Due to the invitation to be part of “Before… All this was Chinampa” a collective cabinet exhibition proposed by the curator and artist Ricardo Atl Laguna Ramírez, commemorating the creation in 1939 of the workshop-studio of his grandfather Benito Laguna, who for this occasion invited his dear friend Xavier Peña to collaborate for the inauguration, this exhibition also aims to celebrate the one hundred years since the construction of the home where said atelier was created in what is now the Magdalena Mixiuhca neighborhood in Mexico City, where there was a vast ecosystem of chinampas.

 

Erika Mayoral's project for this exhibition aims to transcend images, transforming her into a conduit for energy—receiving and transmitting it through consciousness-expanding techniques. The artist conducted on-site energy channeling, connecting with the works of Benito Laguna and Xavier Peña, each of which documents—in its own distinct pictorial style—the chinampa system, which decades ago flourished and was widely used. Through these actions, the artist accessed the immaterial information contained within each piece, generating an experiential investigation that employs energy channeling as a radical mechanism for rescuing history. She received sensory and vibrational information from the works, perceiving each artist's vision and intention through subtle frequencies.

 

The two resulting sound pieces are an augmented, immaterial version of memory, serving as a respectful homage to their creators and to that aquatic landscape, thereby fostering a transgenerational dialogue. Furthermore, this project intends to take the conversation of contemporary art into less explored territories, challenging notions of archive and historical document, and offering a layer of analysis on inhabited memory and the life cycles that converge with those of the space itself, from an energetic perspective translated into the languages of contemporary art.