Identidad de humo

Identidad de Humo is a multimedia installation grounded in Mexica cosmogony and the knowledge of Tezcatlipoca, the Smoking Mirror, where perception is understood as the smoke of that which is, in essence, Consciousness. The work unfolds as a living portrait in which the artist’s body attempts to transform into Coatlicue, the monumental volcanic stone figure embodying the simultaneous forces of creation and destruction. The image does not stabilize. It remains in tension between solidity and volatility, proposing identity as transitory, partial, and historically mediated.

Through this process, the work revisits Coatlicue within the context of colonial modernity. After her discovery in 1790 in New Spain, the sculpture was repeatedly buried and exhumed, made visible only through a colonial gaze. The installation asks how this history continues to shape contemporary identity and perception. The transformation into Coatlicue forms part of a personal process of decolonization. To look into the mirror is to encounter internal friction. The body attempts to become a monolith while its fractures persist, exposing the colonial wound that runs through identity. Decolonization emerges here as a spiritual practice, a way of meeting our ancestors.

Activated through a ritual gesture, the installation responds to the light of a candle via infrared sensor. On screen, the body appears fragmented and distributed into segments that resist totalization, operating as a contemporary smoking mirror.

Credits
Concept, Direction, Performance, Generative Visuals & Editing: Alejandra Montoya
On-Set Direction: Matthias Julian Wörz
Sound & Mix: Florian Bocksrucker