Environmental Crises, Bodily Fluids, and the World Otherwise: The Work of María Evelia Marmolejo

María Evelia Marmolejo was one of the earliest Colombian performance artists. Her overtly-feminist performance Anónimo 3 (1982) also made her one of the country’s first eco-artists. On the banks of the Río Cauca, she conducted a 15-minute-long ritual, partially-nude, in which she offered her vaginal fluids to the earth. The performance was private (and clandestine), but she exhibited video and photographic documentation of it. A text accompanying the exhibition explained Anónimo 3 as an “act of atonement” for damage that humans caused to the river. In two later artworks, she continued to reflect on ecological damage, especially its harmful effects on the human body. Residuos I and Residuos II (Residues I and Residues II), of 1983 and 1984, were installations containing biological “waste” (blood, urine, and even human fetuses) that referred to the violent effects of oil extraction on people—among other things, oil extraction contributed to a shockingly high infant mortality rate in Colombia. I argue that Marmolejo’s intense, ritualistic work connects to the audience through affect, creating a strong reaction to jolt us into reconsidering our relationship with the environment. Notably, her understanding of the environment and humanity’s place within it departed sharply the Western Christian and scientific traditions. Marmolejo felt an affinity for Indigenous mythology, particularly as it related to the life-giving power of women’s blood. Thus, her work is ecofeminist and dedicated to opening environmental discourse to “worlds and knowledges otherwise” (Arturo Escobar, “Worlds and Knowledges Otherwise 1,” 2007).