RAFIKI SANCHEZ MX

CAMPO AIR December resident
@rafiki_sanchez

Rafiki lives and works in Yucatán, Mexico. He graduated from the University of the Arts of Yucatán with Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Visual Arts. His practice is rooted in waste and debris, exploring drawing, performance, and the materialities of weaving, clothing, and their relation to the body. In 2017, he was invited to the InSite residency at Casa Gallina during its sixth edition in Mexico City. He has exhibited in solo and group shows at prominent venues like Museo Jumex, Museo Fernando García Ponce MACAY, Museo Amparo, International Museum of the Baroque, Museo de la Ciudad de Querétaro, Centro Cultural de Olimpo, and Museo de la Ciudad de Mérida, among others. His work is featured in publications such as “El Gran Sur: Estados de ánimo fuera del centro” (2019), “Experiencias del bien común” (2018), the catalog “Artes Mérida” (2013-2014), and “Estrategias: Atelier Romo” (2012). He has been a recipient of the Young Creators grant from the National Fund for Culture and the Arts (FONCA) three times in the discipline of sculpture during the periods 2015-2016, 2020-2021, and 2023-present. In 2023, he took part in the inaugural exhibition of the Spore Initiative, a cultural initiative in Berlin facilitating programs on regenerative ecological practices through intergenerational learning and art.

Garzón Collection. Being a potter, being an ant, being the landscape.

How can I dress myself in the landscape? To look, observe, traverse, smell. These are actions that allow me to contemplate the territory from the concept of clothing. When I try to bury my face, I can hear all the voices, human or non-human because in burying my face, I bury the entire body, a gesture of completely burying oneself and dressing in entirety. The Garzón Collection involves creating a series of alternative dresses that help me understand this place, by observing those who inhabit here, and asking myself if these garments breathe with the environment and the earth.