Hugo Toro’s Aguas que murmuran: A poetic exploration of ancestry and memory
Hugo Toro’s artistic journey unfolds in his first exhibition, Aguas que murmuran, presented at the Mexican Cultural Institute in Paris under the auspices of the Embassy of Mexico. This collection of large-format canvases serves as a memorial exploration, revealing the Franco-Mexican artist’s deep connection to a homeland he has never physically inhabited yet experiences on a subliminal level.
His work channels the essence of his nomadic sensibility, shaped by his diverse origins and extensive travels, which he documents meticulously in notebooks. Water, an element that defies permanence, becomes the central motif of his artistic expression. It transforms, evaporates, and dissolves, mirroring the ephemeral nature of memory and nostalgia.
In Hugo Toro’s canvases, water is not merely a visual representation but a metaphor for the fluidity of identity, the permeability of cultures, and the interwoven echoes of ancestry. His paintings invite the viewer into a world of blurred boundaries where precision meets abstraction, and the contours of memory become indistinct.
Through the incandescence of colored vapors, dreamlike landscapes materialize, reflecting a dual heritage that shapes his imagination.The interplay of fauna, flora, myths, and legends of Mexico forms a poetic narrative in his work. Color, initially raw pigment, undergoes a transformation—absorbed into the brushstrokes, merging the tangible with the ethereal. Earthy elements give life to movement, creating a symbiosis between material reality and abstract emotion.
His technique enhances the ambiguity between the fragility of recollection and the intensity of reminiscence, immersing the observer in a visual language that oscillates between clarity and obscurity. Hugo Toro’s paintings carry the weight of waterborne stories—echoes of cultural crossings and ancestral imprints that flow like tides between distant shores. His work evokes an oxymoronic sensation, where nostalgia is simultaneously luminous and melancholic.
This duality reflects an internal conflict between belonging and displacement, a yearning to grasp a heritage that remains elusive. The artist’s roots are scattered yet intertwined, submerged in a surge of emotions that oscillate between presence and absence.
Through this visual odyssey, Toro explores the labyrinth of dual identity, confronting the tension between self-discovery and ancestral inheritance. The vivid presence of red—blood, earth, magma, and deep waters—conveys the raw intensity of his journey.
Exhibition details:
- Hugo Toro: Aguas que murmuran
- February 4 – March 15, 2025
- INSTITUT CULTUREL DU MEXIQUE – 119 rue Vieille du Temple, Paris
All images courtesy of Hugo Toro, shared with permission
