Teresa Margolles

Using the incense is a subtle approach in commemorating the dead. It reflects life where the disappearance manifests itself. The traces of the stained burnt marks left by an incense stick echoes life and death. Teresa Margolles works in this manner. Her piece entitled “Encobijados” is made up of stained multicoloured woollen blankets in which the victims of violent crimes were wrapped; bodily fluids and gases which escape with the first cut of the autopsy.

“In 1990 Teresa Margolles was a founding member of the group SEMEFO (Servicio Médico Forense/Forensic Medical Service) and has in this capacity since held performances, made installations, objects and videos and intervened in public places. For several years she has also been working on her own to continue the joint program, taking as her basis the morgue, which in a metropolis like Mexico City is a focal point of social relationships, involving on the one hand poverty, exploitation and criminality and on the other wealth and modern technology. Themes like violence, death, burial, organ transplants and cosmetic operations are at the heart of her often shocking consideration of the relics of life. Though the group engages in theatrical actions, Teresa Margolles is loath to stand in the limelight and either asks others to carry out ideas or lets objects speak for themselves.”

culturebase.net

Teresa has also worked with the dead directly in Entierro by entombing a still-born child in a flat block of cement placed directly on the ground. The square stone block is basically a negative grave; not buried in the ground.