Artistic Residency in Raw Matters Viena 2026
Rosary of extraction
Research in Extraction Violence and Dance
Artist in Residency: Gabriel Zúñiga
Through performativity and improvisation, the body becomes divinity — capable of telling with its movement history, present, and possibility. In the end, it is about playing with the tools that allow us to connect with the world, eliminating the distance between the body and the environment, allowing ourselves to be one with everything. Developing empathy from and through movement in relation to our actions and their present.
The research developed during the residency was based on two literary texts that describe, analyze, and represent the violence generated by mineral extraction — in this case, emeralds. Our lady of assassins by Fernando Vallejo exposes the way in which religion is used as a device with infinite functionalities, always siding with the strongest; the virgin accompanies the most powerful and blesses the assassins of the fatherland, whoever they may be at any given moment.
The Rosary is used as an iconographic and methodological reference. Through five reflections on the mystery of extraction; territory, mining, conflict, violence and peace, the Virgin of the Remedy of the Flesh becomes body, dance, and movement. ‘The most important thing when praying the rosary is to have your intention very clear. What is your intention?’ (my mother).