Las Pozas, a seductive and decadent setting for nature’s exuberance in Mexican landscape, is the motive behind Xilitla: Dismantled 1. This film, shot in 35mm, calls into question the imaginary limits between modern and contemporary art practices. The surreal construction mechanisms that Edward James used to build his semitropical enclave are disassembled. By constructing it through visual and audio distancing from the natural landscape, Smith disassembles the modern gaze, which turns the exotic landscape into a screen and an image whereupon its own desire is projected.