Mnemonic Matter

Mnemonic Matter. The law of similar is a project developed in 2018 as part of the different process of coparticipation curated and produced by inSite / Casa Gallina.

At the beginning of 2018 Oswaldo Ruiz, in multiple tours around the neighborhood, located many pharmacies and homeopathic practices of long tradition deeply rooted in the community. After this initial endeavor he started conversations with doctors, pharmacists and patients and made continuous visits to the pharmacies. Through this process it became evident the importance these spaces have among the neighbors as meeting points and interchange, where they share an interest in healthcare, looking after oneself and after the other through homeopathy. This old practice has resisted against the dynamics of consumerism prevailing in allopathic medicine and its huge pharmaceutical companies, where prevail relations that prioritize economical exchanges.

Ruiz made an open call to neighbors interested on this subject to meet and have conversations led by specialists. From these encounters, Oswaldo Ruiz invited some members of the original group to make a metaphoric exercise in which they talked about things and substances (matters) that had damage through their lifetime, mainly in their jobs. Substances that they would like to convert into homeopathic remedies, following the Law of the similar that like cures like. They created thus symbolic antidotes. In this way, Lourdes Álvarez, Nayeli Lima, Rafael Maya, Angelita Palillero and Paula Trejo, as the artist himself, formed a cabinet of mnemonic matters related to the memories of their illness that the participants shared during the process.

This project consists of a book that compiles the written stories and analog photographs of the substances (matters) chosen by the members of the group. The book includes five passages that develop the different approaches around homeopathy, like memory of water, care of oneself and the law of the similar. The final piece includes a wooden cabinet with twenty-three homeopathic remedies made during the whole process of the work, the cabinet also stores the photos and stories of the whole process.

Josefa Ortega, curator.