Médula

Curated by CIMBRA, Médula was a solo exhibition by Coco Charles in an abandoned plot in the center of Oaxaca. Its title referred to the spinal cord, which connects the brain with the nerves through an active and fragile network of energies: the central nervous system.

The exhibition grew out of Corpomorfías, curated by Thom Díaz and Pamela Rech in collaboration with Malcom Vargas, Sitio Centro, and Museo Mutante in Monterrey, Nuevo León, in 2021.

Charles, originally from Monterrey and based in Oaxaca at different points in her life, traced routes through her own history and those of others who have experienced hospitals, clinics, consulting rooms, operating theaters, waiting rooms, and diagnoses. These routes describe an extended, open body, surgically dissected yet perceived through the lens of affection.

A luminous fissure crossed the site. Walking along it revealed fragments of ceramics, plates, and vessels exposed during excavation. Some of the images Charles presented were wounds, sutures, and skin in the process of healing. The fissure became both an opening for light and a spine.