I have been working for the past 3 years on a documentary project with an afro Mexican community , in Mexico . The project is about femininity in all it’s aspects , also related through the women I met - to my own history , and the relationship to my mother . 

In 2019 I got into a photo book production lab , here in Mexico City , called Hydra+fotografia which is a gallery and book publisher , and I could work towards making a photobook from this long therm project . The corona Virus epidemic got in when I was at the end of a 1 year lab journey , and couldn’t finish the process . Publishing a photo book is very expensive and I was working towards producing a serie of dummies to send to festivals and be able to find a co - publisher to work with Hydra + fotografia ( my mexican publisher ) . In the meantime of covid 19 madness I also lost my online job , as my client who was in switzerland , lost his . 

I would be delighted to receive this founding as so I could produce a few dummies and pay for my last session at the lab . 

HOJA SANTA 
(2017 - 2020)

PHOTOGRAPHIC PROJECT by Maciejka Alicja Art 

Hoja Santa is a herb largely used in traditional medicine and kitchen in Costa Chica****, Oaxaca. 

I met Juliana on a dinner in a friend’s house in Oaxaca city and we decided to collaborate on a project about women in the costa chica, in her afro community . I had been visiting Juliana and her daughter and living with her family for more then a year, in Jose Maria Morelos. I have learned about local tradition and all the aspects of the women society in such a difficult and isolated area of Mexico . I met local healers and midwifes, but also “queridas” ( mistresses) , abandoned women, widows, single mothers or mothers of many children .
The initial project about women became my own journey, like the shadow line , into the origin , the womb , and back . I found many parallels with my own life and female relationships and suffering , as long as features of feminism and proudness, submerging myself in the essence of motherhood and womanhood , with it’s shadows and limitations in all it’s aspects - into the womb of mama Africa and back. Every person I met , is a character in the journey .
I used mixed media collages and painted photographs to describe aspects of that spell , I can’t photograph but I can feel .
The project is still ongoing after 3 years and quiet wide . It has various layers of reading , through the anthropologic tale about the afro Mexican villages, the syncretism of the catholic and afro culture; its’ women who are tough workers and support the local society , and who also live quiet separated from man due to the history of violence of the place ; the traditional medicine and healing technique such as “espanto”(soul retrieval)*** or empacho**** “emotional digestion healing” for example
Currently the projects is being in the process of transformation into a book, with the Mexican editorial from Cdmx , Hydra + Fotografia . 


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Holy Leaf ( hoja santa )