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MEXICO CITY, Mexico. “Embodied Plasticities” is a curatorial and research project developed by Rojo Génesis (a trans artist, researcher, and curator). It brings together the artistic work of trans women who produced art from 1970 to 2023 in different parts of Mexico.

The works of the 14 artists capture diverse transfeminine experiences such as the use of shapewear, desire and pleasure, the construction of counternarratives, translesbianism, among others.

Through archival material, self-published works, and visual, editorial, textile, and plastic art, the artists recount their embodied experiences of transfemininity in diverse sociopolitical contexts in Chihuahua, Coahuila, Monterrey, Tamaulipas, Durango, Puebla, the State of Mexico, and Mexico City from the 1970s to the present.

An approach to trans aesthetics and knowledge

“This is a first conversation where I'm interested in creating a dialogue between the artistic and aesthetic production of trans women in this temporal and sociopolitical context,” Rojo Génesis, researcher, artist, and curator of the Embodied Plasticities exhibition, Agencia Presentes

"For this, I had to track down trans women who were still here with us. I'm very aware that not all of us are here who should be, to find out what their artistic proposals were, to situate Mexican trans art from the perspective of trans women and not from what others produce through the bodies, aesthetics, and knowledge of trans women," she says in an interview.

The participating artists are: Terry Holiday , Sofia Moreno , Naomi Torres , Deborah Alvarez , Viviana Rocco , Romina Jauregui , Laura Glover , Valis Ortiz , Jovana , Laura Victoria Martes , Flores Rosx , Antía Alanis , Lluvia and Rojo Génesis .

The place for trans artists

The venue hosting the Embodied Plasticities is Pandeo , a multisocial and transdisciplinary space for artistic training where, for almost ten years, they have managed transfeminist projects with a social and community focus, located in Mexico City.

“The importance of Rojo's work and that of the other artists for us at Pandeo is almost indistinguishable from our way of operating. More than just a way of representing specific populations, which is obviously an important point, it's about giving space to the things that interest us,” said Hellen A., general coordinator and head of Pandeo's exhibitions department, in an interview.

“We feel there's a lack of visibility. There aren't enough places that open their doors to artistic expressions that go beyond the hegemonic. Furthermore, there's a tendency to view trans women as objects of study rather than as artists,” says Hellen A., general coordinator and head of the exhibitions department at Pandeo, in an interview.

“Genealogical artistic dialogue builds a collective trans memory”

For Rojo, putting the art of trans women from different generations into dialogue is valuable because she says, “it builds a collective trans memory.”

Some of the artists' proposals are influenced by social and political elements, such as the Dirty War. A period in Mexico from 1965 to 1990, during which trans women and transvestites were also victims of state repression. The police persecuted them, arbitrarily detained them, extorted them, and raped them.

This became known after some trans women shared their experiences during the Truth Dialogue held in May by the Historical Clarification Mechanism (MEH) of the Truth Commission.

"What we see is that the history of the body has become too incarnated. From the use of shapewear to police harassment. These are common experiences and dynamics we return to," adds curator Rojo Génesis.

"We don't want them to do more extractivism, we want them to pay for our projects."

Rojo realized that trans artists struggle to identify themselves as such and value their work. “This is a response to the culture of transfeminine competition and the buffet that exists, especially in contexts of sex work and conditions of precariousness and violence,” she tells Presentes.

“We had to arm ourselves with tools, raise our self-esteem to understand that our artistic work has value, and we won't gain anything from visibility. We don't just want people to view our art; we want to benefit from it. We don't want them to further extractivize our bodies and our stories. We want them to pay for our works because these works are not just artistic and aesthetic pieces, they are archives, they are part of the collective trans memory,” Rojo Génesis concludes. 

Hellen and Rojo agree that there are increasingly more spaces for trans art, but that there is also a trend toward appropriation of stories and art produced by trans people.

“We decided to respond to Rojo's exasperation at seeing that there is, unfortunately, a tendency to appropriate narratives, whether from a market perspective within the art world or within diversity,” says Hellen A. 

“There are certainly more spaces, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're from a perspective where trans women are the artists. In many spaces, it happens that gay men or nb (non-binary) people somehow appropriate trans women's narratives. This may seem like they're won spaces, but not from a 100% agency perspective. Rather, they're spaces where dissidents are viewed from an ethnographic perspective as an object of study, when what we need are spaces where trans women can express themselves with their own voices and experiences,” concludes Hellen A.

Embodied Plasticities will conclude on November 4th with an event at Pandeo (Miami 27, Nápoles neighborhood). All works are for sale.