In Mexico Death is dancing
by Gisela Weimann
portfolio special mention call 'SACRED. THE EXPERIENCE OF BEYOND', 2019
My stay in Tepoztlán / Morelos from late 1979 to early 1981 was one of the most stimulating periods of my life. I created more than 300 watercolors and drawings, collages, photos and wrote an extensive diary. The lived impressions of a visually rich and fantastic world with a different attitude to life and death, the collected objects, posters and magazines about Lucha Libre (the popular freestyle wrestling) continue to inspire my work and have never been shown coherently. Its
It is mainly the relationship of Mexicans to death that changed my outlook on life. The following compilation shows a small selection from this comprehensive group. An exhibition will be arranged that is related to ethnography showing the impact of the special cultural environment and Mexican folk art on my work. The issue is gaining relevance by the current defense of people’s familiar understanding of the world against other cultures that appear strange and threatening to them. My diary texts describe my handling of strangeness, fears, threats and weird experiences.
Featured here the documentation of the thematic meal Der unvorbereitete Tod (the unprepared death) with 7 guests in my studio in Berlin in August 1984. Painted table cloth, statements, and photos of the guests, Mexican objects.
I also include a work titled 'Don Lucio Amatlán, Morelos" (Mexico, 1979). A documentation of a pagan-Christian ritual at an old site of sacrifice in the mountains. The healer Don Lucio has founded a group of natives that also accepts members of European origin. Their rules are based on preservation of archaic knowledge, tolerance, respect of nature and sharing.
It is mainly the relationship of Mexicans to death that changed my outlook on life. The following compilation shows a small selection from this comprehensive group. An exhibition will be arranged that is related to ethnography showing the impact of the special cultural environment and Mexican folk art on my work. The issue is gaining relevance by the current defense of people’s familiar understanding of the world against other cultures that appear strange and threatening to them. My diary texts describe my handling of strangeness, fears, threats and weird experiences.
Featured here the documentation of the thematic meal Der unvorbereitete Tod (the unprepared death) with 7 guests in my studio in Berlin in August 1984. Painted table cloth, statements, and photos of the guests, Mexican objects.
I also include a work titled 'Don Lucio Amatlán, Morelos" (Mexico, 1979). A documentation of a pagan-Christian ritual at an old site of sacrifice in the mountains. The healer Don Lucio has founded a group of natives that also accepts members of European origin. Their rules are based on preservation of archaic knowledge, tolerance, respect of nature and sharing.
Very interesting is also the yearly Feast of the Guadalupe, the black madonna of the Indians. It takes place in all larger settlements in the region and I have experienced it in the Sierra de la Zongolica. The whole village prepares and celebrates this feast. Men work all night to create a wonderful Arco Floral with natural plants, musicians gather, a young girl and boy are selected to represent the madonna Guadalupe and Jesus and are carried up and down through the city and to the church in burning heat. When looking at all this I realized how much I love Mexico.