About my Work:
I not only fell in love with a Mexican woman, but also with the country and its culture. The pictures in this exposicion are meant to represent the dia de los muertos. The Day of the Dead, a Mexican tradition that stands the test of time. It is a celebration of commemoration and a ritual in which remembering is preferred to forgetting. In pre-Hispanic times, the cult of the dead was one of the fundamental elements of the culture: when someone died, they were buried wrapped in a mat and their relatives organized a celebration to accompany them on their journey to Mictlan. They placed their favorite foods on the grave, as the deceased might be hungry on the journey to the afterlife.
Immortal - The prayer of Xochitl
The legend of cempasuchil (marigold flower)
In Mexico one of the most important celebrations is the Day of the Dead, where the marigold flower is a fundamental element. Legend has it that long ago there was a pair of children who knew each other from birth, the girl's name was Xochitl and the boy was Huitzilin.
Both shared their childhood, grew up together and in the end their friendship became a sweet and tender young love. Their affection was so great that one day they decided to climb to the top of a hill to ask Tonatiuh, the sun god, to give them his blessing so they could continue to love each other. The sun god, seeing them so much in love, blessed their love and approved their union.
Unfortunately tragedy came to them unexpectedly when Huitzilin was called to participate in a battle to defend his people, and after some time, Xochitl learned that her beloved had died on the battlefield.
Her grief was so great that she begged Tonatiuh with all her strength to allow her to join him in eternity. Tonatiuh, seeing her in such grief, decided to turn her into a beautiful flower, so he cast a golden ray over her, and indeed, a beautiful and tender bud grew from the earth, however, it remained closed for a long time.
One fine day a hummingbird attracted by the unmistakable aroma of this flower came to it and landed on its leaves. Immediately, the flower opened and showed its beautiful yellow color, radiant as the sun itself, it was the cempasuchil flower, the flower with twenty petals, which had recognized its beloved Huitzilin, who had taken the form of a hummingbird in order to visit it.
Thus, the legend says that as long as the cempasuchil flower exists and there are hummingbirds in the fields, the love of Huitzilin and Xóchitl will last forever.
Mictecacihuatl - Goddess of death
Mictecacihuatl is the female deity associated with death in many indigenous cultures in Mexico. She is not only the one who welcomes us to the other world, but also the protector of our souls and bones and source of countless legends about the underworld. In the Aztec empire, Mictecacihuatl was portrayed as a woman with huge hands, a skull and a skirt made of rattlesnakes.
This gave rise to the figure of Catrina as we know her today. The modern Catrina is based on a copperplate engraving by the Mexican graphic artist José Guadalupe Posada from around 1910 to 1913. The image shows the head of a female skeleton, adorned with a hat like those worn by the European upper classes at the time.
Artist Talk 21.09.2024
