NAAB
NAAB     Research project, 2022—ongoing



Como la flor con tanto amor
Me diste tú, se marchitó
Me marcho hoy, yo sé perder
Pero, ah-ah-ay,
¡cómo me duele! Ah-ah ay
[Selena, Como la flor]

Xochitl toconcuetlahui in tlatticpac
[Nezahualcóyotl, “Ah in tepilhuan”]

Giorgio Vasari arrived too late in history. Le vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori e architettori published in 1550, marked an emphasis on showing a History of Art to which we were not "invited". In Art, phrases like "We are late again" are examples to affirm that we were hidden. Now, dear reader, I would like to speak to you in a more intimate way: that is, to speak of the pain of "losing" a flower. Yes, we will sing and wear flowers on this occasion to be able to talk about History... of another history that will take us back to other worlds to make them continue to exist and be recognized since they were not pronounced and for this Selena's song will accompany us. Now, welcome to my petal of my research; in Mesoamerica between the Late Classic period (600-900 A.D.). We are almost 600 years after the Colonization of America and with it the deception of European Modernity about the history of the artist's authorship and biography. However, before "The Conquest", flowers germinated that were important in painting. 

For example, there was a school of Mayan painters who signed with flowers: the naab, a ritual symbol between two worlds: the terrestrial and the aquatic. Flowers that floated were captured to last in history without being visible, without coming to light. The flower was an attribute of decoration in the headdress of the painter, of the artist, ah naab, when it was represented in a fresco or vessel. 

In the same way there was a God for the artists, the monkey God. Unfortunately, if these flowers remain unseen, they will wither as Nezahualcoyotl predicted in his poetry. Subsequently, during the colonial and present times, other populations developed craft techniques linked to the flower as a gesture of representations of death. Candles filled with flowers to remember and mourn the loved ones, the souls that will never leave us. With this project I would like to question the official History and make visible how Modernity continues to generate consequences in Contemporaneity. My proposal is a dialogue in History as a new form of archeology of the future... and now LET'S SING! 

But, ah-ah-ah, how it hurts me! Ah-ah ay, how it hurts me!..