A volar entre rocas

SNAP is pleased to present A volar entre rocas, featuring new work by Mariana Muñoz Gomez. The exhibition runs from May 4 – June 8, 2024 at SNAP Gallery.

A volar entre rocas is an intimate processing of self and relation to place, considerations brought up alongside questions about land, place, and power. The exhibition compares and contrasts experiences and knowledge around the artist’s two homes, exploring feelings of diaspora including considerations of memory, movement, reaching, and belonging.

Opening Reception: Saturday May 4, 7pm-9pm

Artist Talk: Thursday May 9 , 6pm-7pm in person and online

Please register here in advance

Artist Statement

A volar entre rocas is an intimate processing of self, relation to place, and migration. Aspects of memory and home are brought up alongside questions about land, place, and power. The artist brings their two homes on opposite ends of Turtle Island into relation in this exhibition through an engagement with the natural and social histories surrounding Tyndall stone and volcanic rock as vessels of time, embodiments of movement, witnesses to history, and links between distant places. The works in the exhibition compare and contrast experiences and knowledge around the artist’s two homes, exploring feelings of diaspora including considerations of memory, movement, reaching, and belonging.

Volcanic rock is and has been used in structures in México ranging from public to domestic settings, including at the artist’s grandparents’ house in Morelos. Other examples include Teopanzolco, a Tlahuica pyramid site built around the 12th to 14th centuries; and the Palacio de Cortés, Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortés’s palace, which was built in the 16th century over Tlahuica ruler Cuauhnahuac’s palace. Indigenous cultures–pre-contact with colonists–as well as the conquistadors practiced building structures such as homes, palaces, and churches on top of other existing cultures’ buildings to establish power. Sometimes the stones of an existing structure would be re-used in the new structure.

Tyndall stone is a limestone quarried since the late 19th century, specifically from around the communities of Garson and Tyndall in the province of Manitoba within Treaty 1 Territory, located in so-called Canada. Tyndall stone is millions of years old and is the bedrock of this geographical region. For those who live on the prairies, this stone is easily recognizable and, similarly to volcanic rock throughout México, can be seen in domestic and public settings throughout Canada. Tyndall stone was used in the construction of the Ottawa Parliament Building, and a similar limestone was used to build the walls at Lower Fort Garry, where Treaty 1 was signed in 1871 after negotiations between the Anishinaabe, Cree, and British Crown representatives.

This exhibition is presented with the generous support of the Winnipeg Arts Council with funding from the City of Winnipeg

About the Artist

Mariana Muñoz Gomez is an artist, writer, and curator. They are a settler of colour based in Winnipeg. Winnipeg is located within Treaty 1 Territory–this area includes ancestral territories of Anishinaabe, Ininiwak, Anishininiwak, Dene, and Dakota Peoples, and is the Homeland of the Red River Métis.

Mariana’s lens-based practice involves a variety of media including text works, screen prints, video art, and photography. Their interests include language, identity, diaspora, and displacement, and these topics’ intersections with coloniality, temporality, relation, and place. Mariana has worked with many Winnipeg collectives and currently works with Carnation Zine as a managing editor.