed carpets of sawdust featuring the serpent, an element and form that is repeated continuously throughout the collection, and the representation of the souls of loved ones through the baking of bread. Likewise, the people of San Pablo Tepetlapa created large arches and pathways of flowers. The work presented by both communities conveys traditions that have been sustained for over 50 years in Offerings to the Dead.

This contemporary display brings together over 60 works inside and outside the Museum, playfully interacting with space and intervening the pre-Hispanic works to create a dialogue between pre-Hispanic and contemporary Mexico. The artist places halos on the artworks in the collection in reference to the idols that in centuries past, were concealed behind the saints; on this occasion, the pre-Hispanic works that form part of Diego Rivera’s collection are found in the foreground.

Romero designed the skulls, candles, and paper cut-outs that adorn the altar to Diego Rivera, as well as a route of sawdust carpets that flow across the first floor, evoking the path that the migrants transit when they go from place to place. Moreover, we will be able to see intervened pneumatic tires as a constant element in the work of the artist, creating Tzompantlis that form part of the celebration.