SOMA can refer to several things, including the cell body of neurons or the substance in Aldous Huxley’s sci-fi novel Brave New World. It is a conglomerate of meanings. Similarly, the graduating class of the Programa Educativo SOMA (PES), 2022-2024 is a group of twelve artists whose differences persist but blend together in the group show  Un Mundo Feliz.

According to SOMA's website, the name of the institution can refer to:

• an Indian drug
• the substance in Brave New World
• the Secretariat for the Organization of Media and Arts
• a type of group therapy
• something related to the body. 

It would appear as if the founders of SOMA who chose this name could not agree on its meaning. In Huxley’s Brave New World, everyone gets along because they are under the effects of a drug called “soma” that produces artificial happiness while nullifying individual ideas and willpower. In other words, the people of Huxley’s novel are manipulated into a blissful coexistence. 

We the artists of Un Mundo Feliz are twelve different people who, by:

1. chance
2. luck
3. fate or 
4. misfortune 

were part of the same educational program at the same institution in Mexico City from 2022 to 2024. After two years of regularly meeting to talk, chat, dialogue, discuss (and other synonyms for the word converse) we can unanimously and firmly say that we remain twelve distinct artists who have not in any way attempted to homogenize our practices. 

Reaching agreements was initially a difficult task and thanks to

5. God

6. SOMA

7. the preexistence of rigid ideologies in each of us

it still is. Titling our exhibition was one of those tasks. We voted. Un Mundo Feliz won, but some of us were not happy with the result. We concluded that democracy is far from being a “happy world.” While there cannot be twelve different titles for our exhibition, we conducted a survey among ourselves with the aim of diversifying the interpretations of the title we had already chosen. We asked ourselves What is a happy world? 

The results showed that Un Mundo Feliz can be associated with any of the following twelve interpretations: 

1. an infinite horizon of wallpaper
2. “no entry” 
3. security, love and respect 
4. an advertising slogan 
5. deception 
6. economic capacity 
7. an absence of the tyranny of time 
8. a lack of 
9. whispers turned into screams 
10. a kingdom of discord 
11. a sea of bodies dancing 
12. crumbling dogmas

If you associate Un Mundo Feliz with…

a) go to Dejarse Caer by Ricardo Daniel in the auditorium
b) go to FIN Y PRINCIPIO: Versión de los acontecimientos by Mar Dyer in the auditorium
c) go to Los malos hábitos no se olvidan (solo se transforman) by JC Aguirre in “el choricillo”
d) or e) go to Autorretrato by Emilia Costabal and Martina Citarella in the center of the auditorium
f) go to 100/100 by Cassandra Nolasco Coiffier/ “Malviviente” under the stairs in the lobby
g) go to El sonido de una vela by Marlitt Almodovar in room 2 of the lobby
h) go to Aparato con que se hace salir el agua en los jardines, casas, calles y plazas, o úlcera abierta para que supure by Cristina Umaña Durán in the courtyard
i) go to Mi padre me enseñó a jugar by So Cabrera López in room 1 of the lobby
j) go to Un sistema para la ruina by Martín Estrada Márquez in “el chorizo”
k) go to Alex Secret Diary by Alexander Escobedo in the lobby
l) go to Imago by Esteban Pérez in the lobby

EXHIBITION CREDITS

Exhibition Coordination: Marcela Chao Ruiz
Exhibition Design: Juan Rosas, Carlos Barragán
Installation: Llamas a Mí
Communication: Órbita 

We would like to thank Camila Arroyo, Yuli Barbosa, Jasmine Bertucci, Flora Citarella, Pablo Costabal, Eduardo Donjuan, Meme Dyer, Galia Eibenschutz, Alejandro Erick, Benjamín Estrada Lavín, Martín Gerardo Estrada Lavín, Carlos Flores, José Luis Galicia, Leonardo Granados, Andrés Guadarrama, Éloïse James, Keremeos & Leonidas, Kojiki, Lagartijas tiradas al sol, Laura López, Chavis Mármol, María Leticia Márquez Martínez, Perla Mata Chairez, Sara Mege, Emilio Morales, Adrián Navarro, Sofía Oyarzún, Hannah Peimbert, Laura Pérez Cano, Ximena Pérez, Perritos Independientes zine club, Cecilia Puga, Jesús Ramírez, Sebastián Rojas, Idalia Rojas, Marcela Roldán, Juan Manuel Sandoval Márquez, Idalia Sautto, Jardines, Eduardo Thomas, Ale Zamora, Carlos Vielma, Todo Woooow, our families and life. 

We would also like to thank the entire SOMA team, our mentors: Ricardo Alzati, Ilana Boltvinik, Sandra Calvo, Ana Gallardo, Verónica Gerber Bicecci, Taniel Morales, Pedro Ortiz Antoranz, Benjamín Torres,and the other artists who have accompanied us during this process.