La alegoría del ritual Ñero y los extraños movimientos de la memoria

The project stems from artistic research into the reconfiguration of identity and the sense of belonging in contexts marked by uprooting. Maldonado understands the migrant wound not as a closed state, but as a process of transformation, a rift that can become an opportunity for reconstruction, care, and resilience. From there, noise is presented as a language capable of reconnecting memories and generating new relationships of belonging.

“The allegory of the Ñero ritual and the strange movements of memory” unfolds as a sensorial and emotional laboratory where art, neuroscience, and shared memory coexist. During more than two years of work in Madrid, the artist has woven a process of exploration where personal memories and collective records combine to give rise to an installation that challenges the viewer from multiple angles.

The work’s origins lie in Iztapalapa (Mexico City), where Maldonado grew up surrounded by popular sound systems and cumbia rebajada music. This personal memory connects with the experiences of a group of migrants with diverse gender identities who participated in experimental sessions on the margins of Madrid.

Through sensory stimuli linked to their childhoods and adolescence, biometric and emotional records were collected, which were then translated into sound frequencies and intertwined with the rhythms of the sound systems. The result is a polyphonic chorus of identities and emotions that vibrates in the exhibition hall through sound, image, and projection.

The visitor will encounter an experience that is not only observed or heard, but perceived throughout the body. Personal memories are materialized in a collection of works that includes 28 digital sound art pieces, six four-channel video installations, one three-channel documentary video installation, 20 single-channel video art pieces, eight sound objects, and three installations, in addition to performance actions and documentary recordings that expand the scope of the project.

Curated by Íñigo Rodríguez Román and Maite Sánchez Urueña, the exhibition offers an immersive journey that invites the public to rethink memory as a living, changing, and collective archive.