The Mexican artist Ximena Labra (Mexico City, 1974), inspired by the spiritual experiences described by Saint Teresa of Ávila, poet and mystic of the 16th century, proposes a visual, sensory and sound interpretation through 10 works and site interventions, which can be seen in what is his first individual exhibition called Transverberations, that can be visited in the Ex Teresa Arte Actual.
The title of the exhibition comes from the Latin term transverberation, which literally means “to pierce”, and which refers to the mystical experience in which the heart is pierced by a supernatural fire.
Based on this idea, Ximena Labra “proposes to intervene in the architecture of the former convent of the Discalced Carmelites (today a cultural center for contemporary art), through an immersive tour, in which the poetry of Saint Teresa of Ávila is materialized in sculptural installations. , digital, pictorial and sound”.
Among the pieces created expressly to dialogue with the architecture of that space, there is the sound sculpture Citrapatamga brevicornis, Made in collaboration with the musician and composer Leonardo Heiblum and the luthier Carlos Chinchillas.
This sound sculpture, three meters long, is strung and tuned in harmony with piano strings, jarocha harp and psaltery. The piece was activated for the first time on January 6, by Heiblum.
Dissolution and Manifestation is the title of the monumental pictorial installation found in the central nave of Ex Teresa, and which is made up of five suspended banners, producing a geometric and spatial perspective where the pictorial and two-dimensional acquire volumetric and architectural qualities.
Prayer is a sound and visual installation that records a walk around the temple in Bodgaya, India, where Buddha is said to have become enlightened; when surrounding that temple hundreds of voices are heard in prayer in various languages of Southeast Asia.
The piece by Ximena Labra alludes to the Teresian prayer that she describes as a constant conversation with the sacred, whose reward is divine grace in the form of water that is described in the biblical passage Domine da mihi aquam. In the piece, that metaphor is manifested through the video image as rain falling from the sky.
According to the statement of the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature, “concepts, processes, experiences and human qualities mentioned in the literary work of Saint Teresa of Ávila, such as love, death, desire, the mundane and the sacred, suffering and ecstasy are addressed by the artist, who weaves a singular metaphorical and aesthetic universe”.
The artistic work of the also graphic designer, who has a master’s degree in ephemeral architecture at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, in Barcelona, Spain, has also been developed in artist residencies in Scotland, El Salvador, Iceland and Argentina.
Transverberations will remain on display until Sunday, February 12, at the Ex Teresa Arte Actual (Licenciado Verdad 8, Centro Histórico, Zócalo Metro station), from Tuesday to Sunday with free admission.
Mystical experiences of Saint Teresa of Ávila inspire Transverberations, by Ximena Labra