Justice with Glitter 2019

DIPTYCHS OF THE DURING AND AFTERMATH OF THE AUGUST 16, 2019 FEMINIST MARCH

On August 16, 2019, I witnessed the streets of Mexico City and the Victoria Alada— the iconic monument known as the Angel of Independence— burst into color during a feminist march demanding justice against gender violence. However, by the following morning, the collective outrage was not directed at the thousands of women who had been raped and murdered, nor at the impunity that enables these crimes, but at the visual interventions left on the monument.

Justicia con Glitter (Justice with Glitter) consists of ten diptychs juxtaposing the before and after of the march— an event that marked a watershed moment in feminist protest tactics in Mexico City.

This series was part of the exhibition Hasta que la dignidad se vuelva costumbre (Until Dignity Becomes a Custom), where the pieces were transformed by the public, evolving into living works that encapsulate layers of history from feminist movements in the city. To create them, I printed the images in color and mounted them on a base of black-and-white photographs from my personal archive, which documents feminist marches over the past five years.

During the exhibition, I invited attendees to intervene in the pieces, generating a visual representation of the polarization that still prevails in Mexican society regarding gender violence. Some comments supported the actions captured in the images, while others condemned them.

Thus, each piece became a living archive, a memory in progress that continues to reflect the tension, resistance, and evolution of the feminist movement in Mexico City.