Daniel Godínez Nivón (b. 1985, Mexico City) is an artist whose work centers on collective knowledge and education, exploring context-specific scenarios through collaborative dreaming processes. He studied at the Multiple Media Seminar at the Faculty of Arts and Design of UNAM in Mexico. Following this, he undertook a prestigious residency at the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht.
Daniel’s work has been featured in group exhibitions at renowned institutions such as the Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo and Museo Tamayo in Mexico, as well as the VanAbbe Museum in The Netherlands and Kunsthalle Bern in Switzerland. In 2022, he received the esteemed Prince Claus Mentorship Award from the Prince Claus Fund & Goethe-Institut, and the same year, he was chosen to represent Mexico in the 23rd International Exhibition of the Milan Triennale, where he earned the 2nd best Pavilion award. Currently, Daniel is a distinguished member of the National System of Creators of Mexico.
Daniel Godínez Nivó is currently on a residency organized by the Ujazdowski Castle. Centre for Contemporary Art.
The works featured where made the collaboration and advice from:
botanists and biologists: Jessica Esther Hernández Tapia, Martha Martínez Gordillo, Rosario Barrales Moreno, Ramiro Cruz Durán, Susana Valencia Ávalos, Aldi de Oyarzabal, Ernesto Velázquez Montes, Alfonso Castillo, Leonardo Alvarado Cárdenas and Marco Antonio Pineda.
Artists: Amelia Ramos, Adrián Gama, David Camargo, Fernando Vigueras. Dreamers: Neyva Elizabeth Bravo Escobar, Isabel Bravo Escobar, Teresa Bravo Escobar, Alejandra Raquel Medina, María Francisco Baltazar, Guadalupe Alvarado Alonso, Guadalupe Hernández del Ángel, Belén Hernández del Ángel, Wendy Cruz Rojas, Belén Guzmán Cruz, Karen García Benítez, Ximena Reyes Ríos.
Midwife: Eugenia de Jesús López.
Essay on Oneiric Flora, 2020:
Project based on the plants that were dreamed by a group of girls from Casa Hogar Yolia. From these dreams, I made a flora study in collaboration with botanists and scientific illustrators of the Faculty of Sciences of the UNAM. This study is constituted by a series of illustrations and oniric-evolutionary diagrams that extrapolate concepts of biology and botany to the artistic interpretation of dreams with plants.
Dreamwind, 2022:
A little over twenty years ago, scientists learned of birds that sing in their sleep. Dreamwind (2022) tries to conjure these oneiric chants. In collaboration with professors and researchers from the CNME Maastricht, Maastricht University and University of Lincoln in the UK he carries out a study of the potential dreams—and nightmares—of migratory birds.
This project adds to the effort, reflections and previous experiences made by artist Adrián Gama and poets Andrés González and Yaxkin Melchy
Voice and instruments: Ute Wasserman
Voice poem: Amalia Nivón
Music: Fernando Vigueras
Edition: Sergio Espinosa
Color: David Camargo
Poem: Daniel Godínez Nivón
Translation: Sophia Krugman E
Collaborators: Leonie Cornips, Frank Selten, Pim Martens, Peter Albas and Chris Thomas.
Advisers: Sueli Brodin, Adrián Gama, Andrés González, Yaxkin Melchy, Félix Blume and Rossana Lara.
Text by Amanda Saroff
Project made during residency at Jan van Eyck Academie
Oneiric Propaedeutic, 2017:
Liminal Zones / Yolia A. C.
Through a transdisciplinary research-action program, Liminal Zones explores art as an agent of change in situations of social vulnerability. This program is developed through curatorial processes and workshops where pieces, objects and files are produced that reflect on the multiple relationships between teaching and learning. Liminal Zones provides a platform to design and integrate projects that develop critical actions and thoughts around conventional notions about contemporary art.
In 2015, the artist Daniel Godínez Nivón was invited to generate a work of art with the teenagers in Yolia A.C. The final piece consists of the creation of a sculptural installation located in a specific mountain known as Iztaccíhuatl, which represents a garden of fossilized plants that have been dreamed for a year and a half of work.
The Oneirical Propaedeutic retakes strategies of teaching and learning of the traditional midwifery exercised in dreams. The work sessions consist of meetings on Sundays in Yolia and Wednesday in a collective dream.
I remember the day I was born. Will be tomorrow.
In 2017 I made a project on a volcanic mountain near Mexico City called Iztaccíhuatl (Nahuatl word that means “sleeping woman” ), which consists of the creation of a garden of pottery and ash plants that was dreamt by a group of young primary school girls. Furthermore, each plant is made to last for 5 thousand years in order that the dreamt garden is integrated to the “sleeping woman”.
Yaj Gotoj a, 2021:
Revisiting of the Libellus de medicinalibus indourm herbis or Codex de la Cruz Badiano –the oldest botanical document of which there is a record in America written in the College of Tlatelolco in 1553–, based on the dreams of a group of Triqui women from San Juan Copala, residents in the Ciudadela market in CDMX and in the La Sabana community, in the Triqui de Juxtlahuaca region. Some of them are midwives and maintain a close relationship with their dreams by using them as a teaching and learning tool. We have called this project Yaj gotój a which refers to the plants that appear in dreams.
It is important to mention that the Codex de la Cruz Badiano was made a few meters from where this exhibition is presented.
Yaj gotój a. Botánica de los Sueños presents an immersive and contemplative space in which the visitor is bathed in the solar / red light (solar symbolism among the Triqui) from a botanical inventory used by Eugenia de Jesús López in midwifery, identifying plants not included in the Codex de la Cruz Badiano and belonging to the area of San Juan Copala and the plants dreamed of by her and the community of women who accompany her. These botanical dreams represented in 52 plants bathe the space with light and color while a sound piece with a triqui poem introduces us to that subtle and powerful world that had not been named.
Tequiografia, 2010 – Ongoing:
Project in collaboration with the Assembly of Indigenous Migrants of Mexico City that consists of a series of didactic material that emulates an specific one that is implemented by the Educational System in Mexico. Each Tequiografía is made by indigenous migrants, through tequio – a communal system of organization expressed in collaborative practices, mandatory and unpaid work – which aims to offer information about the lifestyle and culture of the indigenous communities living in Mexico City.
In 2019 Tequiografías is nominated for the Visible Award.
