INVOCATIONS TO THE WATER BETWEEN THE MOUNTAINS
INVOCACIONES AL AGUA ENTRE LOS CERROS
Artistic research project developed by Archivo Familiar del Río Colorado with artist Enero y Abril. Walks, explorations, and workshops with invited artists based in Mexicali.
May 2022 to April 2023.
@ Planta Libre
Mexicali, Mexico
“Invocations to Water between the Mountains” is an artistic research project by Archivo Familiar del Río Colorado coordinator Jessica Sevilla thought-with artist Enero y Abril dedicated to the exploration of Laguna Salada: a dry basin located between the Sierras Juárez, Cucapá, El Mayor, and Las Pintas. This sandy depression, formerly called Laguna Macuata (probably an appropriation of the Cucapá Ja Wi Mak or water behind the Mountains), was intermittently filled by floods from the Colorado River and tides from the Gulf of California, until a few decades after the large dams.
With the change of the landscape, the layers and networks of interaction between matter, energy, and beings that existed there are being forgotten. Invoking appeals to the memory of its cycles and phenomena, to the present of its imperceptible organisms and flows, to the conflict of its future. “The Invocations” is a series of gestures that will seek water in different languages. For example, to the specter of the great spring wave and its roar, to the reflected light; to the vanishing memory of its qualities, and future relationships.
“The Invocations” is part of the Archivo Familiar del Río Colorado — a larger project that begins to search for diverse materials on the history of the river and our relationship to it, prompted by the prevailing regional water scarcity and to examine the historical claim of dominion and control over water.
This project was possible thanks to the support of Patronato de Arte Contemporáneo, Planta Libre, cultural agents, and collaborators of the Archivo
”Invocations to the Water among the Mountains” took place on 1, 2, and 5 of April 2023 in Mexicali, Mexico —as walks, workshops, project proposals, and self-publishing works with invited artists and cultural practitioners.
01 Chapter: Walk around Pozo and Ruta Coyote (Southeast Laguna Salada) with Enero y Abril, Alexia Hernández, Jessica Sevilla, Mayté Miranda, Karina Villalobos, and Rosela del Bosque.
02 Chapter: Walk through the Naturalis Cucapá trail with Enero y Abril, Alexia Hernández, Ricardo Corral, Hugo Fermé, Pastizal Zamudio, Jessica Sevilla, Santiago, and Chao Chato. 
03 Chapter: Walk and camping in Guadalupe Canyon with Enero y Abril, Jessica Sevilla, Mauricio Villa, Ricardo Corral, Mayté Miranda, Fredy Galarza, Renata Noriega, Santiago, and Rosela del Bosque