Exposition name:Practical Paganism Location: Valle de Guadalupe, Baja California Date: 2016
Description: Curated by Emanuela Ines Dunand, in partnership with Galerie Escougnou-Cetraro (Paris) and Muebles Sullivan (Mexico City). The 100-square-meter space functioned as an interactive laboratory featuring collections of plants, mushrooms, hydrolats, and bacterial cultures engaged in microbial “battles”—such as yogurt vs. cheese or yeast interactions. Additional chemical and botanical pairings included peyote and nutmeg, sotol and serpent, rosemary, salvia divinorum, tobacco, ants, eucalyptus, and more. Visitors were invited to observe and even consume some of the experimental preparations, activating the installation as a participatory space of fermentation, transformation, and sensory inquiry. The second part of the project, titled Magic Substances, presented a series of experiments involving biological and botanical agents to explore the creative and transformative forces of nature. Rooted in daily life and spiritual inquiry, the work highlights how bacteria and plants carry generative power, revealing new understandings of interspecies relations. Ochoa and Sumi approach transformation as both biological process and metaphysical potential, blending scientific experimentation with mythology, folk wisdom, and reflections on biopolitics. The installation invites reflection on the deep interconnectedness of life, suggesting that transformation—at every level—is essential to awareness, healing, and creation.
