PEPE ROMERX / ROSA GURROLA NEWTON
010—2022
Juan José Gurrola was a significant figure in the history of art in Mexico. He was an architect, radio, film, and theater director, actor, set designer, playwright, painter, photographer, and Mexican performer. He was honored with the National Prize for Arts and Sciences in the field of Fine Arts by the Mexican government in 2004. In 2022, his widow Rosa Gurrola Newton, Pepe Romerx, and I decided to create this ephemeral piece, which involved baking a cake with the human remains of Gurrola to commemorate the XV anniversary of Juan José Gurrola's passing.
The ingredients included sugar, enriched bleached wheat flour, egg whites, vegetable oil, alkalized cocoa, skimmed milk powder, starch, glycerin, iodized salt, wheat fiber, leavening agent, coloring (blue 1, blue 2, yellow 5, red 40), artificial flavoring, potassium sorbate, baking soda, guar gum, xanthan gum, sodium stearoyl lactylate, AND TWO TABLESPOONS OF THE ASHES OF JUAN JOSÉ GUROLA.
We all joyfully consumed the cake."