Español

by Adelia Sayeg

My book, Camino a pie (step by step), is the compilation of my work -pigments, textures, organic materials. It also encompasses the world I immerse myself in every day: dreams, rituals, imagination, philosophy of life. It is the sum of the 740 moons that I needed to travel to glimpse the greatness that inhabits us and that governs the sacred world on which we walk.

Wherever I go, seemingly insignificant things come my way. They are traces and remains of the great work of Nature: pieces of wood, stones, mud, sand and earth. There are within my reach seeds, bones, shells. I also collect (un)made from the great task of man: wool, metals, henequen, silk or fiber. I know that these fragments that I treasure will have a new destiny as soon as they enter my study. I like to feel them, smell them and feel them; dream up a new meaning for each of them. At some point they will appear mixed and entangled in my work.

My fingers are impregnated with paint and I begin to play on the piece. I just let myself go. Without censorship I express what worries me, what inspires me, what I have inside. I paint, mold, transform, burn. And what I put together, I will be able to mix it with the layers of paint and mud. They are at the same time color and textures that, in a playful and expansive way, allow me to jump the limits of my imagination. I use these materials to represent the process of life, death and regeneration, in the same way that I use fire to modify its hue or shape. It is from an impulse, from a force of reconstruction that is imposed on me, that a metaphor of what they have been and where they have come from arises. I want to create works that breathe and expand. Mystical images, with their own soul. Each piece will have its own meaning and its own reason for being.

I learned from our indigenous ancestors: they considered our planet a living being and, at the same time, a giver of life. By recovering their legacy, I hope to strengthen our identity, return to my cultural and spiritual roots, foster respect and a close bond with the Earth. With my work I invite you to dignify it, preserve it, value it. I am part of those who seek to rescue that spiritual heritage of our ancestors.

Adelia Sayeg was born in Mexico City in 1962. From an early age she felt a passion for the plastic arts and studied different workshops of engraving, painting, encausticism, drawing, ceramics, photography, wool textiles and looms.

She has completed several diplomas and studies in thanatology, logotherapy, astrology, Tzolkin and philosophy of various religious beliefs. She studied graphic design at the Autonomous Metropolitan University and took a master's degree in comparative religion at the Anahuac University.

She has participated in more than 100 collective exhibitions and presented 24 individual exhibitions in Mexico, the United States and Asia, among which stand out:
Contemporary Archaeologies at the II International Colloquium on Ceramics in Xalapa, Veracruz
Myths, Spells and Praises at the Brownsville Museum of Fine Arts
50ydos at the Oaxaca Textile Museum
New Fire at the Mexican cultural center in Hong Kong
Rituals at the Old Archbishopric Hacienda Museum
Contemporary Archaeologies, Xquenda Codices, Earth Sagrada, Lodo Negro at the Oscar Román Gallery
Blessed Pauses was presented in Vienna and Berlin and continues touring in Europe
Butterflies in the Soul in Mexico City
Machama at the Diego Rivera Anahuacalli Museum in Mexico City and at the Anthropology Museum in Jalapa
smoke in the city of Oaxaca.
Blessing at the Jesús Reyes Heroles cultural center
and her last participation in the Querétaro Art Museum in the exhibition Mujeres Interwoven.

She has been selected in several biennials, including the Florence Biennial, the Latin American Biennial in New York, and the Ceramic Biennial.

www.adeliasayeg.com

Visit SMA's Social Network