Papeles de la morge (#9) (2003)

Margolles’s work focuses on the rituals and systems at play in the management of death. It turns an unflinching gaze at the realities of death and frequently uses the by-products of forensic processes, such as water used to wash dead bodies in morgues. These materials are used to produce sculptures, installations and performances that provide a poignant and visceral comment on her country’s attitudes towards death and the extreme violence perpetrated in areas such as Northern Mexico, where cartel wars and murders of women are endemic.

For the series of Papeles de la morgue (203), Margolles pulled a sheet of watercolour paper slowly through water previously used to wash corpses after autopsy. Organic substances such as blood, fat and hair which made their way to the body’s surface in the course of the examination cling to the absorbent paper. By immersing the paper in the water used to wash a body, the artist has created abstract and extremely moving anonymous portraits of the dead.

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