'Ven a mí' by Orly Anan

‘Ven a mí’ talks about the contrasts between faith and ancestral culture in Mexico, as well as its systematic transformation through rituals, religious representations contained in altars, myths, amulets and fetishes, endowed with an huge energetic charge. The show is an idiosyncratic tour about the discoveries that Orly Anan made over her first approach to Mexico City, through various public spaces, particularly popular markets.

Starting from the observation of Mexican popular culture, Orly chose everyday objects to decontextualize them through ready mades. Her main inspiration came in a corridor dedicated to witchcraft in Sonora’s Market, one of the most important mystical places in Mexico City. There she found ”jabones de fe (soups of faith)” and became interested in two in particular: the soap ‘Ven a mí’ and a soap with the inscription “Limpias”.

Another recurring subject in the exhibition is the Mexican girl’s dream of finding love. In the marital ritual the woman is expected to reach the altar virgin and free of sin, so that once consummated the sacrament of love, she can dedicate herself to keep the house clean and completely devote her body, soul and the rest of her days to it. The machismo, the quasi-slavery and subordination that many women in the world end up facing, are far from the dream longed by the young women who seek to be protected and adored in the bosom of their home.

The exhibition includes pieces such as the ‘huaraches’ with brushes soles and the gypsum fly swatters, and the symbolic use of the soaps that refers to the celebration of these ritual practices, for which the artist accurately reproduced the “soap of faith” , using resin and keeping the original colors. The show is complemented by a performance where two young girls dressed in brides crumble incessantly ‘Ven a mí’ soaps with a cheese grater, spilling the pieces of soap on the floor and their own dresses, filling the space with the sweet smell of freshly cut soap and endowing the piece of resin with its own life, a psycho-magical act that is performed by actresses from a balcony overlooking the street, with them facing the expectation and in permanent state of introspection.