Las muertes chiquitas (Small Deaths) MACBA es viu

‘Orgasms, like the land, belong to those who work on them.’ This is the phrase that runs through several of the voices involved in Las muertes chiquitas (Small Deaths). This is part of a project in which Mireia Sallarès recalls moments of her four-year journey through Mexico, accompanied by a camera and an illuminated neon sign with the same title. Below the more or less obvious surface of reality, the land – in this case, Mexican – is made denser by subjectivity and its rootedness, conflicts and desires. Orgasms – in this case, female –, shared or solitary, cathartic or frustrated, are a possible starting point to establish links between the public and the private, between the erotic and the political.

The intimate area of sexuality is thus placed at the scene of public enjoyment, or rather, of eroticism constructed by ideological transaction and control mechanisms, both religious and cultural. The centrepiece of the project is a feature-length documentary recording extracts from interviews with several Mexican women. It is presented at MACBA in two sessions: in the first, Sallarès will give a reading in the Museum galleries and will bring us closer to the context in which the project developed.

[Excerpt from Pluralidades orgásmicas (Orgasmic pluralities) by Helena Braunštajn, September 2010]

The presentation of Las muertes chiquitas is made in collaboration with the CA Tarragona Centre d’Art, where Mireia Sallarès presents Monuments from 18 May to 28 July 2013.