Marcia Santos

We caught Marcia while she was on break from class at SOMA, one of the most forward-thinking contemporary arts institutions in México. She met with us alongside her longtime friend and photographer Alejandra Aragón. The two artists representing part of a vital feminist front of contemporary arts in Juárez, and México at-large. Marcia is perhaps most infamously known for her work Bottles of sand from dead bodies from mournful Juárez (2014), a response to the types of “commercial activism” that emerged to support the families of victims of the femicide crisis. In that work, she sold bottles of sand from the city along with the following description: “Lovely souvenir from the ‘most dangerous city of the world’, containing sand in a beautiful resistant clear container glass. New, unopened. No refunds are permitted.”

Marcia’s work stretches far beyond this 2014 performance, and includes her co-founding of Toperweb, a collection of contemporary border artists whose most recent project includes Cartography: Mapping Community Art at the Border. The exhibition, featured at UTEP’s Rubin Center, took a look at the landscape of institutions and independent projects that shape contemporary art practices in El Paso, Juárez, and Las Cruces, in order to create new conversations and connections about contemporary art in the region. To learn more about Marcia’s recent projects, check out her website.

En sus propias palabras: “Marcia Santos (1990) Co-Fundadora del colectivo fronterizo de agentes de arte contemporáneo Toperweb, en la actualidad cursa la Licenciatura de Teoría y Crítica del Arte en la Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez, así mismo, es estudiante del Programa Educativo SOMA. Exhibió en la III Bienal fronteriza en Cd. Juárez y El Paso, Texas en 2013; II Bienal Nacional e Internacional 2013 de Arte Desde Aquí en Colombia; Becaria en el programa de jóvenes creadores David Alfaro Siqueiros en I.CHI.CULT. 2013, ICOCULT 2017; en el Laboratorio de Arte en La Quiñonera, 2013, D.F.; Desarrolló una Residencia de investigación en Arte Contemporáneo con Curatoria Forense en Uruguay, 2014; Igualmente ha participado en la Bienal Nacional Artemergente 2015, Monterrey. También colaboró en el proyecto editorial Arte contemporáneo en México, gestión participativa y redes sociales de GPNC, 2015-2016, 2016-2017.”