Temporary intervetion at various arenas throughout Mexico
2 posters (á 48 x 84 cm)
2008

The two posters show the existence as well the absence of women in lucha libre (wrestling)ʼs history in Mexico. During my research it was very difficult to receive detailed information about the luchadoras (when did women wrestlers live, fight and lose their mask) or to find photos of their masks. Based on the luchadoras’ photos or descriptions and recollections of their masks I drew some of them in order to make a fragmented and incomplete compilation of women wrestlers’ masks in Mexico.

The first poster shows possible influences on the use of masks in lucha libre: A funeral’s mask from Teotihuacán (classic period of Mesoamerica) and the first masks in lucha ;ibre: The mask of Ciclón Mc Key, who was the first masked male wrestler in 1933, and the mask of  La Dama Enmascarada, who was the first masked female wrester, around 20 years later, in the 1950s.

The second poster shows the incomplete order of women wrestlers’ masks and possible influences on their roles: (1) Doña Marina, Malinche, Malintzin/Malinalli (a figure of multiple interpretations and representations: the raped one, the prostitute and/or traitor), (2) La Comandanta Ramona (an indigenous Zapatista fighter, who a.o. is responsible for the „Revolutionary Women’s Bills“), (3) Virgen Guadalupe (virgin/mother and therefore guardian) and the four Mexica goddesses, who are part of Guadalupe’s myth: Coyolxauhqui, Coatlicue, Cihuacoatl and Tonantzin.

The poster’s compostion is related to Mexica and Maya Codices made of pictograms and ideograms. The colour of the posters’ prints attempts to get as close as possible to the red ochre, which was made out of earth and used in the codices.

In 2008, 200 posters were placed on walls alongside other posters advertising lucha libre matches at various arenas in Mexico.