Faced with pain, silence, and in the midst of the pandemic, we are faced with the impossibility of performing a collective ritual after the death of those who leave us. Mexico was already a country of bodies without mourning, as Ileana Diéguez names them; of relatives in the tireless search for their disappeared, who have collectively found a way to accompany each other. Now, how to make individual pain a collective experience when we cannot find ourselves in the same space? Touch us, cry together?

Sound letters for Celestial bodies is a project that unites our voices in a collective story of mourning. Outer space has been the recipient of a set of letters from relatives of people who died during the pandemic that we received via voicemail. Radio stations from all over the country broadcast the farewells with the help of ambassadors who from their balconies and rooftops directed the sound of the letters towards the stars.

Thus, speech becomes our farewell ritual and the listening of someone else’s story, into a hug to feel less alone.