Numa (2023), equine jaw/quijada de burro (equus africanus asinus), golden everlasting/flor inmortal (xerochrysum bracteatum), statice/sea lavender/estátice del mediterráneo (limonium sinuatum), and graphite/grafito
Numa (2023), performance w. Paola Peña, Mexico City Art Week '23 – RIZOMA, Feb. 13th [Photograph Courtesy of KT]
Numa (2023) explores the history of mass graves created by the Colombian army, the guerrillas, and the paramilitary forces throughout Colombian territory. It recontextualizes the first scene of the fifth act of Hamlet, in which the Danish prince returns from exile in England and walks through a cemetery. Numa is also the name of a character that has come to symbolize displacement. On her hands, she has an equine jawbone, an ancient instrument that coincides with several musical traditions throughout Latin America. Numa speaks to and through this broken jaw. She interacts with this reverberating rattling bone to connect with her ancestry, confront her mortality, and question the repetitive and cyclical nature of violence and trauma.
The accompanying score alternates between noise, traces of traditional Colombian music, and the distorted mention of names of disappeared civilians, especially women in the Magdalena region, which play out like a dream sequence that deploys an image of Numa's interiority.