In 2024, Atardecer Salvaje worked with the children of CASAFUNFAI through poetry, pleasure, and non-verbal communication, using imagination as a bridge between their inner and outer worlds. Over five days, the participants built puppets and collectively staged a performance that opened pathways for emotional recognition and expression.

The residency's artistic activities included acting exercises focused on exploring emotions and creating their own narratives. Participants also crafted pieces using recycled plastic bags, generating a unique visual language that integrated creativity with environmental awareness. In this process, sustainability became an integral part of both play and artistic production.

The experience allowed the children to strengthen their capacity for emotional expression and management, while also fostering a sense of agency and collaboration. Collective creation and working with recycled materials encouraged both reflection on their environment and self-empowerment, solidifying art as a tool for imagination, care, and well-being.

The experience culminated in a performance attended by the FUNFAI community at the Anahuacalli Museum.

Credits: Atardecer Salvaje is a piece conceived by Nathalia Fuentes, a stage creator whose work focuses on ritual and public space. For this project, she brought together family and friends to heal her own grief and support others, with everyone contributing to assemble the piece. Collaborating to bring the whale to life were Aglae Lingow, Ana Beatriz Martínez, Kaleb Oseguera, Eva Fuentes, and Igneas Durán, with composition and live music by Valeria Rubí, a composer and broadcaster from Nuevo León.

Cultural management by Carla Plasencia.

Acknowledgements: Bárbara Foulkes and Anahuacalli Museum