Divination as a Method of Reading

María Méndez is a Colombian artist that turns witchery into an artistic practice, confiding in and enunciating the symbolic relationships that turn up in divinatory readings of coffee cups. Her divination method takes as its departure point the collectivity that is born out of a close relationship between body-cup-body. This means that there is a certain intimacy not just between the person who drinks the coffee and the person that does the reading, but also with the cup itself. The cup is in close contact with the lips, the breath of the drinker, and this has a strong impact on the reading.

María will teach attendees to read their own and other people’s cups. Her method includes moving, turning and tilting the cup; her finger indicates images and words are drawn at the rhythm of her words, thus creating narratives about what is to come.

The workshop will be taught in Spanish and in English.