KOAXULA
Koaxula is a collaborative sound activation and performative project between Mexican artist Daniela Huerta and Natalia Escobar. Inspired by fading cosmovisions and mythological female archetypes often overshadowed by dominant cultures, the duo seeks to reinvent hybrid narratives that explore different ways of being and existing in the world, creating a dialogue between past, present and future.
Exploring female archetypes enhances our understanding of the evolution of human consciousness and its reflection in psychology. The duo’s creative process reveals suppressed aspects of the psyche tied to the 'Terrible Mother' archetype, which embodies devouring, seductive, and venomous qualities. This exploration unveils how repressing these aspects not only severs the connection between humanity and nature but also reinforces patriarchal control. Through the creation of performative and audiovisual mythology, Koaxula aims to reshape notions of power and identity, fostering renewed awareness in collaboration with diverse artists at specific locations.
Koaxula participated in an artist residency at the Centro de Cultura Digital in Mexico City as part of the curatorial program El Sonido Que Atraviesa. They then joined the Paso De Fauna residency in Valle de Bravo, Mexico, where they began recording their debut album. Additionally, they presented CHIMERA I, a curatorial event first held at the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, and showcased Deslenguadas at MUTEK Mexico’s 20th Anniversary.
KOAXULA - Deslenguadas at Centro de Cultura Digital
DESLENGUADAS
Presented at Centro de Cultura Digital, Silent Green and MUTEK MX, 2024
Art direction, music and sound design by Daniela Huerta and Natalia Escobar
Deslenguadas encompasses a series of live electroacoustic performances, featuring sound activation with whips, dancers and a vocalist. The project is rooted in a mythological narrative aimed at decolonizing feminine archetypes. The performance encapsulates the voracious, alluring and poisonous aspects within 'The Terrible Mother” archetype. Drawing inspiration from serpent-associated deities like the Mexica’s Coatlicue and Tlazolteotl, and the Embera’s JEFÃ, Koaxula intricately reinterprets these narratives through a dynamic blend of performative and sound exploration.
During the performance, whips are utilised as sonic instruments, symbolizing the power of the serpent deities while challenging their historical association with oppressive systems. The supersonic effect or sonic boom of the whip evokes a futuristic quality, metaphorically allowing for transcendence beyond time, reshaping and distancing the deities from their historical connotations, and imbuing them with new meaning.
Moving through the sonic energy of their whips, enabling passage between different dimensions, KOAXULA penetrates the serpent's mouth, guarded by rows of dangerous teeth, a sort of "Vagina Dentata". They travel through six levels into the underworld, seeking the destructive and transformative forces, the sexual power, and the word of severed tongues of various female entities that inhabit within. It is a return to the realm of the wild, a reconnection with their dark animal side, and the buried power of the Great Ouroboric Mother.
KOAXULA - Deslenguadas at MUTEK Mexico, 2024