memoria / matriz is a series built around the element of water, a symbol of consciousness, creation, and uterine life. From this starting point emerges a visual exploration in four acts that represent an inner path in search of balance between the fluidity and interconnectedness of the feminine and the masculine.
The work draws transforms from what has historically, socially, and archetypically been attributed to the concept of "woman." It offers an alternative perspective: the feminine as a shapeable, constructed, imitated identity, one in constant transformation, an invitation to collective reflection and healing.
"On ne nait pas femme, on le devient."— Simone de Beauvoir
The story begins with an invocation of Chalchiuhtlicue, the Mexica goddess of water and protector of childbirth. Her presence signals the beginning of life. Birth appears as a rite of passage and transformation: the body as a creative channel, announcing a metamorphosis beyond the matter.
In childhood, the Mirror appears, imprinting the first gender rituals: what is seen is imitated, and what is learned becomes identity.
Then, the body begins to shift. It feels foreign, claimed by everyone but ourselves. Curves emerge, and we are unconsciously taught to hide them, cloaked in shame, sexualization, and fear. A burden rooted in generations. Adolescence confronts this construction through rupture: the denial of the feminine. Greek myths such as that of Orestes echo here, the symbolic separation from the mother, the impulse to reject the archetype of the life-giver, the intuitive, the nurturing.
A new transformation follows. A phase of power arises. A woman who asserts herself, who owns her voice, her image, her becoming. Yet empowerment is rarely linear. It arrives with contradictions, imbalance, disorientation, and moments of chaos.
The final act represents a search for balance: A figure inspired by Ardhanarishvara, the Indian deity who embodies the fluidity, balance, and unity of masculine and feminine energies. A floating embodiment of duality, suspended between worlds. Here, the masculine and feminine (once perceived as opposites) are reunited in a fluid, integrated whole.
memoria / matriz is a return to intuition, a reinvention of the self, and a celebration of the quest for balance.
