February 26, 2025
Art
Film
Grace Ebert

All images from the Art21 “New York Close Up” film, “Guadalupe Maravilla’s ‘Mariposa Relámpago,’” © Art21

“Mariposa Relámpago,” a school bus turned healing vessel, is the subject of a poignant new film from Art21.

Guadalupe Maravilla’s multi-disciplinary practice is rooted in a simple premise: sound is medicine.

The artist is known for works that merge sculpture, performance, instruments, and healing, one such project being the elaborately retrofitted school bus titled “Mariposa Relámpago.” Part of Maravilla’s Disease Throwers series, the large-scale coach is devoid of bench seats and ubiquitous yellow paint and instead features an open cab lined with chrome panels. More than 700 found objects adorn its body, from cutlery and a worn pair of sandals to large gongs.

“Mariposa Relámpago,” which translates to lightning butterfly, is also the subject of a new film from Art21. The short documentary recounts Maravilla’s experience of immigrating to the United States as an unaccompanied child to escape the civil war in his native El Salvador. He often returns to the objects and spaces that informed his journey in his practice, harnessing the energy of each and transforming them into sites of recuperation and relief.

The film features images of the elaborately decorated vehicles that characterized Maravilla’s childhood and inspired this project. “I wanted to bring a school bus from El Salvador to the United States, and I wanted to have the same migratory path that I had as a kid,” he says in the film. […]

More: In a Retrofitted School Bus at the U.S.-Mexico Border, Guadalupe Maravilla Heals Through Vibrations