curating.org
Master Project
Rosela del Bosque
Invocations to the Water between the Mountains; On the Overflow forms of the Colorado River Delta
1st Walk: Pozo Coyote is among one of the most ancient water streams that connected the Colorado River Delta with the Upper Gulf of California through Laguna Salada, Mexico. May 2022. Photograph by Jessica Sevilla.
“Invocations to the Water between the Mountains” is a curatorial long-term project that seeks to explore the relationships between people, settlements, the ecosystem, and water in the Colorado River delta region, specifically in the dry lakebed of Laguna Salada located in Mexicali, Mexico. It was developed and thought-with Archivo Familiar del Río Colorado. The name of the project was drawn through the geographical setting where Laguna Salada basin lies, which is between the mountain ranges of Sierra de Juárez and Sierra Cucapá. We propose to ‘invoke’ as actions that enact collective action and claim of the territory, the contingent state of these water sources, ethereal qualities, and multilayered histories. The project aims to entangle microhistories to the lost natural phenomena and matter through collective and embodied research practices. Conceived as a three-part series of context-specific encounters at sites throughout Laguna Salada related to each other, “Invocations to the Water between the Mountains” is a program built with invited artists, scientists, and researchers with common reflections to participate in field trips, and explorations. The aim behind these encounters is not only to provoke inner dialogues around the questions raised by the “Invocations”, but also to encourage and share research and processes through embodied experiences—walking, meandering, listening—that can potentially open new ways of engaging with this land. This project has been supported by Patronato de Arte Contemporáneo, A.C. in Mexico City through their artistic grants program in 2022. It took take place in May 2022 in a section of Pozo Coyote and southeast Laguna Salada, January in trails along Sierra Cucapá, and April 2023 on the canyons in Sierra de Juárez– as walks, explorations, and workshops mediated by the artist and collaborator Enero y Abril across the extensive Laguna Salada basin. As a follow-up chapter to “Invocations to the Water between the Mountains”, the second theoretical approach “On the overflow forms of the Colorado river Delta” yearns to traverse the geologic features of the ever-changing ecologies of northwestern Baja California. “On the Overflows” has been thought in hand with the Institute of Postnatural Studies through the Postnatural Independent Study Program and will be presented in July 2023 at Matadero in Madrid, Spain.
Rosela del Bosque is a curator and researcher currently based in Zurich but from Mexicali, Mexico. Her practice has focused mainly on the specific context of Baja California, Mexico and works with art education, curatorial practice, and research-led methodologies. On a larger scope, her on-going project and curatorial research with Archivo Familiar del Río Colorado focuses on overcoming the flat and instrumental notions of the Colorado river as a provider of ecosystem services and of water as a resource – to delve into the experiences of the tangible, embodied research tactics and non-extractivist relations with water and land.
She holds a BA in Art History and Curatorial Studies from the Universidad de las Américas Puebla (2015-2020). In 2022, she was selected as a recipient of the Fomento Fundación Jumex Arte Contemporáneo scholarship for studying abroad. She has collaborated in programs focused on curatorial research with the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (2018), art education with Museo Jumex (2019) and independent research programs such as PIP — Postnatural Independent Program with the Institute of Postnatural Studies (2023). In 2023, she concluded the programme of Master of Advanced Studies in Curating at Zürcher Hochschule der Künste.
She has co-curated projects at La Nana ConArte (Mexico City), at Reforma 917 (Puebla), at Planta Libre (Mexicali) and at OnCurating Project Space (Zurich). She is currently Associate Curator at Planta Libre Espacio Experimental, works as Curator and Researcher in the Archivo Familiar del Rio Colorado.
