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Step into the world of Water Carries the Stories of Our Stars, a solo exhibition by Tacoma and Yucatan-based artist Priscilla Dobler Dzul. Join Dobler Dzul and her collaborators, Daniela Mussali and Doña Brigida Lopez, for a conversation moderated by exhibition curator Tamar Benzikry. Together, they will share personal stories and cultural histories that reveal how ecosystems, ancestral knowledge, and craft are deeply interconnected.

A highlight of the program is the history and practice of backstrap weaving, a technique practiced for millennia across the Americas, and its presence in a central installation of the exhibition. Following the conversation, experience the vitality of this tradition through a live weaving demonstration. Using ancient materials and methods, the artists will bring to life the intergenerational bonds and community practices that shape Dobler Dzul’s work, offering a rare opportunity to witness the artistry and cultural legacy at its core.

About the Presenters

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Priscilla Dobler Dzul (born 1985, Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico) is an interdisciplinary artist and storyteller who reimagines Indigenous myths and revitalizes artisanal crafts. Working across textile, sculpture, painting, and video, she creates alternative narratives that challenge dominant perceptions of labor and power. Her practice bridges traditional and contemporary approaches, offering vivid, multilayered perspectives on identity, heritage, and transformation. Dobler Dzul’s work has been exhibited internationally at venues including ARCOmadrid ArtFair (Madrid); Material Art Fair (Mexico City); 32nd Biennial de Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain; Decentered Gallery (Puebla, Mexico); and Nome Gallery (Berlin). Across the United States, her work has been displayed at MadArt, King Street Station, the Olympic Sculpture Park, the Northwest African American Museum, and the Consulate of Mexico (Seattle); AIR Gallery and NARS Foundation (Brooklyn); 601 Artspace and 125 Maiden Lane (New York); Project for Empty Space (Newark); Untitled Art Fair (Miami); and Orange County Center for Contemporary Art (Santa Ana, CA).

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Daniela Mussali Meza (born Mexico City, 1989) holds a Bachelor's degree in Development and Intercultural Management from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, with a specialization in Biocultural Heritage. She's the co-founder of the Zutut’ha Center for Agroecology, Arts, and Crafts, established in 2016 in Sotuta, Yucatán, as part of a life project oriented toward alternative and sustainable ways of living. She co-founded CULTIVA Alternativas de Regeneración, a community-based intercultural agency established in 2020 to promote regenerative alternatives rooted in agroecology, ecofeminism, and a culture of peace and nonviolence. The initiative works primarily with women and youth in the Maya community of Sotuta. In 2021, she established the Center for Food Sovereignty Transformation in Sotuta and accompanied the formation of the town’s first women-led agroecological collective, dedicated to the recovery of traditional Mayan solares and backyard farming systems. She currently coordinates the Agroecology Network of the Yucatán Peninsula, a regional platform for collaboration and advocacy, and is directing the independent documentary "Campesino a campesino", a Mexico–Guatemala co-production. Additionally, she co-founded Wayak Chuy, a collective of Maya women embroiderers, where she supports organizational development and partnerships alongside artist Priscilla Dobler Dzul.

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Doña Brigida Lopez (born 1949) is originally from San Martín Jilotepeque, Chimaltenango, Guatemala, and belongs to the Kakchiquel indigenous Maya people. She has five children. She went into exile in 1980 during the Maya Genocide of Guatemala to Honduras and then to Yucatan, Mexico, where she worked with groups of women and men, teaching them how to maintain a healthy balanced diet, by using farming techniques without agrochemicals. She also taught women's groups how to backstrap weave. She accompanied and worked along with her late husband in his ecological teaching practices. Doña Brigida has been a weaver since she was a child; taught by her grandmother's ancestral knowledge in clothing.