LILIANA DÍAZ
PRESTAR OÍDOS
2018
Performance
Oaxaca
INTERCAMBIO DE REMEDIOS
2022
Ceramics, Performance, video
Collaboration piece with Cynthia Fusillo
video by Enrique León
Oaxaca. Mexico
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I begin here
My hand slips into your earth
Shapes vessels
Seeds pressed into cups
Past flowers into possibility
We are sisters
This boat we are migrates love
Collaborate with me
Make it all fit
Hidden and measured
This womb of a container
Holds globes of places
In Harmony
A woman molds her life
Embraces body
In Harmony
Collaborate with me
To begin with nothing but water and clay
This performance glorifies the action of sharing, giving and
receiving, by pouring various elements into
containers carried on by the artists bodies: their stories,
learning, sorrows, achievements and life in general
symbolically through the exchange of
herbs, water, salts, mud, and other ingredients. For
the performance the artists worked together for a month
in Oaxaca, Mexico creating pieces with Donají clay
while discussing what it means to be a woman
and sisterhood between different generations. Behind the
exchange between the artists, a potion is prepared to
share with the public, inviting them to try a
remedy that transgresses, through affection and
recognition of the other, the current individualistic system.
This remedy then becomes an extension of the architecture of their
relationship and wisdom designed to enter other bodies for healing purposes.
FOC FOC FOC
2021
Ceramics, installation, Performance
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FOC FOC FOC is a performance conceived by Liliana Díaz that involves the use of fire as a visual projection of self-knowledge and an extension of the heart.
Starting from the symbolism of fire within the rituals of Mexican culture as an element that purifies, transforms, destroys and creates at the same time.
The piece talks about personal transformation, control over our intimate fire, managing it and sharing the light. Using the body and ceramics as a means to carry fire, a series of movements will be performed in a ritualistic manner in search of wisdom and recovery of the inner flame, our true essence, our motivations and self-love. Learning to control the ignition of oneself without burning.
AIXOPLUC SUSPÈS
2021
Ceramics, installation, Performance
presented at Tangent Projects
video by Elda Ortiz
Barcelona. Spain
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"I have never used Catalan to title a work before, but in this case, it was hard to resist. Not only is it appropriate for this work which metaphorises the nest I have been weaving since I arrived in Catalunya, but also because the harmonious phonetics of the word Aixopluc, continues to vibrate within my teeth and tongue."
For this project, Liliana has chosen to work with organic materials that she has collected and gathered together. During her search for these elements - because it became precisely that, a search - she reflected on those pertinent natural spaces. There is an irony in wanting to share with an audience the shelter that nature provides, when finding that "sigh" in the city is not so easy to find. In creating this nest, Liliana is offering us a personal representation of her research and those encounters.
"Once I found myself immersed in the site, I began to dig the earth with my bare hands as if I was chasing my place in that furrow- seeking to satisfy the need to be rooted in the soil. When knowing the heart is well-placed, immovable, you are able to stay where you please and grow in all your dimensions. That addictive sensation of belonging everywhere and nowhere at the same time." This portion of Liliana's collected earth rests on the floor of the installation, like a welcome mat. A record of the movement, or lack of it, is drawn under the feet of the viewer.
Aixopluc suspès takes on ritualistic characteristics and appeals to sacred practices of communing with nature, such as the bond created when choosing the land where you plan to grow. In order to enter the centre of the installation, it is necessary for the viewer to break through the immaculate golden halo that acts as a temple within the room. It allegorizes the stillness and temper of a shelter, with the search for an untouched space to put place our roots, whichis only possible if we stay still for a few seconds while the disintegrated halo returns to its place, resumes its form and embraces us.
This piece is and is not at the same time. It allows for the possibility of looking at that which is hidden but only when it is ready to reveal itself - we just need to pause life for a moment. If we give ourselves time to stop, we are able to enjoy how things naturally fall into place, revealing for an instant the beauty of suspension.
THE SPACE BETWEEN US
2019
Ceramics, Performance
Mexico
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Starting with the following questions: what does it mean to miss someone? How can I keep you close ? If my skin touches your skin, do we become one?
I explore the feelings of being separated from your loved ones. Since I moved to Spain, understanding the emotions of being physically apart from everything and everyone I know, has been a process.
On my last trip back to Mexico I was able to create a mold from interlocking my hands with those of my loved ones. The molds were formed from the only space not touching while holding hands. I used clay form Mexico, my homeland. Closing the gap meant that I could appropriate the only space between us. In that way, every time I carry this pendant-like-sculpture is as if I could carry the only space that separates us. It is as if I could touch their skin again.
PRESTAR OÍDOS
2018
Ceramics, painting, Performance
presented at Pocoapoco art residency
invitation from Jessica
Collaboration with Alicia Jiménez
photos by Enrique Cabanillas
Oaxaca. Mexico
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This performance emerged after the immediate and "magical" connection between the artists Liliana Díaz and Alicia Jiménez in Oaxaca in 2018. Both share a concern for healing the body and mind through nature and artistic processes. When they agreed to work, they agreed to collaboratively create a piece of healing in which they challenged their supports and ways of producing.
This project explores the entire disease-healing process.
Due to a past illness, close to death by Liliana, her eyes opened to the world of physical performance and the understanding of recovery.
This piece begins by reproducing the symptom, which is a wake-up call, an invitation to listen to your body. A somatization of the imbalance in your lifestyle. During the performance, it is represented by the sound of a clay whistle. The subtle whistle resonates demanding reflection. It is the excuse to question, advance and move.
After listening to the symptom, the disease is proceeded. The convalescent body submerges and soaks into an alien element. An invasive disturbance that dirties and transforms. A journey of mud where it is inevitable to contaminate the body through affections that adhere to you, becoming part of oneself. A permutation of the being begins by means of the appropriation of the ailment.
After the condition begins the healing. A recovery in which the improper is left behind. Even if there are scars and traces of the disease, it ceases to be part of one. The abandonment of pain and discomfort to reintegrate and heal. A cleaning and debugging trajectory.
As the last episode, comprehension, resilience and gratitude are overcome.
The return to accept the body, which served as a signal to be indisposed to prevent a fatal fate and call for a metamorphosis. The appreciation of life and its cycles. An offering to mother earth. Understanding the event suffered as an opportunity to reinvent itself.
In conclusion, the healing process of a person is related to their interaction with the universe and their self-knowledge. Through this work the viewer is invited to re-evaluate the course of his life and listen to his wise body.
