Mariana Dussel and Daniel Robles Lizano: Mineralia indisciplinada

In ancestral cosmogonies, all kinds of tales appear about crystals, gems, and precious stones, to which magical, healing, and protective properties are attributed—expressions of awe before what nature engenders in its depths.

“Undisciplined Mineralia” is a curatorial project developed in collaboration with artists Mariana Dussel (Mexico City, 1998) and Daniel Robles Lizano (Mexico City, 1994), who transform the space into a rocky organism. In this fictitious topography, they undertake a phenomenological exploration that reveals the codes inscribed in the folds of the cavity. The narrative unfolds in three performative acts—taking place throughout the exhibition period—in which they engage with methodologies from the natural sciences to investigate the interspecies relationships that are part of geological matter. During these acts, specimens such as fire opal, cinnabar, obsidian, pumice, and amber fossils will be displayed, reconfigured by erosion and underground shifts caused by climate change.

By questioning the representational model of the 19th century first natural history dioramas, the exhibition, curated by Adriana Flores Suárez, becomes a site of speculation and an approach to a vibrant geological organism, whose exploration gives rise to the emergence of new mineral bodies.