{"id":50063,"date":"2021-10-19T14:22:49","date_gmt":"2021-10-19T21:22:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eltecolote.org\/content\/?p=50063"},"modified":"2021-10-19T23:22:11","modified_gmt":"2021-10-20T06:22:11","slug":"dia-de-los-muertos-and-the-chance-to-resurrect-from-grief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eltecolote.org\/content\/en\/dia-de-los-muertos-and-the-chance-to-resurrect-from-grief\/","title":{"rendered":"D\u00eda de los Muertos and the chance to resurrect from grief"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The annual D\u00eda de Los Muertos exhibition at SOMArts is one that R\u00edo Ya\u00f1ez has pledged himself to since 2006. But this year\u2019s show\u2014the second during the COVID-19 pandemic and the first without the physical presence of both of his renowned parents, Yolanda L\u00f3pez and Ren\u00e9 Ya\u00f1ez\u2014feels different. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor me, I mean it’s obviously personal,\u201d Ya\u00f1ez said. \u201cI’m putting my mother’s name on it as part of the show, and I’m doing this interview where the bed was that she passed away on six weeks ago.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ya\u00f1ez was 26 when he first began collaborating and co-curating SOMArts\u2019 annual D\u00eda de los Muertos exhibition with his father Ren\u00e9, and did so up until Ren\u00e9\u2019s death in 2018. It was then when Ya\u00f1ez began working and co-curating the SOMArts show with Carolina Quintanilla, who had also collaborated with Ren\u00e9 years earlier. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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D\u00eda de los Muertos art installations by 2AM and Art Hazelwood at SOMArts. Courtesy photo<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

And now with both Ya\u00f1ez and Quintanilla being the torch bearers of the iconic exhibition, both have their sights focused on the future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe way that I think of this moment is the pause, like the quiet before the storm,\u201d Quintanilla said. \u201cI think of this as a moment of contemplation and of gathering and processing. Gathering ourselves and processing what’s happening and kind of looking around like, \u2018What’s next?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year\u2019s exhibition, \u201cDreams Emerging, Beyond Resilience,\u201d which is currently on display until Nov. 5, is dedicated to Ya\u00f1ez\u2019s mother, Yolanda L\u00f3pez, and to fellow arts and culture giants Elizabeth \u2018Betita\u2019 Martinez, Moira Roth, Betty Segal, and Ronnie Goodman. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Yolanda L\u00f3pez and her son, Rio Ya\u00f1ez, during D\u00eda de los Muertos, circa 1980s. Photo: Joe Ramos<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The show\u2014which this year will feature 17 installations and will be available for virtual view\u2014traces its origins back to the 1970s, when Ren\u00e9 Ya\u00f1ez and the collective at Galer\u00eda De La Raza began to develop art exhibits based on D\u00eda de los Muertos. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt the time, it was seen as a very kind of personal, cultural and spiritual practice, and I think [Ren\u00e9\u2019s] idea was that it was something that was really valid to stage in a gallery and present as work of art,\u201d Ya\u00f1ez said. \u201cAnd that was really like the seed for the kind of the scene and community of art exhibits that we have each year now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The show eventually became a mainstay at SOMArts, with the location providing a nurturing space for mixing cultural tradition with artistic experimentation. And that trend continues today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Featured artists Victor Mario Zaballa, whose participation in the exhibition dates back 30 years, went from making very traditional Day of the Dead altars to experimenting with monolithic wooden structures dressed in hand-cut papel picado. \u201cHe is just like a gift that I’ve inherited from my dad,\u201d Ya\u00f1ez said. \u201cIt’s almost like the beating heart of the show.\u201d That piece sits in the center of the gallery. <\/p>\n\n\n\n