Naomi Rincón Gallardo: ‘Opossum Resilience’
Naomi Rincón Gallardo, Opossum Resilience, 2019, Single-channel video, stereo sound, HD, colour, 16 min 2 sec
About the Work
Opossum Resilience reimagines Mesoamerican myths through four characters – Hill, Opossum, Lady 9 Reed and a multi-breasted Agave – who exist across overlapping temporalities. They harness fire and joy to share the opossum’s trick of playing dead and reviving in extractivist zones. The work critiques dispossession in Oaxaca, blending performance and popular music to highlight the struggle against resource exploitation. By fusing sacred Mesoamerican symbols and myths with contemporary geopolitical issues, it promotes a decolonial, feminist perspective, emphasizing the resilience and activism of traditional communities defending their land and natural resources.
About the Artist
Naomi Rincón Gallardo (b. 1979; based in Mexico City and Oaxaca, Mexico) is an artist whose critical-mythical world-making stems from a decolonial, queer perspective and addresses the creation of counter-worlds in neocolonial settings. In her work, she integrates her interests in theatre games, popular music, Mesoamerican cosmologies, speculative fiction, vernacular festivities and crafts, decolonial feminisms and queer of colour critique. She completed the PhD in Practice Program at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Recent shows include Hayward Gallery, London (2024); Momenta Biennale de l’Image, Montreal (2023); 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia (2022); 34th Bienal de São Paulo (2021); Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Oaxaca (2020); Kunstraum Innsbruck (2020); 11 Berlin Biennale (2020); and Museo Experimental El Eco, Mexico City (2019).
About EMAP x FRIEZE FILM SEOUL
For the third year in a row, Frieze Film returns to Frieze Seoul 2024. This year’s programme is presented in partnership with Ewha Media Art Presentation (EMAP) and is on view from 2 – 6 September at Ewha Womans University and online at frieze.com.
Curated by Joowon Park and Valentine Umansky, this year’s programme is titled ‘All that Weaves the Universe: Of Quantum Entanglements’. It brings together time-based media works of 37 international artists, unfolding under eight chapters.
