With her admiration for traditions ranging from textile art intertwining pre-Hispanic elements to the ancient weaving technique of Mexico, Berlin-based Mexican artist Beatriz Morales creates an atmosphere that is deeply rooted in nature: In her home-country, agave has long been an essential part of mythology and culture, food and living, medicine and spirituality. This high-quality product, popularly known as Henequén, was long regarded as the green gold of Mexico. The fiber was largely replaced by plastics in the 20th century, but has regained importance in recent years, particularly in reference to textile and craft tradition. The artist grew up in a family that produced fabrics. She remembers being enveloped in the smell and the feeling of woven or knitted cloths as a child. So it comes as no surprise that working with agave fibre is a genuinely familiar extension of the artist’s œuvre, which also encompasses painting. As part of her practice, Morales is producing plant dyes in collaboration with master weaver and dyer Ignacio Netzahualcoyotl in her studio located outside Mexico City.

This dyeing technique follows ancient methods and recipes that have been passed on by only a few master dyers through the generations from ancient times to the present day, thus forming an unbroken tradition from the pre-Hispanic cultures of origin which resonates strongly in Morales’ contemporary position. With her work, Morales quite literally picks up a thread from the past – a thread that has been in constant danger of breaking since the onset of industrialization, and which she now weaves, preserves and transforms into a new artistic context. At Kunstverein Dresden, the soft materiality of the agave fibers takes on the silhouette of a tree that grows in the middle of the room and spreads its falling roots across the floor. Accompanied by a sound installation and two embroidery paintings from her series ‘Soundscapes,’ Morales detaches herself from the existing spatial components and creates a new colorful landscape that anyone can physically enter – perhaps even escape to.