Category: Pharmakon
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Pharmakon
Exposition name: Pharmakon
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Arafura – Garden of Psychotropical Hope
Exposition name: Arafura – Garden of Psychotropical Hope (Pharmakon)
Location: Popotla, Mexico City
Date: 2021
Description: Design and production of the garden as a living art work, from the star of the rebuilding of the house, now a cultural art center dedicated to residencies for art curators, artist and research in art and ecofeminism.
Related external links:
PHARMAKON: Jardín de la Esperanza Psicotropical by Arafura MX
https://www.arafura.mx/pharmakon.html
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Ceremonial Sculptures & Plates
Exposition name: Ceremonial Sculptures & Plates (Pharmakon)
Location: Galeria del Agua Altzayanca. Tlaxcala
Date: 2021
Description: This residency had two stages, where under the leading of the artist Rafael Cazares I made a series of pieces; plates and ceremonial sculptures and recycled glass pieces. In between the utilitarian and artistic. Part of the Project Pharmakon. -
Pharmastar Sinapsis Game
Exposition name: Pharmastar Synapsis Game
Location: Galeria del Agua Altzayanca. Tlaxcala
Dimensions: Variable dimensions, 31 cm x 31 cm. Plus 25 Chips
Date: 2021
Description: Synapsis is the process through which neurons communicate via neuro-transmitters produced by the body. This interactive piece explores how love emerges from brain chemistry. Each color represents a neurotransmitter: yellow (serotonin), orange (adrenaline), white (dopamine), and violet (oxytocin). When balanced, these chemicals create sensations of joy, empathy, desire, and well-being. When imbalanced, they can lead to issues like depression. Diet, habits, and emotions all influence this balance. Players begin with chips outside the board, like in Chinese checkers, symbolizing how external factors—habits, addictions, routines—affect our mental chemistry. This is more than a game; it’s a reflection on how love and well-being are deeply rooted in our biology and everyday choices.
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Bhang
Exposition name: Bhang
Location: Multiple, México City
In collaboration with: Ariel Orozco
Date: 2021
Description: The Pharmakon Psychotropical Garden project brought together visionary art, ancient plant knowledge, and experimental cooking in a multisensory exploration of altered states and healing traditions. Among its highlights were the Paintings Under Four Grams, created during guided experiences with San Isidro mushrooms in collaboration with artists Ariel Orozco and Izq, capturing the intricate visions and emotional landscapes induced by psilocybin. Alongside this, the garden featured Cannabic Recipes, including Shiva’s Beverage, one of the oldest known cannabis preparations traced back to the Vedas over a thousand years before Christ. According to legend, Shiva, after a quarrel with his wife Pavarti, retreated to rest beneath a ganja tree; upon awakening, he was soothed and uplifted by the plant’s effect. Enchanted by its calming power, he incorporated it into all his recipes, starting with Bhang—a sacred drink traditionally made from crushed Indian nuts, yak milk, and cannabis. This preparation remains a ritual offering during Maha Shivaratri, the annual celebration in honor of the deity, and serves as a cultural anchor for the ongoing dialogue between plants, spirit, and creative expression explored in this psychotropical initiative.
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PSYCHOTROPICAL COCKTAILS (PHARMAKON)
Exposition name: PHARMAKON: PSYCHOTROPICAL COCKTAILS
Location: Nina Menocal Gallery, Arafura’s Garden, IMSS Restaurant.
In collaboration with: Chef Ramses Manek
Date: 2021 – 2022
Description: The Psychotropical Cocktails project unfolded across several key venues in Mexico City throughout 2021, merging artistic experimentation with botanical rituals. At Arafura’s Garden in July, as part of a curatorial residency program, preparations began with cocktails and foods infused with psychotropical plants grown onsite. Later, in November, the project took form within the exhibition Nuevo Verdor at Nina Menocal Gallery, featuring signature drinks such as Cuba Libre (lulo and coca leaf with rum and soda), Blue Hummingbird – Huitzilopochtli (tequila with psilocybin mushrooms from San Isidro), and No Fear (pericón and mezcal with damiana and orange juice). Earlier in April, in collaboration with chef Ramses Manek, the experience also extended to a one-night event at IMSS Restaurant, where a curated menu of entheogenic recipes and psychotropical cocktails further explored the intersection of taste, plants, and expanded states of perception.
Cocktails Menu:
– Cuba libre: Lulo and coca leafs with Rum and soda.
– Blue hummingbird Huitzilopochtli: Tequila and Psilocibe Mushrooms, San isidro .
– No fear: Pericón and mezcal with damiana and orange juice. -
Pharmakon – Actions at a distance
Exposition name: Pharmakon – Actions at a distance
Location: Jumex Museum, Mexico City
Date: FEB – MAR 2022
Curator: Kit Hammonds
Other artists: Lorena Ancona, Oscar Cueto, Galia Eibenschutz, Calixto Ramírez, Rafiki Sánchez.
Description: More than an installation, it is a sanctuary of biodiversity, a vegetal pharmacy, a trans-disciplinary learning space, and a site for ancestral memory and ecological regeneration. Functioning as a temporal portal, the garden invites us to learn from Indigenous cosmogonies and reimagine collective futures in harmony with the rhythms of nature. It embodies ancestral technologies as tools for reconnection with the sacred. The garden is inhabited by diverse life forms—plants, fungi, lichens, pollinators, insects, birds, and reptiles. -
The Hearth of the Forest
PHOTO: UNAM, 2023
Exposition name: The Heart of the Forest
Location: Palacio de la Escuela de Medicina, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)
Date: Until September 2023
Description: Pharmakon explores the blurred boundaries between cure and poison, medicine and drug. Through a vibrant collection of more than 50 entheogenic plant specimens gathered from urban sidewalks across Colombia and Mexico—mounted on colorful papers—and a series of drawings and paintings, the work opens a critical dialogue around pharmacology, ancestral herbalism, and the political and spiritual dimensions of substances. Conceived as an experimental laboratory, the project reclaims Indigenous and popular knowledge systems, positioning the vegetal world as a site of healing, resistance, and psychotropical hope.
Related external articles:
– Cristina Ochoa: El corazón del monte
https://fdr.at/en/project/die-zukunft-beginnt-heute/
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Pharmakon: Street Herbaries
PHOTO: PHARMAKON AT SOMERS GALLERY 2023 LONDON
Exposition name: Pharmakon: Street Herbaries
Location: Multiple: London, Vienna, Mexico City, Barcelona…
Date: 2023
Description: Pharmakon explores the blurred boundaries between cure and poison, medicine and drug. Through a vibrant collection of more than 50 entheogenic plant specimens gathered from urban sidewalks across Colombia and Mexico—mounted on colorful papers—and a series of drawings and paintings, the work opens a critical dialogue around pharmacology, ancestral herbalism, and the political and spiritual dimensions of substances. Conceived as an experimental laboratory, the project reclaims Indigenous and popular knowledge systems, positioning the vegetal world as a site of healing, resistance, and psychotropical hope. -
Steyregg-Festival der Regionen
PHOTO: Cristina Ochoa 2023
Exposition name: Steyregg-Festival Austria 2023
Location: Steyregg-Festival, Vienna
Date: 2023
Description: Cristina Ochoa connects questions surrounding species extinction with herbalism and pharmacy, engaging with cultural myths and ceremonies as well as their interpretation and assimilation within communities. Her practice draws upon her academic background in fine art, cultural management, copyright, and Mexican art history, which she studied in Colombia and Mexico.
Related external articles:
– Steyregg-Festival Austria 2023
https://fdr.at/en/project/die-zukunft-beginnt-heute/