When Air Touches: Cicatrix of Time in the Artistic Practices of Teresa Margolles and Maria José Arjona

Abstract

From the Latin word ‘tempus’, comes the term ‘temperare’, which means to mix. This gives us words related to weather such as ‘temperature’, but also expressions related to human affections like ‘temperament’. By looking at the etymological composition of these words, we will look at the practices of two contemporary artists: Teresa Margolles and Maria José Arjona. Thus, to observe how time, weather, temperature, temperament can be experienced in a single flux and create new areas of intersection between fields otherwise considered far apart. By bringing in some theories from Performance Studies, Neo-Materialist Theories, and Haptic Studies, we will look at the space-time generated by artistic practices –with a corporeal and performative background– to observe how matter, even the invisible one, constitutes memory and remembrance. The visual installation Aire (2003) by Teresa Margolles explores the invisibility of transtemporal traces, while the process-oriented work The White Series (2008) by Maria José Arjona investigates the visibility of material traces on the scene. These are two antithetical works that share a common interest on memory and cicatrix of time, grasping its atmospheric materiality. It is about feeling materially what circulates in the atmosphere and makes us fall into other temporalities.