NOCHE DE MUERTOS

In Noche de Muertos, three performers perform in the middle of the exhibition ¡VIVA MÉXICO! at The Ethnographic Museum in Stockholm, Sweden. Through the act of dancing, the performers reflect on death and Dia Del Muerte. The performers use choreographic tools and various performative expressions to explore how the exhibition can be experienced in new ways. The performance takes inspiration from the Mexican and Aztec view of death. For the Aztecs, life and death are intertwined and neither can exist without the other. The three dances shown in the exhibition took inspiration from the Aztec goddess Coatlicue (Cōātlīcue). Coatlicue is both the goddess of life and death. She is the mother of the gods, who is the mother of the sun, the moon and the stars. She is the goddess of fertility, protector of life and death, and a guide to rebirth.

Coatlicue is represented as a woman wearing a skirt of snakes and a necklace of human hearts, hands and skulls. Her feet and hands are adorned with claws and her breasts are depicted as hanging limp from pregnancy. Her face is formed by two snakes facing each other, representing blood spurting from her neck after she is beheaded. With the dance, the artists explore this duality in how death and life can meet in movement and mix it with Western Baroque influences around death and melancholy.

Choreography: Carima Neusser in collaboration with Ricardo Rubio.
Performed by: Ricardo Rubio, Ailish Maher, Carima Neusser
Performance: The Etnographic Museum, Stockholm, October, 2024
Produced by: Vision Forum, The Etnographic Museum, Stockholm, Teatermaskinen, Skinnskatteberg.
Funded by: The Nordic Culture Fund.