Historias del laberinto

A sensorial performance created collectively with the community of Santa Cruz de Mompox, as part of the AIR program in Taller El Boga.

"Mompox does not exist", writes Gabriel García Márquez in the book "The General in his Labyrinth", a book whose echoes reverberate in the narrow streets of the town. For me, and for those who shared their stories with me, Mompox will always be alive and experienced with all the senses, ingrained in the memory of my body with the smell of corals and freshly fried arepas, chirping of yellow-bellied birds ("chIchA fria!, chIchA fria!"), and a calming sensation of waking up to the sound of rain.

I came to the island "stuck in time" to listen to the stories told by humans and non-humans. I found these stories in the cold and slimy river mud. In the insistent, if not demanding, meows of the cemetery cats. In the quiet movement of the rocking chairs, and not any rocking chairs - mecedoras momposinas.

The performance, created in collaboration with local artists and participants of the theater workshops in El Boga, invited the audience follow the thread through the labyrinth of alleyways, gardens and courtyards of Mompox, a route of places imbued with stories I was offered during the month of my residency. The participants were encouraged to feel, touch and listen to the city as I experienced it - to physically feel that, despite all its elusive magic, Mompox does, indeed, exist through our bodies.

Collective creation by:

Leonel Oviedo Caraballo
Marcela Rodríguez
Alessandra Rios Echavez
Tatiana Echavez Palmera
Sebastian Cura
Gabriela Herrera Rocha
Dulce Milagros Abreu Perez Alfonzo de la Reina
Sarah Isabella Escandon Perez
Julieth Morales
Luz
Eugenio “Chipi” Pacheco
Dagoberto Rodríguez Aleman
Kasia Zarzycka

Con gran apoyo de

Marcela Calderón
Estefanía Saenz
Gabriela
Giovanni Fernandez
Liliana Belleno
Nieves

All photos by Estefanía Saenz