This shelf is now on Julio Torres’s Problemista by A24 !

This piece visually combines surreal elements like stairs with clouds, gradient background with lighting in it coming from the stairs and checkerboard pattern. All these elements are a kitschy combination wink on this idea of the idea of “bad taste” combining different elements that some would say shouldn’t go together in El Salvador with a Santa Marta “estampita” the images that are used to worship and pray on these saints. That is the Saint of Marta Torres’s family and that has a rich cultural history. Torres’s mom Tita always made sure her children had an image of Santa Marta every time they travelled. Santa Marta is a female a saint that saves a city from a dragon and then takes them as a pet, also where Marta’s name comes from. The piece is a little vignette with an hourglass representing the life of trying to get your papers as an immigrant, that’s truly how it feels like struggling that time doesn’t run out while you’re trying to get your papers and a different country, a different continent in search for a better life, less restrictive, with more opportunities. The piece also has a little interactive aspect with a miniature door that opens to the New York skyline representing Torres’s brother’s tough migration process to New York. This piece was made with Julio Torres, Marta Torres’s older sibling’s ideas in the film Problemista that is now a a magical twist on migration to the US. The piece represents these mixed ideas of home and identities that both Julio and Marta experience now Marta being based in Berlin, Germany.