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El Baile del centenario, 2022

Chocolate, chocolate cake, Banquet table, serving utensils Dimensions variable

Curated by Dea López

Matamoros 404, Oaxaca

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This project explores how architectural style not only shapes public space, but also permeates the rituals that unfold within it—particularly those involving food. It draws a parallel between the power dynamics embedded in architecture and those staged through ceremonial banquets. The work departs from the 1921 centennial banquet celebrating Mexico’s independence: a paradoxical event, filled with European imagery and neoclassical aesthetics, despite commemorating liberation from European rule. A series of edible sculptures replicate architectural ornaments found in the spaces where these celebrations took place, cast in chocolate and filled with cake. Referencing life-sized sugar pastillage and 19th-century European pastry techniques, the installation takes the form of a banquet—left to be consumed, metabolized, digested, and excreted.