JAO MOON

The Lifetime of Fire (2022) is a performance that Jao Moon created for the group exhibition “This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection,” at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt. His practice is informed by his experience of growing up in the marginalized periphery of Cartagena, Colombia. Living in an environment of constant resistance transformed him into a political body and made him question the predominant social order. In this artwork, he places candles in a mask on his head, slowly moving across a room. As the candles melt, the wax leaves marks on his skin. In this ritual between pain and pleasure, he seeks to decolonize ancestral memory through fire.