PD

“But her paths were longer than all the paths I had walked in my life”

Juan Rulfo, The burning plain.

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Candles, pieces of wood and stones arranged on a long table, was how the Sonoran artist Daniela Plascencia welcomed us to her exhibition "The meeting of the dancing body" at Tajo Taller. Upon entering it was as if for a few moments we were visiting a different space-time and he invited us to witness his own ritual. At the bottom of the table, a necklace made of Guamuchil (Guaje) branches dedicated to their female ancestors as a way of gratitude could be glimpsed. The necklace made me think about the importance of honoring our heritage, especially with the women who precede us, because by honoring them, we also honor the paths traveled, our dances, our land and our very existence.  

Following the tour of the exhibition, the artist presented us with her work in low-temperature ceramics through funerary vessels that represented her guardians, her family, in each one of them we could witness a very own personality. Also along the wall there were ceramic paintings that allowed you to feel a bit of their land. And so it was, that through her work in ceramics, the artist immersed us in the depths of life in Sonora, especially Monte de Álamos, through the routes, the cracks and the aesthetics of her work, she accompanied us with the Mayos, Yaquis and Comca'ac (Seris), we walked along the paths that she had walked and with the people she has lived with.

He took us by the hand and immersed us in his own territory, he took us to his roots. But she also shared with us how those roots helped her make her own way back to herself. 

A constant evocation that I had throughout the exhibition was the imprint of freedom that the artist lives and materializes in her work. As the writer Ariadna Solís says, as women, sometimes "the freedom we know has more to do with the knowledge and desires that the women who precede and accompany us have inherited." But Daniela Plascencia disarms those inherited desires. Through giving thanks and honoring her ancestors, she frees herself and allows herself to walk her own path.  

His exhibition is a sensory-affective experience where we were able to walk on tezontle, feel the earth and make land; drink bacanora savoring the fruits of her region, see through her pieces the color of the mud from Monte, and thus we revisited her territory together with her. But she also shared with us her own sacrifice, her pains, her strength and the importance of taking the time to die and be reborn, to pause, to let go, to be free and be her; feel and live.  

It is as if he gave us the journey of his life and his ancestral being. He shared with us not only the essence of his land, but his own soul. From the use of clay in terracotta colors, union, love of family, the meaning of making a community, of being-with and becoming with others. Thus, creating, she honors her past, her heritage, thanks him and releases him to continue dancing. The feeling of being in the place was an invitation to be part of the ritual, to accompany her on the trip, and perhaps, to let go of a bit of what we no longer need. Apprehend (with h) and value the awareness of living and being.  

Isis Yepez 

Freelance writer and curator