The death began in Autumn

Casa Lü presents the group exhibition The Death Began in Autumn with the participation of: Kristi Kongi, Marit Mihklepp, Krista Mölder and Ann Mirjam Vaikla.

Curated by Leslie Moody Castro.

The death began in Autumn. The fire of daily sunsets spread flaming fingers along a backdrop of pearlescent pinks and purples across an empty sky. Trees extended their trunks and boughs like vertebrae and arms reaching taller, reaching longer, extending into the soft gusts of wind that rocked their constitution.

The death began in autumn with just the little that was enough. A pool of golden red leaves, a bright shallow sea, a point of entry to the emptiness of light and time.

My death began in Autumn and extended through the seasons. It was a winter of perpetual whiteness that cast its own blinding light in lieu of the sun. It was a sky so big that it seemed to suffocate and saturate like a concrete river of change.

The light filled empty landscapes of barren in-betweenness like fleshy sutures that made shallow seams that began to repair the constitution of fragility, the seams that would one day become trees on top of mountains, and mountains dotting the distant sky.

The death began in autumn and was preceded by the resurrection of spring. It was one of many tiny deaths — one thousand little deaths — of all our cycles and all our lives and all the fragility that begins from one season to the next, one renewal after another.
— Leslie Moody Castro

This is an exhibition by four female artists from Estonia, each of whom approaches cycles from a perspective and a lens that is unique and varied. Together we have talked about light, the sky, the aerodynamics of fluidity, the fluidity of being.Together in this space, Krista, Marit, Kristi, and Ann Mirjam bring the Estonian forest into the tropics of Mexico, the diffused light of winter together with the sharp contrasts of a tropical summer. Here the landscape bleeds both in and out of a space, setting the forest afire with light. 

Thank you: Rasmus Jensen, Mikk Meelak, Sebastian Moske, Saskia Lillepuu, Ahti Lill, Ahto Sild, Birgit Pählapuu, Merike Estna, Jaime Alonso Lobato Cardoso, Carlo Canún, Narva river stones, Mexico City tezontle stones, Narva Art Residency, John D. Spiak & Grand Central Art Center, Nova Benway & Triangle Arts Association, CEC Arts Link, FOKU, Temnikova & Kasela Gallery, Kogo Gallery, Galería Karen Huber, The Institute for Contemporary Art Research (ZHdK). Thank you to everyone in Mexico City including Guadalupe Quesada, Vicente Quesada, Paty Siller and the entire team at Casa Lü.

The exhibition has been generously supported by: Estonian Ministry of Culture, Estonian Cultural Endowment, Casa Lü

The booklet accompanies the exhibition La muerte comenzó en otoño/The Death Began in Autumn at Casa Lü, Mexico City, September 23—October 15, 2023 

Exhibition Curator: Leslie Moody Castro

Project Coordination: Vaikla Studio

Graphic Design: Ott Kagovere

Translation: Paty Siller

— Casa Lü