Saturday, March 22 at 3 p.m.

This discussion between Marilyn Boror Bor, Aura Cumes, and Sebastián Eduardo Dávila explores the connections between colonial violence and state violence through the itinerant artistic practice of Marilyn Boror.

Edicto Cambio de Nombre—the legal replacement of the last names Boror Bor with Castillo Novella in 2018—is an ongoing artistic process. In 2019, as part of an exhibition in Berlin, Marilyn Boror Bor commissioned the production of a tombstone with the inscription: In Erinnerung an die Namen der Maya, die Gewalt durch den rassistischen Staat Guatemalas erfahren haben (In memory of the Maya names that have suffered violence at the hands of the racist Guatemalan state).

In 2021, the migrant collective VOCES de Guatemala in Berlin carried the tombstone in a funeral procession and buried it in a Berlin cemetery, on the ruins of what, during the Nazi regime, was a forced labor camp run by churches. The iteration of the work in Berlin invites us to explore the structural dimension of violence, the link between colonialism and the state, racism and migration, as well as transnational memory work and resistance.

Free event. To reserve your spot: info@lanuevafabrica.org Whatsapp:+502 7882-4612

Marilyn Boror Bor
A Maya-Kaqchikel artist from San Juan Sacatepéquez, Guatemala, she works with multiple media, including photography, painting, printmaking, installation, and performance. Her work has been exhibited in spaces such as Galerie im Körnerpark, Berlin, Germany; the Carlos Mérida National Museum of Modern Art, Guatemala; the Ixchel Museum, Guatemala; the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara, California; the Institute of Arts and Space Image, Venezuela; and the Spanish Cultural Center in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, among others.

Aura Cumes
A Maya Kaqchikel researcher, educator, and activist from Guatemala. She holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the Center for Research and Higher Studies in Social Anthropology (CIESAS) in Mexico City, a Master’s in Social Sciences from FLACSO Guatemala, and a Bachelor’s in Social Work from Rafael Landívar University. She is a member of the Maya Studies Community Ixbalamkyej Junajpu Wunaq’.

Sebastián Eduardo Dávila
An associate researcher and lecturer at Leuphana University in Lüneburg, Germany. He studied Art History and Film in Jena, Berlin, and Mexico City. He obtained his Ph.D. in Art History as part of the “Cultures of Critique” research and training group at Leuphana, with a dissertation on materiality and contemporary art in Guatemala. He is currently a member of the “Cambridge Visual Culture” research network and a member of the political collective VOCES de Guatemala in Berlin.