The multimedia show entitled “Santa Muerte: Death and Protection in Mexico” includes photography, video, and a series of paintings that showcase different aspects of the folk devotion to Santa Muerte. The skeleton saint Santa Muerte is a popular spiritual or religious protector, some kind of motherly figure that has become widely spread in 21st century Mexico. Santa Muerte is today, next to Frida Kahlo and the ‘Virgen de Guadalupe’, among the most visible and recognised Mexican icons worldwide.
This show presents images taken for a period of over 10 years, through ethnographic research in Mexico and with Mexican migrants in the United States. In the pictures, the believers and leaders, shrines and temples, as well as the offers made to the saint, are showcased, often with humour.
Single mothers, people living at the edge, sexual workers, criminals, transgenders and other sexual minorities come to the fore. The pieces offer a view into Mexico’s street and underground culture, the use of tattoos, candles and food offerings for spiritual purposes. What is Santa Muerte? Who are these devotees? What do they believe in? What kind of protection or help they seek in the image of Santa Muerte?
This show explores the aesthetic and material culture related to the devotion to Santa Muerte, and highlights the use of cempazuchitl (tagetes erecta, known in English as marigold), a flower endemic to Mexico that was later introduced to South East Asia by the Spanish colonisers during the 16th century.
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