Rodrigo Velasco's installation carries within it the metaphor of the living flower with its variable and random unfolding, as evoked in the theme of cuicamatl. Its transformational and generative nature emphasizes the creation of trajectories rather than static images. By exploring the transverse movements of thought and feeling, this installation celebrates the life and astonishing beauty of Nahuatl.

The cuicamatl [translated as “singing papers”] are another source of influence in the work, because of their importance in the Nahuatl world, but especially because of the wisdom and liveliness that characterize these books of lyric poetry. For León-Portilla, a cuicamatl is conceived “not as a precious dried flower, but as a flower that opens and closes under the various rays of the sun, so that it can be appreciated by faces and hearts that have lived through similar situations in other circumstances” (León-Portilla, 1978).

Niyolchoca means “my heart is sad”. This is a possible answer to the question: “Tlen ki ijtoa mo yolotl? [What does your heart say?] This exchange testifies to an important value in Nahuatl cosmogony: speaking and living from the heart. The installation Niyolchoca echoes another work by the artist, Niyolpaki, which means “my heart is happy”.

Niyolchoca was part of the first thematic cycle of TOPO's 2019-2021 program Frontiers. Cultures, languages, spiritualities: beyond borders brings together three artists from across the Americas to explore the reclaiming of roots and legacies through issues of memory and death.