That Same Scream Again!
Artist name
Artist year born
1959
Artwork make date
2014
Artwork material
mixed media
Artwork dimensions
variable dimensions:
Artwork type (categories)
Installation
Accession method
Donated by Marcela Montoya-Turnill 2015
Accession number
1-2015
Label text
That Same Scream Again!was part of Marcela Montoya-Turnill’s 2014 viva exhibition In Memory Of at The Morgue of Chelsea College of Arts, University of the Arts London, U.K. “This exhibition was the culmination of the thesis’ research. The chosen artwork and the performance reflect the syncretism inherent in the Mexican cult of the dead and rituals, cultural identity, tradition, and diaspora. The installation actively links the work with contemporary political and social activism.”1
“On the 26th of September 2014, forty-three students of the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers College, in the state of Guerrero, disappeared. This single event has detonated social and political debate and protest inside and outside Mexico and many including myself have been profoundly affected. The land of Mexico is drenched in blood and violence. The viva exhibition, In Memory Of, and performance were dedicated to the forty-three Ayotzinapa students. It is a memorial to honour all the dead, the silenced and the disappeared. The intention is that the creative process will serve to help cleanse and heal and in the promotion of justice.
That Same Scream Again! is the central piece of both the 2014 installation and the performance. The Mexican flag becomes a potent symbol embracing the disappeared students, something like the Mayan World Tree central to the blood sacrifices which fed the ancient gods. The hemp fiber roots growing from the word Ayotzinapa, sewn to the flag, metaphorically collect the spilled blood and symbolically transport the victims to a safer place. The Morgue, being a place of sadness and death, became spiritual and shrine-like through art and performance. For some time it was a place of release, catharsis and healing for the living among the spirits.”2
1 Montoya Ortega, M. (2015) Doctoral thesis: Resituating the Cultural Meanings of Lucha Libre Mexicana: A Practice-Based Exploration of Diasporic Mexicanness. p. 193
2 Ibid, p. 199. Also see Vol. II, Catalogue of Work, Appendix 2, Documentation of In Memory Of Exhibition, pp. 48-55.
Montoya-Turnill, Marcela
“On the 26th of September 2014, forty-three students of the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers College, in the state of Guerrero, disappeared. This single event has detonated social and political debate and protest inside and outside Mexico and many including myself have been profoundly affected. The land of Mexico is drenched in blood and violence. The viva exhibition, In Memory Of, and performance were dedicated to the forty-three Ayotzinapa students. It is a memorial to honour all the dead, the silenced and the disappeared. The intention is that the creative process will serve to help cleanse and heal and in the promotion of justice.
That Same Scream Again! is the central piece of both the 2014 installation and the performance. The Mexican flag becomes a potent symbol embracing the disappeared students, something like the Mayan World Tree central to the blood sacrifices which fed the ancient gods. The hemp fiber roots growing from the word Ayotzinapa, sewn to the flag, metaphorically collect the spilled blood and symbolically transport the victims to a safer place. The Morgue, being a place of sadness and death, became spiritual and shrine-like through art and performance. For some time it was a place of release, catharsis and healing for the living among the spirits.”2
1 Montoya Ortega, M. (2015) Doctoral thesis: Resituating the Cultural Meanings of Lucha Libre Mexicana: A Practice-Based Exploration of Diasporic Mexicanness. p. 193
2 Ibid, p. 199. Also see Vol. II, Catalogue of Work, Appendix 2, Documentation of In Memory Of Exhibition, pp. 48-55.
Montoya-Turnill, Marcela