Repeat their names

Repeat their names was inspired by an event that happened during the International Women's day protests of 2021 in Mexico City, where the fencing erected by the government to "protect" Mexico's National Palace ahead of a planned march to mark International Women's Day was turned into a memorial. Feminist groups gathered the names of hundreds of women who have been murdered in Mexico, and painted them on the 3-metre high barriers. Using thousands of names of both murdered and disappeared women in Mexico, this piece is a sonic representation of the incredibly powerful image of the names painted on those barriers in 2021.

'Repeat their names' is a 33 minute composition for percussion, fixed media (voice), and video. It is composed of three movements:

I. Desapariciones (12 minutes)
Based on the enormous number of disappeared women in Mexico, this movement gathers 997 names of women who were reported as missing (through official channels) during 2017.

II. Feminicidios (16 minutes)
Based on victims of femicide in Mexico, this movement includes 3,289 names of women who have been murdered. The list of names has been gathered thanks to the astonishing work of a number of feminist groups in Mexico.

III. Resistencia (5 minutes)
This movement is for all the women who are subjected to the systematic violence that comes with being a woman, and who continue to resist every day.

This piece was composed, performed and recorded by women, giving us a small opening to express our rage towards femicide and violence against women not only in Mexico, but in the world.

Performer: Natalia Álvarez-Arenas
Voices (fixed media): Fernanda Cabral K. and Jimena Maldonado
Recorded at One Love Studios by Yuko Cornale.