The artistic research project Tonales is based on the phenomenon of the “tonal” (or “tono”) in the indigenous culture of Mexico: a spiritual double of a human being. The word originally stems from the Nahuatl (native Mexican language) word “tona” or “tonatl” which means both spirit and sunlight.
As guardian spirits, tonales appear in various places in Mesoamerica and – depending on the community – can take on different shapes and forms, usually appearing in the form of an animal.
The project is based in the community of the Macehual in Puebla, Mexico. In the context of oral traditions, ritual acts, and other aesthetic practices, it explores the (in)visible existence and influence of tonales as non-human beings, and observes the interactions between local communities and their environment. To account for the liminal, relational mode of existence of tonales, who traverse ontological registers not least between humans and their material and animate environment, the world is understood as a relational assemblage of acting actors according to indigenous cosmologies, and as such is incorporated into the cinematographic practice of the research. The space in which the artistic research is embedded presents itself in an inescapable intertwining of human and non-human actors. My artistic practice is situated at the intersection of audiovisual documentary and essay film, installation art, and ethnography, and is generally characterized by a great sensitivity to the subjects and "objects" of my projects. In the realization of Tonales, I rely on the experience of working in the milieu and on a production process influenced by the social context.