PISTA DE BAILE

Pistas de Baile (Dance Floors, 2016) by Teresa Margolles

Pistas de Baile (Dance Floors, 2016) by Teresa Margolles is a stark, essential study on memory, violence, and space.

Set in Ciudad Juárez, the photograph series focuses on trans sex workers posing on the last remaining fragments of demolished nightclub dance floors. Teresa captures the loss of these physical safe spaces and highlights the vulnerability of a community excluded from social and institutional support.

Pistas de Baile (Dance Floors, 2016) by Teresa Margolles

Trained in forensic medicine, Teresa brings an intense, tactile precision to her practice, frequently incorporating materials that bear traces of human remains or contact with the deceased. In Pistas de Baile, her restrained approach shifts the focus from abstract statistics to living, human realities.

Pistas de Baile (Dance Floors, 2016) by Teresa Margolles

A masterclass in how photography and conceptual art can engage with political reality and give visibility to what is often hidden from public view.

The tension between what was and what is has always drawn me in. Back at the photo club in Rosario, we used to discuss this right after the closure of the legendary bar “Berlín”, how the loss of these spaces shapes our identity and impacts the community around them.

I deeply appreciate this kind of work. The ability to observe everyday life in a way that transcends boundaries of time and space.