en el centro del ombligo y en la punta de la lengua

Convento presents the group exhibition In the Center of the Navel and on the Tip of the Tongue, curated by Romina Beltrán Lazo, with the participation of artists Miguel Bendaña, Raúl de Nieves, Frieda Toranzo Jaeger, Esra Gülmen, Vico Gutiérrez, Irmak Dönmez, Ros Itzel Howes, Esteban Leñero, Lorena Vega, and Rebeca Ramírez.

We begin at the root, at the beginning and the end, in a spiral: from our first home and back to it. This center keeps us warm; it is a vulnerable point, a testimony to a mutable body.

Morphologically, we arrive here: in Latin, umbilicus refers to the root and in turn derives from the diminutive umbo (a raised central part), a term related to the Greek omphalos, which means center or midpoint. Historically, umbo named the prominent center of shields, and omphalos the center of the world in myths such as that of Delphi, linking the idea of a physical point with a universal meaning, an origin.

We repeat: we return home, and we are always in it. Time is not linear. Nor is the body. Nor is desire.

We arrive at the tip of the tongue; there, too, we can coil ourselves. These are the filiform, fungiform, and foliate papillae, those that guide taste, mastication, and sensitivity. Here, too, stories of love and desolation rise up. On this tip, at the edge of the world, we claim yes and no: the word that names the bond.

A slide that connects different portals. A window always opens onto another window, they say, and through them the light wind circulates, which in a spiral undoes the beginning and the end: the navel and the tongue.

— Romina Beltrán Lazo, curator

Schedule:

January 29, 30, and 31: 12 PM – 6 PM
January 31: party from 10 PM onwards
February 1: 11 AM – 5 PM

Cover picture: Miguel Bendaña, Cherry (2025)