Anthology of Universal Particularities - 2020
Anthology of Universal Particularities translates the complex narrative structures of Latin American telenovelas into visual principles. Instead of a linear plot, the project relies on superimposed image strands and perspective sections that only condense into an interpretable pattern when viewed as a whole. The structure replaces the story – and poses the question of whether visual complexity can develop a similar pull as melodramatic twists.
Five seasons, each with twelve sequences, form the visual format. Each image exists primarily as a digital file, but can also be realised as a large-format non-woven wallpaper work – applied directly to the wall and painted over. The result is a unique, site-specific piece that cannot be reproduced. This practice refers to earlier wall works from the 1980s.
Between the seasons of this graphic novel are short versions of classic telenovelas from Mexico. They take on the role of the "What has happened so far" retrospectives that often precede the new episodes on television. Passion, intrigue, rise and fall – condensed into five exemplary stories that reflect the melodramatic undercurrent of the series and at the same time break it ironically.
The accompanying book contains all the episodes and texts. It can be purchased in the shop.
Season One
Corazón salvaje 1993
Corazón salvaje tells the dramatic story of two half-brothers who, unbeknownst to each other, compete for the same woman – and become victims of a web of family secrets, social pressures and unrequited promises.
Juan, the illegitimate son of a landowner, grows up unloved and rejected. After years in poverty, he returns as a rich but broken man – only to realise that the woman who once promised him eternal love is now the wife of his half-brother Andrés.
Monica, originally Andrés' fiancée, enters the emotional chaos when she marries Juan out of a sense of duty – only to develop real feelings after all. As intrigue, jealousy and misunderstandings drive the characters into deeper and deeper entanglements, the question arises as to whether true love is even possible under such circumstances.
Season two
Rubí 2004
Rubí is the story of a woman who is as beautiful as she is calculating, who sacrifices everything to become rich – and ends up losing everything.
Rubí uses her friendship with the wealthy but disabled Maribel to meet rich men. She loves the doctor Alejandro, but decides in favour of his rich friend Héctor – and leaves Maribel at the altar.
Marriage to Héctor brings Rubí wealth, but no fulfilment. When Alejandro returns years later, rich and engaged, Rubí begins a dangerous game of lies, jealousy and deceit.
A fatal accident, a stolen paternity, a failed stock market coup and a dramatic fall destroy Rubí's life – beauty, child and wealth are lost.
In the end, she lives scarred and isolated. Her niece Fernanda seems to be the spitting image of her – and perhaps her second life.
Season Three
La Usurpadora 1998
La Usurpadora tells the story of the perfidious role reversal of two unequal twin sisters.
Paola is the First Lady of Mexico – rich, unhappy and prepared to sacrifice everything to escape with her lover. When she discovers that she has a twin sister, she forces Paulina to take over her role for a short time – but the plan backfires. Paulina survives an assassination attempt, takes over her sister's life and uses her new position for social engagement.
Paola returns, furious at the "usurpation" of her old life, but her attempts at murder fail. As Paulina and the investigating security officer Facundo grow closer, Paola increasingly loses control.
A final deceptive manoeuvre leads to the final role reversal – at least temporarily. The sister who once only wanted to escape returns changed.
Season Four
Amor en Silencio 1998
A tragic family story spanning generations: Marisela and Fernando fall in love against the wishes of their families. But their planned wedding ends in a bloodbath – Marisela's jealous sister Mercedes shoots them both, and Marisela's mother dies of shock. Her daughter Ana grows up far away in a boarding school, returns years later and becomes a projection screen for family guilt, intrigue and unrequited love.
As old conflicts resurface, illegitimate half-siblings emerge, dark secrets are revealed – and Mercedes, who has since escaped from a psychiatric ward, believes Ana to be her sister who was thought dead.
her sister who was believed dead. The circle of obsession, revenge and repressed past begins to turn once again.
Season Five
Marimar 1994
From beach girl to elegant avenger: Marimar grows up in poverty by the sea until she falls in love with Sergio – the son of a rich landowner. After a secret wedding, she is cruelly humiliated by his stepmother, falsely arrested and orphaned in an arson attack. Betrayed and disenfranchised, Marimar swears revenge.
Under a new identity as Bella Aldama and with the support of her biological father, she returns to society – educated, wealthy and determined. She brings down her tormentors, confronts her past and leaves Sergio floundering until their love breaks out again. After dramatic twists and turns, rivals, retribution and reconciliation, she finds herself in the end – and back to love.