LOLA LIVRE
Photography by Sara | Words by Sara and Lola
Mexico City, February 2023
SARA:
When we first met, Lola tried to communicate to me in the little English that she knew. It didn’t last long before we switched to my little known Spanish. We couldn’t communicate past the surface. We knew nothing of one another other than that she made some sort of art and so did I.
One night, a group of us went out and Lola led the way while I watched her. Pulling me out of my haze, she put out her hand to me, and I grabbed hold of it as she pulled me across a busy street. She began to tag along a large green fence, and I followed behind, making pictures. The group of men watched as our movements merged into one dance along the wall. She shifted left, and so did I. Both at ease. Both our minds were clear. As Lola painted, I photographed – we were both free.
LOLA:
In such a violent world, nothing is more valuable than sensitivity and understanding. Language goes beyond diction and words. When we hold hands, we share — we become one; we feel each other’s adrenaline, nerves, love, anger.
SARA:
Hand in hand. Holding back smiles. This is what freedom feels like. It was in that moment that we both truly began to understand one another. While Lola and I don’t speak the same language, we communicate through our collaboration and bond over the euphoria of making our art. A language that transcends words. Lola livre. Lola is free. Lola writes her name in the street for all women. You can feel it.
LOLA:
Humanity has continuously lost empathy and understanding over time. The system does not allow us to see beyond what they want to sell us: stereotypes, things… With our creativity we make the invisible visible, we make the simplest things in the world seen: freedom and love. We do what we do to connect with the world and add salt to life. We make a giant cry for our existence and most importantly, we do what we do for those who have been censored in some way – for those who have had their voices stolen.
SARA:
I didn’t speak much until I picked up my camera. It was then that I learned about self-expression and the power of it. The portraits that I make of others become self-portraits, there is a reflection of me and in the case of these images, I see myself in Lola.
LOLA:
They wanted to make us [women] compete. But as links side by side, we do the impossible.
SARA:
As Lola’s friend, my heart starts pounding with a rush of adrenaline watching her paint. Her art is a call to the world for our freedom. A call to the men to stop stomping on our backs, let us breathe, let us speak, let us express ourselves, free us from the gender roles suffocating us.
She wrote it plain and simple to the world. “Lola livre”. She is calling for her freedom. She is calling for our freedom. She doesn’t ask permission, she demands as she takes to the street leaving her tag in every corner. Lola, you are my hero. Lola, I love you. Let’s dance into this world together, let's craft our own freedom, our own escape if the men won’t give it to us.
LOLA:
When I do graffiti, I touch the most sensitive layers of the street. I touch the perfection that the governments are systematically trying to sell. Whitewashing the street with murals far from the political or plain paint makes us forget the history that covers the street. Graffiti changed my life, it made me see what others did not want to see. I set out to the street to make visible the freedom that exists but it is not what we are offered. I wanted it to be my name, to be Lola – to be a woman. The freedom to write my name on the street, to make myself present, visible, perfectly misaligned with the “perfect” – of what men want to see or support in a world made by them for them. I say “go fuck yourself, rich man.” Your perfect and luxurious world does not exist, I will write my name forever, so you don’t forget it.
Essay published in Lilypad Magazine Fall 2023