To coincide with Carla Fernández’s exhibition, la Galerie du 19M invites you to take part in the creation of a textile work on the theme of the Día de Muertos with Arisbeth González and Clémence Vazard.

During this collaborative and free workshop, participants will be able to try their hand at Otomi embroidery with Arisbeth González on a canvas dyed with marigolds by Clémence Vazard.

Practical info

  • Free event
Complete

Place

la Galerie du 19M — Paris/Aubervilliers

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For more details, go to the practical information.

The Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) is a Mexican public holiday observed across the country that honours loved ones who have died. During this festival, death is seen as a stage in life and is celebrated through a series of rites.

 

It is believed that departed loved ones return on the Day of the Dead to share a moment with their families over a meal, arranged around an altar de muertos. To help the dead find their way to the altar and share this moment, a line of cempasúchil or Aztec marigold is placed outside the front door of the home.

 

Arisbeth González Hernández

 

Arisbeth González Hernández, is originally from Pahuatlán, in the state of Puebla, Mexico. Belonging to the Otomi community, her grandmother taught her to embroider from the age of six and she later learned the techniques of working with beads and making amate paper. She in turn has shared the knowledge with her children.

Beads have been used in the region to decorate the clothing of the shaman who cleanses to cure illnesses, and amate paper has been the livelihood of the population for several decades, providing the basis for paintings, cutouts, and decorative objects.

Discover Arisbeth González's full programme

 

Clémence Vazard

 

Clémence Vazard is a transdisciplinary artist who works between Paris, Arles, and Mexico City. Her practice is characterised by a rich diversity of forms and techniques, from participatory performance to embroidered photographs printed on textiles, ceramics, sound installations, and natural dyeing in which personal narratives bring together the inner world and the universal.

During her winter 2023 residency on the extinct Ajusco volcano in Mexico, she collected ancestral medicinal plants and explored the healing powers attributed to them. Using natural and ecological dyeing processes, she imprinted their colourful powers on traditional deshilados made by local craftswomen. Along the way, she also collected stories and shared experiences with the women who accompanied her. To reflect the memory of this mutual fulfilment, she embroidered on the fabric the memory of their interlocked hands, a symbol of sisterhood. The resulting artworks are manifestos for a post-Anthropocene era, interweaving the gentle power of women with that of nature to heal our world and imagine deeper interactions with the environment and with others.

As an artist-researcher, Clémence Vazard explores the power of spoken narratives to question dominant history and imagine other founding myths. The artist has developed a nomadic practice rooted in territories as diverse as the Camargue and Mexico, exploring the customs, legends, and stories that inhabit them. The artworks that emerge from her research are charged with stories and emotions gathered from her encounters, addressing political issues through personal testimonies.

 

A graduate with distinction from Central Saint Martins in 2022, she received a grant from the City of Paris for her project #monpremierharcelement in 2017. She has undertaken residencies at Casa Roga in Mexico City in 2021 and at Ateliers de La Madeleine in Arles in 2022. Her work has been exhibited internationally for over ten years in New York, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Montreal, Mexico City, Arles, Brussels, and Greece, among other locations. Vazard is a member of international art collectives working on feminist and environmental issues, including The ANT Project and Loud Spring Art Tank. Her work is held in private collections in France, the United States, the Netherlands, Mexico, and the United Kingdom.

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