La Molienda (The Grinding), 2015 – 2022. Installation and Performance, 18 old stone metates, grana cochineal ground and HD video. Variable measures

A group of women grinds cochineal on metates, leaving the pigment as a record of the performative action. The sound of that task becomes the protagonist. The grana, called in Nahuatl nocheztli (blood of tunas), was used both for staining ceramics and textiles, as well as for writing and drawing on murals and amate paper. The cochineal is an insect domesticated in Mexico that lives as a parasite on the surface of nopales, from which the dye is extracted.
The presence of the pigment in this piece evokes the commercial exchange that was made with it in colonial times, the exploitation of the territory and the political and resistance force that the rescue of this raw material represents.