About

Zarahlena is a Berlin-based Mexican-German artist. After working extensively with dualism, she has evolved her artistic practice to explore the concept of oneness though photography, performance, installation. Using art as a tool of self-recognition, Zarahlena has performed body suspensions, taken self-portraits, and modeled extensively.

Her work has been shown in public space, galleries, festivals, and alternative spaces, and has been featured in the international press. In 2017, after the earthquake of September 19th in Mexico City, she co-founded an aid group gathering donations and providing warm meals to the affected areas. Aim the following year, she co-organized Heal Her Festival CDMX, a five-day arts and healing festival addressing gender violence, which drew 125 participants and attracted national media coverage. 

Zarahlena specializes in artistic photography, ritual art, and cultural documentation. In addition to private commissions, her clients have included yoga studios, non-profit foundations, the Mexican Embassy in Germany, and the Ministry of Culture in Mexico. As an event photographer, she has documented the heavy music scene at shows and festivals in Europe and America. Both her yoga and artistic practice operate under the principle of honoring the darkness as something sacred.

Exhibitions & Performances

*Solo exhibitions

2023

  • “Gypsophila”, at SchwuZ, Berlin, Germany. (Performance).

2022

  • “Sculpture of the Dead”, at bpb Gallery, Berlin, Germany. (Photo exhibition).
  • Presenting and selling artworks at Hot Printing: Druckfestival Offenbach, at Klingspor Museum. Offenbach am Main, Hessen, Germany.
  • “Cual Sísifo”, at Video Art Festival PROYECTOR. Madrid, Spain. (Performance).
  • “Reciprocity”, at Swampfest Berlin. Germany. (Installation).

2021

  • “Women Exposed”. Online Exhibition.
  • “Grant Activation: Healing through collaboration”. A talk with Burning Man Project
  • China Biennial. Online exhibition. (Video screening).

2019

  • “The Luminarium Aeternus Project”, Swampfest Berlin. Germany. (Photo exhibition).
  • “Purify”, at “HAEMA”, Gelegenheiten. Berlin, Germany. (Performance).

2018

  • Collective Exhibition after 19S earthquake. Coordenada Azul, public space gallery from Universidad La Salle. Mexico City. (Photo exhibition).
  • Heal Her Festival, at Casa Viva. Mexico City. (Installation).
  • “Simetría”, at Metro Station Candelaria. Mexico City. (Photo exhibition. Project by Fundación Jorge Marin).
  • “Simetría”, at Insituto Cervantes. Berlin, Germany. (Photo exhibition. Project by Fundación Jorge Marin).
  • Documental photography of theater workshops with teenaers in the mountains of Mexico. Casa Borda, Taxco, Guerrero, Mexico. (photo exhibition). * 

2017

  • A Night of Ritual, Performance & Body Art”. Berlin, Germany.
  • “The Luminarium Aeternus Project”, at Titanen Piercing Atelier. Berlin, Germany*
  • Lupercalia. Berlin, Germany. (Photo exhibition).
  • “When the Heart is a Lonely Hunter”, at Mobile Kino Camp. Brandenburg, Germany. (Performance).
  • “The Witch Within”, at Berlin Feminist Film Week. Berlin. (Performance).

2010 – 2016

  • “The Eroticism of Pain” (El erotismo del dolor), at Anual Psychology Seminar of University of San Luis Potosí, Mexico. (Photo exhibition).
  • No Title, at Rusty Pigfoot Tattoo, Berlin. (Photo exhibition). *
  • Succuba, at FERATUM Horror, Fantasy & Sci-Fi Film Festival, Michoacan, Mexico. (Photo exhibition).
  • No title, at Plumero Galeria, Mexico City. (Photo exhibition).
  • No Title, at Onirico Galeria y Taller, Mexico City. (Photo exhibition).
  • No title, at Escuela Activa de Fotografía, Mexico City. (Photo exhibition).

Features

2017 – 2018

2010 – 2016

  • Photo Vogue Italy
  • Skin Magazine, UK
  • Eccentric Edge Magazine
  • Spleen! Journal, Mexico